When I was a little girl, my father loved to spend time in the garage, ‘piddling’ as he liked to put it. I’m pretty sure I come by my ‘piddlin’ nature honestly as I look back over the various time periods of my life. I have never been bored one instant in my life…there is always something that needs to be built, made or ‘piddled’ with!

Yesterday, Pops and I spent some time in his workshop building me a new work table, complete with casters on the legs and and plenty of room to put my new 12″ bench  shear on, as well as a spot to bolt down my new Bonny Doon metal forming vertical vice with forming stakes and my microfold brake. I was in his realm with woodworking and all of the associated tools and we got my table built in a day.

The great thing about yesterday was the time spent together, working out exactly how I wanted this custom built table to function, complete with a lip that will allow me to use C-clamps for some tools that can’t be bolted down for whatever reason. I also used 6 inch bolts to connect the legs to this table in the event I need to dissemble it and travel with it…it was fun working out all the possible scenarios of use and coming up with easy ways to modify it for ease later on down the road.

Dad was still in teaching mode, though, and I learned even more about how to use leverage and tools to make my job of creating much easier. I am so grateful for the time I am getting to spend with my father these days. It is a gift.

I had the chance to get dressed up (for me, anyway) and go to Knoxville, Tennessee where I met with for the first time mixed media artist Sandy Brown for lunch at a swanky restaurant called Conners. We used to both belong to the same gallery in Chattanooga, but she became a member when Shayne and I were on our Around the Country trip and as a consequence, I never got to really spend any time with her in Chattanooga. As soon as Shayne and I came back to Tennessee, we moved to a small town too far away for me to keep up my responsibilities as a co-op member, so I had to resign. It was the same story for Sandy too…she lived too far away for it to be a profitable venture, so she had to resign as well.

We are Facebook friends, and one day we got to chatting and thought we would both plan on being in Knoxville for an afternoon where we could formally meet and lunch together…as our outlook about life and living from a creative foundation is something we both have in common.

Well, as soon as we met, we hugged ( I am a hugger, btw) and settled into our lunch like we were old friends. She used to be a director of an Art Center in Wisconsin, and consequently has a lot of experience with all facets of the art business, as well as being an accomplished artist in her own right. She is so cool, too. She teaches and has her work in a very well respected gallery in Knoxville, called Liz-Beth & Company.

Every time I get around 2-D artists, I feel an upwelling of desire to literally go back to the drawing board. I have been doodling and playing around with my watercolors on and off for the last few months…nothing really worth sharing insofar as something I am serious about doing, other than as fun little inserts for my jewelry biz. But that desire is still there and getting stronger.  I used to draw and paint a lot when I was a kid, along with my telephone wire bending obsession, but somewhere along the trajectory of my life, I gave it up.  And I don’t understand why, as it as something that I could really get lost in when I was younger. Why would I give something up that used to fill me up? I used to have a lot of Field Days with my pens, pencils and paints…

Field Days, Sandy Brown

I obviously have some work to do on this…I have always been a lurker on Kelly Rae Robert’s website...even back when she was just getting started in her art career. She was audacious about following that flirt of hers into mixed media…it was something that really excited her, much like jewelry excites me.  But where did I come up with the belief that you can only have one or two outlets creatively? And I have to say, I get excited about combining pen and ink with watercolor…enough so that I was walking around Barnes and Noble after my great lunch with Sandy, perusing the gift cards, stationary and colorful inspiration journals. I was particularly interested in the styles of artwork that seems to grab my attention. Sure enough, it was flora/fauna and pen/ink with color…I started to have my own Awakening about what my possible future could look like…

Awakening, Sandy Brown

So…what am I going to do with this? I guess I will just follow it and see where it takes me, much like my flirt with beads, wire and metal. Who says you can’t have more then one medium to explore? I am waiting for that exciting, and always Surprise Ending at how this ultimately plays out….

Surprise Ending, Sandy Brown

I have some exciting news to share!

I was asked a few weeks ago if I would be interested in writing a guest post for Love My Art Jewelry, a fabulous blog written by a group of art jewelers. If you want to explore their great blog,  and also read my guest post about “Coming Alive” via creative work, you can find it here.

I wanted to also share this month’s pair of give-a-way earrings that I offer my newsletter subscribers…this is a pair of sterling silver, Howlite and bezel set 5mm Adventurine dangles that measure about an inch in length. Every month, I give a away a pair of slightly flawed earrings to one of my subscribers. It’s an exercise I have begun in honoring the small so-called flaws within our own lives and not throwing something away just because it is slightly off. These earrings have the sterling silver swirl going in the same way. Earrings ‘should’ be mirror images of each other, if that is your original intent. But I was pre-occupied and not paying strict attention to my swirl direction when I made them, so these were the earrings that were made last month that serve to remind me to concentrate on what I am focused on.

