Finished and Mailed Pocketwatch Pendants

* Finished Pendants

* Mid-process

These were so much fun! I'm glad I had the chance to revive them and relieved they are on their way to their new owners. Now, back to my regularly scheduled program....

A Fairy Pocketwatch Commission

Did you know you can take an old pocketwatch casing and turn it into a miniature little world to wear as a pendant?

I've been making these for about 5 years but stopped last fall because, as you can imagine, I got distracted by other ideas and projects. I do offer a tutorial on Etsy, but last week I received an Alchamy request for two pendants, so I brought out my supplies and got to work!

First I had to purchase two casings on Etsy. I bought these from Kimagure. They have to have an open front that is removable. I'd prefer to find some with the bezel still intact, but those are rare. Not to worry, I will create a custom fit faux bezel when I am finished creating the diorama inside the case.

The casings must be thuroughly cleaned with rubbing alcohol before adding anything to the surface of the metal. Adding a patina of faux wear spots that expose the copper base and then a layer of faux verdigris really brings a lot of charm to the casings, contributing to the illusion that they are really old and forgotten.

As those dried, I went through my collection of vintage images and chose some little girls and wings to print out. These two spoke to me so I carefully trimmed them out with precision. Then I chose background pieces and embellishments from my stash....

There is so much more to do, but I'll be sure to post the finished pieces when they are done in a day or two. In the mean time, if you'd like to learn how to make your own, I still offer the tutorial in my Etsy store along with a page or two of vintage images to work with!

Statement Necklaces have Lead to Learning about Organza Flowers

Along my journey in discovering how to make bib necklaces, I stumbled upon a hot new trend that captured my imagination and work space. Organza flowers.... so I have been perfecting my technique by practicing, experimenting and purchasing tutorials here and there. What a fantastic edition to all the other embellishments used to make jewelry! I've seen them used as brooches, hair clips and combs, even on little rings. They're also beautiful on sweaters, scarves and shoe clips.

Finding Supplies on Etsy at Rock Bottom Prices

Shopping for treasures is sort of an organic, opportunistic process for me. Ok, it's kind of an obession. I have found the most fantastic lots of rhinestone jewelry, swarovski crystals and vintage chains on the internet at the absolute lowest prices. My supplies primarily come from Etsy, eBay and occasionally off Craigslist. Basically I run some back-door searches where I find odd lots from people who normally sell unrelated goods and do not know the value of what they have or how to list them. I also find sellers with excess stock who just want to free up space in their studios or have changed their artistic direction and no longer need the supplies they have.

Some of my favorite Etsy keyword searches for finding jewelry supplies and vintage jewelry stashes are: destash, junk jewelry, jewelry lot, estate, single earrings, vintage, harvest (ing), repair, reclaim, costume, rhinestone lot, watch movements or parts lot, and jewelry destash lot. Bits and Bobs is another favorite.

You can combine these keywords in any number of ways, for instance, single vintage earrings will bring up a mix of finished jewelry pieces but it will also bring up the odd lot of vintage finds. Rhinestone destash jewelry is another of my favorites! In fact, I'm actually surprised with myself for sharing my most valuable techniques.

I would also recommend searching "All Items" instead of just "Supplies" or "Vintage". Sometimes people mislabel their listings and I like to catch those too!

And last but not least, the subject of sorting. I search so regularly that I am familiar with all the recent listings, which is the sort order that comes up by default, but I also sort by lowest price when running a search I do not do regularly. I try to make those searches as specific as possible soI don't get too overwhelmed with results. For instance, if a trend toward enamel flowers catches my eye, I will try all the search terms I mentioned earlier with the words "enamel flowers" and also try terms specific to the source like "enamel flower brooch", "retro enamel pins", etc. I look at the first few pages of "most recent" and then also sort by "lowest price" and scroll through until I've seen all the results up to my price range. Don't forget to check shipping charges too. I don't mean to say that people gouge on shipping to make up for the low selling price, but it does happen sometimes and is very disappointing once you've already put it in your shopping cart and are whacked at checkout time.

When you've found what you are looking for, make sure to save the seller and check periodically for more if you think they may post similar listings in the future.

In my mailbox: One Serious Pile o' Bling

I couldn't believe my eyes as I opened the packages that arrived in my mailbox today. I ordered some "destash" lots on Etsy. These are the best of the best, but there's much more! I have some barely damaged pieces and some harvest pieces that I will work with later to restore as many as I can to their former sparkling beauty.

Soon I will post my secrets to finding Eye Candy for Reclaimed and Junk jewelry on line, along with general shopping tips, so you know what to look for at brick and mortar stores.

