New item: Gift Certificates!

Yeah baby... I'm so excited!
Gift Certificates for the Holidays. :)

But beyond that, I am adding my classes as Etsy shop items! I will start putting my class listings on Etsy to see if I can gain some visibility there.

Speaking of which, I've added 3 new classes to my schedule:

January 24 - Dichroic Glass Fusing Workshop
January 25 - Gems and Glass in Precious Metal Clay
February 22 - Intro to Precious Metal Clay

Click HERE for more info

Holiday craft shows!

Ah... the holidays are upon us... and what does that inevitably mean?

Craft Shows!!

I had a whirlwind over the December 6 - 7 weekend where I attended 2 shows back to back. It was a lot of work but great fun! The shows were worth the effort just to see and meet all the great artists around the area. Finally, I could put faces to names!

The CT Etsy Show was wonderful... it was a great feeling to know that our collective marketing efforts resulted in actual foot traffic!! I used my "Constant Contact" account for the first time to invite my small but growing mailing list to the show, and I can remember at least 4 or 5 of the attendee telling me that they'd heard about the show through that email. Yeah! It actually works!

I didn't have my camera at the show, but there's a great CraftyStylish blog entry with a review of the show and lots of pictures here: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/31165/whos-who-in-connecticut-a-wrap-up-of-etsy-crafters-at-the-show

Then it was on to Guilford for an intimate show in the Gables adult community. This was in "concert" (ahem) with their "Cello-bration" Holiday Concert where we were treated to a whole bunch of local cello players working their magic on everyone's favorite holiday songs. It was the first day of real SNOW covering the drive to the location ~ which really got me into the celebratory mood ... and the light streaming in the windows really helped my dichroic glass shine and silver sparkle! It wasn't the most lucrative show I've done, but it was certainly fun!

Here are some images of the booth as it was at this show:

So ... this weekend was my first time out with my new series of Dichroic Glass Drawer Pull sets! There was a lot of interest in them... generally "wow, who would have ever thought?!" I think the idea is surprising to a lot of people who have never considered glass for this sort of thing. I bought a few of those little wooden plaques you can get at craft stores for wood burning or decoupage. I stained them, drilled holes, e voila! Instant display... (You can also see the effect of the sunlight on dichro in this picture!)

I also discovered the joys of label making. My Dymo label maker rocked it out, though I discovered that trying to put anything "sticky" on velvet displays just doesn't work. Even if you try double stick tape in addition to the sticky on the back of the Dymo labels. Don't try this at home, folks!

So it was a good weekend overall ~ a great experience that continued to teach me the best ways of creating displays, pricing, and marketing. I hope this helps me continue to expand my efforts of taking over the world with my jewelry!

More glass painting

Oh the excitement, oh the joy!

OK, I know I'm getting a little crazy but I've been doing lots more glass painting ...

I have been playing with little iconic images that I've used in my PMC Silver work ~ rubber stamps, drawings, and so on... expanding into a painted form of some of these, like so:

And then I started thinking about all the paper arts and what other kinds of things one can do with paint and a surface. So, I started playing with things you can only do with paint: Layering, interacting, creating dimension. I had already tried the watercolor effect (see below) but I wanted to drop paint on paint and see how it interacted with graphic images, like so:

And then, as I was layering one piece with some stripes, I remembered something...

One of my favorite things is to marbleize paper or fabric. So before the paint dried, I made up some marbled pieces:

What I learned is that the pastel-like tones of the glass paint take on a richer, more intense color when fired. I also noticed that nearly all the glass painting I've done - especially when it is laid on thickly - creates an orange peel texture, not unlike enamels when they're underfired.

So I am loving this new addition to the toolbox... and will need to determine if I'm firing them incorrectly. But for now, I'm enjoying the play on texture and color.

Come to the CT Etsy Team Holiday Spectacular!

Special Offer: FREE GIFT WRAPPING with ANY Sulimos Design PURCHASE!

Crisp Fall Air

Ah, Fall!  So crisp, like a macoun apple eaten while walking down a forest path!

Actually, Jonathan and I had an amazing walk this weekend at Chitfield State Park in Killingworth, CT.  It was the first time we'd been there and we loved it.   There's not only a small lake, but a really beautiful marsh with a boardwalk, as well as caves used by Native Americans and extensive walking and hiking paths.   What a treat!  