I will be drawing for these on the 22nd, so there is still time to sign up for my free newsletter to become eligible. I ship them out USPS Priority…there is no cost to you if you win!  And I only write ONE newsletter per month. It’s a wee bit more personal about the journey of living a creative life then what I write about here, along with any news I think you might find of use and interest. And you can find out if you won the free earrings or not too!

You can easily subscribe by hitting that big button on my right sidebar…

I have an updated Facebook Page that I just finished a few days ago. Since I have shifted into my Soul to Substance Jewelry platform, I wanted my Facebook page to reflect that, and so I closed down my metalsmith page and made a new one. I have 2 subscribers over there, (waving to Louise and Catherine!) but would love more. I use Facebook a lot to keep up with other jewelry designers and metal/bead related pages as well. I have started a great collection of pages in that regard that are on my Soul to Substance FB page..check it out! So much inspiration there!

I also have a Google + Jewelry page…there are many jewelry designers, jewelry suppliers and photography and art lovers on G+…I have even sold a few pairs of earrings to some of the people I have met over there…if you haven’t checked out G+, do…it is a great source of inspiration and a way to meet others that share your same interests. I love photography, and a photographer told me about a Photoshop plugin called Pixel Bender that I played with yesterday…look at what I learned!  This is on the oil paint filter in Pixel Bender…do you think I have green and bees on my mind?  For those of you that are visiting me from Love My Art Jewelry…welcome! I really appreciate your visit and am honored you took the time to investigate more about living from Soul to Substance!

Do you know who Danielle LaPorte is? Well, I love her. Really love her. She gets it, she understands and she is fearless about sharing what she knows from her heart. It is so exciting to read something that resonates with you on such a level as to give you chill bumps!  I signed up for Danielle’s email notice whenever she writes a new post, and this morning, my world was rocked by what she wrote.

She recently changed her website name from White Hot Truth to Danielle Laporte, during a book launch, no less, because it clicked with her to step into her own name in a big, big way. Truly! I am on my own mission about stepping into my name and my life and my being, so this was a universal high five to me–a breadcrumb that is leading me further and further into the universe of authenticity and not only standing in your own light, but generating it too. It’s all about discovering and honoring who you are, right now. And being fine with it.

I write a lot about this because I think it is key to living a creatively abundant life. The first step in doing that is flinging your heart and mind into yourself–owning all of you and accepting it too. It’s the best! Bringing out and nurturing what makes you groove on life is contagious and life affirming. Its fearless! It opens up doors you never even knew were there…

This!

By releasing the old name, you are releasing any residue of the old self still enslaved in the ego — and to lean fully into the true, natural self. The work that you are doing is deeper and richer; you’re vibrating your work up from the soul into form; where some people do just the opposite; using form to attempt to look soulful.

from Danielle’s website and kudo’s to Amy Oscar

“using form to attempt to look soulful” so, so resonates for me.  I make jewelry. I make jewelry that people use to portray how they want to be perceived in the world. That’s what jewelry IS. It’s an abstract way of showing the world who you are…what you like, what you identify with. Jewelry is something used to say many things: socio-economic status, religious/spiritual affiliation, commitment status, winner of football games(super bowl rings), education status(class rings), style(boho chic, industrial, classic, tribal)…the list is enormous when you sit down and think about it.

But taking this a step further-What forms do people use to attempt to look a certain way, to be perceived a certain way, but they are not living from that ideal?  And can’t you pick up on it immediately? It bugs me about others, but that is because it infuriates me about myself. I can’t change others. But I can sure change that about myself and that is a part of the process I am working through now as far as really investigating who I am, what I believe and most importantly, why I believe it. 

I’m applying this inquiry to all aspects of my life…and its mindblowing!

You are what you are. Step into it; own it and love it. You are the perfect gem.

]]> http://www.stacieflorer.com/2012/02/17/danielle-laporte-gets-it/feed/ 1 http://www.stacieflorer.com/2012/02/16/intro-to-metalworking-class/ http://www.stacieflorer.com/2012/02/16/intro-to-metalworking-class/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:42:50 +0000 Stacie http://www.stacieflorer.com/?p=1321

I wanted to share this announcement so that I could invite anyone around the Knoxville, Tennessee area to come to the Appalachian Arts Craft Center in Clinton, Tennessee on Sunday, April 29th for an inexpensive intro class into metalworking. I will be doing mostly demonstation work, showing a prospective metalworker what is involved in having a home studio and the tools that are needed. I think it would have helped me to have someone to really talk to and ask questions of that had real world experience about trying to sell and market metal jewelry. This is also for beaders that are looking to jump into making some wire and metal components such as clasps, ear wires, and jump rings for their beading work. Any and all experience levels are welcome, as well as any question you want to ask! I will be demonstrating what I use the most, and also how to perform simple soldering jobs. This is more of a Q and A session, a pre-intro to a class that I hope to teach later in the summer.

