Avoid the mall, shop Studio 219

 

I probably don’t have to remind you, but you know, it’s the holiday shopping season. Here’s the part you don’t know, Studio 219 has a deadline.  Tuesday. December 15th. 3 days from now.

If you wait until after Tuesday, we going to run the chance that I might not be able to get my hands on the supplies I need or we might experience the failure of a shipping system. I just don’t want to have to disappoint you, so let’s get this done in a timely manner. But if even if you have a hankering to share the shiny goodness of Studio 219 after Tuesday, contact me & I’ll do everything I can to get a bit of beautiful in the mail for your holiday sharing this year.

On the other hand, gift certificates are available this year. I can mail it to you for you to deliver in person or it can be e-mailed if you really insist on procrastinating. No judgment (especially from the Queen of Putting-it-off-until-the-very-last-minute), I’m just sayin’.

I have some earrings ready to be dropped in the mail ASAP. The Plain & Multistrand versions of the Japanese Cross, Yoga Earrings can be to you in just a few short days.

So e-mail me pronto and let’s take care of your shopping list without you even having to set foot in the mall info@studio219designs.com Plus, order any 3 items and receive 10% off your entire order until December 31, 2009.

Thanks everyone for continuing to support Studio 219 this year. I love sharing my jewelry with you. On Studio 219’s Santa list: a new website. Here’s hoping 2010 sees a beautiful website with shopping capabilities for Studio 219!

Competitive Yoga & Pretty, Shiny Things

The 7th Annual Texas Yoga Championships is around the corner, November 8th will be here before we know it.  This year will also feature The Texas Fitness & Wellness Expo promoting all aspects of the health and wellness industry and supporting the well being of all of our neighbors across Texas.  (disclaimer: some portions of this blog will be borrowed from the promotional literature about the event. Now you know.)  Why am I telling you this? Studio 219 will be there.

Quit trying to make a link between jewelry & yoga. I *do* make The Yoga Earrings and I *do* practice Bikram Yoga and perhaps I have connections. No matter. Moving on…come on out and enjoy the day. Get a start on your Studio 219 holiday shopping.

The competition will be amazing to watch. The official description goes like this: The competition gives health and fitness enthusiasts the opportunity to learn more about yoga and see some of the top practitioners in the state showcase their talents. My two cents: a jaw dropping display of flexibility, strength (both the mental & the physical) and all around wow!

All the details are here at the official website.

Tickets for the event start at $10 for general admission (free admission for children under 12). VIP packages can also be purchased including premium seating, tickets to event parties, and gift bags (I’ll let you in on a little secret here the gift bags will include, among other fabulous offerings, a $20 gift certificate from Studio 219. I mean, really what further incentive do you need?)

Questions? Need tickets? Want to RSVP with me so I’ll know to look for you? email me: info@studio219designs.com

The Bee and the Letters

Feast your eyes on two of my newer pendants. I’m loving the go-with-everything, simple charm of these.

The Initial Pendant is my variation on the ubiquitous letter charm. Incidentally, it’s also the first pendant I made after I took my introductory Art Clay class. It goes without saying that I will make this for you in the letter of your choice. you don’t have to wear a ‘C’ just because I do.  (Please tell me my reference to first=initial wasn’t lost on you. I mean it made sense, right?) There’s the potential here to accent with a birthstone instead of a pearl, too. (if your birthday’s in June: two birds, one stone. [One pearl.]) Or you could have your kids’ birthstones or well, I could go on here forever. One day y’all will pick up on the fact that our possiblites are endless to make any of this jewelry *yours*.

The Initial Pendant is made of Fine Silver, accented with a freshwater Pearl & strung on a 16″ Sterling Silver bead chain. $40.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can you not love a bee? ( Life threatening allergies aside, of course.) The industrious, helpful, flower loving bee.  Historically, a symbol of immortality, rebirth and overcoming obstacles (you know the whole it-should-be-impossible-for-a-bee-to-fly-since-he’s-not-very-aerodynamic-and-his-wings-are-too-small-for-that-body-yet-he-does-it-in-spite-of-the-science thing). And the next time one flies into your house, before you shoo him outdoors, keep in mind he just might be there to let you know that luck is buzzing your way. Or string your luck around your neck and take it with you everywhere you go.

