I’m so thrilled! My partner Patty Miller from Knoxville, TN. She runs www.cabaribeads.com!! Check out her beautiful glass beads and awesome etched pieces.

I’m very excited about getting my box-she makes the most beautiful glass beads and etched copper pendants!  I’ve been playing with copper etching chemicals for about 6 months and it’s a very temperamental process! 

See Patti’s website at www.cabaribeads.com or shop her ETSY site at http://www.etsy.com/shop/fairiesdreams?ref=pr_shop_more

What a fun project! 

For more information about the Bead Soup Blog Party see Lori Anderson’s blog: http://www.prettythingsblog.com/

I kept the email in my in-box and fretted over it. I did not have time to enter anything-I had a full time job, full time business to run (S.K. Rhoades Design), two very demanding classes for my master’s degree that were in full swing, and a very demanding two year old that was not spending enough time with me. How could I do this and stay sane? One day it all clicked and I realized that I needed jewelry to sell; I might as well cater my line to the contest rules and enter the pieces that I created.

I entered three submissions and when the contest opened one of my pieces was a finalist and posted online. It was a real party that day in the office! I voted first thing, and then promoted my necklace submission on my Facebook page to let my friends and fans know that I needed their help. Not only did many of my fans rock the vote, but the lovely people of Beading Daily also voted for my piece. When the voting closed, I was pretty secure in my 1^st place win in the Stone Category. And I was super pumped!

How did I find out that I won the whole thing? While my toe nail polish was drying! A few months after the judging was over my friends Suzy and Kotah Moon (Kotah is a fantastic artist) met me for a pamper session spa afternoon. While my toes were drying I picked up my iPhone (I’m an addict-ask my husband) to check my email messages. Much to my excitement I had an email from Danielle Fox, Bead Star Editor for Interweave, saying “I wanted to let you know that your stones necklace was chosen as the GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the Bead Star competition. You win! Congratulations!”

I was the happiest girl in the world at that moment. I was all smiles, and was bouncing up and down-I almost ruined my polish! The unfortunate part? I couldn’t tell ANYONE!!! It all had to remain a secret until the issue came out on December, 27^th 2011. Do you know how hard that was? Wow.

And now it’s out! And I get to travel to Santa Fe in March to accept my award during Beadfest. One of the coolest parts of this whole thing is seeing my jewelry on the cover of Bead Star. Lyra and I have spotted it twice in my hometown of Evansville, IN-and I can’t believe it’s all over the country. Exciting!

Lyra with Bead Star at Barnes & NoblesLyra showing off beads and Bead Star at Joanne Fabrics in Evansville, INLyra showing off beads and Bead Star at Joanne Fabrics in Evansville, IN

I'm very excited about participating in the Bead Soup Blog Party! Jewelry bloggers from around the world will exchange beads, make fabulous jewelry, and share the results! It should be a lot of fun!

Check out the creator’s blog at: http://www.prettythingsblog.com/

I am honored to be the Bead Star 2011 Grand Prize Winner! The magazine is available at Barnes & Nobles and through the Beading Daily website. It has been a very fun ride so far and I can’t wait to recieve my award this March in Santa Fe!!

I cannot believe how much fun it has been to cook! And how creative cooking can be! And how much happiness comes from cooking for the ones you love! My daughter was especially thrilled with the cookies we made a week before Christmas to share with Santa….you know, the ones I had to hide in the car because my husband couldn’t stay out of them

Over the holidays I wanted something warm, soothing, and healthy for my family to enjoy. Holiday food is just SO bad for you! I initially tried to find a receipt similar to Biaggi’s Sherry Tomato Soup to ease my cravings-with no luck. But I think this version is even better!

I was asked for the receipt for this soup about 20 times from the 3 parties that I took it to so here it is for the world! To make it really sing-make sure to follow the notes at the end (and definitely add the cayanne-yum!). I modified the receipt to make it healthier and tangier! Enjoy!

