January mezuzah project

The last week has been very stressful.  The is a lot of terrible and wonderful things happening all at once.  I was lucky to carve out a bit of time to make the first mezzuah of the year.  It's one I have been contemplating for a while, and even though it's completed,  I wish I had done things differently.  Still, it's a nice attempt at  a castle motif.  Next time I want to make the roof detail more prominent.

I am off to Maryland tomorrow to attend my PMC certification class.  It's three days of classes that teach technique and use of materials.  I am very excited for the challenge as well as the opportunity to meet other serious PMC artists.

the mezuzah project

I've decided to start a new design challenge this year.  I am calling it the mezuzuah project.  I am going to design and make a new fine silver mezuzah case each month and feature it on my blog and in my Etsy store. 

This month I am creating the castle tower mezuzuah.  It's in the kiln right now, stay tuned....

the art of business/ the business of art

This last week I have been focusing on getting serious about my artwork and making it a viable business.  I have spent hours on the computer networking, building my brand and getting my name and my Etsy shop out on the world wide web.  You can find links to my blog, my etsy store, pictures of my fine silver metal jewelry and Judaica, and personal bio, all over the place.  Yet, there is so much more to do.  I am only about half way through my list of free marketing tools on the web.
You can now find me on linkedin , whohub, and flicker, plus countless other  small art, handmade, and craft sites I will not bore you with.  I have become a part of great networking communities, like my etsy metal clay team and Showme Etsy a local St. Louis group of crafters.  And, I own the domain rachelsthings, so www.rachelsthings.com will connect you directly to my etsy store!
In the near future I will be getting a new logo, etsy store banner, and I am off to DC for my PMC certification!

Please feel free to link my blog or website to any you might own, and I will do the same.

snow day

There was a snow storm last night with super cold tempertures and everyone here in St. Louis freaked out so all the school are closed.  It seems pretty silly really, I mean it's bitter cold yes, but  the snow is really powdery and easy to clear away. 

It's nice to have the girls home from school today, but I will probably not get as much work done as I would have liked.  But this morning I did get a chance to photograph some new things for my Etsy shop.  Here is a new necklace called "Hidden Treasures".  The silver charms looks antique to me, like something you might find on an archeological dig in Europe.

i've been busy

I'm making 4 new Jewish star necklaces, 3 pairs of periwinkle drop earrings and 3 tiny house necklaces.  Still working on the tiny houses and the earrings, but check out the etsy store later this week to see the finish products.

I also recruited Abby to model a necklace so that people can get more of an idea of the scale.  Doesn't she look professional!

what I am comfortable with.......

Ahhh, now this is how it's suppose to work.  I just can't seem to get the bronze clay to do what the silver clay does for me.  This mezuzuah case was fun to make and didn't fall apart at all after I fired it!  I just wish the silver was less expensive and so I could make more outrageous designs and not worry about wether they would sell or not.  I would also like to reach more people, but asking them to spent $185 is a lot these days, even if it is a totally unique handmade piece and is solid silver.

During winter break I am going to make more inventory ( I am almost out of star necklaces and only have 2 mezuzot left).  I think that I will concentrate on designs that I have already made and sold as I anticipate being creatively charged after I take my PMC certification course at the end of January in Maryland.  I have about 3 50G packages of PMC left.  I'd like to wait to buy more after I get certified and get a better discount.  Actually I'd like the clay fairy to drop about 10 packages to me for free?  I believe, I really do:).

done with bronze clay

Well,  I've attempted bronze clay yet again and yet again my pieces did not stay together.  I spent a lot of time constructing the mezuzzah but the slabs do not stay together when they are fired.  I think that the size and shape of the mezuzah makes it a poor choice for bronze clay and the way it behaves when fired in the carbon. 

The tiny tower, which is supported by 4 walls instead of 3 actually held up fine, but I am not really interested in making towers out of bronze so I am yet again going to abandon the whole bronze clay thing. I did hear that Hadar Jacobson has a copper clay available which can be fired without the carbon pot, which may be a better solution for my pieces.  Still I am waiting to hear more, because so far I've only seen smaller accent pieces made out of this material, not larger pieces like I want to make.

bronze clay....yet again

I am making another attempt at bronze clay this weekend. This time I made simpler structures and concentrated on keeping the connections clean and secure. They are in the kiln now. I will post the results tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed, this could work.

artist annual

Artists and galleries produce portfolios of their works in the form of books or artist annuals.  In my quest to validate myself as an artist I decided to create an annual of my own.  It's a mini booklet of the work that I produced this year mostly in pictures with a few comments.  I naturally chose blurb.com to make the book the book and I plan to give it to my friends and customers who have supported me in this year as I make this journey.  The book cover featured a "Rockin" jewish star charm and the back cover the same charm, but the backside! 

marketplace boutique

I will be at the Saul Spielberg Early Childhood Center Marketplace Boutique this Thursday November 19th at United Hebrew.  The boutique takes place in the evening from 5:30-9:00pm.  I will have my Jewish star necklaces, some towers as well as some inexpensive whimsical earrings. I only have 2 mezuzahs left, I've made another but I'm not sure I will have time to finish it before the show.  As always, all my jewelry and artwork is solid fine silver and make by hand by me! There should be a lot of great vendors at the show so you might want to stop by and see if you can find a unique gift for a friend, or yourself.

my new favorites

I've been wearing these earrings almost everyday. Well, not these exact earrings but some similar ones. I decided to make some less expensive earrings so that people could buy them as gifts. I made a couple different flowers and some hoops and stars, all about $35 a pair. I found myself really loving them. They look great with everything!

