Earrings Galore

These are the new earrings I've been working on. I was so excited because I love each one of them. Unfortunately, it looks like no one else does :( I posted the first two awhile ago, and still 0 views. Of course, Etsy has been known to have its bugs, so I shouldn't let it get to me too much. So anyway, I thought I'd share them with you, because I'm so proud of them!

It's been awhile!

The photo above is of my newest necklace, now available in my store.

Sorry for the delay in posting! It's been crazy busy and stressful at my day job lately, and I have limited time or energy for anything else. I wish I could do jewelry all day, every day, but it's going to be awhile before I'm able to do that.

Amazingly, inspiration has struck me through this incredibly busy time in my life. After careful thought, I've decided on opening a new store, especially for my metal jewelry creations. I've been drawing out a lot of designs lately, and have noticed that each one has gotten its inspiration through something that I found in nature. That is why I named my new store "Nature in Design Jewelry". I have my logo, made out a business card design, and started an Etsy store. You can take a look here: http://natureindesign.etsy.com. It's not open yet, but you can see the logo and such. I thought it was a wise idea to keep my actual metalwork separate from my Fashion Accessories store. Wish me luck on my new endeavor!

Inspiration Strikes!

I just got these great new supplies in that inspired me to create these amazing earrings. I first started out with those white wood flowers that I had leftover from the other earrings I made awhile ago. Then I moved on to these round wood pendants with a butterfly design and thought they looked great with these light pink glass hearts I had. Soon enough, the inspiration came easily, and before I knew it, I had three more pairs of new earrings that I just love.

I have noticed that I've been making a lot of earrings lately compared to necklaces and bracelets. I don't know what it is about earrings, but I just adore them. I know this sounds strange, being that I create jewelry, but I always find it such a hassle to find the proper jewelry to match the outfit I'm wearing and then put it all on. But earrings are so easy and fun! There are so many different styles, and all I have to do is slip them right in and I'm ready to go. That's probably why I love making them so much.

So that's it for now. It's back to the drawing board for me, because I have even more new supplies that I can't wait to try out and millions of ideas swimming through my brain. If I don't draw them out soon something may escape! I've also been busy with my Jewelry Design and Repair course, and have been learning so many things that I never knew. I can't wait to actually do some hands-on work and create those metal pieces that I've always been longing to do.

New Blue!

For some reason, the color blue has been really inspiring me lately. I love all the different shades that it comes in and the variety of other colors it matches. I probably have a couple dozen blue tops and dresses. But anyway, I went digging through my stash of supplies hoping that I could find some materials to work with. And guess what...I did! The photos above show some of the new pieces I've made with different shades of blue. They're all in my shop, so go ahead and take a look!

I'm on my way!

I just took two very important (in my opinion) steps to advancing my career in something that I love. The first thing I looked into was my jewelry skills, since that's what I'm concentrating on right now. For a very long time, I've wanted to learn how to make jewelry. I know what you're thinking..."but Erin, you do make jewelry". Yes, but what I wanted to learn was metalwork, casting, soldering, etc. I searched endlessly for courses like that in Hilo and found absolutely nothing. Maybe I've been looking in all the wrong places, but I couldn't find anything at all. So I started my search for online learning, since online is what I seem to do best now days. I found the Jewelry Design & Repair program at Ashworth University. The courses this program offers are pretty much everything that I've been looking for. I did my research to make sure everything is legit, then enrolled. My first shipment of course materials is on its way, and I'm super excited to start learning. As the program progresses, I'll let you know how it goes.

The second step I took was to look for something to enhance my sewing skills. I've always loved to sew, and took sewing classes when I was a lot younger. Since then, my sewing began to taper off, and I don't sew at all anymore. I have a grandmother who sews wonderfully, so I've kind of been taking advantage of her skills lately. However, as I started my interest in the fashion world, I realized how much I wanted to learn actual dressmaking and design. This led me to the Dressmaking and Design program at Penn Foster. It, like the Jewelry Design & Repair program at Ashworth, is a diploma program, so I won't be getting an Associate's Degree or anything like that. But as I reviewed the course materials, I realized this is exactly what I want to do. So I enrolled, and actually began my program today.

