Treasures from Andrew's Bead Stash and Inspiration Mondays at ICE

Jewelry Alchemy Class Copyright 2009 Barbe Saint John

I've been VERY lazy the past few days-  VERY lazy!!!! I honestly can't say I have done did anything really constructive other than slightly clean up my studio. And you know what? I'm ok with that!

I did want to fully clean the room but it didn't happen. I did alter some clothing, hit the little thrift store,  went up to Pittsburgh for the day on Saturday, but I did nothing that took a lot of brain cells. I want to work on some new jewelry pieces but I'm not feeling inspired, and that's a bit depressing.   Also, I got hit with "copy cat" situation this week that is making me not feel so thrilled with life.  It's very SAD that people feel the need to take from others. They think they are getting away with it, but guess what- they aren't fooling anyone. IF it truly is a case of extreme similiarity, I apologize but I kinda doubt it is.   If I'm so creative that you have to take my idea, then that's really YOUR problem not mine.  It would be easy to get into a war over it but I don't want to feed into the negative energy of it, its not worth it.  I'm trying to put my focus on my OWN path in life and create joy, not hate and bitterness.

While taking my weekend of rest, I have been spending some time catching up on my blog reading and looking at Pinterest. I love Pinterest, it's like diving into visual wonderland. If you haven't joined up, you should!  One of the blogs I got caught up on is my friend Andrew's blog.   I wanted to share this fantastic destash sale,  He created a bunch of  gorgeous little $10 lots of beads. Look at this photo!!!! SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

photo copyright Andrew Thornton 2011

Makes me want to jump in and roll around in them all!!!! Be sure to follow Andrew's blog, he always has great posts of his own work, fantastic giveaways and more fun stuff. 

I'm also getting caught up on reading ICE Resin Inspiration Mondays blog posts. Karen does a fantastic job every week coming up with some really incredible art work to look at.  She is a wonderful curator and her collections of inspiration really blow me away.  Thank you Karen for sharing your inspirations with all us!

Busy Busy Busy and Wikio Top Blogs

Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I got the opportunity to support a big project but with a very tight deadline. What's a girl to do but jump in and go full throttle. I have spent the past 6 days working like madman trying to get as much quality product done as I could. Of course the weather did not help, it was in the upper 80's/90's and very humid the entire time. I have no A/C here and only ONE window opens in my studio. It was a very real sweat shop in here as it was even hotter inside than out. I didn't have the time to work only during the cooler hours of the day, so I worked until I literally got so sick from the heat I had to take a break then got up and worked more.  

Yesterday I had to get the whole kit and caboodle to Fed Ex in the afternoon, so I woke up at 4:30am to get as much done as I could.  That confused Bettie to no end as I never wake up that early and she was in no hurry to get out of bed that early.   I hit the workbench with a supply of coffee and donuts to fuel me on and went to work.  I had hoped to finish by Noon so I could send it off , hit the thrift store and take a nap. But since I can spent an hour just trying to figure out the right bead colors for a piece I didn't finish until nearly 3:45. I quickly photographed everything for reference, wrapped them up and took a LONG overdue shower.  Now, my studio looks like a tornado. an earthquake and Godzilla went through it, had a massive party and snuck out without helping clean up. This pic of my work table looks pristine compared to the rest of the room-paper scraps EVERYWHERE, spilled resin, mod podge and weldbond glue, enamel powder all over the floor, things strewn on the floor in a hurried mess to find just the RIGHT element, etc..... It will take me a full day to clean it all up, but that can wait until next week-I'm taking the weekend off!  While I wished I could have made more pieces, I am amazed at what I was able to do in the time allotted, my lack of the right "stuff" and my usually slow working process.  As a perfectionist I want to nitpick everything and pull 1/2 of it out as rejects. But I only pulled out 3 pieces that truly where rejects (like my stamped metal piece where I had the T upside down OOPS!) and let the rest go on.  I learned a lot about myself during this process and once I can share the full details I will!

In other good news, I recently got an email from WIKIO that my blog ranked in the top 20 this month in the Jewelry section WOO HOO!!!!!  I am number 15 in Jewelry and my blog also ranked in the top 40 for Crafts as well.  Here's a list of the top 20, I'm so proud to be in such an impressive group of jewelry blogs. 

