Caught a Fever

I am doing a "Five Minute Friday" post inspired by TheGypsyMama.com.  Her word for today is "Catch."

I've definitely caught a fever - a fever for jewelry and creativity!  I am excited about my "job" that I have created for myself with this little hobby turned home business.  It began trying to find pretty jewelry for my sensitive ears and turned into the thought that maybe I could try making my own.  From there it spawned and spawned...  The more I learn, the more I want to learn and discover and explore the materials and processes.  I've got more ideas than I have time for!  And it's a marvelous feeling!  Some things I'm meaning to get to include: resin bead / cabachon making using silicon molds and dyes (for my hypoallergenic niobium post earrings and surgical steel post earrings), wire wrapping of gemstones I've put through my rock tumbler, experimenting with my dremel tool so I can get comfortable with using it, and working with the titanium wire I ordered in order to also offer it as another hypoallergenic option.  And there's more buzzing around in my head!  I try to write it down and pin it up on my inspiration board.  So, I've definitely caught a fever - and I think the only cure is to feed it!  ;)

Thank you for visiting!

Amanda J ~ Pretty Sensitive Ears

If interested in checking out my latest styles in my etsy shop, including the crystal faced niobium post earrings that I'm so excited about, please visit:  http://www.prettysensitive.etsy.com

Also, you can visit my facebook page to find a special discount offer valid for the remainder of October for fans of my page:  http://www.facebook.com/PrettySensitiveEars

Moved & Setting up

Well, we are moved and settling in box by box.  Our office is our dedicated arts & crafts space in the house.  It was a bedroom for the previous owners' daughter so one wall is bubblegum pink.  After painting our daughters' bedrooms I didn't have any more "oomph" in me to paint over the pink wall in the office.  So for now, it will remain until a later point in time.  It's nice and peppy though!

My husband made it down to Seattle to the University of Washington's Surplus Store and snagged a great deal on a 6 ft work table and a ginormous bulletin board for the wall.  Those pieces in there are so awesome!  (You can find some incredible stuff there!  http://www.washington.edu/facilities/finadmin/movingandsurplus/inventory/)  I plan to use a portion of the cork board as an "Inspiration Board" and the rest for business needs and/or storing baggies of findings or beads even!  For the inspiration board I plan to pin up projected colors for the upcoming seasons along with clippings from magazines / catalogs and sketches of ideas.  I'm very excited about this. 

Shortly after we moved in I was sent a request for custom pearls and flowers on post earrings.  I had been overdue to order more pearls, so I finally got to that.  I received last week the whole order and they are darling.  White and purple 6mm button pearls.  Perfect for a post earring.  They are so versatile...dress up or down.  The white ones have been posted for sale on my etsy shop (http://www.prettysensitive.etsy.com) and the purple ones will be up soon - once I am able to get a good photo showing their color.  (We haven't found our point & click camera yet in all the "stuff" and so I will have to use my digital video camera to get a picture, which is a bit more challenging.)

I also ordered resin dye - in white, transparent red, and transparent amber - and a silicone flower mold to try out making my own resin flower cabachons for post earrings.  I had bought a set of small enameled metal flower beads awhile back on a clearance rack and sadly, cannot find these again ANYwhere.  I have scoured and scoured the internet.  So, I'm going to try this resin route and see how it turns out.  I am actually quite excited!

So, the focus for now in "Pretty Sensitive Ears" land is setting up the workspace, putting together and listing the new pearl post earrings, and trying out the resin cabachon making!  Fun fun fun!

Experimentation

One of the fantastic things about jewelry making is the endless possibilities! I've been reading oodles of blogs and online tutorials lately and as a result have learned and seen lots of inspiring techniques and ideas.

I have been a bit under the weather the last few days, but sitting in bed with all my gear spread around me has been a great distraction. A few new things I've tried include punching out of sheet metal, stamping sheet metal, and creating coiled shapes and filling in the centers with wrapped embroidery floss. I received a resin kit I ordered from limabeads.com (after receiving a discount as a fun prize from their totally captivating digital Easter egg hunt throughout their website! it was such a fun idea and so well executed!). So I did some reading up on resin bead creation and am excited to give that a try!

Photos will follow soon! And meanwhile, there are several other new pairs of earrings newly listed on my etsy shop - with new photography taken in my homemade light box. http://www.prettysensitive.etsy.com