Adventures in Jewelry-Making

If you read my Living Stones blog during my Drawing Near hiatus, you are familiar with the Word of the Year group that I belong to.  Each of our members has chosen a Word for the Year, and we are meeting face-to-face four times during 2016 to share our progress and our projects, and offer each other encouragement.  Every month in between meetings, we are emailing a partner, and responding to prompts that keep us thinking about our words; some of us are also keeping journals to record our experiences with our words.

During the month of March, we had a kind of "choose-your-own-adventure" prompt, with several project options.  One of the possibilities was to make our own piece of jewelry that featured our word in some way.  Though I've dabbled in a few jewelry-making projects (enough to have purchased many of the tools and supplies associated with jewelry-making...ha!), I don't consider jewelry my strong suit.  I figured that with a little help from Pinterest, though, I would be able to identify a project within my skill boundaries.

I scanned my Jewelry Projects Pinterest board, and came across a link to Adrianne's book page necklace project at Happy Hour Projects.  It sent me dashing to my supply stash, as I remembered certain creative supplies that I've been hoarding, unused, for probably eight years.

These are Inkssentials Memory Glass and Frames from Ranger.  The packaging itself gave me an idea for my project:  I would choose one of my vintage photos, cut out the definition of CONTENTMENT (my Word for the Year) from one of my dictionaries, and create a necklace that melded the ideas from Adrianne's post with the Ranger packaging.

My first step was to search my photo collection for faces that spoke "contentment" to me.  There were several strong contenders in my collection:

Even though I didn't end up using these, I just had to share these lovely, contented faces from the past.

In the end, I went in an entirely different direction.  I have two pages of "Transparent Winged Cuties" produced by ArtChix Studio (also purchased many, many years ago!), and I thought one of the figures would be perfect to use since the dictionary definition could then show through.

I did a simple bit of measuring, cutting, and layering between the glass slides before popping the whole thing into the frame, creating the main part of my contentment-themed necklace.  My next step was to follow Adrianne's directions for adding a "hope" charm and a bead at the top.

Sweet, don't you think?

To read more about our April Word for the Year meet-up, you can visit my Living Stones blog post here!

I enjoyed this project so much, and had all the tools and materials out and ready, so I made one additional necklace with a vintage photo.

Meet Gertrude and Curt.  I didn't make those names up!  The names were written on the back of the photo, and I was able to use them on the backside of this pendant:

To embellish this necklace I used a bead and a "bliss" charm that reflected the happy faces of young love so many decades ago!

If I manage to find more of these frames and glass, I could imagine making many, many more pendants from my collection of vintage photos.

What do you think?  What materials from your stash would make their way onto your pendants?

2015: My Year to FACE IT!

My elderberry syrup failed me this holiday season, leaving me with a sinus infection over Christmas and plenty of time to rest and consider the upcoming year. 

That was my silver lining for spending over a week feeling sick and tired!

I read an essay by Julia Roberts (not that Julia Roberts) entitled, "Be the Mother of Reinvention" in the book Forty Things to Do When You Turn Forty, edited by Ronnie Sellers.  In Roberts' chapter, she suggests having an unpregnancy--nine months to give birth to a new you, and to a life that fills you with "curiosity, excitement, and energy that can only be achieved from a true sense of purpose and a giddy enthusiasm."  Just as a woman's life changes dramatically during the 40 weeks of a pregnancy, a woman's life can change in equally dramatic, though completely different ways, during the 40 weeks of an unpregnancy. 

I was intrigued by Roberts' nine-month model for success, transformation, and reinvention!

Right after reading the essay, I discovered a half-price opportunity to sign up for the online art course entitled Radiant: Faces, offered by Effie Wild.  It was pretty uncanny: a drawing class with nine teachers, nine styles, nine characters. 

I decided right then that in place of a Word for the Year, as I have done in the past, I would have a nine-month artistic journey to learn how to draw radiant faces.

 

2015 will be my year to FACE IT!

 

(In my head, the phrase ABOUT FACE comes to mind about equally, so that might end up being how I think about my focus.)