My creative past: Cake Decorating

That summer my best friend was getting married and I was in the wedding party. As the cake arrived that morning I thought to myself, "I can do that!". I picked up some Wilton books and did some research on the internet and found an overwhelming amount of information. So a few months later, the perfect excuse came up, and I felt prepared. Her parents were having their 50th wedding anniversary and she asked me to make the cake, and sure enough, I could! Here is my first cake:

Then her daughter wanted to design her own birthday cake, so I did that too:

In the midst of all this cake decorating stuff I came across a forum that discussed the use of a Cricut Expression for cutting fondant. I happened to have one of those so I just HAD to try it out. Sure enough, guess what, I had a new obsession; decorating cakes with fondant. Oh how I wish I'd borrowed a camera, because for a while I didn't own one. I only have a few pictures of a couple of simple cakes but I hope by now you can imagine how intricate the cakes became with more experience! These two are birthday cakes that I made before my camera died. The first is for a boy's birthday and the second was for a Boston Celtics fanatic who was turning 33. If you are not a Boston fan, you probably don't know the significance of that number, but it is jersey number of the legendary Larry Bird. I was so proud of that little cake at the time! I wish I had a photo of the assembled cake, but no one thought to take one once it reached the party.

Eventually I got so good at using my Cricut with food mediums that I wrote a tutorial on how to convert an Expression into a cake decorating machine. Soon after, the Cricut Cake came out and my report sold like hotcakes on eBay for a few months. It was empowering to know that the report helped a lot of people save a lot of money by just using the diecut machine they already owned.

My creative past: Sewing Children's Clothing

After the holiday season passed, I found myself wanting to make something completely different; something easy without all the fussy details. My favorite cousin had a little girl and I desided to make her some gifts. I decided to sew something pretty out of some vintage sheeting I had. Here are the results:

I made a simple dress with a matching headband and had enough fabric left to make a ton of other things including a few more dresses that I gave as gifts for baby showers and some listings I sold on Etsy. With the scraps from all the clothes I made grocery bags. There's a lot of fabric in two fitted sheets!

Back when my children were little, I made all their clothes. I was also a quilter and belonged to a guild and I also made crazy quilted Challah covers that I sold. It was nice to get back in front of a sewing machine and it is funny how, over time, the process of constructing clothes seemed to be easier than when I was younger.

My creative past: Beaded Christmas Ornaments

My first attempts at making beaded ornaments were encouraging. I used bits of interesting things, vintage finds, and leftovers from my mixed media craze. I loved the color combinations and the freedom that comes with experimenting from the unknown. As always, my appetite for information took over and I began to research everything I could find about beaded ornaments. This is when I stumbled upon Crackerbox ornaments. Now THOSE are amazing! I studied them intently throughout the summer and the following holiday season, I began designing ornaments in earnest. Once again I'd found a niche market and I ran with it!

As you can see, my later attempts were far more polished and commercial looking. I began to write tutorials and sold the ornaments, kits and tutorials on Etsy and eBay. This is an art form that still captures my imagination and I plan to offer them again this coming holiday season. I also intend to develop some jewelry designs that incorporate ornament techniques.

My creative past: Journals & Bookbinding

After the discovery of Teesha Moore and the journaling days with my daughter, I started making journals to work with, to give as gifts, and to sell. I also had the opportunity to make some custom orders on Etsy too. It was a fun, but short lived period, as I soon discovered beaded Christmas ornaments, and a new obsession was born.

My creative past: Cards & Rubberstamps

Somewhere in the mix between buttons and scrapbooking, I started making greeting cards and collecting rubber stamps. I sold the cards on eBay for a while and made some good money at it. Unfortunately, the buttons took over my world and I eventually sold my rubber stamp collection on eBay for over $400!

While collecting the rubber stamps, I came across an artist named Teesha Moore and I was smitten with her work. Soon I was having "journal days" with my eldest daughter, although I must admit that I'd sneak some greeting card work in there too. We would work away for hours and chat about life.

My creative past: Embellished Buttons

While exploring altered arts, I found I had a passion for buttons. This passion lead to an insatiable appitite for vintage buttons. I don't know how it happened, but I found myself collecting huge amounts of buttons from eBay. Well, after you pick out the pretty ones, you are left with LOTS of ugly ones! So began my 2 year career of embellishing buttons. I'd stumbled upon a niche market and I ran with it until my fingers were sore and my eyes crossed. My customers wanted more, but I was burnt out.

My creative past: Mixed Media & Paper Arts

My little sister suddenly passed away in June 2005 and that prompted me to make scrapbooks for her children and for myself. As with everything I do, I became obsessed and scrapbooking became my passion for the past 5 years. I've invested in plenty of tools, books, magazines, and spent endless hours scouring the internet to keep on top of the newest trends and products. But as I dug around, I found myself drawn to the wider variations of the world of paper arts and mixed media. I learned about image transfers, painting techniques, altered books, ATCs, collage, texturing, piercing, punching, diecutting, and every other thing you can think of related to paper transformations. This opened doors that I never could have dreamt of, but first I got sidetracked with a little side business of selling embellished vintage buttons, a move I would never have predicted.

My creative past: Mosaics

Being creative is my obsession. I've made all sorts of things to sell over the years.
My "job" for a while was creating hand painted mosaic tiles, which lead to learning everything I could about the art of mosaics. I developed a wonderful customer base and completed lots of exciting projects that sold very well on eBay.
Since my educational and professional background was in publishing and graphic design, it was only a matter of time before I looked to create something in print.
I found a creative partner through the Yahoo forums and we attempted to publish a gorgeous, glossy, full color magazine. Ultimately we failed to go to print, but the experience helped me grow by leaps and bounds and helped make me realize that I needed to change direction. After years of mosaic work, I moved on to mixed media and paper arts.