Free Shipping This Weekend

For various reasons I'm skipping an art show this weekend and missed the deadline for a refund. So to try to make up for the lost fee I'm offering free shipping in the shop through Sunday.

New Cthulhu Jewelry and Free Shipping

Today is my birthday and so in celebration I'm offering free shipping on all jewelry through Friday in my Etsy shop.

Also I have new Cthulhu jewelry in my shop. I sculpted some tiny cameos for earrings, cufflinks, and tie tacks that I'm starting to add to the shop to go with the necklaces.

First Wholesale Order

So I'm sitting here with my first wholesale order completed, packed up, and ready to go to the post office. It's a pretty cool feeling. I've done a large multiple order before but that was for members of a club not for resale.

I made 10 specimen jars for a store that sells latex and nickel free products. This meant I had to change the design somewhat to eliminate all the metals I usually use that might contain some nickel. So I figured out a new way to hang the jars which I actually like better than the wire wrapping I was doing and have started using it for my own shop's necklaces. I also use a simple cord tying trick I learned a few years ago to make the necklaces able to go on over the head then adjust without any metal findings.

Using Ice Resin

A couple months ago I switched from using Diamond Glaze in my steampunk jewelry to using Ice Resin. I really love this stuff, it comes out crystal clear and very hard.

So I've put together a tutorial Using Ice Resin to Create Jewelry on Squidoo including a couple videos I shot.

Regretsy Book

The Regretsy book was released today and I am featured in it with my Baby Rat sculpture. Obviously since I'm posting this I fully appreciate the humor of the book and the Regretsy Blog and I look forward to my copy arriving (no I didn't have to buy one, I get one free for being in the book).

Apartment Photos

I took these Saturday but it's taken me until tonight to post because I've been ridiculously sick with bronchitis. This has made doing anything, including packing, very difficult but I'm starting to feel better.

Big News

I got the apartment I was looking at. Let the packing commence! I'll be moving in April 1st and I'm so excited. Complete independence at last.

It's in this great funky old building right in the middle of South Paris, Maine. I'll have photos to share soon. I'm not terribly far from my parents, about a 20 minute drive, and I have friends and family in town too. Most everything I need is within walking distance, including art galleries (actually one is just downstairs from my place), the library, post office, stores, etc. It's been really hard networking with other artists living in a very rural area depending on my parents for transportation because I can't drive (vision issues) so being in an area with galleries, art groups, classes, etc is going tp be fantastic.

So Excited

I'm going to go look at an apartment this weekend. Finding one has been torture and I'm so happy to just be going to see one and hopeful it will be good and I'll get it.

If I do this is what my packing will look like:

Comic by Justina Kochansky of articulatematter.com

New Jewelry Video

I put together this little slideshow of my new and improved steampunk jewelry.

Change to Steampunk Jewelry

Left: Ice Resin. Right: Diamond Glaze.

If you've been by my shop the past few weeks you've probably noticed I didn't have many of my steampunk jewelry pieces. The reason for this is I've been trying to find a new material to seal the gears under. I had been using diamond glaze but in thicker applications or if it's humid it gets cloudy. You can see this in the photo of the new version next to the old (right).

The new version is made with Ice Resin which is a jewelry grade non-toxic resin. It's been getting a lot of press in the crafty blogosphere recently and so I decided to give it a try. As you can see the result is crystal clear and also very hard and waterproof (I also use an indoor/outdoor gloss on the creature body that is water resistant, so they can get damp but don't submerge in water or scrub with cleaners). The downside of it though is that it is expensive, messy, and time consuming to use. Because of this I had to increase the price of all my steampunk jewelry

Brass Steampunk Horseshoe Crab

Steampunk Octopus