Handmade Wednesday 9/19/12

Handmade Wednesday

by Melissa Creamer, Crafter of Chrysalis Jewelry

Welcome to the first ever Handmade Wednesday. Each Wednesday, I will feature five crafters you should know about! I will pick an item I think is interesting and feature it along with the artist/ crafter. Are you ready to see what I have picked for this week? Let's get started.

First up is an awesome shop called Forgotten Cotton. They feature handmade infinity scarfs, headbands, arm warmers, and vintage jewelry.  The husband and wife team at Forgotten Cotton come up with the most exciting colors of jersey for their scarves.  The selection makes it hard to pick just one! They have recently started to feature "The Basics", a set of three scarves pre-selected and combined for one low price (you save $10 versus buying them separately). 

Scarfs, $50.00

Next we have Miss Ivy Originals. She has a wide assortment of handmade items, like the beautiful crocheted shawl below, craft supplies (ribbon, beads), and handmade cards.  Miss Ivy has a little bit of everything and is definitely worth a visit!  I own the wrap below in a rose color and I can vouch for how comfy it is to wear on a cool evening. Miss Ivy always welcomes custom orders and even has created a coupon code for my readers. Just use coupon code MIO62012 to get 20% off when you check out. This code will expire on 9/30, so hurry over!

Wrap, $45.00

Who doesn't love jewelry? I know I am personally addicted (which is why I started making jewelry in the first place). The best thing about handmade jewelry is it can be personalized and Beadsoul does that in spades!  You have to check out Beadsoul for the variety of items that can be personalized.  You can even order customized guitar picks! How cool is that?

Hand Stamped Rings, $20.00/ea

I have been blown away by the creations of Emergent Glass Works. The detail in the octopi they are known for is amazing. I have even seen glow-in-the-dark octopi Emergent Glass.  Never fear, they also have beautiful glass flowers, bugs, and jars if cephalopods aren't your thing.  I personally wish I had an extra $250.00 laying around so I could get my tenticles on the beauty below.

Octopus, $250.00

My last pick for the week is a shop called Rainy Roots Studio. This talented lady makes art out of soda cans. Talk about upcycling! You have to visit her shop to believe it! Who would have thought the beautiful "L" below started life as a can?

Upcycled Letter, $18.50

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, so this concludes this week's Handmade Wednesday. Never fear, I will be back next week with five more handmade picks.  Would you like to be featured in Handmade Wednesday?  Just leave me a comment on this blog or give me a tweet. I always love to meet new tweeps!

Until tomorrow - Melissa

Dreams

Last December, a friend approached me about opening a store in a downtown area. She would need me to help run it. In exchange, I would be given an area where I could display my jewelry.  I was really excited about the opportunity.  I knew it would be hard work and at time things would be lean, but I was excited to start on a new adventure.

Unfortunately my friend could never come to an agreement with the building owner on lease terms.  While this was disappointing, I felt that another opportunity would come down the road.  So far, another opportunity to open a store has not presented itself.  This lack of opportunity does not preclude me from dreaming about it.

Lately I have been thinking about how exciting it would be to open a store to feature local crafters. There is such a store in a small town from not far from here. I have put myself on the waiting list to get in. That was a couple of months ago.  There are so many small business crafters and artisans that need a place to display their items.  Websites like Etsy and Ebay are great, but not everyone is willing to take the on-line leap. Sometimes people want to be able to touch the item, examine it before buying.

The other issue crafters have is getting the word out about their items. Sure, there is a lot of social media out there, but how does one cut above the noise? I know I face this issue myself.  Well, I may not currently be able to open a brick and morter store, but I do have this blog.

I wonder what would happen if I would feature a few artisan/crafters each week.  Would my blog help them get some exposure?  I'm willing to give it a try.

So, I would like to start a series called Handmade Wednesdays. I know it's not terribly catchy, but it gets the point across.  Every Wednesday I will feature 5 people who make items by hand,  I would love not to have to go looking for each one every week.  Therefore, if you are a crafter and would love to be featured, just leave a comment to this blog and where I can find your items.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the first Handmade Wednesday!
Until Tomorrow - Melissa

In case you're feeling crafty...

I don't know about you, but I love to keep a running list of projects I would like to do.  Today I'd like to share with you a few projects that are on my list.  These are projects that look fun and sometimes upcycle/ recycle old items.

The first project idea comes from Country Home. I have so many crafting projects around the house I am always looking for cute ways to organize.  Country Home suggests printing vintage can labels from online, glue onto "modern" cans, fill with craft supplies, hang like this! Too sweet!

The next idea comes from Craftster.Org.  Don't throw those old worn jeans away!  I use the better pieces for craft projects but I never know what to do with the hems.  Here is a great idea, make coasters out of them.  I love that I can now recycle all the useable parts of old jeans!

