Nostalgia Around Your Neck

I have vivid memories of summer camp as a kid. I didn't go to "sleep away" camp like so many other kids did, but there was a county park near my house that had a day camp that my sister and I would sometimes attend.

I remember on those super hot, humid Florida summer days, the joy of an orange soda and arts and crafts time inside the park's community center. We would fashion birdhouses out of popsicle sticks, tie-dye our t-shirts, and of course, make lanyards and keychains. The counselors would give us the plasticky cord and we'd go to town until we had something like this:

So when I saw the Accordion Strands necklace at Anthropologie, something seemed strangely familiar:

That's right, it's a box braid! I was officially inspired and decided to see if I could still remember the technique I learned in summer camp so many years ago. I came up with this:

I'm currently working with narrower ribbons on another box braid project. I'm not sure yet what it will be, but it's going to take a while!

It's a Match!

I finally finished the project I was working on, took photos, and edited them. This is the first matching set that I've made with chandelier style crystals. I didn't have a plan for the rose colored crystals when I bought them, they just looked pretty, and I like using acrylic crystals because they are lightweight. You can use more crystals in one piece because they won't be heavy or uncomfortable, and they are especially good for earrings.

When I received the aqua Czech glass beads, I had one of those light bulb moments, and I knew I would be using them with the rose crystals. I decided that I wanted to create a cluster pendant as the focal point of the necklace instead of using the crystals as the focal point. I wire wrapped everything for a secure finish. The earrings were a given when I decided I only wanted to use six crystals in the necklace. Here they are!

Collaged Crystal Necklace

Here is a necklace I recently finished. I'll probably just keep it, or perhaps switch the crystal out for another one and sell it. I accidentally put the collage on crooked. If has some character, I suppose, but I wouldn't sell it like this.

I've had that crystal for quite some time now, but I never knew how I wanted to use it until now.

It's Just a Start

My husband and I love to create things. I've always gained great satisfaction from creating or physically changing things so that I can see the fruits of my labor. I never really thought much about it until recently, since I've become quite bored with my job and need more personal joy from doing something. It's a decent paying job, but I just don't get much satisfaction from it (other than the complete and utter gratitude that I actually do have a job in these trying times). I've had hobbies that come and go, since my interests range from such things as photography, reading, drawing, and playing music to doing research, doing math (I know, I know - I used to hate it, but now numbers seem to make some sense), and cleaning (yeah, I know, another weird one). I never really ever picked just one thing and focused on it for more than a few months or a year at a time; however, I've always gone back to each of these things (and others) when I get bored with whatever it is I happened to be focusing on lately.

But I really just love to create things. I like to make clean things out of dirty things, functional things out of broken things, and pretty things out of a bunch of what looks like nothing. Mostly, I just like to make things better than they were, or better than their parts. I started making jewelry a couple of  years ago, inspired by my local bead store, Ornamentea. The store is so cute, and there are so many lovely goodies to choose from, how could you not be inspired to at least make a little something? Of course, I hadn't made jewelry since middle school when I taught myself how to make daisy chains with seed beads and knotted friendship bracelets. Needless to say, I've kind of outgrown those styles a bit. This is where Ornamentea really proves how awesome it is: they not only do they offer a variety of classes at the store, but they also offer FREE tutorials for different techniques and project ideas.

From Ornamentea.

OK, so another thing that I've slowly (and painfully) learned about myself over the course of my life is that I love teaching myself how to do things. No offense to any of the awesome teachers and instructors I've had in my life, but I really do learn and retain better by being given the basics and then being left to my own devices. So the tutorials that I found on Ornamentea's website totally tickled my fancy. They had amazing photos and instructions, and before I knew it, I'd made my very own seahorse necklace!

I was so proud of myself! Not only did I now actually have an awesome, unique piece of jewelry, I also had the pleasure of knowing I made it myself. I got so many compliments on it, I couldn't wait for the next new tutorial to come out, so I went to the store and bought a whole bunch of supplies that I hoped would inspire me. I had this wild idea that I'd make some necklaces for my sister and my Mom, which I eventually did. But I also bought a few things that are still sitting in my supply. I think I just jumped the gun, considering I didn't really have a whole lot of jewelry crafting experience under my belt yet. However, those other pretty ingredients will be used eventually, so they were not bought in vain.

So three years later I I now find myself itching to create my own designs. I've been inspired by many of Ornamentea's free tutorials, and I've learned a lot from them. I probably have plenty more to learn, and will likely take a few real classes sometime in the future. But I've also found another inspiration: Anthropologie. I just love the eclectic, yet beautiful, style of pretty much everything they sell. Just one problem - I would not be able to eat if I actually shopped there as much as I'd like to. Sure, they have great sales, and I've certainly found some incredible deals, but so many times I've missed out on something I really liked. And many times I've thought to myself, "I can make that!" This is mostly true with the jewelry, since I am far from being a seamstress with enough wits to even make a simple apron that won't fall apart (I do plan on improving upon that, though).

I've made jewelry for friends and they've had people ask them if I am selling my wares, but I've just never put enough time into it to actually create an inventory. Well, that is changing, my friends. I'm feeling enterprising and inspired, so let's see what I can come up with. I'm still debating whether to open and Etsy or Artfire shop, but I'll save that great debate for another post.

Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk at ya later.

The Keywords

So, knowing how important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is for just about everything these days, my first post will simply establish keywords on my blog. Major search engines tend to favor sites that have a longer tenure when returning search results, so here we go.

I'm hoping to start selling some of my Anthropologie inspired jewelry to just make a little extra money. I enjoy creating things, and I think that people often appreciate handmade lovely items. I'm hoping to keep an affordable range of items for those who love Anthropologie, but who can't always handle the steep prices there.

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