On Loop

This song on loop in the studio  today :)

Better together

Yesterday the organizing Queen came over and majorly transformed my work space. My mantra for that day was "only what I use now". It's crazy what you collect, crazier what you hold on to, and craziest the reason you keep it. 

Having someone with me when I attempt organization is imperative to my success rate. I give yesterday a 99%   Thanks Momma you the Queen :)

Quote of the day

Today's quote is:

"Oh my gosh! What a MESS!" - me

It is time to clean house! 

がんばって！(do your best !)

Xoxoxo - Amy 

Clean up

So we were pretty lucky with the hurricane this time around. Woke up to lots of debris on the lawn but other than that, nothing too dire. Since it's still pretty nasty out, I've been using this indoor time to ready my studio for the holiday rush. Cleaning off surfaces and organizing clay parts and pieces. It seems like it takes 2 minutes to destroy a clean place that took 2 hour to clean... My ultimate goal is to have such an organized space that it never gets messy. Hahahaha I know, I know, just let me dream :)

I've also been sketching a lot lately and as a result have come up with some pretty holiday ideas! I'm going to try and put some of these into reality this afternoon.

Hope you all stayed dry and safe during this storm!

Xoxoxoxo - Amy

Weather affects my mood

I belong in Washington state. I heard its rather rainy there. Are you affected by the weather? I know I am. I enjoy sunny days but I get the most done when it's raining. Today I've already practiced yoga, cleaned the house, and sketched for an hour. Wish it rained every morning :) now I'm studio bound to finish some orders!

Xoxoxo - Amy

Branching out

Playing around with some new ideas today. I've been branching out a bit and going beyond using all fabric patterns. I think it's good to work outside of your normal materials sometimes. I feel like it can open new pathways one didn't originally see and enables you to go further when you return to your work. Or something like that :) anyway, here are some photos of what I worked on!

Xoxoxo - Amy

Divide and conquer

Today is a wonderfully rainy one! I love these kind of days because for some reason, I become super motivated. 2 cups of hazelnut coffee and a few hours have created a pile of jewelry. I'm currently creating some work to be shown in a New York gallery this summer. So it's been a, "one for this show, one for that" sort of day. I hope you all have been equally productive!

Xoxoxo- Amy

Photo Update

Finally finished the second pair of the vine earrings. I'd been sketching these babies for about a month and never even attempted to make them. Lots of trial and error and here they are!

 

Look who grew a lot bigger! Also, the mystery is solved: the middle plants ARE morning glories! Who knew? :)

 

...Ta da! Here is a middle photo of the business nook transformation. It's coming along nicely, remember how terrible it looked before? Just a bit more elbow grease and it should be finished.

 

and actually, I sort of tore up my whole studio and had an extreme home makeover moment. I'm super happy with how it is turning out. I was subsisting on coffee and bananas that week and just wanted to move some furniture. I'll have to post some photos after the dust settles. It's looks verrrry different than before. In a good way.

 

I thought these chains were pretty. 

Plus, Loch Raven was a wonderful show like always! After coming off the 5 day Home and Garden show I appreciate the one day shows immensely more. It was lovely to see you all and I even had some surprise visitors too! You know who you are :) Thank you all so much for making last weekend a blast!

Ooo one last note: I got a Swiffer for my birthday from my Mom and I'm so excited to Swif today! (and make banana bread from these really old bananas that have been on the counter!) 

xoxoxoxo -Amy

Pictures Speak Louder

I don't have much time to blog today so here are some photos instead of words.

Come visit me at the Bel Air Festival of the Arts on the 19th of September! 

Also, for some reason the giveaway packages got returned to me so I've resent them today for those it concerns.

Have  a cheery rest of the day!

-Amy

In Process

Having a great time reworking some of my metal pieces for the next show! Piercing metal has a sort of meditative quality about it. I think it's the pure concentration of the process that focuses and calms the mind. Some days I enjoy the quiet time it brings, other times I'm somewhat impatient. Here are a few of the pieces I patiently pierced out today. They will become some pretty stamped slider pendants and necklaces tomorrow! And the last shot is a gorgeous view from my studio just before sunset. I feel so lucky to work in such a serene place!

Tomatoes!

Well, the beginnings of tomatoes at least. I was super excited when I saw these little babies this morning though! I'm not sure what amazes me more: that I didn't kill them, or that I really didn't kill them. So We'll be eating (hopefully) these in another few weeks! Also we had some awesome peaches from the Farmers market tonight. Does anyone know of a good peach muffin recipe? I'm in the mood for baking.

