seventyeight: xmas presents

below are some new pieces i made recently. i think most of them will be given away for christmas, so beware you may be looking at your christmas present. the pictures are not great. since i have moved i have not been able to figure out the best way of taking photos. i have also been lazy and not wanted to put the time/effort into taking good photos.
i went to a show put on by students at the corcoran college of art and design. i noticed that each of them had websites and business cards. i don't know if this is something that the school encouraged, but i think it is a good idea. as i have mentioned before, i would really like to have a site in which to display all of my work in one place, rather than just a blog. i think i should work on doing this. i was also encouraged after seeing people's works. there were some pieces that i could not make, but there were quite a few that looked like something i could do (and i think i do a better job). that made me feel great. at some point, i might consider doing the jewelry certification program that they have there.
i signed up for a silver smithing class at the torpedo factory in alexandria. it is going to start in february, i am getting pretty excited about it.

seventyseven: worst blogger. ever.

i think this has been the longest amount of time i have gone without posting since i started this blog over a year ago. as i have vowed in almost all of my recent posting, i will start to update more often! i promise! i have been quite busy though, i moved since my last posting and i have only now been able to take photos of my recent creations. i don't really like these pictures, but i thought i would show what i have been up to recently.
the necklace is below is my favorite of the necklaces i have made. my boss bought some beads for me from new york, i used a lot of them here:
i had two necklaces that i never wore very much, they were long single-strands. i did not take pictures of them before i made the necklace below. i get a ton of compliments on this one when i wear it. i like it a lot. the green, pink, grey, and black make it a really versatile piece.
this is not finished. i can't decide how i feel about it. i go back and forth on whether or not i should finish it.

seventytwo: new pics

sixtyfour: wired

as i mentioned in my previous post, i have become quite interested in wire work. since i am new to working with wire, i have only been doing fairly simple designs, but i think they still look quite sophisticated. i love the color of the copper, i think it gives a little quirkiness to a necklace that would otherwise be a bit too serious. all of the necklaces below are one strand and are fairly long.

fiftyone: newspaper + broken plate + necklaces

fortyeight: tangled

before.
after.

fortyone: written in the stars

so, apparently a number of my coworkers are really into astrology. i have never been one to care much about the alignment of the planets, but i have become more interested in all that nonsense recently. one of my coworkers showed me this site. i input the time, date, and location of my birth and then it told me everything i could possibly want to know about myself. a lot of the information was dead on, even silly things like the fact that i walk quickly.
here are some of the necklaces i plan on giving away for xmas:

thirtyfive: a new look

after reading my friend emily's 'secret' blog, i was inspired to revamp the look of my blog. i loved the banner and the brightness of emily's, so that is basically why i changed my header and background color. i am pretty impressed with my banner and my photo editing skills, to be honest.
i spent most of the morning taking new pictures. the photo below is my favorite of all the new pictures. the beads remind me of mini & mickey mouse's noses.
i tried experimenting with a different background but i think the plain one worked the best. here are some of the other pictures i have taken:
i really need to doing something about the exposure of these photos. the lighting and the background material are the same in almost all of these pictures, but they still look different. too bad i am no longer living with someone getting their masters in photojournalism. sigh. i will have to figure this out on my own.
i going to delaware tomorrow for a going away party for my cousin, who is moving to new zealand on tuesday. while i am visiting with my family i am going to try to think about what i could make for them for christmas. i have been making a lot of jewelry lately, but not with anyone (except myself) in mind. a lot of what i have been making i am probably going to keep for myself, which i feel bad about. i will definitely be keeping the necklace below, i made it using beads from my grandma.