Oh August....where did you go?

This summer has proven to be a busy one! It seems like it just started and we are already into the last few days. Spending time with my family has been my #1 priority but I have managed to squeeze in a bit of work here and there. 

Peace Sign Hemp Bracelet ~Black hemp with a red Magnesite peace sign and finished off with a sliding clasp which makes this bracelet totally adjustable. Perfect for guys or girls and since this bracelet isn't crafted in summer colors, this is a piece that will carry you into fall. Available in my etsy shop!https://www.etsy.com/listing/242391737/peace-bracelet

All of my jewelry is 100% guartanteed, meaning if it ever breaks during normal wear, I will fix it for free! This customer broke her silver Message Ring. We talked about the durability of the copper version and how it is sturdier than the aluminum. She ended up getting a replacement for the silver and ordered a copper version as well. These rings are one of my favorites! I love the simple look of them but the fact that they are hand stamped with whatever you choose adds a lot of meaning to them. I've been wearing mine almost daily since I made the first ones in December and they still look great!

Ever since I started working with wire I wanted to be able to cage stones, cabachons and other random objects to form pendants. Why I took the plunge during one of the busiest months of the year for me, I have no idea, but I finally did it and was pretty happy with the results! The first one I made was with a cabachon my dad brought me back from Texas and it sold almost immediately after I posted it on Facebook. The next 3 were made with stones collected off the shore from Lake Michigan. I am sort of a rock hoarder and love collecting stones from my creek and the Great Lakes. I am excited about these and am thinking about starting a Great Lakes Collection with stones from Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior.

My 'Lennon' Bracelet is stamped with 'You may say I'm a dreamer' and is accented on both sides with soothing blue glass beads and a magnesite peace sign. I feel like anyone who wears this will feel a sense of peace surround them! Available in my etsy shop...https://www.etsy.com/listing/244022995/lennon-bracelet-john-lennon-imagine

This necklace was a revamp I made for a friend. She sent me this cute little frog charm which was a graduation gift she received years ago. She also sent a necklace with the pink lampwork glass beads, metal beads and chain. I took the necklace apart, using the beads and some of the chain. The focal was created with her frog charm, a metal bead and glass teardrop bead and a banner charm that says "She got 3 wishes", giving it a fairytale feel. The sari silk also adds a whimsical touch. I love doing re-vamps....taking an existing piece and breathing a whole new life into it!

My mom's birthday is in August and she had requested a suncatcher like the one I made for my sister as a housewarming gift. Soooooo....this was one of her birthday gifts! A nice chunk of quartz crystal, wrapped with copper wire and attached to a strand of colorful glass beads. Finished with a copper wire hook.

And that is about the extent of my work for this month! School starts soon and I will be back to my old schedule and able to find more time to get more things done.....I hope! As always, thanks for reading this and thank you to all my amazing clients and customers! You are why I do what I do!

My work for the weeks of July 12th through July 24th.

~CUSTOM ORDERS~

 Pet Memorial Jewelry. Memorial jewelry of any kind is one of my favorites to make. I love that it holds a special meaning and sentimental value for the wearer and I am honored when asked to make a memorial piece.

 Earth Goddess Bracelet. The focal of this bracelet is obviously the goddess figure created with copper wire. The center bead is an opalescent glass bead. The sides of the bracelet represent the chakras and are made from coral, agate, serpentine, aquamarine, lapis lazuli and amethyst. Chain and a lobster claw give it a customizable fit and finished with a handmade copper headpin.

I made one of these for Father's Day and had a few requests for more. I love how simple this is in contrast to the intense meaning.
                     ~UP FOR GRABS~

 I love the simplicity of this necklace! Magnesite beads with three emerald green, acrylic spikes. Available in my etsy shop....www.etsy.com/shop/pariscreekjewelry

 Free Spirit. This style of necklace is one of my favorites. It'a unexpected, it's fun and it's full of positive energy! Made with a Magnesite 'tooth', quartz crystals, Turquoise and other natural beads. Available in my etsy shop! www.etsy.com/shop/pariscreekjewelry

 This bracelet is very personal and I made it for myself. I lost my step-grandma and 2 pets over the last couple weeks. I made this to remind myself that there are always angels watching over me and the ones I love. <3

 Thelma and Louise....always one of my most popular necklace sets! I chose Lapis Lazuli points to pair with the hand stamped charms because it is believed lapis is the stone of friendship. Also available in my etsy shop!

 I love this necklace!!! Mind, Body, Soul....each tag is hand stamped (one with each word) and dangles from a copper wire-wrapped quartz crystal which hangs from a leather cord wrapped in sari silk. Also available in my etsy shop, just click on one of the above links!

 Ok, if you can't tell by now, I love natural stones! I just feel like they add such a healing energy to my jewelry! My Dusk Until Dawn bracelet is full of natural stones and positive energy. Also in my etsy shop. ;)

I know sometimes it's hard to picture what a certain piece will look like when it's lying on a flat surface so here are a couple photos of me wearing some of my favorites. :)

Imperfectly Perfect

 I readily admit....I am far from perfect! But when making my jewelry I try to make it as perfect as I can. I often have to remind myself though that I am a person and not a machine....I don't do perfect!

 I have been handstamping jewelry for around 3 1/2 years. I bought an inexpensive set of stamps from Fire Mountain Gems (www.firemountaingems.com) just to see if I liked it....or if I would be any good at it! My first attempts were decent but I learned pretty quickly that handstamping can be a frustrating process. (Thank goodness my photo quality has greatly improved as well!!!)

 You can see that I did ok....but certain materials are easier to stamp than others. Some surfaces are more slick and when your stamp slips it can really mess up your piece. My hand stamped pieces quickly became popular, undoubtably due to their customizability but this was definitely a difficult technique to master with my tiny stamps.

