On the road to stardom

Check out my debut on the local Houston news program NewsFix.

I captured the pic old school...by hitting the pause/play combo until I got something that looked somewhat decent, hitting PrnScrn, and editing in Photoshop. Note that I said somewhat decent... I really should learn how to video capture.

Update after Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike has been all over the news, so I’m sure that you’ve all seen and heard at least a little bit about the damage caused to Galveston and surrounding areas.

Our home in Sugar Land suffered almost no damage. We lost a small part of our fence and one shingle from our roof. It could have been so much worse, and I think God that He watched over our family during the storm.

I am sad to say that Simply Art Gallery, one of the locations that carries my jewelry, was probably completely destroyed during the storm. The gallery is located in Galveston on the Strand. It had 9 feet of water in it, and I am certain that there is extensive damage to the building and that much of the art was lost.

I have received an email from the one of the owners of the gallery…both owners made it through the storm safe and sound and will go back to salvage what they can of their homes and the Gallery when power and water services are restored to the island.

My heart goes out to all of the people of Galveston, Kemah, and the surrounding areas that felt the full force of Ike’s wrath. I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers, and I look forward to visiting a rebuilt Strand and Kemah Boardwalk soon!

With love,
Stevie

Shaking things up

Just when you think your world is just fine the way it is, you have to go and shake things up a bit. That’s the way the world works, right? My husband and I recently decided to shake up our lives quite a bit…on July 26, we had our first baby, a little girl named Kaylie Elaine. And they’re right (whoever “they” really are…): having a baby really does change your life.

Between the middle-of-the-night feedings, the constant wondering what “wah” really means, and the baby wearing, I’m sleep deprived, sore, and generally exhausted. But I’ve never felt more joy or creativity. Creating life is a person’s most important work of art, and nurturing that life and seeing it grow does the same for a person’s inner fire. I feel like I have so many new designs swimming around in my head – now if I could just find the time to make them all (see above comments about being exhausted).

I am happy to report that Kaylie truly does enjoy my work (she sleeps right through my hammering and the tumbling machine noise). I hope that one day, she’ll appreciate fashion and art the way I do. But if she wants to play in the dirt and hunt for bugs, I’m okay with that too.

As much as the munchkin will let me, I will continue to create new jewelry collections and appear at local Houston Markets and Art events. The holidays are coming up, so please check the Events page to see where I’ll be this season. And know that I may be a bit slower to update the blog and online store…but I have a good excuse.

Cheers,
Stevie

EUTECTIC jewelry at the Bayou City Arts Festival

I know it's a little bit short notice, but I just found out myself on Friday that I'll be demonstrating how to make jewelry at the Bayou City Arts Festival this weekend, March 28 - 30.


I will be set up near the Food Court (site map) on Friday - Sunday from 10am - 5:45pm. I'll be making jewelry for the new EUTECTIC Spring/Summer 2008 collection and demonstrating techniques while making small charm hoops from base metal wire. I'll be making LOTS of hoops, so come by and pick up a free pair!

Cheers.

"Spring has sprung" - the new EUTECTIC Spring/Summer Collection is here

As I said in the last post, I've been working on some new EUTECTIC jewelry for the Spring/Summer 2008. I made these postcards to hand out and thought I'd share...


The Spring/Summer 2008 collection is all about color. Check out the Pantone Fashion Color Report for Spring 2007 and you'll see lots of orange, green, and pink was predicted for this season (based on various designer runway collections). One look at the fashion mags and the department stores will confirm this prediction. So in keeping with the spirit of fashion, I've included some new multi-color schemes in my designs as well as some new shapes. I've also added new pieces to the "a rare thing" Etsy shop.

It's been a beautiful few weeks here in Houston...celebrate with some color (and some new jewelry!). Cheers.

Crawling lessons

No update since December, hmph. Seems like I'm an expert at crawling under rocks...if anyone needs lessons, I'm willing to teach. :) Actually, there are a few good reasons why I've been absent:

1. The Christmas season was a killer! I had planned to take the entire month of January off after all the shows and events of the last few months.
2. I found out in January that I was pregnant (due August 1st). I proceeded to develop a bad case of fatigue and spent my month of vacation lying on my couch taking naps. I feel much better now, and other than the tiredness, I've felt fine throughout. We found out early this month that we're having a girl, and my husband and I are quite excited.
   
