Rewards

Lately I've been putting a small handful of blueberries into the bottom of my water glass to encourage hydration.

Do they make fans for chickens?

Despite utilizing the garden hose every day, I fear that many of the plants in the backyard are dying in this heat. Or at least they aren't looking too good... I can tell that the chickens are suffering as well, and I haven't heard anything about clouds or cool weather in the near future.
Only just now did I remember a couple of fans that I'd tossed into the back of my closet - wow do they make a difference!

With another outstanding weekend at the market behind me I am finally finding myself with too little jewelry; there are many bare spots on my displays! Right now my kiln is just about cool enough to open (the best part!). Inside are 3 new wallhanging pieces, my first two sold this past weekend. Fortunately I share part of my studio space with a wood worker and I have been using his unwanted pieces to mount my glass upon. I'm hoping that I can convince him to collaborate with me on this 'wallhanging' category of product and create something custom to fit the theme of my pieces. I have big ideas. Big. Ideas.

Small Trees with Blue Peas

If there are 5 things that I love most in life, then surely one of them must be making a NEW product out of glass. This week I've managed to complete a couple of small wallhangings -- roughly 6x6". Although I adore these first two, I plan on making some much more complex designs in the near future. Ultimately I want to create an image of the St. Johns Bridge, but I suppose I have no idea how that will be put together.

... And imagine a piece that's 5 feet square, hanging against a wall... that is another dream of mine...

Today was an eventful day, beginning with a surprisingly satisfying visit to a new place: Bakery Bar. Somewhere near 9AM the temperature was perfectly pleasant; I sat at an outside table with a friend, drinking coffee and eating one of their rich biscuits with pecans and orange glaze. Yes, I do love my life.

From there we picked up a few other crew members and drove out to Sauvie Island where we spent hours among blueberry bushes and sunlight.

Now if I could just get the chickens to stop knocking over their water canister, I'd be just about set.

It should be a blazing hot weekend and as usual I can't wait to see everyone at the market!

The Favorites

This week I made a new batch of tree pieces and tried out some little earrings (above). I'm quite fond of this tree design and am tempted to discontinue all other glass designs, but ultimately that could end up very poorly.
The Mississippi Street Fair went really well this past weekend; I was surpised at how many booths it consisted of, and only wished I had done more exploring.

My landlord/friend/housemate is out of town and consequently I have been tending to the chickens, among other things. I grew up with dairy cows, but we never kept chickens. Now that I'm growing accustomed to fresh eggs and beautiful chickens pacing around in the backyard, I think I just may always want to have them wherever 'home' is located.


Fortunately the weather has been gorgeous, and a visit from my younger sister has promted a scattering of visits to all of my favorite Portland places. In the past two days we've hit up Voodoo Doughnuts, NW 23rd Ave, Powells Books, Papa Haydn for coffee and desserts, Mother's Bistro, and the Kennedy School. We've made french toast using fresh eggs from the coop, eaten inexpensive sushi outside in the sun, and walked around town until the sweat secretly collected into drips under our clothes. My sister even made a glass ring which she is incredibly eager to fire in the kiln.
It should be a beautiful weekend and I'm excited to see everyone at the market once again. Maybe Judy (the Lavender Lady) and I will ditch our booths and take another tour around the market in one of the Rose Pedal bike wagons, as we did last week.

3 Years ago today I moved to Portland.

Happy Weekend!

Changing Scenery

I dislike my coffee table with a passion; it's stained and ugly in almost every way imaginable. Today I covered it in a rich dark brown paint (left over from my bedroom walls) and instantly it is new and aesthetically pleasing! I love changing things about my living quarters -- putting fresh pictures on the walls, switching up the tablecloths, etc. I lived with an amazing girl in college who was constantly making these changes to our apartment. It made the mundane interesting and I loved it. It's nice to give the many decorating options - that are no doubt lounging in your closet, unused - a turn.

Sunup Jewelry is taking a vacation from the Portland Saturday Market this weekend in exchange for a spot at the Mississippi Street Fair! I'll be stocked up on tree necklaces and excited to switch up my booth's living quarters for the day -- stop by for a visit on Saturday!

