adding photos to flickr

Make Your Own Fine Gauge Headpins

Thanks to my cyber Sis and fellow eSMArts member Carlotta (of CarlottaP on etsy) who straightened me out on the fundamentals of creating my own sterling silver ball end head pins. Shown above is my first batch created using 26 gauge wire.

Now handmade 26 gauge sterling silver ball end headpins may not sound exciting, but the smallest diameter headpins usually offered for sale at the largest and most abundantly stocked gem shows is 24 gauge. So in order to work with the majority of the faceted precious gemstone beads (sapphire, emerald and ruby) you either need to fabricate your own 26g or 28g headpins or find a great source.Purchasing these little darlings can get expensive.

I've lately been scouring the jewelry making world to even find them. There are a few sources to purchase these handmade findings on etsy, but most of those vendors don't offer a reliable year round supply, offering just overstock or small handmade lots on an ad hoc basis.

But forget about buying them. If you have a small torch (you can even use your gas range stovetop like I did) these are extremely easy (and fun) to make! On my first try (batch on the left) the ball ends were perhaps a bit smaller than I'd like. So in the remainder of this lot I made the ends more plump.


These headpins range from 3/4 to 1 3/4 inches in length. I find the 3/4 inch length is perfect for tiny gem clusters but in future, I'll make them in 28 gauge as well with varying lengths and the larger heads.

On getting settled, emptynesters & downsizing

My life has been in total disarray for at least a month now, but we're beginning to feel slightly settled in to our new home. This move meant even more downsizing, so we still haven't found places for all our "stuff"! But at least we've recognized that we can't keep everything and we're slowing working on fixing the problem.

We sorted through our mountains of belongings and I actually agreed to part with some things. At our last house we threw away and put out at the curb tons of things - all of my handpainted birdhouses, the older handmade decorated birdfeeders, older garden tools and plenty of decorated terracotta pots - that sort of stuff disappeared quickly.

I've culled 10 boxes of household and kitchen items that we keep telling ourselves we'll try to sell at a garage sale. We've been saying that for three years and still haven't made firm plans to follow through with it. If it isn't raining on weekends, we're too busy.

There's a local reduce, reuse, recycle site that sprung up recently where you can post things that you'd like to give away. Maybe I'll give that a try. And we've yet to go through the clothing. There must be boxes of things we could take to Goodwill.

One problem I'm having is emotional attachment with all of my daughter's things. Kate is now comfy and cozy in her private room at one of Durham Region's finest long term care facilities. It's been a long rough go for Kate, but after a 2 year wait and some mighty cramped lodgings, she finally was granted a spot in ThorntonView's brand new young people's wing and I must say, that she's never been happier!

We're just delighted that Kate now has this wonderful handicap accessible spot that's all nicely decorated with her familiar things and some of my artsy favorites. But even there, we're quickly running out of room. Since the below pic was taken, we've installed CD racks, shelves for Kate's video archive, and more memorabilia...


I just found five more boxes of Kate's stuffed toys and games in the basement - these items have such significance for me that I can hardly force myself to part with them. But we must sell or give away the majority and take a few over to Kate's residence [due to her disabilities and high needs, Kate likely won't spend another night under our roof and we aren't setting up a formal bedroom for her here].

We also need to sell her adjustable bed, transfer pole, three walkers, one barely used motorized scooter, a $12K electric wheelchair (like new), two transfer wheelchairs, etc. and all her clothes that no longer fit. Right now, all these items and more are in the garage!

Adapting to our emptynester status will take some time and effort. We've been in the throws of this grieving process for a few years now, and with counselling and the right meds, we're managing to get on with life. So yes it's slowly getting easier to confront and accept, but we still have a way to go.

Back to the move... I'm still finding boxes of things that were put into storage when we sold the big house three years ago - things like partylight decorative candle displays. Someone should have stopped me when I had that addiction. These kinds of items (that I now have absolutely no room for) aren't exactly junk either. They're expensive collectables, all of which should be photographed and listed for sale on eBay. But who has time for that? Geez, I barely have time to pee.

I Love Glass

After a two day introduction to lampworking I’m convinced that glass is the medium for me. Plans are underway to install a glass studio. Well, the plans are being constructed in my mind. I’m still wrestling with a few minor details. Where will I get an extra $1000 for a good kiln? How will I install decent ventilation? And should I leap right into borosilicates? Other than working out a few details, my mind is made up. :)

I’ve had a fascination with glass all my life. I remember mom taking me to a glass blowing studio, and because I was tiny and fearless I was yelled at about staying away from the furnace. But I was so fascinated with the molten glass and what the glass blower could accomplish.

