Broken Bindings

I am not going to talk about my vintage stuff, my teenage sons or my writing (lack of) career today.

Not even going to show you any weird stuff I found on the thrift store shelves (even though I saw a ceramic angel this week with huge nipples - but the picture didn't come out very well, so no one would believe anyway how disturbing it was to see an angelic little cherub with giant headlights).

After a snowy pre-Halloween weekend where I was grounded from all yard saling, I'm going to write instead about my second shop on etsy.com that I opened a little over a month ago, Broken Bindings.

After a slow start I was losing all hope that any of my handmade jewelry from old children's books, atlases and dictionaries would sell, and then five pieces went in the last few weeks - and that just makes me happy.

This Sacred pendant made with a piece of antique dictionary was the one to break the ice. Felt like a spiritual blessing of the shop as its first sale.

 The next two sales to leave my worktable, made their way to the same customer. One is made from an old reading primer, See Pat Go, and a silver vintage Sarah Coventry bracelet.

The other is this fun set of a ring and earrings made from an old Lets Go to the Circus children's book. These are both some of my favorites that were sitting unnoticed in my other shop for quite awhile, so I was extra happy to see them make their way out into the word. 

I almost kept this one for myself, but decided to put it in the shop as well, and glad I did as it sold next. A little Yoga and Yogi definitions from an old dictionary, now a necklace.

And last (hopefully just for now) is a piece of vintage atlas of Key West I put under a glass cabochon and mounted on a silver-toned pendant setting with little flowers around it. Kind of wanted to keep this one for myself too, but I was a good shopkeeper and sold it to a lovely lady in Alabama.

My sales in Broken Bindings are not near those in my vintage shop Found Things, but there are only 17 pieces in total for sale (vs. 250 in the vintage shop) and it has just started so doesn't have the same exposure, but I'm good with that. Just enjoy making these pieces from old paper and hope someone else will enjoy wearing them...although certainly an added bonus to make a little extra money doing something I enjoy so much.

Halloween is Coming...yay

You wouldn't know it to look at me..housewife, 43, driving the car pool to football practice...but inside beats the heart of the Queen of the Damned Vampires from the Underworld Werewolf Coven..in other words, I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

It probably stems from Halloween being my first taste of freedom. When I was little my father and our neighbor would follow far behind us, sipping beers (this wasn't frowned upon in 1975) and letting us run ahead to ring doorbells. We felt like we were big kids out there on our own - although secretly happy to catch a glimpse of moonlight reflecting off the Bud cans in the distance.

When I was eleven my parents released the reins completely on Halloween and my friends and I were allowed to go out in the neighborhood on our own unsupervised...at night...dressed up...scoring Reeses Peanut Butter cups...in the dark and everything...it was the coolest thing EVER. None of this was frowned upon in 1975 either in case you were thinking of calling child protective services.

So when October 31st approaches, I get that old giddy feeling and my jewelry-making takes a decided turn to the spooky. I already enjoy making steam punk pieces, so it doesn't take much to push a little more over to the dark side

Here are some pieces I made the other night and put in my etsy shop.
This is a vintage necklace and pendant I found at a yard sale, but it once held a plastic cabochon with a smiley-faced-sun picture...not anymore...bwaahaaa...I ripped out that smiley face and replaced it with an illustration of a cobweb from an old children's fairy tale book and sealed it with resin. Hoping this will make some little witch very happy.

I got a little spooky-Steam Punk with this piece made from a vintage chain and adorned with a crystal from an antique chandelier (picked up at an estate sale last summer). Also with a pendant made using an illustration from an old Four and Twenty Black-Birds book.


This one isn't really macabre, but has an old, mysterious feel. I cut out the word "sacred" from an antique dictionary and put it behind glass. The clear sealant gave it an even darker, more aged look than it had originally. Perfect gift for your secret society friends.

I am just a little sad this year that the boys might be officially too old to go out trick-or-treating. But maybe not, they may surprise me. They also like the freedom of running around with their friends in the dark without parental supervision. Although I never walked behind them with a beer in my hand...some spiked cider or a Cosmo in a coffee-cup maybe...but not beer.