A Jumbled Rambling

Sometimes I wonder if there is a distinct line drawn between the two ways you can dress yourself. I question whether there are 'Clothes-People' and 'Accessories-People'. Here's what I mean... When I think about what I'm going to wear in the morning after I shower, I think about what jewelry I want to wear. Then I coordinate my clothing to accommodate the accessories I've chosen. I'm sure that there's a group of people (probably more than half of the population) who pick out their clothing first, and then add jewelry to match. I almost never think in that order.

Some people come into my booth at the market and pick up one of my glass pieces and I hear them say how hard the necklace or earrings would be to 'match with'. [Note: most of my jewelry isn't very hard to match with, in my opinion, but some of it is quite challenging.] I want to tell these people something along the lines of this: I don't expect you to try to match that jewel with one of your printed tops; I expect you to change your shirt.

This is probably the strongest reason I should have pursued silver jewelry...

Only kidding! I love glass like crazy and would never trade it for another medium! Actually, when I first became interested in glass jewelry, I considered most of it either tacky, or incapable of looking sophisticated. I'm incredibly particular about wearing glass accessories and feel very confident that I have created a product that can be worn well by a very large range of ages.

Though I suppose this topic is stuck in the land of subjectivity - this is all just my own little opinion.

It's going to be a ridiculously warm 4th of July. It was exactly (almost to the minute!) 5 years ago today that I rode on my first motorcycle and wound up in the emergency room, just hours before leaving for 6 months in New Zealand. Ahhh, memories...

I'll end this passage with a line from the book I recently started; it struck me and maybe it will strike your liking as well: "I felt like I could hear our stories inside us like noise." -from 'Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking' by Aoibheann Sweeney.

Wear a Tree and Create Some Fireworks

After repairing my crashed car, visiting my family in Vermont for a week, eating lots of coconut cake, flipping out in response to a power failure that made me believe my kiln was broken, and attempting to fill some new wholesale orders, here I am! Above is my new obsession - tree necklaces! I've been creating them in all sorts of colors and combinations, I can hardly pick which one to keep for myself!

I moved into my new apartment/studio one month ago, and I still don't feel settled. I'm just 2 bookshelves and a trip to a clothing donation center short of being at home. It's the bookshelves that have me stumped. How tempting it is to give in and buy a new beautiful bookcase in the style and color that suits my liking. And yet, how equally tempting it is to buy the cheapest thing on Craigslist and make do until I'm in a house that's permanent. This dilemma has left me with piles of books and papers on the floor. And it's just a bookcase!

Here's hoping for more beautiful weather, a busy 4th of July at the market, and some fireworks in your life - whatever that may mean to you.

You Only Live Once

It has been an incredibly eventful week, in both magical and horrible ways. I'm mostly settled into my new apartment and have been catching up on making new glass jewels. I acquired my first drum set (yay!...And do you like my new pumpkin-y stripes in the background??) less than 24 hours before getting into my first car accident (ouch!). Both events were quite exciting and draining... Hopefully I can make it to the Saturday Market and back before taking my poor little car into the shop on Monday morning.

Some Clouds Aren't Grey

This weekend was amazing for so many reasons. I lucked out with my first corner spot at the market, met some really sweet and awesome people, went out for drinks with some hilarious friends, and sold a lot of my favorite pieces of glass. Plus I was set up across from the Lavender Lady at the market and that gal is over-the-top entertaining. Sometimes the silver lining bleeds into the center of every cloud in sight.

I just got back from a little trip to Kaleidoscope Paint on Salmon Street. They have a section of interior paints for $10 per gallon! I picked up 3 new colors to paint my new basement apartment and can't wait to get started on it tomorrow! I've never painted my own place before and am eager to have an apartment whose atmosphere I can contribute to. I'm totally going to wake up at a reasonable hour tomorrow and start painting. Until then, I'll be restocking my wares, keeping the kiln on at all times, and finding the motivation to hit up the gym.

Happy Week!

A sink! A shrink! A pink! A LINK!

Check it out, kiddos:

http://www.pinkofperfection.com/2009/04/ashley-young-of-sunup-jewelry/

Massive Pieces of Portland

New pieces fresh out of the kiln: