I finally did it....

Well i finally did it. Not only did I start a blog but I now have a facebook page. If you're on facebook look me up! I still need to add a few things but at least it's a start! It's a great way to network with others and many of my friends are already on facebook. Check it out!

Students

Just got home last night from a relaxing few days down the shore. It was so nice to be on the beach without the crowds. The weather was great and the sun was warm which makes for a great tan..... too bad it's now fall and getting a little cooler out so no one can see it with jeans and a sweatshirt on! After spending a few days laying around on the beach all day it makes it hard to get back to work! Tonight is the first night of my next session of beginner/intermediate jewelry classes. I love to see all the great things my students come up with. I teach each one of them the exact same thing and everyone adds their own creativity to the mix. The outcome is wonderful! Below are some pictures of some of my students at work and modelling some of their jewelry.... If you want to try this class for yourself you can get more info and sign up here!

Aniko soldering the links in her chain...

Rita working on her pendant....

Amy sawing jump rings...

Mirabel and her new cuff bracelet...

LeLanya modeling her new earrings!

New Jewelry

Today I added some new pieces to my website that I made over the past few days. One is pictured below. Click here to see the rest! I'll be adding them a little at a time (it's not a quick process) and there are a few up already! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

Rose Necklace

Well I just found out via email this morning that my large rose necklace is going to be in a book! Pretty cool to hear that someone appreciates my work that much! Below is the email I received....

Hi, Michele,

This is Alana Bills. We did a swap last year for Christmas. I just wanted to let you know that I gave my sister (who is an author) the large rose necklace, and she loves it so much, that she's incorporating it into her upcoming vampire book. The heroine wears it! Just thought you would like to know.

You rock!

Alana at NatureWorks Studio

Hannah gets the creative juices flowing....

Well I was supposed to do a craft show today (that I really was not in the mood to do) but due to hurricane Hannah and a tropical storm warning here in NJ the show was postponed until tomorrow. (Not that I really want to go tomorrow either.....I don't like doing shows. It's a lot of hard work setting up & breaking down a booth especially when you have to get up so early). The hurricane wasn't as bad as they predicted but I am glad they decided to postpone the show. It rained all day and this event is outdoors so it would not have been fun. So instead of working outside today I worked inside and made some new jewelry. I still haven't made the pieces I've had scribbled out on a piece of paper since August but at least it's a start! I actually want to stay in my studio all night just to create some of those pieces but if I do, there is no way I'll be getting up at 5:30am to go set up my booth! So it's an early night for me tonight... Hopefully tomorrow will bring sunny weather, lots of customers and maybe even some new ideas!

So it's been a week....

So it's been a week since my last posting and you would think by now that I would have made some new jewelry from all my new found inspiration that I got while away on vacation last week....think again. Instead I have been working on redecorating my house instead. I usually get into my "redecorating" mood in the winter while I am trapped in the house (I hate the cold weather) where I will repaint a room, rearrange furniture, etc. But for some reason this mood skipped right over me last winter and has hit me full force now at the end of summer!

Some past winter projects have been rearranging and repainting my living room and hallway and another was painting a sky on the ceiling of my 21x14 foot bathroom and finishing it off with crown moulding. (there's 2 sections of ceiling in the bathroom. You can see the other half of the ceiling past the green header). I would never do this again. My neck was sore for days. Now I know how Michelangelo felt!

The past few days I have been working on 2 projects. The first is this piece of furniture which I found for really cheap and is now in my bathroom. Not sure what I am going to use it for but it seems to work in the space.

And the second project is redoing my son's room from top to bottom. He's 19 and his room has been painted white since we moved into this house 14 years ago. His favorite color is orange and I found this cute office furniture online that he wants to use in his bedroom. We ordered this piece and another to match but no luck finding a new bed as of yet. We also are still trying to figure out paint colors to go with the furniture and flooring but when it's done I'll post the finished product for all to see!

Relaxation & Inspiration

My family and I just returned home a few days ago from our Mediterranean cruise and it has taken a few days to recover from the jet lag (which is why I haven't posted earlier!) We had a such a great time. We flew to Rome which is where we were to get on the ship. Before we went to the dock we did a little site seeing. We stopped at the Coliseum (below), the Vatican and Trevi Fountain (below) where we took a break to eat gelati and coronetti (an Italian pastry recommended by my Italian friend who lived in Italy most of her life), and some other sites before we had to get on our ship.

Below is one of my favorite photos that I took of the artwork inside St. Peter's. It is amazing how much detail is in it and it is painted in a dome on the ceiling.

Once on the ship our first stop was Sicily, Italy where we toured the town of Taormina (below).

It's a beautiful old town with lots of shops and the ruins of a very old open air Greek-Roman Theater. the theater is located on a hill where you can see the volcano, Mt. Etna, in the distance. Even though the theater was partially destroyed events are still scheduled there in the theater today. Our tour guide told us how he attended a concert there once when Mt. Etna erupted. How cool that would have been to be watching your favorite band and having red hot lava shooting up over the stage in the background! (The photo below is of the stage with the volcano in the background. You can't really see the top of the volcano that well due to the clouds.)

Our next stop was Athens, Greece. And no stop in Athens would be complete without going to see the Acropolis.

We also saw the ruins of the Temple of Zeus and the first Olympic Stadium called the Panathinaiko Stadium. It was were the very first modern Olympic games took place in 1896. (below)

We also spent a day in Kusadasi, Turkey. There they have the ruins of the City of Ephesus. It is an entire city buried in a bunch of mountains that they have been excavating for about 50 years. And in that time they have only discovered about 15% of what they think is buried there. In the museum they have a lot of the artifacts that they found and one of the items was this necklace.

Did you know that jewelry was the first art? Before people used clay to make vessels to carry water, store wine, etc. they used the clay to make jewelry to decorate themselves. Just a little fact I thought I'd share with you since I am a jewelry artist and all!

We also did some shopping in Turkey. The funniest thing were these signs. Turkey is known for their fake brand name items and it seems like they are very proud of this fact! These signs were everywhere!

Our last port was the Greek island of Crete. We saw the Minoan ruins of the royal palace of Knossos that was destroyed by earthquakes. It was very interesting to see all the "modern amenities" they had. Running water, sewage system, etc. This photo is of the inside of one of the rooms in the palace. The chair against the wall is the king's throne.

All in all it was a great trip and and I was very inspired by all that I saw and experienced. I plan to take some of that inspiration and turn it into new pieces of jewelry in the near future!