I made the team

 


Yesterday I got great news. Last month I reopened my Etsy shop. If you are not familiar with Etsy, you should definitely check it out. It is a wonderful resource to find one of a kind handmade items for sale. So since my reopening I have spent a lot more time and effort on making my shop look nice, photographing my work and making interesting pieces which I hope people will find unique and exciting. Anyway, through my research I found this group of PMC artists who sell on Etsy. They are talented artists, many of whom are published in books and magazines and who have won national awards. I submitted my shop to them and yesterday I found out the good news. I am honored to be part of the Etsy Metal Clay Team.
So far I have been bombarded with emails of congratulations from other team members as well as a lot of info on promoting my shop. If you haven't checked out my shop in a while you should!

recycled centerpiece

Just wanted to post this photo of the origami centerpieces that I made for Abby's Bat Mitzvah.  Here they are in their reincarnation! At Megan's Bat Mitzvah party at Third Degree Glass in St. Louis.  They look even better in this beautiful setting.  My thanks to Linda King for helping set up all the centerpieces and to Stacy Carman for the beautiful photograph.

silver and glass ring

Here is the sterling silver ring I created at metalsmithing class I took at craft alliance.  I cut a ring band out of 18 gauge sheet silver.  I cut out a little curvy design to make the shape a little more interesting.  Then I formed the ring shape around a mandrel and soldered it together.  I got this super cool tiny glass cabochon from Kara, a lampwork and silver artist in my class.  I made a silver bezel setting, soldered it on to the ring and then set the blue stone.

fusing fine silver

My fingers are killing me.  I've spent the last 3 hour in my basement studio fusing fine silver rings together on bracelets and earrings.  I love being able to use the torch without the fuss of solder.  The fine silver just melts and fuses together.  I am getting pretty good to this, but my fingers still hurt from opening and closing rings and trying to get them to fit together just right.  Plus I did a lot of cleaning up my PMC fresh from the kiln with a brass brush.  It's not exactly easy on the hands.  Oh well, I gave up on manicures years ago.

Here is a glimpse of a link bracelet and some really sweet periwinkle earrings. I am also experimenting with Jewish star earrings.....not sure about them.

making things for rachel's things

OK, I've been really busy in the studio the last few weeks, making PMC pieces.  I really love the metal smithing class, but I have to say that it's not really as fulfilling for me as creating with metal clay.  There is so much more fuss, and planning involved.  And to tell you the truth, I am not really turned on by all the hammering.  As far as the torch goes, soldering is a lot of fun, but the nasty pickle is, well...nasty. 

Back in my basement studio I am busy creating things is less time with more detail and weight then I can in class.  I am planning to be in a home show next month here in St. Louis to benefit The Reform Jewish Academy.  Someone from the school heard about my mezuzahs and invited me to participate in the show with other local St. Louis artists.  I am excited about getting back to my business after spending so much time on the Bat Mitzvah. The show also has forced me to get an inventory of items made, and also to get serious about my Esty shop, "rachelsthings" , which I have revamped and I am in the process of reopening. Here is just a sample of what I have been working on.

falling flower earrings

I finished the silver earrings.  After soldering the silver wire to each flower, I threaded them through holes I drilled, and  balled up the tip of the wire with the torch. Of course I screwed it up and had to redo a couple of torch firings.  Plus I almost lost one of the tiny flowers on the studio floor when it flew out of my hands when I was polishing it.  Thank goodness we retrieved it by sweeping up the floor!

I decided to mount the earrings so that you see the balled up wires, but you could reverse the ear wires and wear them so the balls don't show.  I made the ear wires too.  Just a 2" length of 20 gauge sterling balled up with the torch on one end and then formed into a shepherd's hook earring.

metalsmith earrings

Last week I soldered! I had to solder silver wire on to the backs of the tiny flowers I cut out.  I will thread the wire through small holes I drilled in the flowers to attach the flowers together.  The whole soldering process was pretty easy.  But I have to admit I am not a fan of all the mess and toxic fumes and chemicals.  Plus, this kind of metalworking requires a real studio with proper and expensive equipment and ventilation.  So I think I will continue to taking classes at Craft Alliance and learn more techniques but I will stick to metal clay at my home studio.

more mystery tour

Part of our party tour was dinner and cooking demo at the Viking Cooking School. We provided these aprons personalized at Embroid me.

magical mystery tour

I'm posting 2 final posts on ideas from Abby's Bat Mitzvah!

So for Abby's party, we hosted 20 girls in a hummer limo on a "magical mystery tour". Yea, I know, not exactly eco-friendly! Anyway, here are some cool gifts for the girls. Blue heather hoodies, from Alternative Apparel, printed with our logo at Embroid me.