Walking through nature has inspired a whole range of new ideas ~ leaves, berries, branches, water.   The delicate curl of birch bark.  The way water ripples up behind an obstruction ~ almost like it points back at it.   So many ideas to explore!

That Sea Shore Smell

One of my favorite things is my blackberry. Oh, pathetic I know. The mobility, the practicality, the freedom. For example, here I am sitting at the beach with the sea breeze in my hair, surrounded by susicious gulls, watching a thunderstorm pass across New Haven Harbor ... The rain falls on West Haven - and I can hear the thunder - but I have sun in my eyes. Yet I am still, in a sense, at my desk. If my customers call me, I am here. If they email me, I am available.

There is only one thing missing from my blackberry, as I finally have discovered today. A camera. To share this image with the world.

And ok, a sound recorder, to capture the gulls' song, as well as that of the ice cream truck which just drove up behind me. There is a fishing pier here at Nathan Hale Park, and the families bring their kids when they're fishing. A captive market!

I just saw a lightning strike over West Rock! Far away, backlit in a sense, with me squinting into the sunshine.

The ice cream truck's song has a ring, an organ melody, and this little ocarina hoot sound. So many layers to such a simple sound. Thunder percussion, and bird whines too. And most importantly, the white noise of the rolling waves.

First mobile post!

This is a first... I'm sitting with my morning coffee and reading me email on a sunny Sunday morning... Ahhh...

So who wants to turn on their pc at a moment like this? Hmm?

Why not send a post from my blackberry? Well... Here it is.

This is a test... Only a test... If it had been a real post I would have talked about... Ah well, you know what I mean! :)

paint / glass / paint / glass

Oh my goodness! I have discovered glass paint...

It is kind of like I've found the Rosetta Stone. Not quite the Holy Grail... but approaching it with wide eyes and bated breath.

I know, I know... a little dramatic. But still, it's like I found a missing vowel in my own language. Things I've been trying to do in enamel, in glass, in silver... can now be done with little Elmer's glue-shaped bottles of paint.

It's simple and it's silly. But when I am able to draw something that will permanently be part of the glass, I feel like I've been freed ~ from searching for the perfect stamp, from using black and white instead of color, from being forced to use only graphic shapes and elements in my glass work, and for that matter... using only dichroic glass. It makes all those other things more about being themselves and not trying to be something else. It makes them merely tools for specific purposes, as is this. But it just gives me another way to be creative in a way I have been craving.

I will take these to the Arts and Ideas fest and see how they go over! :)

Arts and Ideas, Here we Come!

I am so completely psyched... this is my third year living in New Haven, so it's my third year of getting excited about the New Haven International Arts & Ideas Festival!

Last year, I emailed them asking if there were any craft vending opportunities and they advised there weren't. This year, I caught myself wondering ... why not? I mean, it's an ARTS and Ideas fest! There should be all kinds of artists: visual and performing. I tried to get a permit last year to vend on Chapel Street at the same time as the festival to no avail either. So when A&I rolled around again this year, I sadly decided not to pursue getting a space there.

But then today something magical happened... someone from the CT Etsy Team posted a note on our group bulletin board that there was a billboard with info about the show. So I emailed the address she mentioned and received an answer... nay, a phone call offering spaces at the show! The organizer who called me seemed so pleased to have found a group of local artisans who want to get together and sell at the show!

So, I got info about how to apply and also that I need a hawker's license in New Haven to do any street vending. They have "day" permits and "year" permits... the year long ones require a police background check!! Not that I have any outstanding parking tickets or anything, but my library fines give me pause... so I'm leaning toward the "day" permit.

I posted the event info on the group board and it looks like there are a couple interested people. If 3 of us share a table for 2 days, it'll only cost $90 each including table and hawker's license... not a bad deal at all for such a well attended venue. If nothing else, it'll be a chance to get the team and individual names out there ~ plus cross market to our other upcoming events.

Love it!!

The People We Meet

Things are really heating up around here!
The weather is getting nicer ~ the skies are blue and the trees are green... and yes, this is my absolutely *favorite* time of year.

