Making Jewelry - A New Phase

Beads!  Feldspar, Aquamarine, Jasper and Lapis Lazuli.

I decided to start tackling a very hard and emotional job today.  It seems a good thing to do while snowed in from Snowzilla / Snowmageddon.  The job is to start going through all the inventory from my on-hiatus jewelry business, and deciding what to do with it.

Although "on hiatus" is not really accurate ... the business, as a business, is closed.

I started making jewelry as a hobby, and like so many, my hopes expanded to selling the best pieces online and at craft fairs.  More than anything I wanted to *share* what I had created.  But making quality jewelry is expensive, and the best way to make sure I had enough money to buy supplies was to see if I could sell some of my pieces and turn enough of a profit to make more jewelry.  I was encouraged by supportive family members to try a business. 

One of the sets I made with sterling
silver, Swarovski crystal, pearl,
blue chalcedony, and jasper.

And for a few years, it worked, if only just.  It was always a small business, barely scraping by, but it allowed me to create some lovely things, and I hope, make their owners very happy.  But, things have changed.  This was originally a two-person business, and my partner has moved on to other callings and endeavors.  The business was never really set up to be something just one person could handle.  So I'm going to take the business, such as it is, into its next "phase."  I'd rather say that then to imagine my beloved business completely coming to an end.  But pretty soon I'm going to have to face facts.  The business license has not been renewed, and I doubt the Etsy store will ever have cause to reopen. 

I am not up to the stress of dealing with all the paperwork, shipping, craft shows, and such, alone, as well as dealing with all the aspects of supply / design / create.  So I need to dramatically pare down the inventory and obligations into something I can manage on my own.  I still hope to create jewelry for friends, gifts, and maybe a bit of custom work.  But it won't be a business anymore - instead, it is going back to being a hobby.

A mug with the store
logo - Lunar Blue Designs.

So, back to the sorting through stuff.  My partner sent me all of her supplies - boxes and boxes of stuff - including loose beads, earring holders, display table linens, findings, cords, and so much more.  I need to decide what to do with it all.  All of my inventory, and all of hers, needs to be sorted through, and I need to decide what I'm still going to use for occasional jewelry making, what I'm going to sell off, and what I'm going to have to give away.  Then I have to go through packing it all up, getting auctions listed for all the lots, and then shipping it all off.

Many people have had to do this, of course.  Still, I'm very sad about it.  Seeing part of your past come to a close, something that was a creative endeavor close to your heart, is tough.  But I'm trying to be as positive as I can.  I will still be making jewelry when I can find a bit of time to do so.  And years of working in a business has really 'upped my game.'  My pieces are professionally made and of the highest quality.  I am proud of my work.

It has also opened some doors to combine my hobbies of quilling and jewelry into gemstone and paper creations.  I hope to explore more "quilled jewelry" designs and possibilities as time goes on.

And if you are a beaded gemstone jeweler too, you might make out with quite a deal!  After I get through the inventory I'll be posting a number of large lots for sale on Ebay.  So if you are looking for beads at basement prices, it will be something really worth checking out!

Well, back to the piles o stuff!  They ain't gonna sort themselves ... to bad about that :)

Image Credits:  All my pix of all my stuffs

Love Takes Shape - The USPS Heart Quilling Stamp!

The beautiful new quilled "Love" stamp!

A week ago today the US Postal Service unveiled the next Love stamp - I'm sure you've seen a million pictures of it by now, but I couldn't resist blogging about it myself.  I 'love' both stamps and quilling, and to see them together is really so much fun.

I've been collecting stamps, mostly space and astronomy related stamps, since I was a kid.  My collection is piecemeal, and not something I"ve taken very seriously.  But my walls have two other sets of commemorative stamps on them so far - one celebrating the landing of the Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars, and the other celebrating Sonoran desert life.  And now there will be a third!