 One day I unknowingly entered a contest on Facebook for ImpressArt and won a $70 set of stamps! Woo-hoo! They have been amazing and definitely kicked my stamping up a notch! Bigger stamps are definitely easier to work with and I no longer need to use tape for a guide when using those stamps.

 Above all I have learned to roll with the punches (hmmmm....was that a metal working joke???) and embrace mistakes. Sometimes a stamp slips...usually it still looks fine and won't make or break the visual design of the piece. Here are a few of my most recent stamping as well as one of my all time favorites which was unfortunately stolen from a local business where it was on display....

Above is my most recent work. Below is my most popular necklace of 2013.....

And lastly....one of my favorite bracelets. The one that was stolen. I hope whoever swiped it has been enjoying it and treating it well. Maybe someday I will make myself a similar piece. Sigh.....

Sometimes I impress myself and unintentionally make something darn near perfect without even trying (like the placement of the words on my Mind, Body, Soul Necklace pictures above) while other times....things just have to be imperectly perfect. It's the nature of handmade jewelry. ;) Just remember to keep this thought in mind while shopping for anything handmade....Seek beauty...not perfection. Until next time.

Balancing Act

We all try to find balance in our lives and the same is true for artists. I am a "work-at-home mom"/jewelry artist/Thirty-One Consultant constantly trying to find balance between family life and work life. I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and when I had the opportunity just after my daughter's 5th birthday, I took it!

Though I love nothing more than to be able to be readily available to my now 3rd grader, I will admit, working from home is hard. When there is a huge pile of laundry or dishes (seriously....where does all that come from?!?) it can be tough to get into the creative zone! Housework is never done, as every mother knows and there are never enough hours in the day to do everything I set out to do.

Not only do I have a daughter, we also have a small (ok maybe not so small?) collection of animals that are always in need of my time, attention and love.

(Yes, this is pretty typical of a night in our house. Usually no cat on the table though. Lol)

On top of our dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, fish and turtle, this spring we added a hamster, 2 new ducklings and 6 chicks. Yes, I have probably lost my mind. ;)

Then our 2 adult ducks threw us for a loop and hatched out a baby!

We've had our fair share of babies at the Riebow Funny Farm this spring and things are finally starting to settle down here a little as far as all the extra work that comes with babies is concerned.

So.....with all this going on how do I find time for my jewelry business? Sometimes I don't. During the school year I have the house to myself while my daughter is at school and my husband is at work and after taking care of any necessary chores it is usually easy to find an hour or 2 here or there to bust out some new pieces. Then comes summer and we are squeezing every available drop of sunshine and warm weather out of our day and sometimes jewelry making falls to the back burner. Summer brings it's own form of crazy that the school year lacks and I often end up mostly working on custom orders. Thankfully lots of my fabulous customers are looking for fun, summery pieces like hemp/macrame bracelets which are easy to work on anywhere. Plus I have tons of previously made jewelry from fall and winter still waiting for new homes. ;)

And sometimes even when I have time for jewelry, things like wedding gifts need to be made and I get sucked into a different kind of craft world for a while.

I am so thankful to my amazing customers for their patience, understanding and support. Making custom jewelry is very important to me but my family always comes first. I am just trying to live day by day and enjoy every moment while doing my best to balance it all. I would love to hear how YOU find balance in your life. I am still searching. ;)

Inspiration

Last year I taught jewelry making classes at a local art gallery. It was inevitable that the question would come up....."Where do you get your inspiration." It's a question I have been asked many times and I never really have one good answer.

I am constantly inspired by all the amazing artists of the world....both past and present. Sometimes I can look at a painting and realize I love the way certain colors look together. Then comes the pull....I HAVE to make something in those colors before it drives me insane! Also, like many other artists I am greatly inspired by nature! I started working with resin over a year ago and I love incorporating bits of nature (dried flowers, pinecones etc...) into jewelry.

Some of my biggest inspiration comes from the jewelry materials themselves. There are many times I sit down at my desk with an idea of what I want to do but nothing set in stone. I just start pulling things out of my stash and sometimes I create exactly what I set out to do. Other times, I feel like the pieces more or less tell me what they want to become. I'm sure this sounds strange, since it also does to me and I am the one saying it.😄 It's just the way it works sometimes.

The above picture is one of those pieces. I knew I wanted to do something with this electroplated crystal and some leather. I made the pendant and chose my leather and then decided I wanted to add some sari silk in a deep blue to match the crystal.
While trying to decide exactly how I wanted to use the silk, I spotted some leftover cotton cord from another project.

Next I wanted something to add a little more dimension to the necklace.

Some bone and horn beads seemed like a good fit.
Once it was together I was pretty happy with the end result and didn't want to add anything else to make it too busy. And as you can see, I never did use any of that silk!

What do you think?
I also worked on the piece for my Summer Giveaway today! You can go to www.facebook..com/pariscreekjewelry for the full giveaway details on how to win this....

I hope you enjoyed this blog and that I didn't ramble too much. I'd love to hear what you think!😉 Until next time....

Hello! My name is Corri and I am the artist behind Paris Creek Jewelry. I have been making jewelry for 15 years but turned my passion into a business about 5 years ago when my friends started asking to buy the jewelry I was making and wearing!
I have relied on etsy and Facebook alone and decided I would like to try a new adventure.....a blog. Please bare with me as I learn how all this works and work out the kinks. This is all new to me and I am not the most tech savy person! If you would like to head over to Facebook and check out my pieces you can click on www.facebook.com/pariscreekjewelry. I actually have a giveaway going on right now so I hope you will stop by and say hi! :)