Buggy Rainbow

Look at all the faux bakelite buggy colorful goodness!!! I want to keep them all for myself now that I have them lined up by color. But I won't be selfish, I'll send them off to England to grace the jackets of other vintage loving aficianado's and I'll just have to make a few more for myself!

Being Productive

I had have a migraine or pre-migraine headache for 5 days or so. I have been moving SLOWWWWWW. Today I am FINALLY headache free!!! so I'm trying to be super productive and catch up on all the stuff I didn't get done already this week.

First-I wanted to announce that the general class registration is now open for the ZNE ConvenZione. I'll be teaching the Charm School resin casting class and Histories: Real or Imagined jewelry class. If you are interested in coming out for this wonderful art & fun filled weekend please visit the website for more info. There are a ton of amazing classes to choose from. This is one of the class samples I'll have on hand for viewing/sale.
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I applied to the American Craft Council show in Aug. I know there will be hundreds of applicants, so my fingers and toes are crossed and wish all the applicants the best of luck.

My 37 yr old sister went in for a hysterectomy this morning. So if any of you pray, please include her in your prayers tonight for a speedy recovery. She is doing fine except for being in pain. We have always had a really rocky relationship and we are now trying to be friends. We've had some intense/honest emails about our roles in the family and how we felt about the past and whatever. Its odd how people can live together and view things differently. I always felt she was my mothers favorite, and she always felt second best to me. We have similar feelings regarding how we got treated growing up, but didn't see it applying to the other person then.

I finished my big bug order-yay!!! well finished casting them, this weekend will be finishing and putting on the pins and wrapping them up to mail next week. I cast some extras to sell at Renegade.

I need to figure out some interesting jewelry displays. I wish I could afford 6 of those mannequin torsos and just pile necklaces up on them. But i have no where to store them if I could buy them all, so if anyone has any clever, interesting, and space saving displays-please share some pics!

I am almost ready to send out a newsletter. I transferred all the emails over to Vertical Response ONE BY ONE the other day. They didn't have a way to do a batch transfer, but its done now and I will send out a newsletter this weekend. I am thinking about doing a giveaway too and will mull over that.

I am in a couple of treasuries on etsy, here and here. so go click and look at all the lovelies up.

Also on todays to-do list is photo taking for ebay, etsy and the website . As well as making jewelry and trying to get a yarn spun in at some point. So I best get at it!

Putting it out there

As part of my "apply to more call for arts & challenges" goal, I came across Stringing Magazine's jewelry challenge "Channeling Cinderella". A bit last minute, I whipped this up for it and sent it in.

I wonder if it is a bit too "unusual" for them, but never hurts to try. I call it "After the Ball". Made with a gorgeous antique rhinestone clip, vintage crystal, rhinestone and pearl beads, and a couple of regal looking Lion charms to symbolize Prince Charming. The back dangle chain holds a vintage clock key. If Cinderella had had one herself, she could have kept turning the clock back and so the chimes of midnight would never have come.

I can't wait to see what the other entries are. I will post the link to the gallery as soon as it goes up so you can vote for me, or which ever one you like best!

Where has the week gone???

Man! it WHIZZED by!!! I've been trying to master the camera, and its winning as evidenced in the above photo...I didn't have the lights off, go figure............., I have spent about 9 hours trying to become a better photographer and reading the book on the Canon Rebel-I don't think its sinking in..................

Its been recordbreaking hot here the past 2 days which has made me really unable to focus. It was 97 yesterday, 89 today. I understand those are normal temperatures for alot of people, but not for San Francisco. We are delicate little orchids in SF and used to cool, damp days. No apts have AC and this is the ONLY time you will hear me say "thank god we don't face any sun". Its been so hot in here as it is, I can only imagine how miserable the apts in the front of the building are. I feel bad for the cats, especially Mr. Schmoo who is Himilayan and really unhappy right now. We have fans running and curtains drawn and trying to keep it as cool as possible.

I did finish this lot of necklaces this week. I have more pendants but ran out of chain, must order some this week. I also put them all on the website tonight. Tomorrow I hope to get more pics resized, update the site and get out that darn newsletter I keep putting off!

Renegade SF

Even though I don't like doing shows (as you have all heard me say a billion times), Jessica and I applied for a table at the SF Renegade Craft Fair. Since its the first one in SF, we thought it would be fun to be a part of it and do some networking. Also since Jessica has just started her soon to be Super Popular bath products business La Patisserie Jolie , its a great way to get the word out about it and have more people see how AMAZING her soaps are!

And I figured it would be another way to promote the ZNE Convenzione and vendor show too.

Low and behold, we were accepted. Yay US!!!!! Now its time to turn up the product making. It's going to be a busy show and long weekend for us, but I am sure it will be a great weekend. And when you share a table, you always have someone to help you sell, bag and watch stuff while the other shops or goes to the bathroom too.