This is the 44th stamp in the USPS "Love" series.  It was unveiled on January 12th at Dallas Love Field in Texas.  The artist of the original work is, not surprisingly, Yulia Brodskaya, the ever talented.

At their 'about' site, the USPS quotes Postal Service Corporate Communications Vice President Janice Walker - “Our beautiful Quilled Paper Heart Forever Love stamp evokes tranquility, peace and love as Americans correspond with beloved friends and family while away from home."
 

I want to know more about how the USPS got the idea for a quilling stamp in their "Love" series.  I wonder who initiated all of this, and what the real story is!  I wonder how long the design took, an how much direction came from USPS, and how much Yulia was free to choose what she felt she wanted to do.

I am so thrilled to think of all the people who have never experienced quilling, getting this stamp as their first exposure.  It is a great way to catch people's interest, and get them thinking ... what is this 'new' thing, and how can I do it, too?

You can find commemorative products related to this stamp here.  I've asked for the framed commemorative piece for Valentine's day!  Looking forward to seeing it on my wall.

Image Credits:  All images are from the USPS.

Getting Into the Swing Again!

Blue Flowers - What I do when I
don't know what to quill ...

After almost three months of being too swamped with chronic illness and general life craziness to be able to quill or blog, I'm finally back into it!  Thanks for sticking with me through my hiatus at the end of last year.

I returned, and after much digging through email, I found an email from another quiller asking me to change the name of my blog.  I considered this very carefully, and decided it was the most appropriate thing to do.

So here we are at the new blog site, Stories, Stones, and Spirals!  I hope you like it here, and choose to follow the blog.  I still have a lot of work to do, changing all the pointers at DeviantArt and Craftsy to point to the new blog.  I'm kind of dreading going through my DD account, because I know I've missed so much!  I hate it when life/illness or whatever keeps me away from my blogs and favorite sites for an extended period of time.  Getting back into it can be so painful.

I hope all your projects have been going well!  I'm always looking to brighten my day with beautiful quilling, so if you have a blog or twitter account you think I should follow, let me know!

Happy Quilling!

Book Review: Quilling For Beginners

Quilling for Beginners by Jean Woolston-Hamey.  Published by Kangaroo Press, Simon and Schuster, 2004.  48 pages.

I rate it ... fair!

2.0/5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

I'm always concerned when I put up a less-than-stellar review of any product.  I'm well aware of the time and energy that goes into a creating a book, being an author myself.  But if one can't post an honest review of one's opinion, then what is the point of a review?  As always, this is only my opinion, and that of others may differ widely.

This is a relatively short (48 page) quilling book that introduces the art of quilling to beginners, and provides a few easy projects for them to try.  It ends with a gallery of those same projects done by children.

What I liked:
The book has nice, bright color images of projects.  My copy came with a small package of paper strips on the inside back cover, so a few projects could be tried immediately.

What liked less:
The tutorial for beginners is much too short, and misses out on some important techniques such as making roses.  Some potential resources and supplies are not mentioned that are standard in other books, such as fringers, molds and such.  The overall quality of the quilling in the projects is not high, showing uneven tension and very large open centers.  The projects themselves are not terribly interesting, and I don't think they will inspire children or adults to try the craft.  There is no history section, and the gallery space could have been used better with a few more advanced projects, rather than showing children's work.

Overall, as a collector, I felt compelled to buy it.  But for a beginner, there are much better quilling books on the market.

Book Review: Pretty Quilled Cards

Pretty Quilled Cards by Cecelia Louie.  Published by Lark Crafts, Sterling Publishing Company, 2014.  127 pages. (Review updated Aug 7, 2016)

I rate it ... very good!

4.0/5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

Pretty Quilled Cards is subtitled "25+ Creative Designs for Greetings and Celebrations."  I rarely put quilling on greeting cards, since such cards are hard to keep and store without marring the quilling (unless you leave them out or frame them.)  But I certainly have made quilled cards on occasion, and this book has a bevy of new designs for lovers of cards, tags, and such like.  I was also thrilled to find a quilling book with a relatively recent (2014) date - as I am looking to learn new techniques and am always on the hunt for new ideas.