Sara’s Amazing Sherry Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 medium onions, diced
• 1 (46 ounce) cans tomato juice
• 2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes (see notes)
• 1 tablespoon chicken base or 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon (beef is also good!)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup cooking sherry
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half or 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (see notes)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• pepper
• croutons (optional)
• parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. In a soup pot, sauté diced onion in butter until translucent.
2. Decide how chunky you like your tomato soup. I like to process one of the cans of tomatoes briefly in the food processor to chop up the tomatoes more finely. You can process one or both or neither.
3. To the pot, add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, sugar, chicken base or bouillon, and pepper and stir.
4. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat.
5. Add sherry and half-n-half or cream and stir.
6. Add basil. Add salt & pepper if needed to your taste.
7. Top with croutons or parmesan cheese if desired.

**NOTES** I substituted the 1 ½ cups of half-and-half with ½ cup half-and-half, 1 6oz cup of fat-free Greek yogurt, and 1 cup of ricotta cheese. This lowers the fat and gives it a thicker texture. I also add 2 tsps. of cayenne pepper for kick. I also used crushed tomatoes vs. diced for a smoother texture and beef bouillon vs. chicken.

Modified from Food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/pioneer-woman-tomato-soup-with-sherry-326015

She was insistent. I put her off. 

The whole project made me nervous-I had not soldered or fabricated a piece of jewelry from sheet metal since I worked on my undergrad degree several years before and definitely not in my home studio!  Did I have the right tools (yes, I really did)? Could I make it look artistic?  Would she even want to wear it? If she didn’t like what I made-what would I do???

So I made excuses as to why I didn’t have time or could not make it right away and assumed that she would forget.

She did not. 

I really have to thank Sarah McQuay for pushing me-I needed it!  Once I decided that I could not put her off any longer I started working on her tiny badge and my engineering side kicked in.  The process I was so terrified of began to flow so well-why on earth had I not been smithing during the last 3 years?  The tools were there-and the supplies, the skills were there, the studio was ready….but for some reason I needed a kick in the but to get started. I was terrified of failure.

This one small request led to badge requests from our local department, but also a number of requests from departments in Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky….and more-I’m sure I’m forgetting someone!  Every new pendant is a learning lesson-the design changes and in the end I almost always learn something new adding a new skill to my belt. 

It all starts with a badge.

The pendants are designed using a photo of the original departments badge.  I take about a week to complete a detailed drawing and have it approved by the client before I start my handywork. 

Scottsboro, AL PD Design Mock Up-Two layers of silver are cut from sheet metal and soldered to create a 3D effect

The badge is cut out of sheet metal then filed and textured.  Wire is added to achieve a 3D effect and the department and badge number are inscribed.  To complete the badge most designs receive a blue cabachon in the center that I fabricate from blue lacquer and resin.

I add a patina to the metal with liver of sulfur and polish it-add a chain and it’s ready to wear!

And the pendant that started it all…..

By taking commissions and working with clients artists have the opportunity to expand their skill set.  Challenges-even scary ones-can lead to great improvements.  Since 2009 I have not only created 20+ badge pendants, I have also stopped using prefabricated findings in my line of jewelry and consider myself a full fledged silversmith again.  I design the entire piece of jewelry, hand fabricate everything, and the sky is the limit! And every piece is unique!

It takes countless hours to design, fabricate, and to perfect a piece of jewelry.  Then it needs to be priced, tagged, and inventoried.  I spend a lot of time creating the ‘landscape’ that my jewelry is displayed on and I hand-fabricate many of my displays.  My outdoor display set-up with the tent and tables takes about 2 hrs to perfect and the indoor setup about 1 hr, but both require lots of heavy lifting, dragging, pulling, and sometimes long walks to the site.  The car has to be loaded, unloaded, loaded and unloaded…backs and feet tend to hurt early in the day.

I spend a lot of time designing promotional materials including my business cards, my website, and keeping my clients up to date on Facebook. As you can imagine, I also answer a lot of email.  I have to live in a house with a studio space and I have to drive a car appropriate for my family-but also for lugging my set-up to shows.

With all this work behind me there is much anticipation when the clock rings time to sell my work so when I sign up for an event where I have a less than successful outcome it leaves me a little numb.  Luckily, I’ve only experienced financial loss at 2 shows during my 6 year career.  The first was a rooky mistake within the first 6 months of starting my small business and the second just yesterday.  Both were completely my fault.  I was a bad picker. 