So if you are going to be in San Francisco in mid July you should come by and check it all out.

Renegade Craft Fair July 12-13 11am-7pm Fort Mason Festival Pavillion San Francisco

"Its not you, its me" - Email problems

This morning I got an email invitation to be a part of Swap-a-rama at Maker Fair. The email was sent on April 18th, and Maker Fair was this past weekend.

I got another email referencing Maker Fair, and then another email came thru from the Swap lady, and I started to panic. I looked at every email I got in today to see what date it was sent. As of now, I have about 20 emails that had been sent out weeks ago. This is so not good because they are all emails sent to my business email which means I could be (and did with Maker Fair) miss out on opportunities. Another curious thing is I get SOME emails sent to me, but not all of them, Rob can't understand what is going on and is trying to figure it out. This is SOOOO not good.......

So if you have sent me an email in the last month or so and I didn't reply - I apologize. I swear I'm not ignoring you, I just never got it. Its not you, its me or I should say its something with my email. If its important, you can phone me or if you prefer email, send it to me at rkabillygal AT earthlink DOT net.
Fingers crossed it gets fixed!

"Why can't you be normal?"

How many times have I heard that sentence throughout my life?? "Why can't you be NORMAL?", always used a not so subtle putdown to whatever it was in reference too-"why can't you be like normal kids and play outside instead of sitting in your room reading too much?" "Why can't you act normal instead of having un-natural colored hair?" "Why can't you be like normal people and bake in the sun instead of looking like Elvira?" etc, etc, etc......

What IS normal? Apparently, it was nothing I was. As a child its painful to be considered an outsider, as an adult I laugh at people who say its not 'normal' for me to be ME.

I heard a profound statement yesterday that reminded me of all those years of feeling like some kind of weirdo "Normal people don't make history." HOW true is that??? Can you think of anyone who as made a name for themselves being part of the herd mentality? I can't. So if someone has ever said to you "why can't you be normal?" Thank them for reminding you of just how amazing YOU are.

Speaking of amazing people, I have to tell you all again how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE and HIGHLY recommend Alyson Stanfield's book "I'd Rather be in the Studio". If you are doing anykind of creative work, business or thinking about starting one do yourself a HUGE favor and go buy it!!!! Right now, go on- you can come back and read the rest of the post later. She is like the best friend we wish we all had-someone who challenges you and supports you at the same time, who knows what she's talking about and happy to share the info so you can be as successful as you want to be. I've read a TON of books about how to move forward as an artist, alot highly recommended that left me flat, alot ok, some pretty good and I can say from the bottom of my heart that this is the best of them all. Its a small $25 investment into yourself, and you are worth that!!!!

Today I conquered my fear of the propane torch and used it to solder bezels onto about 20 Wanderlust pendants. Went alot faster. My fear? that I'll blow the house up or or myself or something will burn down. I know its irrational but its my fear and I just punched it in the face LOL. I bought a torch for MAPP too that I hope comes soon so I can use that to do some rings I have in progress and need more heat.

Heres a pic of the raw pendants in dirty pickle...so much firescale.

foto skilz??? I no haz dem

Ala-lolcats, I haz no foto skilz

I had planned on being on the computer again today. I was going to go thru the rest of the pictures, resize them all and update the website. That was not to be, when I looked at all the pics only about 8 of them are good enough to edit!...darn!!! So I resized 3 wanderlust pendants and now will be spending tomorrow taking more pics. Above is a sneak preview of some of the stuff I made for the new class photo for the Histories: Real or Imagined class at the ZNE ConvenZioNE. I REALLY need to sit down with that camera book!!!! I was lazy and didn't pull out the tent or lights, so its all my fault for trying to cut corners.

Here's some group shots I took-lots of pretty earrings and a couple of rings.

I guess I will spend the rest of tonight making some stuff and work tomorrow then!!!

I made another Treasury!!!

I don't know why getting in one tickles me so much...I guess I'm tired of seeing the SAME people in EVER ONE....I want to see other peoples stuff!

Here's a pic of yesterdays worktable chaos.

NOTHING I did yesterday went easy or well...just one of those days. I fuddled around for hours-couldn't find anything that went together, couldn't find stuff, kept dropping things, etc...... And the PMS started to set in, so I was getting crankier by the minute-not a good combo. But no worries-today is MUCH better!

Today, I am focused on completing some of the computer work I dislike but NEED to do, by reading Alyson's post on Art Biz Coach about working on the website last night. I am going to be somewhat attached to my computer today and get the work done that I dread doing-resizing pics and updating etsy, ebay and my website. I'll do my Craft Gossip posts later if I can stand to be on here after I get the bulk of the drudge work done. But I may have to do them tomorrow if necessary.