It is a little difficult to rate the book, because it represents a significant departure from the "traditional" or even "modern" quilling in the books of the 2000's.  This book has more "innovative" or "new wave" quilling - emphasizing very loose coils and open outlines, rather than tight, lacy coils and borders that are completely filled in.  In fact, a lot of this isn't what I'd call quilling at all but instead "Paper Outlining" or "Paper Line Art" or even "Paper Collage."  This can be misleading for new quillers.  There are techniques in this book like 'softening' and 'scraping' that you won't find many other places.  The projects themselves are a little strange in terms of how they are presented, because every single strip of paper is shown with the necessary fold marks on it.  In other words, these designs show you specifically how and where to fold every single crease in every strip of paper.  This is different from other books, so it takes some getting used to.  So comparing this book directly to the other books I've reviewed isn't as straightforward as it could be.  But I'll give it a shot :)

What I liked:
New ideas and new designs.  Almost every project has something in it, however small, that I haven't seen elsewhere.  Even if it is just a trick of folding the paper, there is something new to be had.  The book is well illustrated and photographed, with lots of color pictures of projects.  The projects are highly detailed with copious instructions.

What I liked less:
The tutorial for beginners is not straightforward, and could cause some confusion.  There is a lot of coiling, opening, and recoiling of strips to achieve the effect the author wants to see in their quilling.  This may be necessary to achieve the very specific look and effects of this book, but is not at all necessary for many other forms of quilling.  This isn't mentioned, and a beginner could come away with the idea that this book shows the 'right' way to quill, and other books are 'wrong' rather than simply thinking of this as a different approach.  (Or perhaps a different craft altogether, such as "Paper Line Art" or simply "Paper Craft" etc.)  The projects often require use of a copier, or even color copier to get all of the pieces necessary - rather than emphasizing the use of materials a quiller might already have on hand.  There is no ancillary material at all, i.e. history, gallery of ideas, etc. (you know my bias.)

I wouldn't recommend the book for a beginner.  However, a practiced quiller who is looking for ideas for cards will find much to entertain themselves with here.  I'm glad it is on my shelf, even for the relatively high going price of a new, recent book (from $15 to $20).

Book Review: Quilled Flowers

Quilled Flowers by Alli Bartkowski.  Published by Lark Crafts, Sterling Publishing Company, 2012.  126 pages.

I rate it ... excellent!

4.5/5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

Quilled Flowers is subtitled "A Garden of 35 Paper Projects."  It starts with a solid tutorial and introduction to quilling supplies, then moves right into the flower projects.   There is no history section nor gallery. 

What I liked:
First of all, I was not expecting new ideas about flowers in any quilling book, given how overdone the subject is.  BUT I was pleasantly surprised by Quilled Flowers.  There are plenty of new ideas and designs in this book.  And this is a very pretty quilling book, with tons of color images all laid out very well.  In many cases there are close-ups of the finished work so you can see exactly what you are doing.  The quality of the quilling is generally good throughout the book (see below).  The finished projects are all quite aesthetically pleasing, and make you want to try them right away.  I think this book does well at achieving its goal.     

What I liked less:
I wanted the tutorial to be longer, more detailed, and just generally meatier.  And of course I wanted a gallery of amazing flower projects at the end ... I always want a gallery.  I was not impressed by the use of chalk and ink to change colors - this is just a bias of mine, where I like color variation to be achieved by the use of different kinds of papers, not inks.  I did note some inconsistency in the quality of the quilling (some flowers with larger open centers, large 'tags' in the center, etc.).

I think anyone will be able to find a project they like in this book, from beginner to advanced.  But I think it is more suited to the moderate level of quiller.  The paperback is going for less than $12, which I think is a fantastic price for what you get here.