Art on the Green

This last weekend I was down in French Lick, Indiana for the Art on the Green show.  I have been working on my display.  Here are a couple photos of how it looked on Saturday, although it was very windy, so there were certain display pieces that I did not put out.

The highlight of the weekend was that I won 3rd Place in the show:

The part of the weekend I would like to forget was that incident involving my husband and the clown.....

Just kidding!

Rest, Relaxation and Strategic Planning #1

I am hanging out in French Lick Indiana this week, communing with nature.  We had a timeshare week expiring, and my husband didn't want to use any vacation.  So he said, why don't you just go down to French Lick?  Some of you may know, I am a tax CPA.  I recently saw my doctor, and he made a comment, something to the effect of, "wow, you really let yourself go during tax season!"  It's true.  So I thought, why not spend a week just relaxing and trying to get back in touch with my creative mojo.  I also need to do some serious strategic planning for my handmade jewelry business.

So here is my creative home base for the week:

 

Friday night, when I arrived, a couple of ladies arrived next door and were having a little trouble getting their friends to hear them knocking on the door.  They all came from the Chicago area, and invited me over for drinks.  (Shout out to Betty, Linda, Marlene and the three Karens!)

I was starting to wonder if I would get anything done this week,  I didn't bring any jewelry to work on, because this week is about planning.  Some of the questions I have to answer are:

• Who is my target market for which type of jewelry?
• Which venue is appropriate for which type of jewelry?
• Who buys jewelry on which venue?  (Etsy, Artfire, Storenvy, Aftcra, etc.)
• How do I get in touch with my target market?
• What display to use in my art show booth in addition to the display cases?
• What possible themes could I use for next years jury photos?

Yesterday was day one, and I have made some progress.  (Also this morning I came up with a great idea for a video!)  After doing a little research online, I have learned this:

• People of ALL ages shop online
• Younger people spend more money online than older people
• Men spend more online than women
• Women tend to buy expensive jewelry as a gift, but not so much for themselves.

I will try to post updates of my progress using the painfully slow internet here.  But now it's time for my brain to change gears, so I will leave you with a video.  Not so much the video, but the audio is of all the birds singing outside my balcony even though I am right in town.  You may have noticed my ipod speaker in the picture above.  I turned it off just to enjoy all the racket the birds were making.  I hope you enjoy it too.

The Ubiquitous Agate

I recently spent the week in French Lick, Indiana.  There's not much to do there in the winter, but one of the highlights of my trip was visiting Hinshaw Rocks and Gems.  Apparently the Lapidary Journal named them "one of the top ten stone polishers in the nation."  I went looking for cabochons and I found plenty.  I ended up buying some irregular shaped machine polished cabs rather than the perfectly shaped, hand polished cabs.  

My stash includes picture jasper, beach jasper, petrified wood, Ohio flint, feldspar, moss opal, rhyolite, unakite, youngite, marl and tiger iron.  And that is only about half of them.  The other half are all agates.  There are so many kinds.  Some are named for where they come from: Mexican, Brazilian, Kentucky and a gorgeous Medicine Bow Plume agate.  Others are apparently named for their looks:  moss, red moss, holly blue, zebra and crazy lace.   Here is a picture of my crazy lace agate cabs.

There are so many different kinds of agates that I was inspired to do my monthly JCUIN (Jewelry Creators Unite In Numbers) collection of handmade jewelry on agates.  I named it The Ubiquitous Agate.  So here is a little eye candy from that collection.

Plume Agate Pendant, Boho Wire Wrapped

First up is our friend Margaret, from Boho Wire Wrapped.  Margaret lost her battle with cancer a couple weeks ago.  Her family has her shop open for now to sell her inventory.  At left is a stunning blue plume agate and sterling silver pendant.  Time is running out to own a piece by this talented artisan.  She will be greatly missed on Artfire.

Drusy Agate Necklace by Adora by Simona

This necklace, called "Selene", is made by Simona of Adora by Simona.  It features a pendant with a titanium coated drusy agate along with a smoky topaz, light peridot and golden citrine.  A druzy or druse (pronounced drew-zee) means that the stone has little crystals on it.  In this case the agate has a titanium coating that gives it a metallic look.  The metal is sterling silver.

Earth and Sky necklace by Shadow Dog Designs

This necklace features blue lace agate.  When you think of blue lace agate, you normally think of the blue portion of these stones with the lacy darker blue veining.  The brown in these definitely adds interest to the stones, and inspired the artist, Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs, to name it "Earth and Sky".  A very appropriate name in my opinion.

Blue & Black Druzy Pendant, Jewelry by BeaJae

I'm not sure what kind of agate this is, but it's also a druzy.  I find it interesting for a couple of reasons.  First is the different colors of banding that you can plainly see.  Less obvious is the vug, or little pit that you can see on on the right, slightly below the center of the picture.  There are several ways a cavity can form in a rock, and they often have little crystals in them.  You can see that this one has some crystals on the surface, and there may be some in the vug also.  (I just learned about vugs during my visit to Hinshaw Rock and Gems!)  This pendant is by Jewelry by BeaJae and is wire wrapped in copper.

Crazy Lace Agate Ring, Lunar Skies

I am a huge fan of Quentin of Lunar Skies.  This handmade, sterling silver ring features a crazy lace agate.  Just one more example of the variety of colors and patterns that you can find in agates.  The granulated silver balls on the side are a nice compliment to the circular patterns in the agate itself.  Quentin also cuts his own stones!

Brazilian Agate Pendant, Wagoner Wire Works

This sterling silver wire wrapped pendant is by Wagoner Wire Works.  The focal is a Brazilian agate.  This one happens to be blue, because they come in other colors also, and it looks similar to a blue lace agate.  It is accented with two little leaves made of silver wire and a little glass Swarovski pearl.

Black Agate Pagoda Earring, Shanghai Tai

Lastly, here is another color of agate, black agate.  These fine silver pagoda earrings with black agate beads are my own design.   They are made from silver metal clay.  They also have non-slip, Argentium sterling silver twist ear wires.  You can find them in my shop, Shanghai Tai.  

I hope you enjoyed this tiny sampling of the many faces of the ubiquitous agate!