on the road again

Looks like it's time for another big change here on the blog. Jamaila and I are working on a brand new blog, The Anapurna Girls, which will have lots of great new content and will be updated more than my sporadic posts here.

Please go ahead and add this new blog's feed (located here) to your blogroll, or you can add the Anapurna Girls LJ feed to your Livejournal friends list.

The new blog will take the place of this blog and will feature posts from each of us as we explore, create and sell. Look for posts from me on inspiration, creative work, and the real-life exaltations and frustrations of an artist; look for posts from Jamaila as she explores the sales and business side of an art-driven business partnership. Also, there will be fun photos! Definitely photos. First photos up will be of the new studio, and then some new jewelry.

finally, a studio space!

I've spent the past week or so working on my studio space (our second bedroom). I bullied my husband into helping me, so I've gotten four times the amount done I would have accomplished myself. So far, we've:

- painted
- added a nice bookshelf
- moved everything around
- removed one old bookshelf and put the other old one in a closet

I'll give more details - and some photos! - later on this week. We'll put up shelves this weekend and then it will be done.

the color red

I've had a serious craving for red lately. Fire truck red, brick red, strong red-in-the-rainbow red.

It's probably a reaction to all the gray and brown and white I'm seeing: winter in the city is grim. In the countryside you see more shades of color in the winter.

Nonetheless, all I want lately is RED RED RED. Check out these hot peppers; this wall; this strawberry; this city; this flower; this sign. (I used the Flickr Photo Selectr to find these photos.)

Do you ever crave color?

Johncon 2007 Show Report

Our first joint show went rather well. It lasted for three days, from Friday afternoon through Sunday noon.

The downside to this particular show was that it was very small and perhaps 30 people total passed through the dealer's room over the weekend (most came through several times, of course).

We shared the room with a man selling D&D books and board games and a very nice lady selling SCA garb and chain maille whose site I'll link to once I dig up her business card. None of us sold very much; Jamaila and I made a total of $94 over the three days.

There were some upsides to the show, though. J. got some experience with setting up a booth and we both got to see how potential customers reacted to our setup and wares. Lesson learned: make more jewelry for men! I need to get to work on that. We may not have made much money, but we had fun.

And now, pictures!







To see the rest of the photos, along with descriptions for each picture, please visit our photo gallery for this show.

back, once again

It's been a long couple of months. I couldn't say much about it before, but I just spent a year in a job that was making me miserable, with a magical vanishing boss, nasty co-workers and a job that didn't have anything to do with what I was hired for. The stress was taking up so much of my mental energy that I didn't have anything left to devote to creativity.

I started with a new company this week, and the difference has been like night and day. The people here are nice, I already have meaningful work to do and I'm ecstatic at the improvement in my work environment. I should have more mental energy for creative work now, so watch this space.

Also, we have our first show scheduled! We'll be at Johncon on March 2-4. If you're in the DC or Baltimore area, come check it out! It should be lots of fun.

blah blah blah

Yeah, I know, I keep making excuses. I haven't written a darn thing lately and I apologize. My job has me under some intense stress right now. I'm looking for a new one and have a couple of good leads but right now I'm pretty tense. Hopefully I'll get some new entries up soon.

I have almost managed to get the studio into usable shape, at least. Many years of being cramped into too-small spaces meant that when I finally got everything onto shelves, things were still so scrambled they weren't organized or easily accessible. I've spent my spare minutes over the last month organizing things so that I can find them.

Oh, hey, I do have that to share. It's something, at least. Studio photos! You can click on any photo to see a larger one.



The window in the studio looks out on the rest of the building, which is a sort of squared-off U shape. I'm thrilled to finally have a good source of natural light in my work area.

The windowsill currently holds my little unglazed porcelain collection. I'm still working on good lighting for this room - right now that lamp is a major source of light.



Disclaimer: Yes, this room is still a disaster area. I'm working on it. :P

This is my main work area. Somewhere underneath all that junk is a couple of things I'm working on.



Two bookshelves hold my non-fic, scholarly books, jewelry books and the overflow from downstairs. Plus a lot of unsorted junk right now. See that suitacase? Been living out of it quite a bit lately. (Yes, I know it's a weird color. No, I never have problems finding it on the carousel!)

The filing cabinet is used for filing, obviously, plus miscellaneous supply storage. The low table in freaky green was a salvage and is holding my photography props and, of course, miscellaneous junk.



The two bookshelves again, the photo-supply table, trash can and back in the corner is my light box. I'm thinking about painting the walls of this room a grayish lavendar.

Fun Stuff from Christmas

Buddy and Sniffles exploring the couch in my parents' house.



Ack! It's on my lap!



Sugar plays with the twisty star stuff Meredith stuck in her hair.

Christmas was the ferrets' first experience with other animals. The first cat they ever met was Sasha, one of the barn cats over at my parents-in-laws' house. We took them out on the porch to explore and Sasha happened to be out there.

Buddy and Sasha eyed each other for a few minutes, then sniffed around each other a bit. Then Sasha apparently decided that Buddy was some sort of interesting new toy and whapped him on the head with her paw. Needless to say, he was not amused.

A few minutes later Sniffles made her way around to Sasha and the two did the same sort of exploratory sniffing. Then Sasha, thrilled at two of these strange toys in one day, whapped Sniff in the head.

Sniff, usually so agressive, had to then be dug out of the woodpile where she was hiding. :P

At my parents' house, we let the terrible two run around inside the spare bedroom, where Laramie often lets his pet rabbit roam. He brought Sugar, his cat, up and we let the three explore the room together. Sniffles, having obviously learned her lesson, completely ignored Sugar.

Sugar and Buddy were obviously fascinated by each other. Buddy saw a potential playmate and would stroll or climb to wherever Sugar was at to sniff at her. Sugar, fascinated but also a bit freaked out, would run off to the other side of the room, where she'd find a perch and watch the ferrets' every move. It was funny to watch. They never did really play together, but I'm sure that given time together they'd get along just fine.

not quite there yet

After traveling four weeks out of the last five, I'm very ready to settle down and get some jewelry made. Not happening yet, though. My folks are coming up to visit for New Year's. I might get some things done next weekend.

I did get some progress made over Christmas, though. I packed several wire-chain projects and made two necklaces, one of carnelian and moonstone and one of shell. I should have brought something to work with me today to work on: the only other guy in the office today is in the next department over wearing headphones and reading the newspaper.

I swear I'll have new photos up soon.