1	Art Bead Scene Blog
2	Andrew Thornton
3	Pretty Things
4	Earthenwood Studio Bead Blog
5	Lorelei's Blog
6	Beading Arts
7	About.com Jewelry Making
8	Carmi's Art/Life World
9	Humblebeads Blog
10	A Bead A Day
11	Beads And Books
12	Lampwork Diva aka Cindy Gimbrone
13	Gaea's Ceramic and Art Studio Blog
14	Jennifer Jangles Blog
15	Barbe Saint John - New Treasures from Forgotten Artifacts
16	Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
17	Erin Siegel Jewelry
18	Denise Yezbak Moore
19	Blog for Beaders
20	Rings & Things
21	Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Studios
22	Copper Diem
23	Beading Daily
24	Melissa J. Lee
25	LLYYNN
26	Beads of Clay Blog
27	The Rabbit Muse
28	Kelley's Bead Studio
29	What's New at Chinook Jewelry
30	hint

Ranking made by Wikio
Today is all about doing NOTHING!!!!!! Well not exactly true, I need to ship out a few Etsy sales, hit the thrift store and make a big spaghetti and meatball dinner then I can veg out this evening. Hope you all have a wonderful Friday as well!

Cleaning, Letting Go and Reminiscing

It's been a beautiful and COOL couple of days, and the perfect time to tackle some chores I've put off because of the heat.  Yes, I lead an exciting life can't you tell?  My first task was cleaning the bedroom carpet.  I borrowed my Mother's Bissell ProHeat 2x and it works better than any steamer I've ever rented. If the next place I live has carpet, I definately have to buy one of these for myself.  You can do upholstery with it too, so I'll be cleaning the love seat and chair tonight.  

 My second task was updating my website a bit. I'm putting some fresh jewelry stock into REDUX, and got back my older stock like Royal Blue, a pretty Marie Antoinette themed necklace.

I've also been feeling the need for a clean slate...or a cleaner slate at least.  I don't have much in the way of storage in my studio and don't want to buy any until I move.  Things are piled in boxes and plastic drawers all around me and its a bit chaotic.  I also want to get rid of stuff I'm not using and know I won't be using anymore. I also have a lot of jewelry I made for shows, book & class samples and magazine projects. Last year I made a lot but didn't take photos or update my website as I should have...Now my procrastination is haunting me with all these boxes of items sitting here.  So I've also been photoing stuff to put on eBay and my Etsy shops. 

While going thru things, I come across this necklace I made for a class proposal that wasn't accepted.3 or so years ago.   I have a stack of class samples that weren't accepted, but this is one of my favorites. 

I called the class "Channeling Calder" and it was making jewelry in the style of Alexander Calder with wire and found objects. I think I also had a pin, a ring and another necklace samples for the class. 

I  have always wondered why this proposal was turned down every time I submitted it.  Maybe it was just to "primitive" for the event organizers to think anyone would want to learn it at the time, or maybe its just ugly?  I don't know, but I think it could have been a really fun class. 

Anyway, I've taken a ton of photos that I now need to edit then list.  I'll do that task later tonight and thru the week. My task at hand this afternoon is sewing related. All my clothing is for temperate weather- short sleeves, medium weight fabric, etc..... I have nothing for the heat/humidity of the Midwest. Out of all my vintage dresses I only have four sundresses. FOUR!!!  Since I've gained weight this winter munching on carbs, three of them don't fit (great!)  and the fourth had dead elastic shirring that needed replaced. Desperate times call for desperate actions so I tackled my fear of shirring last weekend and fixed that dress. I also had so much fun, I made a new sundress too (I'll do a seperate blogpost on that).  I want to make some others but need the next hurdle is to master the Full Bust Adjustment  so that they actually fit without the back being huge and arm hole gaping.  I've put off learning it for too long because its time consuming to copy then cut bodice pieces. The reason for doing it in the first place you ask? All patterns are a B cup (regardless if they are a size 2 or 22) and I'm DDD. Anyway, that's a story for another blog post.  Now onto some great jewelry blog reading with this weeks Bead Bloggers!

About.com Jewelry Making 
Tammy has a new Twitter account and an updated Facebook page for her site. Please like & follow her! 

Art Bead Scene 
Come see what ABS has in store for this month's challenge! 

Beading Arts 
Copper tubing makes wonderful copper beads! 

