Glass In Gear

Yay! I successfully fused my first piece of glass art last night. It even came out pretty. I only shed a teeny drop of blood over the whole project when a glass splinter caught my finger. But, it's not on the piece because I promised that it would be blood-free. I think I may have fired it on the wrong side of the kiln paper because the back is fairly rough. The corners are super sharp too (towards the underside). I have to figure out how to fix that before I can turn it into a pendant. And guess what? I actually have a picture of it!

So, do you think people would be interested in buying jewelry with my handmade pendants like this? This is not an inexpensive venture. Artsy glass is pricey. I used four different kinds on the piece above: opal (yellow background), confetti (green and blue), stringer (blue bar), and millefiori (flower dots). I got a small sampling of dichroic with my kiln kit, but I didn't want to use that for my first experiment. Let me know what you think...PLEEEEZE!

On a completely unrelated topic, do any of you have urban chickens?

Mama's Got a Brand New Toy

Okay, I'm an impulse shopper. I can't seem to buy beads online very well because I don't plan what I'm going to make. I see the array of beads and things in front of me and ideas start to formulate. The only thing that I'm getting better at is avoiding going to the bead stores without a purpose. I may not have a design in mind, but I may have a color scheme or a certain person or something like that. Tonight, I went shopping for something blue and on sale at the local hobby shop. I found some great stuff and then I wandered into a different aisle. Shuldna dun that. I had a 40% off coupon and used it for a beginner's glass fusing kit.

I just got the girls to bed and started opening the kit. As I pulled out the hot mitts (gloves), it dawned on me just how crazy I am. Am I insane?! I can't keep my girls out of anything I own and now I have a box of rainbow colored glass shards and a nifty little glass cutter just begging to cut somebody's hand open. Well, nobody but me has seen the box's contents. I think that, before I go to bed, the box will be spirited away and it's existance will only be a rumor. But hey, you may get to see some pretty funky glass creations soon! That's always thrilling. I promise they'll be blood-free.

I am sooo sorry. I posted a new necklace set straight to my website without first posting it here. Don't feel cheated, please! On the bright side, there's a necklace and earring set (Droplets) that was posted here eons ago that just today made it to the website. Turns out that one of its earrings pulled a disappearing act on me and I had to make a replacement after giving up on the hunt. Here's the new set made with aqua-colored quartz (March's birthstone is aquamarine) called "Tides of March":


I also have my aunts' birthdays coming up. One is this Saturday and the other is in the first part of April. Guess what they're getting? Dang, you're good. I'll post pictures of the gifts after they've been given. I'm really excited!

Today is also somebody's birthday. My sweet, hairy, boy, Basil. Um, he's my dog. He turned seven today! He's such a sweetie. He got a shower yesterday with a new dog shower doohickey and a humongo edible bone today. I think the bone was about 10-12" long. It was gone in about 20 minutes.

Happy Birthday, Sweet-Basil-Boo!

Another Entry

I just now submitted another necklace for a new design challenge. The pictures for "Smoke on the Water" have already been posted here, but I did submit a different photo. That photo you'll eventually see on my website. When I get an entry number back, I'll let you know what it is. I mean, you DO want to vote for me, right??

Right now, I have that picture I told you about earlier: the aquamarine bracelet. Well, I got a little aquamarine crazy and I also have some earrings to share. There are two more bracelets that will become a trio and hopefully get matched up with a necklace and earrings. I don't have pictures of those bracelets yet. I'll wait until I get the whole set ready. So, here is "Aqua Bracelet":

And "Raindrops":

Both of these are all sterling silver (well, except the little crosses on the bracelet) and Swarovski crystal. I love the polygon drops on the earrings. I thought about saving them for necklace pendants, but they just seemed so perfect for earrings. The bracelet is on my gallery page http://www.summersunjewelry.com/gallery.html since it was custom made for someone, but the earrings are available here: http://www.summersunjewelry.com/earrings1.html.

I love March. My first daughter's birthday is on March 1st, an aunt has a birthday a week later, then there's St. Patrick's Day and Easter! Well, tornadoes tend to start dropping in that month, but still there's just so much to love about March anyway. And I'm not even a basketball fan (unless a Kansas school tends to make it big).

Mailing List

I finally figured out how to use my website's mailing list feature--woo hoo! So, I decided to commit to a monthly newsletter for all those that subscribe to my site. I've done a newsletter thing in the past (for our Brownie troop) and found it incredibly stressful. I think I am a recovering perfectionist, however. I created a newsletter for March and I'm actually happy with it! I hope its recipients enjoy it...

On that aquamarine project I mentioned last time. I think I may have finished it. I have to show it to my aunt first (since she requested it) to see if it will work. Whatever happens, I will get a picture of it to post.

