Success & motivation

Hooray!!  http://anatomicalelement.etsy.com is a SUCCESS!!  

I'm very excited that I have sold 3 items already!  This success is just driving my motivation through the roof!! I have been sketching and writing out ideas all day!!

It's fun to package up the pieces and send them off!  Here's a quick photo of my very first sale all ready to go!  I include a handwritten thank-you card in each package, with my business card and care instructions (if necessary).  I might start including care instructions with all of my pieces.

Like the skull ribbon?!   I might reserve this for anatomical pieces only, as it might be too Halloween-y for some folks.

And I have my first commissioned challenge - a skull belt buckle using my skull pendant as a basis!  I ordered a blank belt buckle and I have a bunch of ideas swimming around in my head!  Can't wait for it to arrive so I can start creating!!

I will be listing the remaining items that I have finished this week.  I have some rings that I need to figure out what size they are before I list them.  Need to buy a ring mandrel with sizes.

What do you all think of the store and my pieces?  Anything you'd like to see??   

Any challenges!?!?!

Sneak Peak!

The Anatomical Element Etsy store is now OPEN!!  Click here to see some awesome pieces! And snag them soon, the first sale was made in less than 1 hour after opening!!!!

Want custom pieces?  Email me your ideas and I will help make them come to life!!!

http://anatomicalelement.etsy.com

Milestones

Oh rats.  I have neglected this blog for far too long. When life gets busy, it's hard to update all avenues of social media equally.  Apparently, I'm extremely addicted to Facebook and thus that gets updated far more than this blog or my feeble little Twitter account. 

However, things are a-changin'!  New opportunities on the horizon and fun events planned!  I've hit a health and fitness milestone in my life and hopefully starting up a new business venture with it as well!  Also, my jewelry motivation is booming!  I am signed up for a new class, started my Etsy store and have been scanning art festivals for ideas and set up tips!!

So first, this health and fitness milestone.  One of my high school friends introduced me to a new health product a few months ago.  I was completely skeptical, because I was brought up knowing that healthy food and exercise will get you where you need to be.  Well, knowing and doing are two totally different things.  Being nearly at my heaviest weight, I decided to give it a try.  2 weeks later I was down 12 pounds and 9 inches.  :-)  It has completely changed my attitude, my outlook and my motivation!  I am signed up for a 15K in November and have now lost a total of 18 pounds! 
If anyone is interested, I would LOVE to share my experience with you and see if this product could change your life as well! It's insane how much better life is when you feel good about yourself!!

LW? Don't know who the artist is--would love to give credit.  Found it floating around facebook.  But it's very true. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.   Attitude is everything in life. 

Secondly, my Etsy store!  I finally took the plunge and signed up!  It took a while to decide on a name (and who knows, that could change in time) but for now it's "Anatomical Element"  (because there are elements of anatomy in everything...)  I really want to pursue my anatomical jewelry ideas as well as other inspired creations.   Here's a sneak peek at the store. I haven't listed anything yet (need to finish them and take photos) But it will be up soon!

 

I also made up some quick business cards so when I sell something I can package it up all cute and include one!  I can't believe I've gone this long with out some sort of business card anyway!  

 

 

There just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I have planned!  Check back soon and I'll share pictures of some of the anatomical pieces I've found at the art festivals around chicago!  I'm getting quite a little skull collection going!  :-) 

Concept to Creation

Just wanted to share one of my finished jewelry pieces. This was created for my mother-in-law as a mother's day gift.  Family is very important to her and family-themed jewelry has been floating around Pinterest and other sites lately, so I decided to create my own design.

Unfortunately I don't have any in-process photos (I need to get better at taking those...)  But I do have the initial concept and finished piece.  It's actually amazing how close it turned out!

 The names on the left are her children from oldest to youngest -- Derek, Travis, Hope.  The names on the right are her children's spouses -- Rachel, Tara, Mark.    The 3 pieces are separate (not soldered together) so they can move freely and add a little jingle to the pendant.  It is made of brass and silver with a silver bezel set jasper stone.

Whatcha think???   

Stones, Gems, Cabochons!

I'm sitting here listening to the birds chirp in between the quiet thunder.  So relaxing and inspirational!  Something about interesting weather that gets the creativity flowing. :-)

Anyhoo, I wanted to share the final products of my resin experiment.  I learned that you can't stir the mixture too quickly or you will get air bubbles.  Well crap, but for a first try I think they were successful.  A few took longer than 24 hours to dry, but overall not too shabby.

 

I made a few others in heart shapes that I didn't want to keep, so I gave them to a friend in jewelry class for her daughter.  These are probably more than I will use anyway since my class is ending in a month and I have way too many new ideas. 

