Being with "your people"...

Yesterday I spent the day at my aunt and uncles cottage on Lamoka Lake.  It was a "work day".  We built a deck for their "grilling gazebo".  It took the better part of the day for 5 of us to complete it, me, my son (only 10 but did help where he could), my aunt, uncle and cousin.  By 3 in the afternoon, sweat dripping in our eyes someone declared it was break time and we headed out on the pontoon boat to swim in the middle of the lake.  Along the way down the channel to the lake (the channel is a little weedy to swim in) we were discussing the project and my aunt said "no day on the lake can be an all work day".  She's right of course, even in the midst of the work you can't help but notice the herons and king fishers darting above the water.  And of course, you have to wave at the passing boats, because that's the nieghborly thing to do.

My uncle installing the last bolt that secures the grilling gazebo to it's brand new deck!

My maternal grandmother used to call a persons family, their "people".  Throughtout the afternoon and evening, even when the sweat was stinging my eyes I was happy.  Being with your people is easy and comforting.  Over the years I haven't spent nearly as much time with my extended family as I should have, it happens to all of us I suppose, there will always be obstacles.  I urge you to find your way around the obstacles and just be with "your people".  My people are the nourishment that it seems my soul has been missing even if I didn't know it.

It seems that my siblings have been feeling the same way.  For whatever cosmically unknown reason (maybe because our kids are older and that makes thing a little easier?) we finally are making time to get together and just be with our people.  No occasion, no tragic event, just because.  The weekend of August 4th will be "Siblingfest 2012" , I hope it becomes an annual event.  We will be gathering at my aunt and uncles lake house, and hopefully their kids will be able to get home for it too.  I hope we all eat, laugh and enjoy til it hurts!

Photographing, flexing and listing

Today was another "photo shoot" of completed pieces to be listed and shared with the various groups to which I subscribe.  Photo shoot sounds really pro, but in my case it is pretty amateur...It's happens someplace in my northwoods backyard on sunny days and usually includes celebrity locations like my neighbors fence and a favoite fossil filled rock, lol.  Thank you geeks who created digital cameras for people like me who often take a shot that blurs from a shaky hand.

The comes the flexing, I now use fotoflexer to crop,  sharpen and resize my pics.  I used to use Picnik but sadly they are gone and now a part of Google and for whatever reason I can't figure out how to get to it.  I'm sure with more research I could but fotoflexer is easy to find and so simple to use, which is good when you need to edit up to 5 photos for a single listing.  Plus, major bonus, it is free to use!

Then onto the listing, you would think it would be easy for someone who loves their own art so much to write a delicious and inviting listing to sell her wares.  I however, get immediate writer's block as soon as my cursor is in the Etsy description box.  Odd, right?  I think it has something to do with me wanting each one to sound original and unique, perhaps to the shopper it does, but when you are writing many of them they all start to sound the same.  I used to have this same issue when I wrote thank you notes for gifts, even though each person was only going to read their card it somehow felt less personal when I had to write them to multiple people.

Here are some of the photos from today's work (which by the way is not nearly as fun as making the stuff).

Hand hammered copper disc with torch fired enamel. Strung on waxed linen cord with some yummy glass seed beads.  Your seeing it here first, it hasn't made it to the listing stage yet.

Fold formed copper and torch fired enamel bracelet.  Another being seen here first, to be honest I like it so much I'm afraid to list it because it might sell.  I know, that's the reason I make these things but sometimes it's hard to let go.

This little lovely did get listed on Etsy today.  Spiral weave czech glass beads with champange colored crackle glass bead "spacers".

I suppose I should get back to flexing and listing.  Then I need to get my calendar filled with some shows for people to see these works in person.

HUGE giveaway at Pretty Things...

Lori Anderson has to be the most generous blogger I can think of!  Not only does she do the Bead Soup Blog Party but now she is doing a giveaway of 5 awesome prizes.  You can head over to Pretty Things to get in on the action.

Good Luck to everyone.  A great big thank you to Lori for all she does for the beading world!

Painting with Fire...thank you ladies

Today's post is a huge thank you to Barbara Lewis of Painting with Fire and the other ladies on her Painting with Fire ning for all their inspiration!  I finished my first torch fired enamel piece this week.  I have quite a few pieces that have been enameled but they are still waiting to be made into something great.  I might post some pics of those later this week.