As I grew, I developed an appreciation for mom’s millefiori paperweight collection. Later I fell in love with LaLique, blown glass figurines and even swarovski. I like crystals too (both natural and synthetic) and one of the first things I purchased when I returned to jewelry making after a 30 year hiatus was showy high quality glass beads.

In retrospect, it's no wonder that I have a glass collection of my own: paperweights, figurines, unique fobs and focals - mostly items either I chose while vacationing or little pretties gifted to me from David. He's such a dearheart to me. In fact, in my jewelry chest I have an assortment of eclectic pieces (my designs and purchased) which incorporate glass with all other media.

Recently I’ve fallen in love with boro beads – those wonderfully complex and colourful hard glass creations that have become so popular of late. I’ve purchased borosilicate beads from several renowned artists – and these pretties look fabulous when mixed with precious gemstones. Above is featured a set of borosilicate beads made by Jacquelyn Rice of C.N.Y Glass studio of Boonsville, NY.

I incorporated Jacquelyn's pretties (which remind me of an intergallactic monsoon) into the luxe gemstone bracelet shown here which I designed for myself. These photographs underline the many faces of boro beads - their dramatic and intense hues as highlighted in the opening picture and their more subtle faces in varying lighting - as seen below combined with Swiss Blue Topaz faceted nuggets, Lemon Topaz, Citrine, Smokey Topaz and plenty of silver.

This post will be the first in an ongoing series of articles exploring my quest to design borosilicate bead ornaments which will complement and enhance my gemstone creations. I'll discuss my boro bead buying experiences, my favourite boro artists, available online storefronts, informational resources, borosilicate bead making courses, lampwork bead making, lampworking courses, lampwork versus boro, etc. Stay tuned... there's lots more to come!

a new slideshow

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Watching this I realize just how much effort and time I've invested in honing my craft this past ten months. Wow, even I'm thinking "what a weird mixture of styles, materials and techniques!". Yet it was time well spent. And each session once I gather my thoughts to develop something "new" and fresh it appears I learn something new and fresh as well.

In fact, when it comes to creative motivation, I admit rather shamefully that what gets me back to the bench is without a doubt the opportunity to either work with something brand new or to work in a brand new way - with a new technique.

I call this curse a penchant for self actualization. I'm like this with many things - never satisfied with what's been done, always looking to better it. With artisan handmade jewellery this curse has significant consequences. I now have a studio overflowing with materials I no longer appreciate and cases of unsold jewelry that in hindsight I'm not crazy about.

One thing is certain - I read way too many jewelry related publications. And wonderful though these reference materials may be, and yes, from them the inspiration just floods in upon me in waves, my efforts are scattered. The broad collection of goodies showcased in this slideshow underscore my point that I'm still finding my way. And like my own tastes in jewelry, my designs are all over the map. But how does one carve her own path?

With the exception of a small handful of visionaries, there's always a hint of replica in what artists produce and my jewellery is no exception. But I'd like to think that my pieces are drizzled with a unique flavour that's purely 'Anna Lee'. Hopefully through plenty more practice, more honing my craft, more education, more interaction within the artistic community etc. I'll find my calling.

But when my own 'style' emerges there'll most likely be two moons in the sky. And on that day perhaps just maybe I'll know what I want to be when I grow up.

The Power of Flickr

If you follow my SassyDLite blog, you know that I took time a few days ago to dabble with a YouTube montage of my Spring 2008 collection. I had just finished posting on our group forum that I had no time to delve into the intricacies of YouTube, when I decided to hit the One True Media link that Elayne from ChezChani boutique had featured.

Well, I honestly didn't intend to play with a montage the other day, but for techno geeks these little toys are irresistable. Within minutes, literally, my montage was ready. You see, I already had an old Flickr account loaded with lots of fairly good pics from the Fall'07 and Spring '08 collections. OneTrueMedia allows you to access your Flickr albums with one click et voila, loads of stills to add to a personalized slideshow or montage (again with one click). I actually spent more time pouring through OneTrueMedia's online library of music than I did making the montage.

What's all the buzz about Flickr anyhow? Well, Flickr is an online picture storage facility that allows you to upload and store in collections and sets all the photos you could ever want to share online.