In unrelated news, I was perusing my archives the other day and realized something awful! Terrible! I had promised to provide you with www.janniefunster.com and I couldn't find it mentioned! I could have sworn I put in a plug for www.janniefunster.com before. Well, my oh-so-funny friend, Jannie, has a website at www.janniefunster.com and you should really go check it out.

In more unrelated news, my older daughter's 9th birthday is next Sunday. I don't know what to do for her birthday. She doesn't either. She's a very princess/fairy-oriented young lady, but she doesn't want a princess/fairy-oriented birthday. We had a bowling party last year and it was great, but we've had such huge expenses come up that we really can't do it again. On top of that, she's discovered the smartmouth that she wasn't expected to develop until her teen years. The charming experience of that certainly put a damper on party planning. Good thing she's cute.

Well, I finished my newsletter over 30 minutes ago so I guess it's time to go to bed. My sweet hubby constantly chides me on not getting to bed at a decent time. That's just silly. It's only 2 AM.

Elemental Design

Thanks for your votes for the last design challenge I participated in, but I got outvoted anyway. Not to be discouraged, I'm going to enter into the current Stringing magazine challenge called "Elemental, My Dear." The deadline for submissions is February 25th and the voting won't start until March sometime. I'm sure I'll be getting into my campaign mode really soon, so beware! I made this necklace and earring set yesterday after I was hit with inspiration from an old Deep Purple song, "Smoke On The Water." You know, smooooke on the waaater...fire in the sky-y.... Is that not perfectly elemental? This necklace is made from blue-dyed nuts (or the nut husks), red agate and glass. This probably won't be the photo I use for my submission, but I really needed something to put on the blog!



I have an aquamarine project in the works right now. It's a special request for a March birthday gift. I have the beginnings of a super-cute cuff bracelet, but I'm afraid it might be too "chunky" for the recipient. I've got to toy with some other ideas unless I fall asleep with my bead tray on my lap again. snxxxxzzz

It's Official!

Saturday was the day I opened SummerSun Jewelry as an official business! Woo-hoo! I think the hard part is over. I've got my fingers crossed on that, though. My super-wonderful MaMa managed to avoid losing hair over hosting the celebration in her house, my fantabulous aunts (V and M) catered incredibly, wonderful treats, and many supportive friends came! Of course, I heard from several very supportive friends who just weren't able to come and I love them too! :) I told my hubby what my ticket sales were and I got a thumbs up. What better sign of support can ya get from a guy??

So, now what? Well, there's all that housework that's been neglected lately in the effort to take the website live. I did get the Christmas yard decorations put away today. They were already down and in hiding but they still needed to make the trek to the basement. The kitchen got cleaned and my huge pot of birthday tulips (thanks, qd!) moved to center stage on the kitchen table. They're so purrrdy! So, I did some of the critical stuff today but there's just sooo much more. Bleh. I know there's an easy answer to house cleaning, but I'm no arsonist!!

After all the mundane rituals of household hygiene are completed, I can go back to making MORE JEWELRY! YEEEAH!

Oh, I (for some dorky reason) didn't remember to bring my camera to the grand opening. Other brilliant people did bring theirs though, so whenever I can swipe their pics, I'll get them posted. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and support!

Save the Date

February 7th, 2009

My website, www.summersunjewelry.com, will be up and running on that date. I chose that day mostly because it's my birthday and what a way to celebrate! My mom has so sweetly volunteered her house for the grand opening party. My house was not designed for entertaining.

So, I bought my website location through Yahoo's small business plan earlier this month and I've been fiddling with it nearly every day since. I ran into a snag trying to set up my merchant account through PayPal though. I have to re-fax them a document and hopefully that will take care of things soon. I have a lot of pictures to upload into my catalog, prices to set, and descriptions to hammer out. Basically, there's a lot to do in the next couple of weeks.

Sunday, February 8th, our church's preschool is having their annual silent auction fundraiser. This will be my first year to participate and I'm so excited! I made a very Valentine's-y necklace and earring set that I hope will attract a lot of attention. Both my girls went to the preschool (youngest is still there) so I feel good about helping out. I'm going to display the set at the celebration the day before to get some interest in the fundraiser. I haven't taken a picture of it, so I can't show it to you just yet.

Today, I finally received one of three books I ordered earlier this week. This one is "Succeeding At Your YAHOO! Business: How to Manage a Successful YAHOO! Store". Glancing through it, it appears to be very helpful. I have some serious reading to do. But not right now. I'm getting ready to go shopping with my mom. :D I need/want a slinky, black dress for my birthday gala!