I am so excited for these opportunities to learn. I'm very happy that with the Internet, I'm able to do distance learning like this while remaining in the home I love (for the time being - I'm still tempted to start that Apparel Accessory Design Associates Degree in Portland) and keeping my daily schedule pretty close to normal. I'm really not sure how these two programs will turn out, but I'll keep you posted!

Unfortunately, because I've been so busy with this, I haven't made anything new this week. Soon I'll have new arrivals.

All New!

I've been pretty busy this weekend. I had tons of new supplies and millions of ideas, so I just kept working. But I love it, so it was fun. Here are the photos of what I've been working on. There are some in the store already, and the rest will be added sometime today.

Inspire, Precious, Dream, Cherish

Introducing my two latest pieces! I know they aren't really my style, but they both kind of just came to me last night. I didn't even have a design drawn up or anything. I just started putting pieces together and creating. Check them out here. What do you think?

And...good news! I figured out why I couldn't upload the Oregon photos (too large). I made them smaller, so here they are:

See that area I circled? That's where we spontaneously decided to hike to. Pretty ambitious, for three little girls such as ourselves. :)

I snapped a photo of one of the views while we were hiking. It's not so great. I must have been getting tired :-P

And we finally reached our destination! If you think that looks big, you should take a look at the inside!

That is unfortunately all the photos I really have of Oregon. We were so busy having fun that we forgot to document our activities!

Accessories Galore!

These are just a few of the many new pieces I've been working on. Check out my store for everything that I've been adding. For some reason, I've been really inspired to create lately. I think it's the excitement of **hopefully** getting into the Art Institute of Portland and taking their Apparel Accessory Design program. I've been daydreaming A LOT lately of the sort of things I could do with what I learn there. Jewelry is just a small fraction of apparel accessories, and I'm so excited to learn the techniques and processes that go into designing and creating things like handbags, belts, scarves, ties, shoes, etc., etc., etc. I hope hope HOPE I make it in!

Also, I'm not sure if anyone cares or not, but I unfortunately could not upload my Oregon pictures as promised. Maybe they're too big? There weren't too many, anyway. We were so busy running around and having fun that most times, we forgot to take out our cameras and snap some photos. The only ones I have are from our hike to Pittock Mansion. They are beautiful though. I'll try to figure out why my photos aren't uploading so that I can get them on here and share with you the beauty.

I'm Back!

These are my two latest projects. They'll be in my store soon, so be sure to check it out.

I'm back from my vacation! It was so much fun, I really didn't even want to come back home. We walked around the Rose Garden (though there weren't too many roses out yet), hiked to Pittock Mansion, did some fondue, ate out at tons of neat restaurants, did "Happy Hour" almost every night, went to a bowling alley/bar, and shopped 'til we almost dropped at lots of cute little boutiques. I have pictures, but I haven't transferred them to my computer yet. I'll be sure to post them as soon as I do.

We also got to tour the Art Institute of Portland, where I'm considering enrolling in the Apparel Accessory Design program. It's such a tiny little school, but I loved everything about it. They have students' projects hanging on their walls, and it was really interesting looking at the kind of things I'd be doing in that school. I also got to see some students at work in the sewing rooms and draping room, and that was pretty cool! I still have a lot to think about, but I'm slowly leaning more toward moving back to Oregon for a few years to take this program. It's nice being at home, but home will always be here when I'm ready to come back. And taking this program would be such a wonderful experience for me, since this is really what I want to do with my life. So I think I'm going to have to take out my pen and paper (or my Microsoft Word) and list out my pros and cons.

But for now, back to the daily grind of things...