Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Sunny Days - an Etsy Treasury

It has been a while since I was the curator of a treasury list on Etsy. I think it's time I rejoin the artist community and spotlight some of my favorite pieces.

These pieces make me think of spring when the sun is so crisp. They remind me of those beautiful days when I go outside, smell the flowers and walk under the canopy of branches. The sun shining through. It looks like I could walk up those rays of light and into the clouds. It makes me teary thinking of days like that. Those are some of my favorite days. On those days, nothing in the world matters except the experience of nature.


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Studio Tour

Back when I first started my blog, I had wanted to show the process of building my space. Well, my husband actually did most of the work and he did it while I was at my day job. You can imagine that I really didn't get any pictures of the process. I figured I could at least show my jewelry making space how it's laid out now.


Behind me I have my computer. My husband is a wonderful computer guy and he built me this fantastic computer. I like to have various videos and music playing while I work. I picked up those cork boards at Target and have a few inspirational things pinned on them. 

In the center of my room is my work table, the heart of the room. I do all my work on this table. As you can see, I really need to get a "real" table since this one is just a 4 foot plastic folding table from Wal-Mart. I put a board on it to protect it from heat and all the hammering. I can't think of what it is right now but it's fairly heat resistant if a piece of metal rolls off my soldering block. I have a few burn spots but nothing overly damaging. There was enough of the one sheet that we had Home Depot cut it into fours then two of those were cut in half. I use one of the small halves for my traveling bench and lay it on one of the TV tables.


To the left of my table are all my tools. I have a shelf that holds my circle cutter, doming block, polishes, solder, wire, dowels, and pretty much all my tools that I couldn't hang. The metal is all "filed" so I can find what I need quickly. I keep the metal in baggies to reduce tarnishing.


Above the shelf I hung a peg board. My hammer collection is small compared to most jewelers but I plan to add to it. My saw, shears, some spools of wire, protective gear and my files all hang on this peg board.


The shelf behind me holds a bunch of other items like bracelet forming mandrels, PMC supplies, and etching solutions. There is a bunch of hodge podge tools and such. These are items I don't use as often but are still very important. I wanted to make sure they were easily accessible without being in the way of my more commonly used tools.


To my right I keep another drawer chest. It holds all my sorting baggies, tagging and labeling supplies, glues, polymer clays, pencils, extra polishing supplies, and wire supplies. On top of the shelf is my polishing wheel. It has this big blue thing that goes with it to help reduce particles in the air so I haven't used this machine yet. Once I get it set up correctly I'll be able to use it. I also have a kiln stored here but my house doesn't supply enough power for me to use it. Makes me so sad! Another tool I am sad I can't use is the rolling mill. I have so many ideas that I want to try on it but I need to buy a new crank. My grandma gave me many of my supplies and this one was missing the crank that makes it roll.

Above these items my husband hung some floating shelves. I have a bunch of books and they are all stored here. Recreational, school related and art related all fit on these shelves. The shelves go all the way to the ceiling.


In front of my main desk is another desk that holds my tumbler. My roller for polymer clay is also clamped onto the desk and I store an extra soldering set here. Next to the table is all my shipping items, bubble wrap, velvet bags, and USPS boxes. 


Close up of that table.


I love my studio. I don't get to spend as much time in this room as I'd like since I'm at my day job 40+ hours a week but I spend most of my weekends in this room. I like to keep it clean so I can find everything I need when I need it.



Thanks for stopping by for the tour.

Brittney