Bunch Ring & Our First Tutorial!

Well... the tutorial is soon to come.  I've taken the photos for it and will write the text up tomorrow.  I'm so tired right now!

As I said in the last two posts, I've wanted to make a ring out of wire and beads.  A Bunch Ring.  And I've succeeded in doing that!  The design came out of 'Step by Step Wire Jewelry', but I made it!  I'm so proud of myself, can't you tell?

So, our first tutorial is going to be on making headpins.  I hope our readers will find it useful.  I hope to post the completed tutorial tomorrow.  If I get too busy, well, it'll probably have to wait until the weekend!

Art Supplies

Karla and I decided to go and buy some more art supplies today.  It was quite enjoyable!  Ok, enough with the proper English.  It was a ton of fun!  I grabbed some linseed oil for my oil painting projects and looked at some beads.  I also got some copper wire (colored silver, of COURSE!) to experiment with.  I'm going to try to make the ring I referred to in the last post.

Karla bought quite a few crystals and some stone and glass beads.  And some more silver.  It's all about the silver.

And, tonight, we're making time to sit down and work on some jewelry!  Well... that is after our son falls asleep and he seems to be taking his sweet time about that.  Sometimes I get so exhausted when I'm putting him to sleep.  It's amazing how much work it is.

Anyhow, that's the news for now!

New Ring?

Karla found this amazing HowTo article in a magazine she has, about making a bunch ring out of wire.  I love the design, it's so cute!  I'm going to try it.  I just need to get some wire.  I've heard that copper is in style now, so I'm going to get some of that and give it a try. 

For anyone who's curious, it's on pg. 25 of 'Step by Step Wire Jewelry'.  It appears to be the Summer Preview 2007 issue.

Feeling Bad?

Have you ever felt like you just can't do it anymore?  "It's just not working... so I'm going to give it up!"?  I can tell you that Karla and I have been getting a little discouraged.

Browsing through the Etsy forums, I found this wonderful post:

Yes, You Can!

Edit:  I found another good one!

2000 Sales on Etsy

Cool Pendants

I was browsing through Etsy this morning, as I usually do, when I found this store with really cool pendants!

ZephyrWood

I love the cool wooden pendants.  Especially "Hoot".  I think I might get that one for myself.

Inspirations

So, I've been trying to think of something that I love to inspire a piece of jewelry.  I'd like to make something with some kind of wire-wrapping and a semi-precious stone.  However, it needs to be different.  Something that makes you think.  Something that carries a message.  Isn't that what Art is supposed to do? 

Perhaps if I make a list of questions, it would help:

• What image does my situation in life bring to mind right now?
• What color do I feel?
• Do I feel fluid or solid?
• Do I feel free or bound?

Now it's time to get out the sketch book and think...

Jewelry Making - HowTo's

I found a blog on jewelry making thats name, coincidentally, Jewelry Making.  It appears that the authors stopped their jewelry making business in 2008 and also stopped updating the blog, but they do have quite a few HowTo articles on the sidebar of their blog.  I've only had a chance to browse through one of them, but it looks pretty well done, if I do say so myself.

I'm definitely taking the time to browse through them all.

Fan Page on Facebook

If you've never been on Facebook, you should definitely try it out!  It's a wonderful social networking site.  I've just created a Fan page for KelleyAccents on Facebook.  If nothing else, you should join Facebook just to become a KA fan.

Here's the fan page:  Link

Tutorials?

I've been thinking about how to drive more traffic to this blog and the store over the past couple days.  I read some tips on Etsy and they say that it's beneficial to make tutorials and other things that are interesting and that people want.  I wonder if that would work?

What kind of tutorials should we make?  Simple things, like, putting a clasp on a bracelet?  Crimping the end of a necklace?  Or, should we design pieces of jewelry and put up a tutorial to make the entire piece?  It bears thinking on.

I know that when Karla and I first started, tutorials helped a LOT!  Now that we're (a little) more experienced, maybe we should help pass on our knowledge...

Late Nite Munchies

Karla and I are both sitting in front of our respective computers, trying to get some more work done for the Etsy site.  *yawn*  Man, I'm sleepy!  It's hard to stay awake this late at night anymore (it's 10pm... Really!?) since our little boy runs us ragged during the day.

The worst part is that we're HUNGRY!  And we can't figure out what we want to eat.  Grrrr....

Karla learned how to make toilet seat covers during her recent stay in Mexico!  Over the next few days, we'll get some of the covers that she made posted up in the store for sale.  It'll be fun!  No... really it will! 

Item of the Day

Karla's had a promotion going for a while, called the 'Item of the Day'.  With this, she (or I) picks an item from the store, and that item is 25% off the listed price for that day only!

Today's item is this:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18798124