3. I got the flu in February and spent about two weeks recovering from that.

Whew! So since then, I've gotten back in the studio & come up with some new jewelry designs, and I've resumed my search for new and cool handmade things here in the Houston area. I will tell you that I am going to amend my original idea of posting every day and drop it back to at least once per week. I will probably take another break between July and August, though I'm sure once life with a baby settles out a bit, I'll resume some of my work.

I do have a few things to post about now, but I'll do them in separate posts b/c they're not realy related and I don't want this one to be too long.

Happy Monday! Cheers

New Items added to the Shop

I've been a busy bee...check out the new items listed in the Shop:

I'm on vacation...I wish!

I'm not on vacation...I'm just a bit overwhelmed. I've been doing shows and such to promote my jewelry line, and I pretty much have time for nothing else right now (you should see my studio...yuck!). I hope to be back posting in January.

I hope that everyone has a great Holiday Season!

On the Event Calendar - "2nd Saturday Shopping Spree"

If you don’t already have plans for this Saturday (and even if you do!), come out to the Midtown Farmers Market for the “2nd Saturday Shopping Spree” event.

Houston Craft Mafia members Feto Soap and Rara Avis (that’s me!) will be there with tables full of handmade goodness. I’ve got new notebooks from the Inked and The White Tree stationery lines, new Signature notecards, and fun summer jewelry from EUTECTIC. Lisa from Feto Soap will have lotion bars, shea butter lip balm and handmade soaps. Come by and say hello.

The Market runs from 8am - 12pm on Saturdays at t’afia restaurant (3701 Travis & W. Alabama), rain or shine. See you there!

Rara Avis to be a part of September's "The Sampler"

Okay, so if you don't know what "The Sampler" is, then here's the quick rundown. You make stuff, you send stuff to The Sampler, the Sampler sends you a great little package of handmade goodies and information. Even if you don't make stuff, you can still subscribe for a small fee. Then you just get to sit on your couch and wait for your package of goodies. How cool is that??

I decided to participate for the September package. I'm sending in 50 pair of medium charm hoops (Made of brass... You want gold? Go buy it!) from my EUTECTIC line, so if you subscribe, you may be one of the lucky people that get my sample. I'm planning on continuing to send in stuff (maybe a charm for the hoops next time, or a handmade holiday card), so stay tuned.

Cheers.

I'm out finding myself

It's always nice to know that people notice you. :)

• Paper Shop ink. and More! blog - The White Tree stationery (scroll down about 2/3 of the way)
• 27Things blog - She blogged that I blogged. and now I'm blogging that she blogged that...
  

Back from Market

I just got finished with my first market event. Yea! Rara Avis was a craft vendor at last Saturday at the Midtown Farmer's Market (at Monica Pope's t'afia restaurant on W. Alabama and Travis). The Midtown Farmer's Market runs every Saturday from 8am - 12pm, rain or shine, and has on of the best selections of locally grown and organic produce and prepared foods around...including items prepared there at t'afia. I was a part of the "Second Saturday Shopping Spree" event featuring the normal rotation of food items plus a selection of artists and craftspeople with handmade goods. Fellow Houston Craft Mafia member Lisa from Fetosoap was there, as well as several other talented artists (if I can get the names, I'll post them all). All the items that I brought were handmade by me.

Jewelry tree for EUTECTIC handcrafted jewelry
All three Rara Avis stationery brands: "Signature," "The White Tree," & "Inked,"

I plan on attending the August 18th Spree event, so if you missed me this time (since I was bad and didn't post BEFORE the event), you can catch me then. Also, if any of you know of upcoming art or craft shows in the area, let me know and I'll post about them too. Cheers.

PS - Thanks to Lisa from Fetosoap for the pics. If you'd like to see a few more, go to my Flickr page.

Updates for "a rare thing"

I've added a couple of new things to the sites...just thought I'd let everyone know:

• Stumble It! - If you like a post or an artist that you see, "Stumble It!" Let's get this PR monster going!
• RSS Feed - You can now subscribe to my RSS feed by clicking the button on the top left corner of the blog. Now you can have your news delivered. I use Bloglines to read my Feeds.