I’m telling you this so that you will learn from my mistake and choose the right venue for your work.  It requires you to be very aware of your audience and to do a lot of research into the areas that you are interested in showing.  My jewelry is an extension of who I am and I want it to have a good home.

I design art jewelry and from the start I have used all sterling silver and semi-precious gemstones, which are by design more expensive than costume jewelry.  Within the first 3-4 months of starting my business I signed up for a craft show at a local high school.  Not only did I end up in a hallway far from the traffic flow, but anyone that did stop would stress how beautiful my work was and the cost too high.  Craft shows (crafty craft shows) are meant for $5 trinkets, holiday knickknacks, and inexpensive jewelry and purses.  People are looking for something cute at a low price and they are often not juried-an important factor to the best events.   I spent $35 for a table; I made $18 that day.  I was devastated and convinced that I needed to quit and not spend another dime on this failed enterprise.  I cried like a baby all the way home.  My husband bought me ice cream. 

At this point in my career I am very aware of where I want my jewelry to be.  It is earthy, unrefined, and contemporary.  It sells well at well juried art festivals, museums, and galleries.  I also have a few small businesses that I wholesale to.  I research the locations and find out if they are a good fit for my work by finding out who their clientele is, what their average item costs to see if my prices are comparable, and I check out the esthetic they are looking for.  If it fits then I approach a business or art festival and I see what happens.  And I have had much success, especially in the last few months.

I was very excited when I was asked to display my work at a charity event at a country club not far from my home.  The event promised to feature a fantastic style show, great food, wine and TONS of buyers.  I sold one thing before the show even opened.  I was pumped.  I was going to rock this event.  Then I waited…..and talked to a few people that wandered near my table…..and waited.  The event ended and I didn’t even make back the cost of the event. 

Two tables down a small boutique that sold jewelry, hats, scarves, and purses stayed so busy that three employees were not enough to write the tickets. 

What was I doing wrong?  

Nothing.

Bad picker.

These women were not interested in the arts, or jewelry from someone that they didn’t know.  They wanted designer.  They wanted the label to read someone specials name, not mine (even though I think I’m pretty special).  Is that their fault?  No, just the reality. People that come to art festivals are specifically looking to buy handmade, but there is a large population of people out there that just doesn’t get it, and doesn’t want to.  Trying to sell to them is pointless unless you are Gucci. 

Lesson learned and my money went to a good cause. I got to eat fantastic food, spend time with a good friend stationed next to me (that had similar luck selling her artwork), and my buddy at the bar made me the best chocolate martini.  I spent a long time being grumpy last night, but what I’ve come to realize this morning is that I’m doing a lot of things right and that this is just a small (if not costly) mistake in that journey.

Points to think about:

Before approaching a gallery, store, or event-have you researched it?  Do they sell your type of work or similar work?  Similar price points?

Who is your audience?  Who has purchased your work in the past?  If you have been doing this for a while-where have you been successful?  There are plenty of people that have booths at local craft shows and make a ton of cash; I’m just not one of them. 

Where do you feel at home?  It’s likely that your work will be at home too.  I felt so out of place at the country club-of course my work didn’t sell-why didn’t I think about that before investing so much into it?

The links of the Abacus Collar (see pictures below) change size and as the links get smaller the number of links increase by one (1-5 in altering copper and silver).  The red beads are not stationary and can move on the silver bars working just as an ancient abacus would. 

Once the necklace was photographed and submitted to the fine craft exhibition that it was created for it started to nag at me.  While beautiful, the necklace is quite confining when worn, not exactly uncomfortable, but it needs to be adjusted and it’s heavy.  A lot like motherhood.  It’s also not shiny bright; but dark and structurally constricting.

I love being a mother, but I miss the selfish time that I spent in my studio working for hours without tiny hands compelling me away (or insisting that it’s her turn to hammer).  Life would not be happy without her, but it can sometimes be hard with her.

Art is a profound thing, in making it we explore the deeper emotions and desires that we do not easily reach through words.  I’ve been trying to express these feelings to my husband and the need to have time to work in my studio alone, to no avail.  Most of this piece was constructed while I watched cartoons with my daughter or while she slept.  It is difficult to get away, and most days, I don’t want to get away from her. 

