Art in the Park tomorrow

The weather is looking fabulous for tomorrow's show! Come out and enjoy the beautiful day at Carroll County's Art in the Park  :) I'll be nestled along the path in booth #52.

I'm very excited to be showing some of the new work and one-of-a-kind pieces  I've been busy with. I've been working with a new feeling of freedom I haven't felt in a while so I hope you enjoy what has come of it! 

Vintage finds

Part of my Saturday morning I spent cleaning out one of my display cases in the corner of my studio. It's always an adventure doing this because I stash old designs and mock ups that never got their time in the limelight in this case. I decided a while back that in order to save space and headaches later on, that I'd go through and digitalize most of my older pieces and then move them into storage or recycle them. Here's a few oldies that I found today! 

Jury Photos then and Now

PINK! That is all I could think of when I took a look back at my old jury photos yesterday. You know at the time some decisions just seem so right to you? But in reality they really aren't? haha. I just remember thinking at that time, "wow! This pink background is like, so perfect!" Now I look at it and I sort of cringe. Live and learn! This years jury photos I took were much better I thought. But maybe next year I will cringe... haha!

These layered earrings where super time consuming. They look large here but in reality they are pretty tiny. I think people don't realize that smaller pieces usually require more time and work than larger.

This is a slight variation on the opera links necklace.

Wow, so I completely love this brooch. I adore combining Japanese indigo with the bamboo wood look.

These stacking bangles are so fun! Hopefully I will list them in the shops soon.

PINK!!!

Compared to the pink, I like this background much better. For now.

xoxoxox -Amy

Idea to Reality : Over the Bridge Bracelet

Today I am talking about my design process for the Over the Bridge bracelet. I had originally wanted to create a solid cuff style bracelet that reflected the architecture of old bridges used in Japanese gardens. However, I ran into a number of problems while trying to make a solid cuff that would be easily replicated and fit a number of wrist sizes. So I began researching rope bridges and their construction and also looking at plank style walkways. I sort of fell in love with the rustic look of the wood planks and started designing a bracelet around that idea. This bracelet uses hinge style jump rings to connect each tile much in the same way some of the plank bridges were constructed. I used a neutral color palette of fabric images for the tiles to keep a rustic feel to the piece. It's a wonderfully designed bracelet that wraps gently around the wrist and feels nice and secure at the same time. I guess that's a similar feeling you'd want when walking over a real bridge too :)

This piece is available in my Etsy Shop.

xoxoxo -Amy

Beautiful Bookshelves

Modern Living Room design by San Francisco Interior Designer Chloe Warner

Just wanted to share some of my current bookshelf obsessions. When We first moved into our house the previous owners left us with about 8 generic ikea bookshelves in various heights. They were actually an eyesore to us so we ended up giving most of them away to new homes and the rest I ended up using in my studio and as a makeshift "custom" closet insert. However, because we rid ourselves of so many large pieces of furniture, we now have lots of strange empty wall space. I've been collecting photos of interesting bookshelves in hopes of one day filling that void :) How you place things are almost as important as the shelves themselves. What inspires you to rearrange?

xoxoxo - Amy


remodelista.com

Modern Staircase design by Vancouver Architect PLACE, hl johnston architect ltd

Contemporary Dining Room design by Atlanta Interior Designer Joel Kelly Design

Modern Living Room design by Other Metro Photographer Marco Antunio

Modern Home Gym design by Seattle Architect SHKS Architects

Modern Living Room design by Los Angeles Architect Paul Davis Architects PC

Eclectic Living Room design by New York Architect Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture

Modern Hall design by San Francisco Architect CCS ARCHITECTURE

Objects that Speak

Since I'm still recuperating from this flu, I've spent a lot of time indoors. I was looking around my home and thought how interesting it is how we accumulate objects and how these objects have feelings attached to them. It's funny how certain things become more cherished than others and how something as mundane and ordinary as a found pebble could mean more to you than your most expensive piece of china. What makes these "things" feel the way they do? This is just a rambling post that could go on and on but it is strange when you think about it right? What objects hold meaning to you?

Xoxoxo - Amy

Update in photos

Today's photos are a study of disorganization and new work. My tiny studio is very cramped at the moment. It's times like these that I say to myself, " why didn't I buy those ikea shelving units?? "

The floor is of utmost importance to me. No matter how many tables I may have, the floor is where I end up and where my work spreads out. The closer a show deadline creeps up, the less floor space there seems to be. So at this current time: 21 hours until setup, I have about 1 sq foot of floor space left :)

Xoxoxo - Amy

You've become so much more...

Out of my whole body of jewelry work, my heart strings are always pulled towards the Sweet Wood collection. The simplicity of the contrasting wood and pure white are just calming to me. So I've decided to start expanding this collection into something more substantial.

When I originally created the wood pieces, I intended them to be accents to my fabric pieces, after thoughts really. However, I feel like they have now become a design by themselves.

Also, I've been preoccupied by this one thought today: layering.

Xoxoxoxo - Amy

Back to Basics

Spent a ton of time on this dreary monday just brainstorming and sketching. I actually haven't just sat and sketched for a long time and I had forgotten how great it is for calming the mind. I had a great explosion of new ideas as well! I have some photos of what came out of all these sketches but I'll wait to show them at a later time :) 

Bo Concept

Hi  Everyone! So I'm back from an amazing stay on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts! Had  the best time and  managed to get around to a diversity of places in 2 days (Photo walk soon!). I don't have a lot of time today but I wanted to post about the Urban Home Design store BoConcept. We were lucky enough to attend their Worldwide Release Party while in Philly and ended up winning some pretty cool furnishings! So please check them out if you get a chance! Lovely designs, and a whole range of customization in their products. 

Side note: added a few more shows: 

October 24-25

The Annual Fall Home Show 

 Saturday : 11 - 4 pm 

 Sunday :    12 - 3 pm 

November 7

OMHS Craft Fair

  Saturday 10 - 3 pm

December 5th

Dulaney HS Holiday Bazaar

 Saturday : 10 - 3 pm

  

Sunny spot on a cloudy day

Bought these lovely little tea cups that I've had my eye on in Anthropologie for about a year! Finally, and on sale! Good thing I waited. Other than that, this day is fairly cold and cloudy which I actually prefer. 

stumbled upon these awesome chairs by Paper Craft from Japan. They are constructed from recycled paper material and are a beautiful simple design. I would love one for the studio!  Oh one more thing I found the other day: Tenso. It's a site that allows you to get a Japanese shipping address so you can order japanese goods even if they don't ship internationally! Check it out: www.tenso.com

Anyone know of other ingenious services like tenso  out there?

 

Creative Process

So I was thinking about my own creative process and how I go about creating work and I found a really great parallel between my methods and the scientific Chaos Theory. In science Chaos theory is about finding the underlying order in apparently random data. I thought about this and how closely related it is to how I work, from nothing comes something. I took the example of assigned projects and I came up with a loose progression from start to finished product:

1) research everything even remotely connected to the topic
2) gather all types of media from all different sources that relate to the topic somehow
3) begin sketches using research and media
4) par down ideas based on difficulty, materials, and time
5) choose the strongest ideas and make maquettes
6) get feedback from others
7) begin working

although it seems orderly on paper, it really isn't in real life, there are lots frustrating mental blocks along the way and aimless tangents that most often turn out to be dead ends and many other problems and hours of just thinking. It always amazes me when I actually finish a project. I'm always wondering how I ever got to the end!