This next idea recycles old chair backs.  Thanks to Something Salvaged for great ideas! Sometime my antique dealer runs across furniture that is broken. This is a great way to repurpose furniture that is beyond repair! I love the idea of turning old broken chairs into cork boards or magnetic boards.

Here is a great way to reuse old bottles and spice up your homes decor! This idea comes from Shanty 2 Chic.  It is such a simple yet elegant way to repurpose old bottles.  I would love to try this in my home, but I'm afraid I have run out of wall space!

I hope these ideas help get your creative crafty juices flowing! As always, if you have a great craft/repurpose/upcycle idea, I would LOVE to hear about it! I love to see what my readers are doing.

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Another Life Lesson

Do you ever have one of those days where you learn something about yourself?  Where something happens and you have an epiphany?  I had one of those days today.  You would think by now I would know myself pretty well.  It is said you learn something new every day.  Today the light bulb came on about me.

I am FANTASTIC at starting projects.  I see something, think it's a great idea and start on it.  What I learned today is I might not be the best at finishing projects.  The following is a tale of how I learned this fact...

My day started innocently enough.  I had plans to meet a local Twitter pal (who is a friend of a friend) and go to a specialty yarn store.  I held myself in check and only bought a few skeins of yarn (I was actually proud of myself).  When I got home, I was so excited to try out my new yarn.  It had been a few months since I had knitted (I also crochet, which is what I have been doing as of late), so I first had to locate the appropriate sized needles.  That should be easy, RIGHT?

Hardy har har.  First of all, I am the poster child for disorganization.  I had knitting needles stored in four different areas of the house.  Secondly, I do not lack knitting needles (or crochet hooks); I have every size known to man and I typically have between two and four in each size.  I was looking for either size 11 or 13.  It turns out I have six sets of needles in those sizes (that I found).  It also turns out there was a partially done project on each one.  When you are knitting, you leave the needle in the project until you finish it, otherwise all of the stitches will collapse and all of your hard work will disappear as the project unravels.

At this discovery, I had two choices. I could either go to Hobby Lobby and purchase more needles (which actually crossed my mind) or finish the projects I had started.  I would like to say I chose the finish projects option because that is the logical thing to do.  The real reason I went with option two is because it was 106 degrees in Dallas today and I could not bear the thought of going back outside.

As a gazed at six partially done knitting projects, I realized I have a problem. One of the projects is at LEAST six years old.  Who leaves a project laying around for six years partially done?  I resolved to do two things this afternoon:  One - make a single place to put all of my crochet hooks and knitting needles when not in use (an antique sewing cabinet would be nice) and two - to work at being better about finishing projects that I start.

Hopefully with my second resolution in place, I won't have any more projects sitting around for six years...

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

The Mother of Invention

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. To put it another way, difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.  I have found this to be true in my own life.  When I first lost my job (catch up here), I didn't know what I was going to do.  My first thought was to try to get a new one as soon as possible.  Then I had a couple of people say "This might be an opportunity to work on your jewelry full time."  When one person says it, okay, it's an idea.  When more than one person says it, I find this is Someone's way of telling you what to do.

So I made up some jewelry and I started an Etsy shop.  I then had to find ways to market my shop and in marketing my shop I began to build a network of other Etsy shop owners.  These women (it's mostly women I have found in the jewelry and accessory realm) are super supportive and are willing to lend a hand to newbies.

As you interact with the new "associates", you start to find out about their lives and you become friends.  I found it very interesting that a lot of these women were much like me. They are creative women who have some type of health issue (autoimmune disorders and fibromyalgia, for example) that makes working a normal schedule or outside the house very difficult.

It makes me wonder how many Etsy store owners are in the same position as I?  I started to do my jewelry as a hobby, then it morphed into a side business.  Now I rely on it as a source of income.  Before I got sick, it was nice when someone (typically a friend) would commission a piece of jewelry.  I would turn around and reinvest the profit into my business by typically buying a new tool.   Now the profits help me pay day-to-day expenses.

Sometimes I can get a little frustrated when my sales are slow.  I have friends tell me that it's the economy.  I'm sure this is partially true.  However, I still see women buying jewelry and accessories at Charming Charlie's, Target, Walmart, etc.   I think a lot of women don't think about buying something from a crafter/artisan or they think it might be too expensive.  While I do have some more expensive items in my store, most are very wallet friendly.

If you had the option to buy a pair of earrings that were made by hand by a small business owner for $16, or a similar pair at Wal-Mart for $14.99, which would you rather buy?  I know what I would like to do.

Dear Reader, you may be asking yourself, where do I find these handmade goodies which you speak of?  Well, I will tell you! Just follow the links below.