But I mean that I'm starting to get a lot more activity on my website, blog, and have been featured in more blogs and treasuries lately ~ YAY! So I give you my "Summer Waves" Necklace in this "Fun in the Sun" Treasury:

I tell you ... all this activity? It's all because of the CT Etsy Team, to be honest. What an amazing group of artists and people! For example, this treasury was posted by Lis-el, the creative fire behind heartofthefire.

Heartofthefire's Morganna Pendant

Lis-el does beautiful Art Clay Silver and glass work, and I was thrilled to meet her last weekend at the CT Etsy Team meeting with Etsy Admin Beth during her Mega-Beth Tour. (Read all about our fun and productive meeting here!) She was so inspiring!

Another fantastic person in the CT Etsy Team is our fearless leader Jillian ~ aka MsKittyFantastico. I could tell she had great energy from everything that'd been happening already on the various sites dedicated to the team: the Google Group, the CT Etsy Team Group blog, the MySpace page, and even a Ning page!! Such energy! But meeting her was even better ~ she's a thoughtful, intelligent speaker with great ideas and a very kind energy!

I also had a great time at the Mega-Beth event when I met the creative forces behind ScribbleNation and GooseontheLoose as I walked in. Both are so talented ~ Mary Helen's ScribbleNation Blog never fails to make me bust out laughing, and Jennifer's fine silver work is so beautifully simple. I was so glad to meet them!

There are a lot more people whom I'm glad I met ~ but I hope to mention them over time in this space. I'll just leave you with another item that left me surprised, bemused and amused: fenrislorsrai's "Mars Needs Weasels" statue:

And I think to myself... what a wonderful ... woooorrrrllld!

I've been Featured by WickedlyChic.com!

Check it out!
One of my sea glass necklaces has been blogged by a daily fashion-watch blog:

Here's the email I just received from them, which explains who what and where they are...

"Hi Sue!

Just an FYI to let you know that I am now featuring one of your necklaces in the Daily Ditties section of Wickedly Chic, http://www.wickedlychic.com . This will be permanently archived on the site after the week is over.

Be sure to check out the WC website...we're a stylish online weekly magazine (with daily updates..in the Ditties, of course) & we're devoted to featuring independent businesses. If you sign up for our giveaway newsletter (Giveaway tab on the top of the site), you will receive weekly information about fabulous contests sponsored by independent businesses. There's a winner every week!

~Liz Nonnemacher"

Here's the image of my Sea Glass Pendant as it shows up on the site:

There are lots of great things on the site, and I'm honored to be featured.

In celebration, I've let Liz know that anyone who enters promo code "WICKED" for any item in my store will receive FREE USPS First Class Mail shipping!! (Hint... as a reader of this blog, you can use that promo code too!)

New Treasury!

My "Lunar Drop" necklace has just gotten into a new treasury ~

It's called "J'amaican Me Crazy!"
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=46726


Thanks so much to Destiny's Creations for putting me into it! :)

New Cosmia Series!

I'm in high gear, getting ready for the Milford show! Panic and late nights, lots of caffeine and random iPod music have started to force me into new directions, and I'm so glad of it!

My strategy started out to re-create a lot of the pieces which have had positive feedback or have sold well. 10 pieces a day ~ that has also been the goal. I figured that if I had 2 weeks, I'd have plenty of inventory for the show. This was all fine and good for the first few nights ~ I made a bunch more labyrinths, multi-colored enameled nests, and other fun pendants which I love. But something felt ridiculous about it. Beyond the exhaustion, I felt like I wasn't creating anymore.

So one night, I had to get myself out of the studio. I rationalized this by going out to get fabric for a new table display I had been considering.

When I got home, I sat drinking coffee and reading magazines just to clear my head and get a new perspective. Lucky Magazine is always fun to look at to get accessory ideas and trends. And I've just gotten a subscription to Harper's Bazaar... and that's where all this began! In Harper's April issue, there were these amazing pictures of multi-part necklaces - shield-like shapes in series from top to bottom, and rich green red and purple jewel embellished shoes and bags.

OK, so my stuff is distinctly more Bohemian in nature than the normal couture stuff that shows up on their pages, but this all jumped out at me. (I tried and tried to get a link to the images that inspired me, but they're just not up on their site any more!! I will look for images similar to them and upload asap)

And lately - maybe in response to being up late at night, or wishing I was dreaming - I was inspired by a sense of planets and constellations and satellite objects, cosmic in the sense of the cosmos. Little orbs of silver surround lots of sparkly gems.

