Opening Weekend

Yay for the Portland Saturday Market! I'm incredibly delighted to be back for the new season; I love hanging out with all of my vendor buddies and creating interesting conversations with random customers and tourists - not to mention showing my new designs! While there were a ton of new vendors, I noticed that a lot of my 'friend booths' were missing... sad. Saturday provided good weather and loads of shoppers for the opening day. Sunday turned to drizzle and rain, unfortunately, and not as many people were out and about (I don't blame them!). Overall I had a nice - though tiring - weekend and am totally stoked to have weekend plans for the rest of the year.

To celebrate the opening of the market, I went out Saturday night with a friend to an unusual coffeeshop that hadn't yet hit my radar. It's called the Rimsky-Korsakoffeehouse "home of the casually threatening atmosphere", and it's located at SE 12th and Belmont, and it is phenomenal. The place was packed and there was a lady playing the piano at the front. It's an old house with lots of small tables all jammed into one big room. One of the tables has a trick: it very, very slowly raises higher and higher so that you begin eating with the table near your lap and find it eventually at chest height. But it moves so slowly that it's hard to notice any change. Hah! We asked the waiter about this one particular table and he verified its movement duties. "There's another table that shakes; we have a button in the back kitchen that controls it," he tells us. "I'm going to head back there and hit the switch, watch that table," and he motioned to a young couple sitting innocently in the corner. Moments later we hear a loud rumbling - similar to a blender battling with ice cubes - and the couple's eyes met suddenly with a look of panic and disbelief. The table shook abruptly and distinctively, but stopped just as quickly as it had started. The couple appeared very disoriented, frozen, and concerned while my friend and I shook with laughter. It was too good to be true, really. I will certainly be back to that place many times; and not just because their main menu consists of ice cream sundaes and desserts. Oh, and make sure you check out the bathroom too; my heart jumped when I saw the interior!

Dino Jimmy

Several days ago I posted about my long quest for an explanation of how ice cream sprinkles are made. I truly have wondered about this for years and have asked friends, bartenders - anyone with a mind - how sprinkles are made, but never stumbled upon a plausible answer. It is the one thing that has stumped me regardless of the abundance of possible processes.

Well, my friends, I have fantastic news. I shared my sprinkle puzzlement (is that a word?) with my friend, Ben. Fortunately for me, it bothered him just as much as it bothered myself (ah, the comfort of shared misery..). He promptly called the American Sprinkle Company and inquired about their magical machines. Alas they would not even offer a hint, mentioning that it was a 'trade secret', blah blah.

How rude.

That night Ben emailed a local radio station and the next day his question was thrown out to the thoughtful people of Portland, Oregon. Apparently we both had missed a very important episode of 'How It's Made', but two radio listeners called in and revealed the mystery. I must admit that it's still not crystal clear in my mind, but here's my best shot:

First, their sugar recipe is mixed together and when it's deemed ready, it's put through a machine that acts kind of like a play-doh press or a pasta maker. The mixture gets pushed through a contraption with ity-bity holes and then they're chopped off when they're of the right length. Now! Here's the part I was missing all along.. Since this mixture isn't quite hard like cookie dough, and not quite soft enough to fall apart, its middle ground consistency allows the ends to pull in and round off after the piece has been chopped into a cylinder. It's closer to a liquid than I had imagined all these years. So there really is nothing actively rounding the ends - they just naturally behave that way after breaking off. Moments later, they are cooled and subsequently harden. Their food coloring is coated or sprayed on only after they've been formed. (This sounded counterintuitive to me - why wouldn't you just make a batch of red, a batch of yellow, etc. Right? Why not add the food coloring when you're mixing the batter? Meh. Whatevs, obviously they know what they're doing.)

And now I'm free! I can start living my life now that I finally got that nagging sprinkle thing settled! (Thanks Ben! And thanks Portland; I wasn't sure someone would actually take time out of their commute to explain the sprinkle-making process to us.)

But then... how do they make dinosaur sprinkles........ ??

Back to the drawing board.

No wait! maybe instead of pressing the sugar concoction through a round hole they just shape the hole into a little dino, press it through, chop it off and presto! Right?! Does that work? Will I ever be free?

Spinning Colors

I spent the bulk of today putting earrings onto cards for my rotating display that will be in my booth at the market. There's actually much more to it than first meets the eye. First you have to cut up your cardstock into consistent sizes (using your papercutter), then stamp on your logo, attach a plastic piece to the backs so that the card will be able to grab onto your display, poke two holes into the card, put your earrings through, and then slide on the rubber backings so that the jewelry doesn't fall off. It took a good chunk of time, but I ended up with roughly 100 pairs of earrings and a killer display that I am very pleased with. Sure beats my display from last year!

Quit Being so Matchy-Matchy

Now this is a matching set that I can wear.

Typically I try to stay away from jewelry that is too matchy-matchy... but lately I've had a change of heart. And maybe it's for the better. There certainly are more than a handful of people out there who are looking for 'sets' of jewels.

I took this set out of my most recent batch that cooled down this morning. Lately I've been on a ring-making frenzy - which is good because I need to boost up my inventory in anticipation of the Saturday Market beginning.

These particular pieces display a fairly ideal reaction between the silver leaf rectangles and the base glass. You can see an abundance of light brown swirls extending from the perimeter of the silver. I'm slightly obsessed with this reaction because it seems to look both rustic and organic to me. Maybe I'm reaching here, but I really think it's justified. And I'm open to challengers...

One of the best designs in which to utilize this reaction is in pieces that are intended to look like plants/flowers. Since I tend to use the silver leaf for the base of the plant, the reaction is placed near the bottom of the piece, symbolizing soil.

Love it.

Here's hoping that tomorrow is another gorgeous sunny February day in Portland!

Oh the Possibilities..

