Out with the old

I'm always surprised at the number of people who show up at the Saturday market when the weather is so dismal. This past weekend wasn't exactly gorgeous.. but there certainly was a nice turn-out for a weekend in March.

When I first started at the market a year ago I didn't have any earrings for sale; now they're my best product and are completely monopolizing most of my display! I love it! What I love even more is when I sell a pair of earrings and they immediately get put on! Take that pair of factory crap out of your ears and stick in something locally handmade. Sometimes the pair that was taken out gets neglected to the point of being forgotten at my booth, as happened on Sunday. That, to me, is a moment of success.

My little heart earrings have been doing extremely well and this week I've got a few new colors. Stop by the market for a visit and check out the new pink and black hearts!

Here's hoping (again) for some sunny weather this weekend. I don't want to have to take out my handwarmers this time....

The New Lineup...

Hearts Times 3!

I'm incredibly jealous of the girl who swoops into my booth at the market and snatches up this sweet little set! I almost wish I could keep all of my favorites for myself. But alas, that isn't the point -- the point is to set them free to the world! Get them out there!

Tree Love

Sometimes I put two glass pieces into the kiln and they end up liking each other so much that they fuse together! They just can't bear to be apart, and when things get a little hot in the kiln, they refuse to stay separated! These little guys above were intended to be a set of black plant earrings; instead they have been made into a pendant due to their attraction to one another. And they're going on a trip to Washington DC where my bestest bud (Jaime) lives. Jaim insists on owning only my 'rejects', though I must say that this piece is one of my more perfect rejects and may very well turn into its own style!

The market went exceptionally well this weekend, not to mention two of my cityscape pieces (in previous blog posting) found new homes first thing on Saturday morning! My work is always cut out for me; we need cities and skies in every color combination imaginable! Pronto!

Pink Cities, Green Skies...

Do you like 'em? Do you love 'em? Do you want some more of 'em? I pretty much adore them, BUT I'm not sure how good of a product they'll be since you can't really wear them with just anything. They're very 'art-sy' pieces, in my opinion, and they certainly take a long time to make. The tricky thing about a new product is that you don't know how well they're going to sell until you make a bunch; but you don't want to make a bunch if they're not going to sell. This is called a 'trap'. And now you're stuck.

i heart Dr. Seuss

New things this week (and there are many!):

1) I had brought a handful of new earrings to the market this weekend and sold enough of them to convince me that I should make more. They're an adorable plant design and I've created them in lots of different colors. The base is a nice french vanilla, there's a sterling silver base to the plant, and then the flowers/tops are a mix of color. I love making them and think they will likely be a dependable product for the long-run. There is a quality to them that makes me think they won't be going out of style anytime soon. Plus I'm obsessed with this botanical collection and am unable to stop making them! They're so Dr. Seuss-esque!

2) For every bad day there is at least one good day; and today was a goodie! My dremel was totally on its best behavior (probably trying to make up for nearly killing me last time). I got through about 30 holes with a single drillbit - much more than usual! And not only that, but all of the holes were sufficiently centered in their respective pieces - no mess-ups! I've also found that it helps to hold down the piece you're drilling more firmly than seems necessary. The drilling seems to go more quickly when it's under pressure.

3) My lovely, thoughtful, generous grandmother ordered some pieces from me as gifts to some nurses/techs who had recently cared for her. She is in love with these four ladies and is always talking about them, which is sweet in its own right. Below is a picture of the girls wearing their new jewels - I love seeing my glasswork on new people! Plus, glass doesn't like to be cooped up in the house - it really needs to be taken on daily walks and exercised regularly. Just because that necklace isn't going to bark or whine when it's hungry or bored doesn't mean it doesn't need attention. Trust me on this.

[I hope you wear your jewels often, ladies! Thanks for sending the pic! Love it!]

4) I looked up a tutorial on how to make a lightbox. I've been having trying times with taking macro photos lately so I gave the lightbox a shot. For only $5 you can build one yourself. I really haven't used it too much yet -- I'll have to play around with it, but at least the background looks good. Previously I'd just laid the pieces on a cloth, so you could see the cloth's texture which looked really bad.

5) I found a really delish banana nectar drink by the brand 'Looza'... which sounds a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger saying 'loser', in my mind.

Here's hoping for some gorgeous weather for the market this weekend!

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.