But there is that need, and one that every mother has-to take time for themselves and to realize who they are…..and to focus on their needs.  Mine is to make art, to create something with my hands, and to know myself.

My response: “Pigs? What surprise?”

Nick: “Babe 2, now Sleeping Beauty.  You will have to wait because you would not believe me until I show you.  It’s not ready, but events have forced my hand.”

Surprise?  My husband can’t keep a surprise!!  I was terrified as to what I would be walking into.  Was he pulling up all of the carpet in the living room because of his allergies?  Did he buy that TV that we keep talking about?  During our long text exchange he admitted to keeping this secret from me for the last 2 months….what could he be up to?

I wasn’t allowed to come home right away; he made me pick up milk at Target to give him more time to get ‘ready’.  And when I entered my house he had subtly transformed it.  He had dark chocolate and red wine waiting, candles lit, and my favorite recliner turned ever so slightly.  He told me to keep quiet so that the baby didn’t hear that I had come home because he had distracted her (I figured out later that she was watching Dora in our bedroom and feasting on chocolate chips!) 

He sat me down in my recliner, told me to drink my wine, pulled up his music stand to chest level, and looked at me in that shy boyish way that he did when we first started dating 12+ years ago announcing that he was nervous.  {{I must now stop and clarify two things: 1. As I stated before, my husband is not good at keeping surprises-he often buys me a gift and gives it to me a month before the holiday/birthday because of his excitement, and 2. He is NEVER nervous.  Never.  It simply does not happen.  So now I’m extremely nervous!!}}

He pulled his music stand (he’s a jazz guitarist) to chest level and my first thought was-oh-he prepared a speech!  Of course!  He’s been going to Toastmasters International meetings for the last several months and has really enjoyed them-he wrote a speech for me!  How cool!  But nothing could have prepared me for what came next, and today, nearly 24 hours later, I’m still slightly in shock.

The boy, now man that I fell in love with, and love to this day gave me the biggest surprise of my life.  He sang to me.  Not only did he sing to me, he sang one of my favorite songs (Music of the Night), hit the high note, left my heart beating so much faster than when he started, and made tears fall dramatically from my eyes.  {{Now I need to clarify a third point:  My sweet husband could never sing.  It was truly tragic when he tried.  He has always been a musician, never a singer}}

Wow.

Just wow.

He had been hiding 3 months worth of music lessons so that he could surprise me by singing to me in public, but his plan didn’t work out the way he wanted to because his teacher asked him to audition for the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus!  He was honored to be offered a position yesterday and he knew that he couldn’t sneak around every Monday night for practice without my noticing so he had to tell me earlier than anticipated. 

It seems that the boy who couldn’t sing grew up to be a daddy that loved to sing to his little girl, and found a new passion.  This is possibly the sweetest part of the entire story-my daughter has been running around the house singing music of the night for weeks, and I attributed it to my husband playing the CD in the car, but they were singing together all week while I worked.  He is a very good daddy.

My biggest regret from the evening was that I don’t think that I expressed my pleasure and joy from the moment enough to my husband.  Too soon did Lyra figure out that I was home, and too soon did life and its responsibilities creep back into our night.  Errands had to be run, baby needed attention, dinner had to be finished, and I wished that we had had time to curl up and really talk about his accomplishment, how wonderful it was, and how special he made me feel in that moment.

But for a brief moment last night, the only two people on this planet were in my living room. 

Eyes passionately connected.  Emotions swirling, love flowing. 

I realized two things last night: 1. that even after 11 years of marriage, 17 years of friendship that you can still be surprised, and 2. he didn’t know that he could do this, what hidden talents are people carrying around with them? 

What amazing creatures we are!  Blessed with innumerable talents!  What have you always wanted to do that you haven’t tried, too worried about time, money, energy, or just plain scared?  I admire my husband for his bravery to try something new, working hard to achieve a goal, and to be creative enough to have thought of it in the first place!

Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination
Silently the senses abandon their defences
Helpless to resist the notes I write
For I compose the music of the night

Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendour
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender
Hearing is believing
Music is deceiving
Hard as lightning, soft as candlelight
Dare you trust the music of the night

Close your eyes for your eyes will only tell the truth
And the truth isn’t what you want to see
In the dark it is easy to pretend
That the truth is what it ought to be