Once your pics are uploaded, you can share with family or friends, blog about them (one click), send them to groups (free online promotion) , organize them into relevant collections, etc. and of course you always have convenient access to your photos for adding them to sites, blogs or email even when you're not at your desk.

But Flickr is much more than an online photo storage facility. Flickr is compatible with and feeds into several critical online promotion venues like Blogger, Squidoo and HubPages for example. So a Flickr album is the starting point of a sound social marketing effort. We'll discuss these advanced promo venues later...

Getting back to Flickr - I joined roughly a dozen or so Flickr groups. These aren't groups that I socialize or chat with much. They're groups of photos for viewing:

I Made it Myself (10,404 members)
NEW CRAFT (4,714 members)
NEW Etsy.com love (6,460 members)
NEW Handmade Jewelry (2,867 members)
NEW Etsy - Look and Learn (3,522 members)
NEW indie designers ::: (975 members)
NEW Etsy Artists Rule: 1 Million Picture Pool (1,415 members)
NEW Metalicious (353 members)
etsyBEAD (207 members)
Jewelry, Ornaments & Textiles (3,358 members)
Buyhandmade.org (462 members)
Beautiful Copper (191 members)
Etsy Supplies (525 members)
Earrings (1,122 members)
Art You Wear (319 members)

But each group will accept your membership request and they all have discussion threads where we can promote ourselves and eSMArts!

And to promote handmade art via etsy it is recommended that photos of new work be uploaded to Flickr on a regular basis (daily if you can). I don't have time for daily uploads to Flickr. If I had an assistant that might be possible, but right now I'm solo.

So when I remember to do it, I try to upload a few pictures of my nicer work to my Flickr album. Then I just copy the pics to a few jewelry, handmade, etsy or craft photo pools. The big photo pools have limits like 2 pics per day, but the important thing here is to develop your own routine, your personalized online promotion checklist.

I found it useful to keep a chart of all my login IDs and passwords hanging above my computer screen. I've organized these venues in the order that I usually attack them in.

Everyone agrees that great pictures really help in the online selling of handmade artwork, so strive to steadily improve this facet of your online presence. Each week, I try new photo techniques, better backgrounds, different angles, lighting & surfaces, etc.

I heard about Flickr through reading etsy discussion threads. I learned about the Flickr jewelry and craft photo pools again from the etsy forums. And you know what? Practically all the jewelry for which I uploaded images to Flickr last fall has sold. I don't think this is a coincidence. Someone asked me the other day what online promotion technique works best for me, and I should likely have said Flickr!

Flickr group photo pool for eSMArts team

Just a very brief post today about our new Flickr group photo pool for the etsy Social Marketing Artisan team.

Pop over to Flickr to view the gallery of unique handmade artwork from our talented group of artisans.

Member note: please feel free to upload your best pics to this group pool but remember the limit is only 5 pics per day.

Talented team of artisans

Today I'm quick blogging directly from Flickr. This lovely piece was designed by Dani Garcia of http://www.dgdesignstx.etsy.com/. Dani creates pretty jewelry adornments borrowing from cross cultural themes and melding an eclectic variety of media. I'm particularly drawn to her copper creations!

Like all the members of our team, Dani is a talented, hard working, self representing emerging artist. She hales from Texas but her online boutique at DGDesignsTx.etsy.com is always accessible.

For an informative peek into what's currently going on within the design studio at DGDesigns, follow Dani's online journal DGDesignsTx.blogspot.com or feel free to contact her for a custom creation. You won't be disappointed.

For more of our designs visit our gallery.

Silvolf Enchanted Creatures

Lara of Silvolf is a talented multi media artist from the UK who combines a love for all things enchanted with her flair for animation to produce a wide array of beautiful handmade artwork.

For the dragon lovers in my life I would purchase Violet, this beautiful polymer clay fire breather. Measuring 3"x1.5" Violet will be the perfect focal adornment for your next amethyst neck wrap. Perhaps Violet should become a favorite brooch or similar jewellery adornment or she could simply be gifted as a decorative statue.

Cute collectable figures like Nicoli the Nyffler, a combination between a guinea pig and hedgehog, are also worth checking out. And as soon as Lara adds an Airedale Terrier to her gorgeous lineup of Polymur Pupz, I'll definitely join her growing list of customers!

Lara is also adept at needle felt arts so check out her wonderful little felted creatures.

Visit Lara's new online boutique called Silvolf on Etsy at http://silvolf.etsy.com/ or for more information on this talented artist please visit http://www.silvolfstudios.co.uk/.