In preparation for the holidays on Etsy, I decided to design a jewelry collection. I suspect I’m also strongly under the influence of Project Runway since I’ve recently watched Seasons 1 and 2 of both Project Runway Korea and Project Runway Australia.

The mentor for Korea, Professor Kan Ho-sup, gave advice that stuck with me when I think about designing jewelry. Granted, I was reading subtitles but I hope they were close to what he said. I wrote down,

“A collection should show progression”
“Be compact”
“Connect, connect, connect” and
“Boldly throw out the things that need to be thrown out”

I thought I needed to work more like a fashion designer and create a mood board or inspiration board. I gathered up items that caught my eye recently because they fit ideas I’ve been sketching or thinking about. I’ll be honest. I usually throw stuff like this in a folder and never look at it again. This time,  I taped them to a piece of black gatorboard I had laying around. I used the blue painter’s tape so I can easily reuse the board. And voilà, my Fall/Winter 2011 Mood Board:

It took a lot longer to make than I thought it would. Plus, I was in the middle of prepping for a garage sale. (Garage sales apparently also take a lot longer than you think they will to get ready for.) I’ve stood my mood board on the back of my work table to use as a reference. I hope it will help me over the next few weeks. By placing some constraints on my designs, I think it will make it easier to get started. In any case, I’m excited about working on this collection now.

Next step > Consolidate and finalize the sketches I have in about 30 different places!

Ira Glass, of This American Life, gives such sage advice for anyone who makes things that I had to share this video with you. When you’re struggling with a technique, when you’re disappointed in a design, when you break a piece because you pushed it further than it was meant to go, ask yourself what Ira would do? And in your head (or online), you’ll hear him say, “”It takes a while. It’s going to take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that. Okay? You will be fierce, you will be a warrior, and you will make things that aren’t as good as you know in your heart you want them to be.” But as he mentions earlier in the video, the cure is “do a lot of work”.

I attended the Charlotte Beadaholics Meetup at Metrolina last Saturday for the American Gem Beads & Jewelry Show. I ended up purchasing these lovely gemstone beads:

They look good enough to eat, don’t they? From left to right, they are kyanite sticks, kyanite rounds, yellow jade pumpkins, a grayish moonstone, tourmaline, pink opal and amethyst. Love, love, love them all! I’m so glad I went to this show.

If you’re looking for a reason to make something, how about a contest where the top prize is valued at $5000?

Jewelry Television’s “Jewel School” is having a design contest this month. To enter, design a piece of jewelry, take photos of it, describe the design, reveal what inspired it, and list the materials you used. You are limited to one entry so choose one of your most fabulous creations. That’s the good news.

Here’s the bad news. If you are one of the 20 artists selected as finalists, you will need to mail your piece in for the last round of judging. From the way the rules are written, it sounds to me like Jewelry Television will own those 20 pieces and all rights to them.  So if you’re in the final 20, I don’t think you will receive your piece back and you’re giving away all rights to it. I can’t find clarification on that on their site or their Facebook page. It’s a risk, but it might be one worth taking. I have mixed feelings about it. I’m considering entering something that would not be expensive to produce.

The prizes are:

Grand Prize – $2,500 in Jewel School product, $2,500 in cash, and your design featured in a Jewel School DVD
2nd Prize – $1,000 in Jewel School product and $1,000 cash
3rd Prize – $500 in Jewel School product and $500 cash
4th Prize – Viewers’ Choice – $500 cash

Entries are due on September 25th by 11:59 PM.For more details, click the contest logo above or visit the Jewel School Design Contest page. Best of luck to you!

I’m finishing up two larger pieces today. Here is the first one. It’s a soldered sterling silver bracelet. I’m so happy with the way this turned out. It looks and feels good on your wrist. I will be making more bracelets with this design.

Today, I created a DIY soldered sterling silver prong setting for a faceted stone. Believe me, it’s a lot harder to make than it looks! I can’t tell you how many times it took me to get this one soldered. I think it’s probably much easier with a larger stone.

Still working on that bracelet with the set stones. I’m pretty sure it will not be done until Friday.

My large project (hint: it’s a bracelet) is still not finished. It’s ready to have the three stones in it set in the morning. Maybe I’ll have a photo tomorrow.

I didn’t want to shirk my 30 Days of Creativity responsibilities though so here’s a mod inspired pair of earrings. They are opaque, matte glass wire wrapped in sterling silver. I added some small sterling beads for a bit of an accent, oxidized and buffed them with steel wool.

(more…)