Jewelry classes, The holidays and another newspaper article...

With it being so close to the holidays there is so much going on that I have not had time to post very much this month. To catch up all that has been missed I figured I'd put it all in one post so here goes....

The last session of jewelry classes for this year ended on Dec 16th which means I finally have time to get to all of my holiday shopping and party planning before I go back to teaching again in January. 2 of my students, Susan and Kate, finished their projects just in time for the holidays. Susan made herself a beach glass pendant from beach glass she found at the Jersey shore. It is her very first project and her very first piece of hand crafted jewelry made in my class so she (and I) am very proud. Kate made 4 matching bracelets for 4 of her closest friends. This was only Kate's second project that she designed on her own and it wasn't an easy one. Each bracelet came out great and I hope her friends appreciate the time and effort she put into each one.

We also put up our dreaded monster tree multiple times in one week. We get a live tree every year which smells awesome but always turns into a major event. It looks great and is finally standing only because we had to tie it to 2 walls. We broke 2 tree stands trying to put it up and it has already fallen over once right after we decorated it...if it happens again we are just going to leave it on the floor, call it a Christmas bush and put our presents around it! Merry Christmas!

Also, I found out today that there is another article in the Courier Post newspaper featuring an interview with me, an image of my rings and a mention about my classes and my "ladies night out" events. You can see the full article here .

I probably won't get a chance to post much else this week with all the out of town visitors and parties so Happy Holidays!

The Succulent wife's favorite things..

I made the Shopping Mall Free Holiday Gift Guide on TheSucculentWife.com! To see the list click here. Anne Marie talks about my jewelry and has posted an image of my custom name charms....Now I am off to finish getting ready for the Holiday Show at the Markiem Art Center in Haddonfield, NJ that is tomorrow from noon to 8pm. It is one of the stops on the Holiday House tours which is a big hit in Haddonfield so there should be a good turn out. Now back to work!

A lot of things have happened since my last post...

Thanksgiving came and went. This year for the first time we had Thanksgiving at my house. Originally it wasn't planned that way. We were supposed to eat at Tim's dad house but the Sunday before Thanksgiving they had a house fire and due to the damage to their house they could not entertain there. I offered up my kitchen to them and everything worked out fine. Just the fact that they made it out of the house unhurt and were here to celebrate (and cook for us all) was plenty to be thankful for.

A few days later was the Annual Holiday Artist Trunk Show was held at my house. In all there were 10 artists participating and the place looked great. I took some pics of everyone set up and before the place got too crowded. You can see them below.

Every year the artists hold a free raffle for the shoppers. Each artist donates an item to the raffle and at the end of the show the winners are chosen. This year's winners are:

Linda Norris- bracelet by Peg Jacobskind
Nicki Albertson- stained glass star ornement by Judy Gangemi
Mike Sweeney- mosaic Christmas tree dish by Abbe Gold
Eleanor Witkowski- fused glass hair tie by Ilan Yampolsky
Jo Penza- Package of handmade Christmas Cards by Lydia Land
Jenny Zayschly- mixed media trinket box by Jennifer Mishura
Debby Schwartz- set of 3 magnets by Lisa Kelly
Diane Dressler- 3 handmade soaps by Heather Famine
Deb Celhar- pair of earrings by Michele Grady

Congrats to all of this year's raffle winners and thank you for helping to make this a successful event for the 7th year in a row!

10 Days To Go, Kate's Bracelet & Christmas Lights?

Well my 7th Annual Holiday Trunk Show is now 10 days away and nothing seems to be getting accomplished in terms of my readiness. This event is held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving every year in my home, which has to be totally rearranged furniture wise to make room for all of the great handcrafted items and their wonderful creators. Needless to say, there is way more stuff in my house than there should be right now. So instead of me trying to figure out what to do with it all I am getting myself and my jewelry ready to take a trip to Pheonixville, PA tonight for a 3 hour Holiday event! I am hoping this will be worth the trip there because I have never done this event before. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

On another note....I wanted to post some pictures of one of my students very first pieces of jewelry. Kate is relatively new to jewelry class (this is only her second session) and she finally finished her very first project which was a malachite and sterling silver bracelet. Kate made the settings, set the stones and then attached the whole thing together. It turned out beautifully and she did a great job! I took these pictures the day she finished her bracelet and I told her I would post them here but then I totally slacked off. I have had these images in my camera for over 2 weeks now! Sorry, Kate!

Kate's bracelet

Kate modeling her very first creation (and hey, that's one of my necklaces too)

And finally ( I just had to add this in).... since when does Christmas come right after Halloween? Why are people putting up Christmas lights on their houses right after they take down the Halloween decorations? And why are the radio stations playing Holiday music all day long in November? Doesn't anyone celebrate Thanksgiving anymore!?!

Handcrafted Women of the Web

Today womenpreneures.info posted their "Handcrafted Women of the Web" winter 2008 edition on their website today. And it just so happens that I am one of the women listed in their guide! The guide is a listing of all handcrafted shops that you can find on the web. The shops sell everything from clothing, jewelry, candles, bath and body, gourmet foods, children items, pet items and other misc handcrafted things! Handcrafted Women of the Web is a great reference if you are looking for any kind of handcrafted items whether it be gifts for the upcoming holidays or custom items you can't find anywhere else. Check it out if you get a chance and support these women owned businesses. You might find something new and different that might just make the perfect holiday gift for someone on your list or even yourself!

SheFinds.com is Featuring My Necklace!

I just found out the other day that SheFinds.com is now featuring my new Custom Name Charms in their "Custom Made Buyers Guide" which is up on their website now! This is the same necklace that I made for sister for her birthday in June. (I only added it to my website and wrote about it on my blog a month ago.) You can wear one or many on the same chain and they can be customized with names, words, stones, etc and they make great gifts for the holidays!

New Jewelry Making Workshops

Sabina's "girls night out" was such a hit with all the women that participated that I thought others might enjoy it too. That's how I came up with the new "Memories of Summer" workshop that I added to my 2009 workshop schedule. Not only can sea glass, river rocks or sea shells be used for this project, but any found object from a summer vacation can be turned into a piece of jewelry!

samples of sea glass jewelry that can be made in the new workshop

I also added a few new PMC workshops. PMC (or Precious Metal Clay) is a clay like material made of silver particles, water and a binder that holds everything together. It works like clay until it is fired in a kiln. After firing, it then is worked like metal. During the firing process the binder burns away and you are left with a piece of fine silver. I have had a few requests for different kinds of PMC workshops so I am adding a PMC Rings and PMC Beads workshop to the schedule.

Some rings made from PMC

Hollow beads made from PMC

The other thing I thought would be fun is to teach a workshop that would be perfect for people who like to work with metal but might be a little intimidated by using a torch. This is how I came up with a cold connections workshop. Cold connections is a term used to describe any way of connecting metal without the use of fire. Rivets, nuts & bolts, jump rings, etc are all examples of cold connections. My small reversible heart necklace is a piece that I made and attached together using cold connections. It's also a way to add more detail and decoration to a piece. My friend (and previous student) Holly Priester from Blue Fish Moon Studio uses cold connections for a lot of her work. Below is one of her "Peace Key" necklaces. Check out her website to see more of her work. It's really great!

Peace Key necklace by Holly Priester of Blue Fish Moon Studio