This announcement will be going into the March Newsletter at the center. If you are interested in getting in on the deal early to make sure you have a spot reserved, call the craft center and ask for Liz at 865-494-9854  and she will sign you up and give you more details! Here is the site info for the Appalachian Arts Craft Center.

SPRING INTO METALWORKING! with Stacie Florer

Sunday, April 29, 2 to 5 p.m.

This workshop is for people who are interested in exploring the art of making metal jewelry. Jewelry designer and metalsmith Stacie Florer will answer questions about common tools and techniques used in the fabrication of metal jewelry and will demonstrate her craft of making ear wires, clasps, links, hot and cold connections, and more. She will show how the tools are used, and share the best places to get them. This is open to all levels and only requires an interest in learning more. Stacie Florer has been a jeweler and metalsmith for many years, honing her skills by working with master jewelers in the United States and Asia . For two years she had a metalsmith studio in downtown Chattanooga before moving to East Tennessee . Her web site is www.stacieflorer.com. Registration deadline April 25.

Cost: $12 for everyone. All levels.

I hope you had a great Valentine’s Day! For my Valentine’s Day lovey gesture to my husband, I cooked him a special dinner of Lemon Chicken with Milk. It sounds sort of gross, but we were watching Jamie Oliver’s cooking show on Netflix a few days ago, and it really looked good. It was my first attempt at making the recipe, and it turned out pretty tasty. But it put a thought in my head about trying something new, and based on an email conversation I had yesterday with a new jewelry designer, I wanted to write today about honoring our Sacred Firsts.

I mean to use the word sacred here for a specific reason. I am using it in the context of reverence for an action that has a transformative effect on your destiny. 

I have kept my Sacred Firsts during the course of my jewelry career. I remember the first time I was shown how to make a loop with some small needle nose pliers on the top of a simple head pin. It opened up my imagination and a whole new world was now available to me. I graduated from putting beads on pins to purchasing some copper wire and meticulously went through every exercise in Sharilyn Miller’s book, Bead on a Wire.  I even took a class from her in Louisville, KY, and a small seed was planted in my mind about one day teaching others how to use beads, wire and metal to journey within themselves to discover and write their own creative symphony.

I was living in Chattanooga a few years ago in an apartment that was too small for me to work comfortably. Downtown Chattanooga had a lot of vacant space and it was a mecca for beginning and accomplished artists as far as studio space went. I found a small room to rent in an old bank building, and for $150 a month, I had my first studio.

That studio was a huge Sacred First for me. I had never had a place of my own to paint any way I wanted, to decorate, to choose everything without having to run it by anyone else. I had full creative freedom and some of the very best experiences of my life in this space. This is where I learned how to finally solder metal together using a propane torch that I bought at Home Depot. There was a private detective that was a good friend of mine that had his office on the same floor, and he helped me overcome my fear of fire and gas. I ended up frying a lot of metal because the torch was so crude, but I will forever remember this place as the birthplace where I overcame my fear tools. It was an incubator for me. I had a studio partner also that was a beginning jewelry designer, and we both learned and grew in our craft here.

Beginning anything that your soul tugs you to investigate is sometimes scary. You know in your heart that there is something begging to be born from your being, creatively, but the ‘what if’ing’ and the initial disappointment in realizing your vision may take some time and practice can prevent you from taking that first step.

Don’t let it. Your sacred firsts are not to be judged as anything other then a first step on the path towards your vision. So what if you don’t have any idea of what your style is…start anyway. Attempt it. Pick up a paintbrush or pen, just begin. It will most likely change your life. It will lead you to places that you never dreamed of. That is why I love sacred firsts, and I invite you to begin collecting sacred firsts for yourself and watch what happens. Transformation awaits!

I made a pair of these earrings in Sterling Silver for a commission and thought I would offer them in brass, copper with a dot of sterling silver…the earwires are surgical steel. These retail for $30.00.

Cardlet…is that even a word?

I was playing around with my watercolors and pen and ink supplies last night and came up with this cute little cardlet that I will be inserting in my jewelry boxes when I ship out an order. I had so much fun with this whimsical little card that I think I may make some more later this week.  I print them out to about 2 x 3 inches and stick them inside the padded cardboard jewelry box…just for fun!