Spring color!

I've been working on lots of new stuff lately! Here's a few them, all available at my Etsy shop.

Interview and giveaway at Etsy Stalker!

I did an interview and am giving away a tiny owl necklace over on the Etsy Stalker blog, you can read it and enter here: http://etsystalker.com/?p=8199

Blue whale necklace, sketch to finished piece

Never throw old sketch books and drawings away! I came across a treasure trove of 8 year old sketches the other day, including the little whale on the left. I've been thinking about doing a whale so the timing was perfect! I don't have a scanner so I took a photo of the drawing and then opened it up in Adobe Illustrator. I traced it and worked out the shape so it would work as a pendant. Since precious metal clay shrinks 12%-15%, I use Illustrator to figure out what the size should be to start with to get the finished size I want. All I do is get the drawing the size I want my piece to be, and then scale it up 113%. I then use that as my template. It's a very accurate way to work with the shrinkage inherent to all metal clays.

David Worcester Jewelry Designs

Through the magic of Facebook, I've recently reconnected with my old friends and employers David and Helen Worcester. I worked for David and Helen for 6 years when they were located in Guerneville, California. David is an amazing designer and a master at producing absolutely flawless fine gold and gemstone jewelry. I assisted him in all stages of production, except for stone setting. The skills I acquired while working there have been a huge asset in my new venture, both the metalsmithing skills and the in's and out's of running a small company. I even worked the big JCK jewelry show in Las Vegas a number of times, which was quite a change of pace for me, putting on fancy clothes and writing orders for thousands of dollars!

David and Helen have just launched their new web site, and they have added Argentium silver their line. You should check it out: www.davidworcester.com/

Changes in the studio

There's been some big changes around my house lately - my boyfriend Kelly is now fully self-employed too! He's a transmission builder and mechanic, and while he does have shop space, he does his transmission building in the garage (along with his sister Laura - they both clearly have some sort of mechanical aptitude gene!) This means that he needs more space in the garage, and since neither of us will be doing any motorcycle racing this year, the race bikes are now in the living room, aka the Lulu Bug Jewelry studio. He built the rack, and since the bikes only weigh 220 pounds it was surprisingly quick and easy to get my bike on the second level. I took advantage of the space that was previously occupied by an end table to create a second work station, so I now have more work space in our crowded little living room despite the presence of two Yamaha TZ 250's. The two dirt bikes are next to the house under a tarp, my poor Ducati 996 is in a shed in the back yard, and a friend has our one remaining Ninja 250, so for the first time ever there are no motorcycles in the garage. It makes me a little sad, but we're both really focused on our businesses right now, which is a good thing.