Somehow I felt they should all be together: the colors, the satellites, and the way that the motion of something in parts would affect the way the piece would sparkle. Pieces connected loosely and nimbly would bring so much life to a piece, I thought, and it became easy to start translating that into this series.

I also wanted to take the focus away from the silver itself so I could key in on color and motion. So I brought in not only richly colored baubles but also brightly colored beads - turquoise and red coral, primarily.

So here it is... I'm so in love with this new Cosmia series!

Here are just some of the items:

Show announcement!

Meet the Artists and Artisans
46th Annual Arts and Crafts Show
Milford Green, Milford CT
May 10 - 11, 10am - 5pm

Rated "One of the top 10 craft shows in the Northeast" by SunshineArtist.com
See the show's website here: http://www.meettheartistsandartisans.com/shows_2008.htm

Directions to the Show:
I-95 South exit 39A, Northbound exit 37 High St. follow yellow Artists/Artisans arrow signs to the bandstand on the green.
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I am so excited! I'll be showing at a fantastic show on Mother's Day Weekend. I'm also going to be doing live Precious Metal Clay demonstrations, and if time permits I will also be demo-ing how to apply enamel to pieces. That is, if my kiln doesn't take out the electricity of the show!

It was a kismet moment... I was at a grocery store and saw a sign for the show. I "knew" it was way too late to apply, but thought there might be a last minute cancellation. I "knew" it was not even possible. But I didn't give myself time to pause, and just grabbed my cell, called the organizer and put myself at her mercy. Amazingly, she did have a cancellation, and that person did demonstrations... would I be willing to demo my art?

Would I? Well...
Why, I teach classes locally... I can do essentially the same thing I do in those, I told her.

After forwarding her my website link, and walking through my portfolio with the organizer over the phone, I was told "You're In!" Yipee!!

A million things are going through my mind right now! Display. Packaging. Credit Card processing made easier (I love Propay.com ~ but now I need a little card swipey thing) And... stuff to sell!

I have about 20 - 30 pieces ready for sale of silver, and about 20 pairs of dichro earrings. I have to create far more inventory, and have set a goal of creating 10 pieces per day for the next 10 days. Last night I created 10 "love nest" style pieces and will need to finish enameling them this evening while I make 10 labyrinth and blue bird pieces. Tomorrow it's Irish "Celtica Series" night, and we'll see from there.

It's all about the silver and enamel, as this is what the organizer was most interested in, and there is another artist at the show who does dichroic glass. While it's OK that I include my dichroic pieces, I don't want to over do it!

So... I'm hyped up on caffeine and ready to rock! Downstairs in the basement, in the world of my little studio. Go little iPod, go! Keep pumping me up!!

You've got Class!

I love teaching. I gotta tell ya. Don't know what it is... But I know it's in my genes.

My Mom taught 3rd grade for 25 years, and was known around the entire school district as someone who brought the spark and excitement of nature and science to so many kids. Her methods were direct: hands-on, project-based -- none of this sitting down at a desk. She integrated walks in the woods, hatching Monarch butterflies, and any other project that would get kids' minds reeling and feet moving. What a role model!

The process of teaching, it seems, has seeped by constant exposure into all 3 of her daughters.

- My older sister: the amazing lawer, judge, college professor, and organic crusader. Listening to her is a powerful experience because she makes everything she does into an event.

- My younger sister: she teaches everyone around her how to be focused, positive and wonderful just by being in the presence of such clarity and confident energy. She has managed up to 50 people at a time, and has taught all of them something.

- And me: who has, throughout my meanderings, taught calligraphy, English, sales strategy, cooking, software, and now... how to make jewelry.

After my initial obsession with Precious Metal Clay began, I couldn't stop telling everyone about it. I would carry pieces around with me to show everyone. I would explain what an amazing process it is to see this soft smudgy clay turn into brilliant, hard, sparkling metal. How it was another way of recycling, and gave people immediate access to creating something of beauty they otherwise would have to learn to solder, file, and cut to create. How for so long, I'd been frustrated with the process-intensive medium I'd been focused on (intaglio etching) and that working directly on the clay was so liberating!

