Creating with the Next Generation

10-31-2013

Happy Halloween !  Please be safe and have fun tonight.

One of my great joys is being a grandma.  We are fortunate to live close enough to our oldest granddaughter to get to spend a lot of time with her.  Since she has been very young  I have been crafting with her. It is wonderful to see the joy and sense of accomplishment on her face when she makes something to give as a gift .  Her latest has been working with us in the workshop learning how to make paper beads .  Her mother has been the recipient of some great earrings made by these precious little hands.  I think it is important to pass on the love of creating to the next generation  be it painting,quilting,writing or jewelry making.  Teaching them to respect all things in nature and open their eyes to all possibilities.  She is learning to enjoy the experience of the hunt looking for shells and rocks and starting to look at items to re- purpose.  I hope this is something we can do together for a long time and that she will make a part of her life as an adult.  

This is one of my granddaughters designs we had made into a necklace for her Daddy for Father's Day

How to Find The "Right Stuff"

10-30-2013
Goodmorning!  The soap is done and turned out great. Now time to get back to jewlery.
We have been asked how we find all the items  we use to make our jewelery.  Its pretty easy.  Start going to second hand stores, garage sells, antique stores anywhere where there might be items you can re-imagine.  It helps if you love to go to all those places in the first place.  The fun is in the hunt and the discovery. It is always better to not be looking for just the right piece as you will miss a lot of cool items if you are so focused.  When you look at something try to picture it being used for something other than its original purpose. There have been many times I bring something home and my Life Partner looks at me like I am crazy ( he is not as good at this) but then gets the  " Ah ha"  look when he sees what it becomes. Of course the other is our rock hunting and beach combing.  I kid you not our box we shipped back from New Zealand contained a large amount of rocks and sea shells. So the best advice is keep your eyes and  imagination open and you will find the "right stuff" for your creation

This is a great example of re-purposing

This is a fence in a small town in Washington State.

Soap or Jewlery Today?

10-29-2013
It is a tough  decision but  I have to make it- jewelry or soap today?  I have been putting off making a new batch of soap in favor of working  in the workshop but I think the time has come to make the soap.  I am fairly new to soap making.  I started about a year ago and it has definitely been a trial and error.  I like making mine using the hot process because I want that instant  gratification of using the soap versus  waiting weeks to use it if cold processed.  I started making soap in keeping with our other belief of using natural products.  When  you make your soap you know what is in it and there are no chemicals, it is all natural.   I have yet to come up with my perfect base because I love to experiment and be creative.  I think I will go for a goats milk grapefruit scented batch today. 
Yesterday was a good one in the creative jewellery department.  I managed to finish two pendants  and Life partner ( who does not choose to be involved in soap making) finished several great new pairs of his steam-punked earrings.  We will have to down size a bit for the next 2 months as we are going mobile again and and can't take the whole workshop with us ( sigh!)   However some of our best jewelry has come out of working in small spaces.    I have found one of my biggest challenges of late is trying to figure out the slip knot to use on the leather cording.  I must have watches 6 U-tube videos on that one but think I have finally got it licked.
I will leave you  with a tastes of some new M&D Design creations and a beautiful Fall rose we have blooming on one of our bushes out front.

                                                                   

   

 

Great Day for Jewelry Creating

10-28-2013
Today we woke to a foggy  day here in Texas.  It is the perfect  day to be in the workshop creating.  I have been asked why jewelry?  I think this stems from a lot of things.  I have crafted as long as I can remember. I  used to love the Fall when all the local  and church craft shows made their premier for the Christmas season.  It is a cherished memory I have of sharing it with my Mom.  I am one of those people who is a very frequent pinner on Pinterest  and have enough pinned projects to last a lifetime.  Ahh so many crafts so little time.  Being a physician  and a life long needle worker ( starting with embroidery and quilting)draws in the precise scientific part of me that gets infused into the creating of my jewelery.The love of re-purposing probably goes back to my roots of being raised by depression era parents where everything was re-purposed and reused and never wasted.  I feel jewelry is a way to combine the love of re-purposing  and my creative side.

Life partner was a wonderful carpenter and before having to retire was doing a lot of historical renovation.  His precision was obvious in his restoration work and now in his jewelry creations.  I watch now in awe as he takes apart old watches and separates those very miniscule parts for later use.  I watched him do the same in his past profession. 

I think we are  fortunate to have found something we both love and can share together.  We continue to work on creations that we hope you love as much as we do.

Steam-punk butterfly earrings

Fall Is In the Air

10-27-2013
Good morning!  It is a rather overcast  day here in Texas.  We were blessed with lots of rain last night.   With the last couple of years of drought any rain is welcome.  Fall is always a  beautiful time in Texas.  It is the reward for making it thru another scorching summer.  The leaves are turning, the temperatures are wonderful and the smell of Fall is everywhere.
Will be taking the oldest granddaughter  trick or treating this year which is always lots of fun.  However I think the pumpkin she so amazingly created is not fairing so well. Oh well it only has to make it a few more days.
We have been busy in the workshop.  Several new pieces of jewelry will be going in the Etsy shop soon.  Keep checking the shop to find that perfect  piece for you or someone special for Christmas.  Spread the news  about our shop and that there is free shipping anywhere until Nov 11,2013.  We are  also now set up on PayPal too .

Beautiful Hawaiian shells and sea bean pendant

Wire wrapped with turquoise earrings

Applebutter

Today  I took a break from making jewelry and  made apple butter.  My brother in law who lives in a California apple grove sent us a box of scrumptious apples  but too many for us to eat before they go bad so out came the recipe and in the kitchen I went.  The whole house smells wonderful and each taste is  yummy!
I feel the whole canning process is  in line with what we do with our  jewelry.  Create  wonderful things ( in this case food) from nature.  I also snuck you in a picture of our work shop.  What do they say about messy  workshop equals creative minds?  It really is organized chaos!

 The start of the apple butter process

 Finished product!

 Organized Chaos

 Mitch aka Life Partner creating

 The bosses Nicholas and Keli

OPENING THE ETSY SHOP

M&D Design  has opened on Etsy under MandDdesign.  This has been a fulfillment of a several year dream of crafting and selling jewelery with my life partner.  We started the idea with both of our loves  for all things old and my  incessant up-cycling and re-purposing.  ( ok really I cant look at anything without seeing potential!)  Being a life long rock hound added to the desire to create beautiful jewelry from natures gifts.  When Mitch was  forcibly retired from construction due to an illness we started thinking what he could do to keep occupied and that we could  share together. Hence M&D design was born.  I hope you will check us out and  follow us on our blog as we show you work in progress and finished products.  Welcome to our new adventure

 These  are a few of some of our finished pieces on sale now at Etsy.com

Working on the jewelry 10-19-2013
today was spent in the workshop trying to get some more jewelry made.  After 3 days of sitting at the computer it was nice to get back in the workshop.  Got 3 pairs of earrings made and a pretty special natural shell pendant. Life partner was in a creative thinking mood and has several he is working on but no finished products  today.  Weather was beautiful outside so had the pull up door open.  So much nicer working with natural light.  We will see what tomorrow holds.  Will try to post more pics tomorrow