Dear Photoshop,

OK, you win. I like you. And now I can't stop making different banner combinations.

Please send me a longer free trial.

Love,

Ash

A Final Meal

If ever you find yourself at the end of the line - at the opposite end of a loaded gun, or nearing the electric chair - and you have one last request.. just ask for a salad comprised exclusively of four-leaf clovers.

Troops

These are my troops. And we're taking over the world.

I Never Get the Swings Anymore

What an eventful day! I'm trying to figure out Photoshop so I gave it my best shot and replaced my ETSY banner (above). As you can see, I can't even figure out how to post it bigger on this blog.

I broke my dremel today. Not only did it threaten my life, create a terrible burning smell, keep me from drilling until I find a replacement, and stress me out, but it's BROKEN! I realize that a negative, destructive event took place here today, but how is it really broken? I mean, I was drilling some new glass pieces and the hood cord on my sweatshirt became wrapped (very quickly) around the dremel. I was pretty panicked because my range of motion seemed restricted (I could only get so far away from the dremel since it was becoming .. attached to me). Fortunately, I was only being pulled into a mere dremel -- imagine if it was a huge piece of machinery! Or rather.. don't imagine that, instead think of pink ponies stopping for a bit of grass on their way to the rainbow party.

Later I diverted my attention to my camera in place of the dremel so that I could post something on etsy, but the battery in my camera died after only 2 pics! Why does it never warn me? And why does it seem to die every 2 or 3 days? It's not like I'm documenting the appearance of the sky at 6 minute intervals throughout the course of a week; I just need 5 good shots of a necklace. I'm really not asking for much.

The other day I went for a walk and I started craving the swings - I just wanted to sit down while remaining outside. So I headed over to the kid-and-parent- filled park and spotted my two empty swings. Score. So I strayed from the sidewalk and started cutting across the park, directly towards the swings. When I was about 30 feet away two little 4-ish-yr-old girls darted over to them. Ugh. Figures. I bypassed the swings and met back up with the sidewalk. Now I'm the sketchy girl who's walking in a very peculiar manner. AND I didn't get to swing.

Fortunately, tomorrow's a whole new day. And it always is.

Ode to the Papercutter

Life is easy when you have a papercutter. I acquired one yesterday off of Craigslist, and even though it isn't perfect (or small), it is saving me loads of time! In fact, how have I gone so long without one? I'm spending part of today prepping for the Portland Saturday Market which opens in a mere 2 weeks (yay!), and I feel like a mini factory. And it feels great.

Yesterday I received yet another email regarding a special order for jewelry. Really? You found my website? Really? I haven't even finished building it yet! And of all the websites and junk on the internet, how could you possibly have stumbled upon my little gig? I want to reach through the computer and snag this person by the shoulder as she's heading out the door for work, "Wait, HOW did you come across my website?" I must know.

On this particular Valentines Day, Portland is having quite a range of weather. This morning it rained, then it snowed briefly in gigantic flakes, and now it is blue skies and happy days. Tonight I'm skipping the romantic dinner and going straight for the St. Patricks Day Preparation Celebration. Now where is all of my green jewelry......

Think It. Make It. Wear It.

The Cream is at the Bottom

How do they really make sprinkles for ice cream? I've been wondering this for years. Truly. They can't possibly make each one in a mold - especially since they are perfectly round and lack a flat area that would result from the top of a mold. And they can't really have been cut from a long skinny tube of sugar concoction because then the ends would be flat - and they're not; they're rounded. And they couldn't have been cut up into logs and then heated (to round the ends) because if the ends pulled in from the heat then they'd end up in a sphere - not an elongated cylinder.


Life is just filled with mysterious and complicated matters. Clearly.

But sprinkles aside, I recently received a special order for jewelry and it has sparked some new designs! I'm actually pretty pumped at the new bracelets and earrings that resulted from this interaction. I had done all of the glasswork last night and this morning I could hardly wait to open up my kiln. Amazingly EVERY THING turned out perfectly! I couldn't be happier with it. The funny thing is that even though I'm ecstatic with this new set, I can't be bothered to make a batch for myself! How silly! And by 'silly' I mean 'stupid'. What a stupid thing to do, Ashley. You should be wearing only your best pieces so that you can parade around town; a walking advertisement that looks unavoidably delicious and appealing; stop wearing the broken pieces!

Yet I'm unable to throw the 'mess-ups' away. I just can't do it. I'd much rather put them to use, hanging proudly - though tilted, or cracked, or just obviously imperfect - from my body.

It's hard to look your best when you're surrounded by wounded jewelry - I just want to save them all. Like the way you want to salvage that blob of cookie dough that drops onto your dirty floor; you're pick it up, unable to simply toss it into the trash, and scrape off the top layer since it clearly was not involved in the accident. Why do we turn out backs on the cream of the crop, just to 'rescue' the duds?

I don't have the answer. But if you see me at the bookstore, or the coffeeshop, I likely won't be wearing a symmetrical piece of perfection.

A Face for my Jewels..

You are unable to comprehend how excited I am to finally have some professional photographs done of my jewelry. I completely lucked out and found this amazingly sweet and accommodating photographer by the name of Missy who is located in Vancouver, WA and is building her photography business, Take 5 Photography. She was very efficient, professional, easy to work with, and to top it off she brought along two of her friends to model my product! How fortunate am I? Right? So this morning I found my vibrant photos sitting eagerly in my inbox. And now the work begins; my to-do list unfolds before me. Print flyers, new business cards, rebuild my website, email photos to local stores, apply to shows, create posters for my booth display at the Saturday Market... how overwhelming, yet thrilling!

They make it look like it was a nice warm day, but it was freezing! I'm surprised we didn't see any snow!

Soon my products will be available to purchase online, be on the lookout!