De-stashing

I learned a new word today..."de-stashing."

As I understand it, de-stashing is the act of going through your stash of leftover art and craft supplies - the remnants of your creative frenzy, as it were -- and offering them up for other artists and crafters to use in their own creations. Like when someone who makes stained glass windows offers up the smaller glass pieces that are left, and someone who makes mosaics or jewelry buys them to use in their own work.

It can als0 mean offering up any extra supplies you don't want anymore - like, some extra lampwork beads you made that are laying around after you finish that necklace.
No waste. Win, win. Love when that happens.

So after I learned what it was, I decided to try it out myself.I use small pieces of illustrations from damaged, vintage children's books in some of my jewelry making. I use only a small part of the book, so there is an alarming pile of them growing around my craft table. So to, hopefully, get the other great illustrations in these books out into the world for any artist or crafter that might want them in their own artwork or collage, I went through them and pulled out the best pages and have added them to my etsy shop.
I get excited about not wasting things... reusing, upcycling, repurposing...now de-stashing...yay.

Etsy Community

I love the etsy.com community, and that is weirdly what it feels like sometimes. Even though you rarely meet the people you are selling with, buying from or selling too (I did meet one woman who bought a tea-pot from me and lives in the same county, so we met at a Starbucks - that's why I say "rarely"), yet connections are made on-line.

I've had other sellers on etsy contact me to ask me to look out for certain things when I'm at yard sales and thrift stores, so they can buy them from me to use in their own creations.

A writer for In-Style Magazine's on-line zine noticed a brooch I made and had in my etsy shop, she ended up including it in an article (see link to the right) she was doing on how brooches are coming back into style.

And now, a fellow etsy seller who has a great shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/blimpcat
has included this retro-clock I have on my site in her current blog about decorating and designing with vintage items...
http://www.blimpcat.blogspot.com/
It really is fun watching where things you either found in a garage sale, or you created in your craft room, will end up in this cyber-world of etsy.com.

Playing with Words

I love words.

I love writing them in stories and creating characters, dialog, places, relationships. They are my paintbrush.

Since I have decided to give that part of me - the author, writing part of my brain -- a sabbatical, I find it funny that even as I try a new creative outlet in jewelry making, I still come back to words.

Here are a few pieces I made last night and put up on my etsy.com shop tonight...

Words, words, words...it always comes back to words.

Winter Makes Me Feel Crafty

And not in the "crafty" way of being clever either...just in the way that I like to sit on a cold, gray day by the fire with a bunch of old buttons, glue, jewelry findings and falling apart children's books...ooh, how romantic.

I know there are probably people who would rather be skiing (actually, that does sound good), or snuggled up with their honeys with a cup of hot cocoa (oh, that sounds good too), but I love to spend a nice winter's afternoon, like yesterday, with scissors and pliers - don't ask, had a brain storm about using old electronic boards to make steam punk jewelry, still working the bugs out on that idea -- and made a few rings, necklaces and a brooch.

Here are a few of my creations...

Oh, I hope its a long winter, I've got a lot of ideas!

The Jewelry Side

I've mostly talked about the side of my shop that is about finding and selling vintage items, but there is another side I've neglected here, the jewelry side. Most of it I make using bits of illustrations from old children's books that are damaged beyond viability.

I make jewelry from either altering vintage pieces I find at yard sales and thrift shops, usually they have a plastic cabochon that's scratched or tired, I pop it out and replace it with a glass or resin cabochon that I've adhered a piece of an illustration.

Sometimes I buy findings from some of the fabulous suppliers here on etsy, like bracelets, necklaces or rings, and create jewelry that way with the old pictures.
These are some of the old books I work with - only books that are completely beyond-repair and one step away from the trash (sometimes already there).

And above them are some of the findings waiting for me to put illustrations in them.

My Style Article

I'm so psyched, My Style.com (In Style magazine's webazine) did an article on using brooches to brighten up your wardrobe and talked about my etsy shop and quoted me. If you click on my name in the article it is linked to my etsy shop.

Here's the link (to cut and paste in browser)...

http://www.mystyle.com/mystyle/b6014_ask_style_how_make_brooch_modern.html

Or click on link to the right...