So some people wanted me to show them how ... and I taught them since I really wanted to share this new cool thing I'd found. But as I started to try and build a business, I realized that maybe I could incorporate two things I love: creativity and teaching.

I've been starting to advertise my jewelry classes, I'm starting to get some interest ~ it's exciting, scary, and so much fun! After a classes that were not advertised, I've worked out the kinks of teaching PMC, and my new classes are being well received.

Someone from my most recent class really touched me recently. Her comments went beyond what she learned in the class, the teaching techniques I used, or the success of the pieces she made. Instead, she said she enjoyed the class becase I was a warm, calm and generous presence. > gulp <

So I'm going to keep the classes going. Small, intimate, in my home. No more than 5 people at a time so I can give everyone attention. No fewer than 2 so I can still make ends meet for the time and effort it takes to put it together. But what a feeling ~ to make a positive impact and create for a few hours a place of creative expression not only for myself, but others.

The second batch... part 1

As promised, here they are... more to come... I'm now putting (but not gluing) bails on the pieces to get a better idea how they'll look as jewelry.

More and More Glass!

Hey all, now that the Holidays have past, I'm finally back to getting creative! I realize now that my 3 week hiatus of making jewelry came from sheer overload... I was busy with work, and (thankfully!) busy making lots of holiday presents and custom orders. It was a great problem to have, and I'm so thankful for the people who asked me to make something special for the people in their lives.

I was also busy with shows. But I have to tell you, I was surprised what I saw!

I am used to doing trade shows for my job, have sold my work in street fairs, and have attended a lot of craft shows to view others' work. But the shows I happened to be involved in were really odd. Maybe it's just my area, maybe I just picked the wrong shows... but they included bunches of non-craft vendors! Why would something like Pampered Chef be there? Mary Kay? Silpada? Tastefully Simple? Local Dance Lessons? Tutoring Services? I began to be rather confused as I walked down the aisles... would I find a local auto mechanic next? Why so many multi-level organizations? OK, so they are locally owned business (sort of) ~ and I'd love to support the people who are working hard to build their businesses. But... at a craft show? How does this connect? This really helped me resolve to get a portfolio together and apply to juried shows.


Anyway, rant aside, there were a few other crafters there ~ and I got to meet some great people. I learned a lot about pricing my work appropriately for a venue such as this: less individual pricing based on the work & materials that went into the piece, and more "group" pricing. It makes things more clear for the show attendees. It's easier for me, too... fewer tags, and if I happen to be speaking with another customer I don't keep another waiting.

(Click on this one for detail... the thumbnail looks grainy but the full size shows the way I've been organizing the table)

I also learned that my silver work needs to be displayed a little differently. Right now, everyone is drawn to the glass work right away; the silver is behind it. Since it's smaller and more detailed, I need to have the silver to the side and front ~ easier to look at and get up close to. I'd also like to change the glass display, and get more of it vertical ~ hanging, up on a step up, or individual pieces higher so the customers don't have to lean down to view it. Maybe a light table? A little spotlight? That would be cool!

OK, so back to the new work:

I found a great new source for glass **locally** which is thrilling because I have been buying over the internet without being able to see the sparkle and texture of each piece. It's so hard to capture dichroic glass in a photo; I can't imagine how hard it would be for a company who sells dichroic glass to accurately show it on their website. So going to a place within a half hour of my house - Vijohn Glass in Old Saybrook, CT - was a treat. Amazing selection, and their staff is frankly awesome. They even had coffee and coffeecake!

Most of their glass is COE 96 (and I've been buying COE 90) so I was a bit nervous about buying mixed COEs, and how I would keep it all separate. But after doing some tests, I've found that for this kind of application it appears OK to mix them in a limited way. This gave me a lot more flexibility, and choice!! I bought bunches of variety: ripple dichro in clear and black-based flavors, art glass with streamers and confetti, plain metallic dichro in every color, and lots of clear glass textures. It took a lot of self control to catalog it all when I came home before making new work!

Some of what I've done this weekend is here... this is all from the first firing. I have more to post in a couple days from the second firing, which overall I think was even more successful. I was playing with texture and art glass in the second batch, and creating layered effects.

So... watch out for more very soon!

Oh ~ I've also announced 2 PMC classes and a House Show to be held over the next few months. Check out the Coming Events section of my website: http://www.sulimosdesign.com/Events_Calendar.php