I have already watched a valuable lesson from Effie about using a notebook to get the most out of the online art courses that I take.  The photo above shows my chosen notebook.  It has a gorgeous aboriginal design on the cover, and was a gift from Australia brought to me by my niece-in-law.  The first several pages of the book contain images and messages from the various family members who celebrated New Year's Eve 2013 with me, when I received the book, and the rest of the book will contain my notes and sketches from the 18 lessons of Radiant: Faces. 

 



The following pages from my art journal have nothing to do with the class, since I haven't begun the lessons yet, but they are two little ladies I drew using ideas and images from my Drawing board on Pinterest, which has been a helpful drawing resource in these, my pre-instruction days!

I have already begun to watch Jane Davenport's workshop in the Radiant: Faces class, and am willing myself to not feel intimidated before I've even begun.  I have nine months for this journey, and can't wait to see where I am, come October!

2014: A Year to RELAX

I considered several different possibilities for my Word for the Year:  PURPOSE, INTENTION, ENERGIZE and ONWARD all made the short list.  I have ended up with an odd choice, considering these other options.  I have decided that my Word for the Year will be RELAX.  When I think of this word, I think of the lesson from the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare:  Slow and steady wins the race.  It's time to cut the bustle, cut the "much ado about nothing," cut the running around in circles.

In a somewhat paradoxical way, I think that when I RELAX, I actually will become more productive.

Just for an example:  I have become aware of how much time each day I fritter away on tidying up.  I sweep a floor, put a few dishes in the dishwasher, wipe off a counter, put away a stray sweater upstairs, clear kids' trinkets off the top of a bookcase, dust a shelf, clear away some papers, stow some shoes.  By that time, there are usually some new crumbs on the floor, and the circuit is likely to begin again!  When I do manage to tidy the place into a semblance of "neat", it is quickly undone when the kids and I return from an errand or my husband comes in from work.  Suddenly, there are coats to hang, gloves and hats to return to their places, shoes to stow, lunch bags to empty and return to the cupboard, stray items on the countertop.  That sets me into a tidying circuit once again.  All day long:  tidy, tidy, tidy. 

Meanwhile, I am not getting any writing done, any crafts made, any artwork attempted. 

To RELAX is not to do nothing.  To RELAX is to let go of a perfectionism that never yields perfection, a tendency to judge myself that only causes anxiety, a habit of worrying how things look to other people that only sends me scurrying around the house, or scurrying around my life, a little like a chicken with her head cut off.  My plan to RELAX involves taking hold of what I consider THE BETTER THINGS. 

After all, don't I RELAX every evening?  Well, the evening is often frittered away in that way so many of us have--check my email account one more time to see if a comment on my blog has come in, scroll through Facebook and make a few comments, check on Pinterest and pin for an hour before I know it, check back to the email...maybe there is a comment now, check back on Facebook to see if anyone has commented on my comments.

Meanwhile, I am not getting any writing done, any crafts made, any artwork attempted.

I've also noticed that I tend to do a lot for my children, when they could be doing more things for themselves.  One daughter is 6, while the other will be 5 in February.  While that's still pretty little, it is also prime time to start developing some independence.  "Can you put on my socks?"  "Can you get me some white paper?"  "Are these shoes on the right feet?"  "Where is my _____ ?"  "Can I have a _____ ?"

Meanwhile, I am not getting any writing done, any crafts made, any artwork attempted. 

I picked the word RELAX in the midst of listing a page full of resolutions for the new year.  I still think that I can attain many of the goals I have in mind, but only if I RELAX into them instead of creating anxiety-driven checklists for perfection.  I will jog, eat healthfully, write, journal, craft, create art, play with my children, encourage their independence, have date nights with my husband, teach Sunday school, attend Bible study, spend time each day with my prayer journal, keep in touch with my family and friends, go out for Girls' Nights, serve my church and my surrounding communities, blog, exchange mail art, participate in online challenges and courses, keep the house reasonably clean, grocery shop and cook, keep up with the laundry, read books, love on my 16-year-old cat who may or may not be long for this world.

How can I possibly do all of these things?  Slow and steady wins the race! 

Come RELAX with me in 2014!  There is so much to do....

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If you would like to read more about selecting a word for the year, check out Ali Edward's blog post about her concept of One Little Word, which set off this word-choosing craze a few years ago.