 

 The medical illustrator in me just HAD to make an eyeball with the clear resin!  I couldn't resist!  So technically I did not do this correctly since the eyeball image is not embedded in the resin....i printed it later and placed it behind the resin, but it will work.  I plan to make it into a simple ring.   Not quite as realistic as the acrylic eye I made in anaplastology class!

I am also trying to finish up a mother's day pendant for my mom. She picked out the stone the last time she visited Chicago, and I unfortunately can't remember what it is!  But I wanted to create a unique design for her and try something new. So I took silver wire and used it as a border around the hand-forged copper as well as used it for connections to the chain.  I still have to set the stone and will hopefully finish this next week.

Also, yesterday a jewelry classmate and I hopped on the CTA and ventured to Rosemont for the International Gem and Jewelry Show.  It was a massive display of beads, gems, stones, findings, wire--a beginning jeweler's dream!! Nearly overwhelming, but luckily I came with a budget!  I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but if something spoke to me, then it went home with me :-)

 These were in the $1 bins and I was super excited!  I can make rings or pendants out of them! I've noticed that I am drawn to earthy and organic cabochons rather than sparkly ones.  I did choose one (the purple one at the top) that is more like a crystal, just for variety.

 These are my FAVORITE!  The greenish ones are Red Creek Jasper but the other one is unknown.  I just LOVE them!! I think I will make earrings and a matching ring from the Red Creek Jasper and perhaps a pendant from the other one.  Copper looks good with both of them, but I might use silver on the orange/white one to make it stand out more. 

So many new projects to finish before class is over!  Time to get into the open studio at night and on weekends!  This is my sanity's saving grace since I am working overtime for work as well.  And as I said before, rainy days are PERFECT for productivity and creativity!! 

Resin Virgin!

So today I experimented with a new medium: RESIN!  I am hoping to create some decent cabochons to use for jewelry, but today was just a play day.  It started out with difficulty getting the freaking can open and from there was just a mess...but hopefully a productive mess.  :-) 

I purchased Castin' Craft Resin and its catalyst components and played around with coloring options that I already had like nail polish and eyeshadow.  I will probably bring out the oil paints for a more opaque look next time.  I can also embed objects in the resin, so I am sketching up some fun drawings (probably anatomical) to include behind the resin.  I am super excited about those!!

This website has been extremely helpful explaining step-by-step how to use resin.  http://www.inspiri-art-and-craft.com/resin-jewelry.html

So for now the finished products are curing in front of a window for added ventilation.  I am extremely impatient and it's tough to wait 24 hours for them to completely dry!  I've already poked at them a couple times....lol! 

 

The ideas are endless!!  I can't wait to be able to use this medium for my jewelry!  I'm starting to make a "Creative To-Do List" because I have so many different ideas and projects that i want to try out and learn!  So far here's my start:

1. Resin casting for jewelry
2. Metal clay for jewelry
3. Etching for jewelry
4. Triptych painting on found alley wooden materials
5. Polymer clay sculpting (possible bobblehead creation)
6. T-shirt quilt (leftover project)
7. Altered book (hopefully continuing the round robin)
8. Mini-Bowling Pin paintings (actual christmas project)

What's on your list?

Remembering grad school anatomy class

I was cleaning up stuff on the interwebs and ran across an old blog post from graduate school. As much as anatomy was a difficult and demanding class, once I figured out how to study and memorize it all, I actually really enjoyed it! Here's the post, hope you get a few laughs out of it!

"Anatomy Randomness"
Posted on October 20, 2005:

- if our foramen ovale didn't close, we would have an atrial septal defect and your right atrium and ventricle would be huge.

- if your heart valves don't close all the way, you have a valvular insuffiency. if they won't completely open, you have a stenosis.

- the vagus nerve continues as the pelvic splanchnic nerve in the abdomen. it is preganglionic parasympathetic.

- the pericardiacophrenic vessels travel with the phrenic nerve along the anterior of the heart--who the hell names these things?

- the celiac trunk has too many fucking branches.

- the female vaginal muscles look wimpy.

- the spermatic cord consists of: ductus deferens, deferential artery, testicular artery, cremaster muscle, cremasteric artery, lymph vessels, pampiniform plexus of veins to keep the balls cool, and a testicular vein. I may have forgotten something....

- Ever think that you could get a loop of intestine in your nut sac? yep, it's called a hernial sac. but don't worry, that only happens if your testes don't descend properly. I'm sure you're fine.

- Hey ladies, gonna have children? get ready for your central tendon of your perineum to be cut to make your vagina bigger! Just let the episiotomist do his/her job, letting it tear would be worse.