I'm also here to report that the studio is clean once again. It really makes working up there a much more enjoyable experience. *_*

Hello! Rescheduled Show

So I was feeling a bit pressed for time this last week so I decided to take a bit of a computer/internet break, thus the lack of posts. Do you ever get caught up in reading whatever things are there to be read on the internet and suddenly realize an hour has passed? That's what I was feeling last week. I'm back though and with a new determination to be more efficient with my time! No more getting absorbed in reading about Chelsea Clinton's wedding or the First Ladies office decor.... 

Also just as a heads up, the Perry Hall Whitemarsh  Town Center Show got rescheduled (yay!) for August 14th from 10am - 5pm. So if you have the chance stop by because I'm so very prepared for this show! (being that I was prepared for it when it was originally scheduled in July) I will most likely be exceptionally happy for this very reason. So stop by for a chat and have a look at my new designs!

Off to sleep so I can get up and finish cleaning the studio tomorrow! I hope that idea alone will motivate you on your own quest for a more organized office/room/backpack/ life :)

Production Work

Hello from the Studio! I finally cleaned the mess up I made from getting ready for Towson and got to work on some new designs. I also finished applying for some new fun shows that are at the end of May and beginning of June so I will let everyone know as soon as I hear back which ones I will be showing at! Other than that my day was filled with making my favorite little bird pendants and restocking for the next shows. I did find some time to make some organic dark chocolate brownies! mmmm!

New Beads!

It's like Christmas here today! I finally got my new shipment of sparkling new supplies. Be sure to check out the Shop this week as I'll be listing some of these new beauties! I have a whole bunch of ENORMOUS faceted onion cut gems this time around. I'm not going to lie, they are to die for. Vibrant Amethyst, Mystic Topaz, Blue Mystic quartz, Rock crystal just to name a few! You can e-mail me as well if you are interested in any of these lovely gemstones. I'm so excited to get to work with these!

The Messy Studio : 6pm 

The More organized Studio: 10pm

These are just 2 pictures of the studio cleaning I did a few nights ago, things are looking much better now! I'll try and get some photos up when I get the new work table installed!

Went to Sugar loaf today and had fun looking around, tomorrow: Lawn work! Have a great weekend everyone!

As seen in the Studio

Good Morning! I finished cleaning out the studio for the  10000000th time last night! What a chore! It was worth it though because now I feel like I can get 10x the amount of work done. The photo up top is a neat formation of melted plastic from  the drills friction heating up enough to melt the shavings coming off the bead. I thought it was rather pretty, like an ice formation.  The other photo is the strand of HUGE sparkling Pyrite nuggets that I'm excited to work with today!  All new work will be presented at the Fall Home Show!

Reminder to everyone that the Official date and time for the Fall Home Show is 

OCTOBER  24 & 25

SATURDAY       11 - 4 pm

SUNDAY            12 - 3 pm

Like a Machine

Today I spent a good 3 hours making hundreds and hundred of silver head pins! What did everyone else do? It's one of those things that I hate doing, but it must be done so that I can move onto more enjoyable things. It's such a repetitive process that I sometimes feel like  a machine. If there was a head making machine that was somewhat affordable, I'd buy it!

Speaking of Machines, if you haven't seen La Machine's Giant 2.7 million dollar robotic spider, then you should! It's pretty amazing.  It stands 50 feet high and can crawl and spray water. It's been on tour  for the last year and was last shown at the 150th anniversary of  the Yokohama Port in Japan. Pretty crazy stuff! (Photo by Mathew Andrews)

On a less robotic note, We found a robins nest in our bush by the house, I can't wait till they 

hatch!  Happy Spring Everyone!

Matsuri Earrings

Today I decided to have a studio cleaning day! I slowly seem to create small messes wherever and whenever I work, so I went about eliminating these. In the process I managed to unearth a pair of earrings I had made a while ago that I thought were lost! (they were just lost in the mess...) So here they are, I really enjoyed them because they weren't identical. I had modeled them after Japanese Festivals and were so named Matsuri which is Japanese for Festival! 

Cake, Tea, and Jewelry!

What a whirlwind this week has been! Towson Fest was a blast! Thanks everyone for coming out to see me it really was a fun local show to do. Cake box was a great hit and I even got some business deals for future ventures! We'll see where this takes me : ) On Mothers day I brought over some wonderful Imperial White Tea blossoms and brewed a beautiful pot of tea! it was delicious. If you haven't tried some I highly recommend it! The buds I got are from Teavanna and they are GREAT! I have a lot of work to do from now till Viva! Vienna! in VA so I'll be busy! Also We are moving very shortly so I will be busy moving my studio into the new house and things might get a little crazy...

Working Hard

Some new designs in the making! I'm experimenting with new photo techniques that you can view in my Etsy Shop! Feathers, Flowers, and Rocks make really nice backdrops and props! Also I'm very excited about my new Flex Shaft I got for Christmas! It is so much fun!