More to come, I'm sure, but I thought I'd point these out for now. I promise to post about a Houston artist soon (scout's honor). I've been working my own PR monster lately and am all blogged out. :P

Happy 4th of July! Cheers.

T-minus one month and counting...new website for EUTECTIC to launch soon

It's alive, it's ALIVE...well, almost. I hope to soon have up the website dedicated to my jewelry line, EUTECTIC. I'm working with a company called i4vision to produce my website and shopping cart, and we're hoping that the site will be done by mid-July. Here are a few screen shots from the proposed design that I created:




If you'd like a sneak peak at some of the designs in the Signature line, check out my Flickr page. I'm in the process of sending out the press kits and information to local boutiques, so that's why I haven't been posting so much. And I was in vacation in Florida last week (where they don't believe in high speed internet), so I was deprived of my technology! Ah well...

Back to work! Cheers.

I found myself on the web

It's hard to do sometimes, but I did. Check out this article about my customizable journals.

Cheers

What should I call it??

This morning I completed the first two designs of my "idea" session yesterday. But now I don't know what to label this line. All of my stationery has it's own label, but not my jewelry. I could marked it under my Signature label, like the cards...both the stationery and the jewelry have a similar feel: minimal & graphic, but still pretty. I think that's what I'll go with until I think of something else (or until one of you guys suggest something better!).

So here are the first three earring sets. I'm working on a few more, and I'll probably do at least one or two necklaces too. These are different from yesterday's scans, but the concept is still there. I had more stuff to think about and not enough brain space to hold it all.
All three sets are made with sterling silver and 14K gold filled wire with sterling and gold vermeil findings. The anchor rings and hoops have all been hammered to create light catching surfaces. All the stones are faceted (mystic topaz on the left, amethyst on the right), and the chains are flat cable. The result of the entire combination is pretty sparkly, but not too in-your-face. I call it "sneak attack sexy."

I've yet to post these on my Etsy store, but that's the next step. Have a look there soon if you'd like to buy a pair.

Cheers.

Different by desgin

"Romeo and Juliet," "West Side Story," "Smallville"...okay, so maybe "Smallville" is a stretch, but the idea is there: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy is not fated to have girl. Suffice to say that in the movie biz, there's nothing new under the sun. In fact, one can say that about most industries. Jewelry design is no exception.

It's tough to be a jewelry designer and create something truly unique. Everyone has a pair of chandeliers, a pair of gemstone drops, a pair of diamond studs; everyone has a gold bangle and a single charm necklace. The challenge then becomes not to create something new, but to reinvent something old, to innovate, to improve.

Looking through some photos the other day, I stumbled upon a shape and an idea. The idea swam around in my head for a bit before it finally drove me nuts and I had to get into the shop and start twisting. Turns out, it was a pretty good idea. See for yourself:

Now, this is not a great graphic (I scanned in the first two earrings...too lazy to photograph). But the idea is nice: mixed metal hoop bases with dangles and chains. Work with me here... I don't have a soldering torch. I really, really, really want one, but until I get one, I've got to improvise. So I twist hoops. But I don't like your standard twisted hoop, so I covered the twists with gold wire. And that's the framework for the whole collection.

Now you're probably thinking that it was very silly of me to share my idea before I've completed my work...someone may "borrow" the idea and use it for their own. And you are probably right. But I like to share my process, I like for you to be able to see what actually happens inside my head. I think that it's more fun that way.

So if you "borrow" my idea, give it back. Or at least wait for me to develop my line and then give me your feedback. Who knows...I may even create a piece named after you.

Cheers.

Log...frog...smog...Blog?

I'm new to the blog scene, so hopefully, this won't hurt too much...

This blog was created as a place to show off my ideas and wares and to connect my friends & clients to things that I found fresh & interesting. I have a special spot in my heart for all goods handmade (please please please don't ask me about Wally-World...you'll get an earful), and I believe that we should support our local small businesses and craftsmen/women.

In the weeks to come, I hope this site will be somewhere that you turn to find nifty new things, both from indie artisans and designers both local and all over the US. My business is based in Sugar Land, Texas, and many of the things that I post will pertain to Houston area stuff...but don't fear -- those viewing from outside of Houston (or Texas for that matter) will find something to browse through too.

Cheers.