                                               Here she is, my vibrant orange flower bangle!

I hand hammered and formed the copper disc for the flower, pickled, polished and then torch fired the vibant enamels on this piece.  I added enameled copper headpins as accent leaves and te flower center which wires the flower to the bangle.

The bangle itself is hand hammered and formed 10g copper wire that was soldered to hold the bangle closed.  I wear tested the bangle for 2 days, one of which included swimming and boating and it held up wonderfully.  It's amazing how strong glass enamel is, I am pretty tough on jewelry, especially a bangle.

Thanks again ladies for all your inspiration and support!

A little late to the Party...

The Bead Soup Blog Hop Party that is.  I can't even remember now where I saw the link that got me started hopping through the March party, but it was AMAZING to see all the things people put together.  Lori Anderson at Pretty Things sets the whoe thing up.  Here's the link to check it out http://www.prettythingsblog.com/ .

I'm too late to get in on the summer party, but I will be on the lookout for the next one.  Besides the amazing works that people put together I also found a lot of really great bloggers who I will be following now.

Another beautiful day in Western NY, blue skies and breezes!  Got some more work done on the "yard reclamation" project.  Apparently I suffered some laziness out there for quite some time, so now it is time to reclaim some of the spaces that 3 foot tall weeds took over.

Get out and enjoy the weather! - Ali

A weekend in Connecticut

We spent Memorial Day weekend in CT with my brothers family.  Hiking, canoeing, fishing, eating and visiting.  Had a fantastic time, John and Nancy were great hosts as always!  Some pics below of our hiking adventures at Minehill.

Kids in the old iron ore furnace at Minehill.  This is where they processed the ore to separate it from the quartz.  Being a rock lover from way back it was neat to find all the discarded quartz still laying outside the furnace.

Old donkey trail that leads up the hills to the mines.  Donkey used to bring the ore carts up and down this trail from the mines to the furnace.   Quartz still lines the trail.

"Natural AC"  close to the top of the hill is one of the openings to the old mines.  The mist is the cool air coming from deep inside the mine, a very welcome treat on this sunny humid day! (Note how Jenna looks as if she is melting)  We hung out in front of it long enough to stop dripping before the hike back down the hill.

While we were there we also took Northwoods Creative Studio to The Elephant Trunk Flea Market in New Milford.  If you are in the area and have never been there it's a must for flea market junkies, you can see their schedule here www.etflea.com .  While we were there several crews were running around (literally) filming for HGTV.  If I recall correctly the show they were shooting for is called Flea Market Flips.  They appeared to be scavenging the antique dealers looking for things to repurpose.  I felt bad for one of the camera girls, she apparently forgot her sunblock and was lobster red by the end of the day :(.

We had lots of interest in new pieces we have been working on but only moved a few of them.  I think we would have fared much better if we had brought more inventory.  20x20 is a large space even if you park your vehicle in part of the booth.  Given my past show experience from other jobs I should have known better.  Our display looked underwhelming, lesson learned!
  
Lots of the lookers picked up our card so I have to promise myself to start getting at least one listing a day up on Etsy so they can find them there.  A look at part of the displays...

 See what I mean?  Looks a tad skimpy, eh?  Like I said lesson learned.  Next time, way more inventory to fill the space!  Plus we will set up here at home for a dry run to see how it all comes together.  

 Work is now being done to develop a much, much better display plan for next time!

Happy Creating! -Ali

Our Etsy Shop is OPEN

Happy almost spring everyone!  Our Etsy shop is now open, we would love to have you visit us at http://www.northwoodscreative.etsy.com/ .  Hoping to post new items daily.  We have been busy creating many new jewelry items in a variety of techniques. Now we are waiting for another sunny day to take some more pictures. Here's a sampling of some of the items we have been working on:

Jenna's working in wire now.  Wire is a little quicker than beadweaving, the options are limitless, plus bashing all that wirework with a hammer works out your frustrations.

I have been working with more wire projects too.

Right angle weave and tubular right angle weave.  Fun stuff, however, tubular right angle weave with seed beads is a tad bit time consuming.

 Since the last pics I posted I got a new camera.  Soooo much better than using my not so smart phone for pictures.  Huge difference in quality.