Handmade Lampwork Beads by Bastille Blue - Etsy  Facebook  Website

Handmade Children's and Pet Accessories by The Joyful Princess Boutique - Etsy Facebook

Handmade Jewelry by Beadsoul- Etsy Facebook

Sequintatic Bead and Sequin Jewelry by Saturday Sequins - Etsy Facebook Blog

And now for the shameless plug for me:

Handmade Jewelry by Chrysalis Jewelry - Etsy Facebook Website

These women make really great products and I know they would be honored to have your business.  Please consider giving them a try!

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

How to Fix Rust on Antique Metal

Dear Reader, I typically like to have a cute and catchy title to my blogs. I just can't figure out a cute way to say "How to Fix Rusty Metal".  Maybe I should have called up Mater (from Pixar "Cars" fame).  He might have come up with something cute. He may have just told me to Git R Done.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I picked up an antique item that had some rust on it.  Figuring it could be fixed, I asked the human encyclopedia of antiques, my friend Karen, what to do.  She told me I needed some Naval Jelly.  I asked where I could find Naval Jelly and she told me any hardware store should have it.  I stopped in to my closest Lowes and found some.  In today's blog, I am going to share with you how to use Naval Jelly

Here we have a miniature pot belly stove with a little rust on it.  If possible, I like to use  or in this case reuse) Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers bowls for crafting. It's a great way to protect my counters and a great way to reuse this disposable item (tip of the hat to my college brother Chris who lives on Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers and saves the bowls for me).

Apply the Naval Jelly to rusted areas.  In the case of this piece, it had light rust all over.  I like to apply the Naval Jelly with an old toothbrush that has been demoted from teeth cleaning to general use cleaning (after sanitation in the dishwasher of course).

Get a nice coat of the Navel Jelly all over the piece.  Depending on the rust you may need to let it set for 10-20 minutes.

When the time is up, rinse off and allow you piece to air dry.  Depending on the amount of rust on your piece, you may need to repeat treatments until all the rust is gone.

Dear Reader, you may be saying "That's great Melissa, but what do I do to protect my piece once I get all the rust off?"  That is a fantastic question, which I will cover tomorrow (I can't give all my good tips away in one day, sheesh).

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Friday Craft Update

Happy Friday dear reader!  This has been an exciting week.  In the middle of this week I survived another revolution around the sun (I had a birthday).  I also took some time to work on some projects for me, which I will share with you today.  If you recall, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (Catch up here) the need for me to get back to being creative.

I really haven't worked on any jewelry this week (which I hope to be back out in the studio this weekend). Instead I worked on doing creative projects for myself.  The three projects I worked on this week had an antique/Victorian feel to them (since that is how my house is decorated).  The first thing I worked on was a little jar.  I had some older bottles on display, but I needed a "centerpiece" or focal point.

I wanted this jar to have a macabre feel to it, as the Victorians could be a little strange.  This jar has various pieces of moss in it with a rose and a coyote tooth.  I thought the rose and the tooth added a touch of the weird opposite each other.  My next challenge was finding a couple of finishing pieces for a space in my bathroom where an ugly yellow plastic medicine cabinet use to reside.  A few weeks ago the space had been upgraded with pretty tile and trim.  It just needed something to finish it off with a pop of color.

Enter some orchids from Hobby Lobby!  Exactly what the space needed, but exotic enough a Victorian would be pleased (notice my macabre jar in the center).  My bathroom is not quite done yet, as I have not figured out what I want for the counter top.  I've been on the hunt for a period looking tile, but I had a suggestion to use copper or stainless for the counter.  I am considering this suggestion.

Lastly, I had purchased some butterflies about 7 months ago.  Victorians were very much about surrounding themselves with nature.  I knew I wanted to do a shadow box with them, I just needed to find the right elements to display with the butterflies (as you can tell, a lot of my projects require hunting for items).  I also found these elements at Hobby Lobby this week and I put this together in the wee hours this morning.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks projects.  If you are inspired by these with your own project, as always, I'd love to see pictures of the finished project!

Until tomorrow - Melissa

I’m A Squirrel

Today I came to the realization that I’m a squirrel.  Not in the literal sense, I don’t have a tail and it’s been years since I climbed trees (back in my tomboy days).  I’m a squirrel in the sense that I stash items here and there.  Dear Reader, do you recall the Post-It Note commercial a few years ago where a squirrel makes notes of where all of his nuts are hidden?  I’m kind of like that, but I’m not smart enough to make myself notes.

I like to make things, to craft (which is why Hobby Lobby is one of the BEST stores on the planet).  Over the years I’ve done floral arranging, candle making, stenciling, knitting, crocheting, and most recently, jewelry making.  I have items for these crafts squirreled away, stashed all over my house.  Which is great, except when I actually want to make something and then can’t find what I need.