The Bee is made of Fine Silver, accented with a Freshwater Pearl & strung on a 30″ Sterling Silver bead chain. $55.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Here’s an excellent compendium of bee facts. I *heart* a good compendium.

Welcome Studio 219 to the darkside, be a fan!

Everyone’s doing it. It’s all the rage. Fan pages on Facebook. Studio 219 now has one. And I’d love to see you there. We can chat, I’ll be posting events, links when new posts are posted (surely there is a better way to say that? When a new blog is posted? Someone set me straight).  You can add pictures, the idea being pictures of Studio 219 jewelry out & about, in the wild. Not your latest pictures from the state fair. Unless we can get a good look at your Yoga Earrings while you’re downing the deep-fried butter.

So come on over, be a fan of Studio 219. It’ll change your life and bring about world peace. Potentially. But we won’t know for sure unless we try. www.facebook.com/Studio219

P.S. I understand that there is a way to add a ‘badge’ to this blog to alert people to this fan page business. I can’t get it to work. If you can provide the technical assistance, send me a message on Facebook (ha!) or e-mail me: info@studio219designs.com

You Are Unlimited

It’s true: You Are Unlimited. We all are but sometimes we forget. Or we stop believing it.

I saw this phrase on the tag of a tea bag (Yogi Tea Green Tea Blueberry Slim Life, if you’re looking for the details) and it’s been stuck in my brain looking for somewhere to land. So I embedded it in a Fine Silver pendant sprinkled stars on the back and dangled a pretty, pretty pearl as an accent. Why a pearl, you might be asking yourself? A pearl because a pearl is born of irritation. Irritation transformed into something we value as beautiful. See where I’m going with this? We all have our irritations/annoyances/turns of bad luck that have moved us along on our path to something beautiful. It happens when we honor our unlimitedness and find ways to feed it so we can get through the ups & downs that we are bound to encounter as we live our lives.

Need some a bit of guidance on nurturing yourself so you can feel unlimited? Fred Krazeise of Empowered & Fit offers these ideas for taking care of yourself (It simply must be done. Take care of you so you can take care of whoever or whatever else you have to take care of.)

 

 

 

The You Are Unlimited pendant is made of Fine Silver with a Freshwater Pearl and comes on a 16″ black satin cord. The pendant is a 1.25″ oval, the pearl adds about half an inch. $55.

As per usual, want a different length or style of chain? Want your personal words to live by on a pendant? E-mail me at info@studio219designs.com or leave me a comment

Just a picture for now…

I like this picture. It bears further discussion/explanation but for now you get the picture. It’s from the show at Lampros Gallery the other night and I might share some others, in due time. My friend Scott (@scottk75 for the Twitter-friendly among you) stopped by with his two sweet little girls & his camera. (His wife was out bringing home the bacon. [Hi, Nadine!]) He took some pictures for me, but I love this one & its representative of the metal clay stuff I’ve been making lately. By the way, things will be making a turn toward the interesting as I’ve decided to take classes to get certified to teach metal clay classes. Fabulous & exciting for me.  (An aside: I’ve been using the word ‘fabulous’ a lot lately. I hope I don’t end up with a reality show on Bravo or something).

So we have plenty to discuss later: new jewelry & hopefully, a teaching schedule. For now, enjoy this little bit of Studio 219 heaven.

October First Friday at Lampros Gallery

I am honored to announce that I have been invited to show my jewelry at the October First Friday at Lampros Gallery. The show will also feature the work of some local fiber artists. The show  is Friday, October 2nd at 7pm. Lampros Gallery is located at 26106 Oak Ridge Drive The Woodlands, TX 77380.