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts 

Barbe shows off The Queen and her Industrial Chic Crown

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi has featured her "Waiting for the bus" ring.

Cindy Gimbrone Beads 
Cindy's put together a few of her favorites and come up with a sweet ring. 

Resin Crafts! 

Resin Crafts blog has a post introducing shrinky dink to resin. 

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio 
Lorelei put together a nice collection of items that would be great for your Art Bead Scene challenge entry this month. 

Beads & Books 
Michelle shares two different summertime necklaces she made using components from Earthenwood Studio. 

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! 
Jean "reviews" a few items from the fabulously lush and unique online bead store, ARTBEADS! See what she does with some of the materials which she purchased there! 

Interweave's Hurt Book Sale

It's Hurt Book Sale Time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Save up to 80% on Hundreds of Hurt Books and Overstock Products from Interweave. 

Give a hurt book a good home. Each summer Interweave has a special sale on slightly bent or bruised books or those products that are taking up a little too much room in their warehouse. Now is a good chance to get all those books you've been wanting and maybe get some holiday shopping out of the way too! 

 Hurry! Stock is extremely limited and sale ends Friday, June 24, 2011, so start shopping for your favorite titles now!

How not to be a Copy Cat

http://www.motifake.com/copycat-imitation-conformity-psychology-safety-demotivational-posters-78189.html

Copy Cat -  I've seen it happen way too often, and even been the victim of it myself. I would like to think that most people do not WANT to be a copy cat, but I've seen some who think its just fine to do.   Sadly, it seems to becoming a larger problem in the mixed media arts and crafts world.  Recently a good friend taught a class at a major art retreat and was surprised to see one of her students teaching her EXACT class less then a couple months later. The class had the same wording, the same skills offered and nearly the same name.  Not cool. It's OK to take a class, then go home and use those skills you've learned along with your own voice to create something new. Its not OK to take it and think "oh I can teach this JUST like this to others now".  


Also I know not every copy cat situation is intentional. Sometimes you take a class and are SO enamored with it you go home and keep making stuff just as you learned in class. Sadly we forget we can look at those skills learned in the class with our own eyes, add our own touches and make something uniquely us.    We all have unique skill sets, experiences and artistic vision, there's no NEED to be a copycat. I think people do it because of fear-fear that their own work isn't good or strong enough. It's insecurity trying to hide behind someone else's hard work. There's only one YOU on this planet, make your own mark on the world. 


Today, Rice has an eloquent and informative post about this on the Create Mixed Media Blog.  I encourage you all to read and share. Rice sums it up beautifully in the last paragraph with the statement "we’re all part of a wonderful community, built on sharing ideas and inspiration, and that community depends on everyone, from instructors to students, editors to authors, artists to organizers, doing what they already know is the right thing to do."

ArtBead Giveaway and Do Over Winner

Penn Tunnel photo by Barbe Saint John

oh my stars................where has the week flown too! I see the light at the end of the tunnel but will I ever make it there - ACK! I swear left to my own devices, I'd never know what day or time it was. The heat and humidity made me completely and utterly useless... The last couple of days have been cooler so I'm more productive. I made a sun dress for the next time its over 90 in here, and cleaning up the hard drive on my computer. 

I came across this photo of one of my rosary locket necklaces today. It's so serene and peaceful looking, I feel calmer just looking at it.  It sold soon after I made it, but I feel. I need to make a similar one for myself. 

Hail Mary Rosary Necklace ©Barbe Saint John

But in my non productive state, I neglected to pick a winner from the Do Over Challenge. ACK! So without further ado, will Ms. LORI ANDERSON please email me your mailing address so that I can send you this Rock Star Bracelet!

Also, the wonderfully generous people at Artbeads.com is having a giveaway and pick your favorite Stoneware Pendant! Their high quality Stoneware Pendants are handmade in Bulgaria by skilled artisans. Artbeads.com will be giving away one Stoneware Pendant each to 4 lucky winners!  To win: check out the Stoneware Pendant page and pick your favorite here: http://bit.ly/stonewarependant Once you have picked your favorite pendant, email the product code to Duchess at duchess@artbeads.com by Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 11:59pm PT. This fun giveaway is open to their fans worldwide. They will pick 4 winners randomly and announce them on Artbeads Facebook fan page on Monday, June 6, 2011.