Believe it or not, organization is not my thing.  It never has been, and at this point, I don’t see that changing.  Projects, when set down, typically stay right where I set them.  Which is all well and good, until I get fed up and put things away.  Unfortunately, “away” is a general term.  “Stashed” would be more descriptive and true.

Case in point:  I wanted to crochet some dishcloths.  For this, I will need my cotton yarn.  The finding of this yarn should be straight forward.  I have four LARGE totes of yarn in my jewelry studio (the totes fit under my bench…don’t ask…it makes sense to me).  That would be the logical place for it.  My cotton yarn wasn’t there.  Mhhh, well, I have a DSW bag in my room with partially done projects in it, surely it’s there.  Nope.  Where else in my house do I have yarn squirreled?  Oh yeah!  My yarn basket (duh) in the living room.  Bingo, that’s where it was.

I keep telling myself I’m going to get better organized and stop stashing items.  It’s nice that I can so convincingly lie to myself.  At this point, I should know better.

Until tomorrow - Melissa

More Crafty Ideas For The Home

I'm in love with Pinterest!  There are so many cute and clever ideas on there.  A lot of the ideas also recycle/upcycle objects which I think is great!  I love repurposing objects to give them new life.  So without further adieu, I give you a few of my favorite pins!

 I love the idea of creating a chalk board inside one of your cabinets!  While a meal planning board is a great idea, why not a grocery list?  As members of the family use the last of an item, write it down.  The you can just snap a pic of it on your smart phone and voila!  Grocery list to shop with!  Of course this idea will only work with proper training of said family members.

Another cute idea using chalk board paint!  Take an old platter and give it new life by turning it into a chalk board!  I'm going to have to my eyes peeled for an old platter now!

What a great way to recycle some old mismatched buttons and make a piece of art with it!  This might make a great wedding present, taking the last initial of the newlywed couple and adding their wedding date at the bottom.  This would also make a great baby shower gift with the baby's initial.

This is such a cute idea for recycling an old barrel!  It makes for a unique conversation piece and is gorgeous to boot! I'd love to find a barrel and try this out myself!

What a great way to use antique ice tongues! Turn them into a cute paper towel holder!  I love this idea!  My readers up north may have an easier time getting their hands on antique ice tongues than I will here in Texas.  You never know, Karen (my antiques dealer) comes up with great finds!

There you have it dear reader, a few more upcycle ideas to get you going!  If you have an upcycle project you'd like to share with the class, please let me know! 

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Just Keep...Learning

We all go to school from kindergarten to high school. Some of us go on to college.  I went to the University of Nebraska at Kearney.  I loved school and I loved college.  I loved to learn about new and interesting things.  My interests are wide.  I love history, science, reading.  I love to learn about bizarre things and trivial things.

I graduated in 2000 and entered the workforce.  I felt a hole in my life and soon I figured out what it was.  I was no longer learning.  I thought about this and figured out that I did not need to go to school formally to continue my education.  I've always been a "crafty" person.  I think this is due in part to spending a lot of time with Grandma Mizell when I was young.  She was always doing some type of craft; most of the time it involved sparkles.

I first set out to learn crochet from Grandma Creamer.  She was a very skilled crocheter.  I was so glad I learned from Granny C (as she calls herself).  Not only was it a great bonding experience, but I discovered Granny C had learned from Great Grandma Creamer.  Now when I crochet I feel like Great Grandma is looking down on me, very pleased to be carrying on an old craft.

Next I learned knitting from my mother.  Then Grandma Mizell passed away.  In my mourning of her, I found I wanted to wear big bold sparkly jewelry like she had.  However, I couldn't find jewelry at retail that fit the ticket.  How do I obtain the jewelry I desire?  Well, I'd just have to learn!  So began my journey into learning how to make silver jewelry.

I loved it so much and enjoyed it so much my husband built me a studio.  That is how my small business of Chrysalis Jewelry began (http://www.chrysalisjewelry.com).  I knew I must continue to learn jewelry techniques to keep Chrysalis Jewelry new and fresh.  I took a lost wax casting class, which I enjoyed very much.  I would love to add it to Chrysalis, but the start up costs for lost wax are quite great.

I have now begun to learn a technique called chain maille.  All it takes is some jump rings, a couple pair of pliers, and a pattern.  Much like crochet or knitting, chain maille has many exciting patterns.  You must start out easy and work your way up to more complex patterns.  I cannot wait to extend my skills.  I get all of my jump rings at www.bluebuddhaboutique.com.

I hope I have inspired you, my reader, to just keep learning!  Pick up a book on a subject you are interested in, watch a documentary, talk to an expert.  What ever you do....Just Keep Learning!