Am I excited? Yes. Nervous? Maybe a tad. Maybe more than a tad. So come by and say hello. There might even be a few new pieces that you haven’t seen yet…

Want to see the flyer? Here it is! October First Friday Flyer

I hate Lance Armstrong but I hate cancer more

*UPDATE* Great news! Remember the twins that I mentioned down there, in the orginal post? Well, Keith & Angela welcomed Athena Catherine & Luke James to the family on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. Scroll down for pics of the babies! Warning: They are *really* cute!

 

 

First & foremost, I’m not a Lance Armstrong fan. But I love my brother, Keith.

This is Keith and his wife, Angela

This is my Mom

You’re on your own for a Lance picture.

Mom’s been fighting ovarian cancer for almost 13 years (!!!). Keith has ridden for the last three years in the LIVESTRONG Challenge. The LIVESTRONG Challenge benefits the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The foundation strives to raise cancer awareness and funds to help inspire & empower those affected by cancer (it kills me to type his name it really, really does but I’ll get over it since it*is* for a good cause.).

Keith will be riding again this year in October: a 100-mile ride outside of Austin, TX. He’s put together a two-man team with his friend, Jonathan Chapelle. The team is named Osteofight (Keith & Chapelle met in medical school & are currently Orthopaedic Surgery residents {but will he look at his aging sister’s bum knee? No, he will not}). If you’re interested in riding with them, e-mail me & I’ll forward your information to Keith.

The kids & I will be donating our July, August and September $30 Challenge funds to the cause. And remember it’s not because I love Lance Armstrong but because we love my brother & my Mom. Plus we love Angela, Keith’s wife. This is important to add because when Keith goes to ride this year in Austin, he will be leaving his lovely wife and their newborn twins. Twins that will be two, maybe three weeks old. So go visit Keith’s Livestrong page and if you can, please make a donation to help Keith meet his fundraising goal. I’d love to see Keith make his goal both to honor my Mom & make it worth Angela’s (and those precious twins) while.

Thanks a million for your consideration. And thanks to me for temporarily suspending my dislike of that Lance Armstrong to write this post. Now scoot on over to Keith’s page & help him out. You’re a doll. But mostly, thank you.

Proud Dad

Athena

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luke

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

If you want to get all bean-counter-ish, my last post here was on June 5th. Before that I had been promising via Twitter & Facebook some pictures of some new pieces that I made using my newly acquired Precious Metal Clay (PMC) skills. That was back in May. Please hold while I blush.

Here’s the thing: shortly after I took the metal clay class, I got involved in a stand-off, a skirmish, if you will, with my camera and laptop. I took some lovely pictures of the new metal clay pieces, attempted to upload them to my computer for editing and disaster struck. My laptop refused to recognize my camera. Just like that.  There had been no argument that I was aware of , no angry exchange of pixels. My laptop just decided Nikon drivers were drivera non grata. So I tried to mediate: I re-installed drivers. I started and re-started my computer over and over. I traversed the terrain of Nikon technical service. All to no avail. My laptop and camera were no longer speaking to each other.

So I pouted. I stamped my foot. I tossed my head and turned my back on them both. That’s where I left it: all of us backs turned on each other, flashing cold shoulders and determined not to give. Then my camera whispered to me: Hey, you could buy a new computer. I responded with a: Zip it, Camera! The camera slyly reminded me that the kids could use the old computer and I could get a new one & everything would work like a dream. Me: Camera, silence!

But the seed was planted. Just shortly under two months later here I am posting this from my new laptop. My new laptop and my old camera get on like gangbusters. Which means I have photos to edit & posts to blog. No more technical excuses (but did I mention the kids are out of school for the summer? They require lots of care, watering & feeding, you know). My old laptop will soon be punished for its uppity ways by spending lots of time at webkinz.com and drilling math facts.

As a tiny consolation for those of you that were actually waiting for this blog to actually update (Thanks, Mom!) here’s a couple of pics. Up first: a sampling of the metal clay pieces:

First try (fronts & backs):

Next, the army of  The Yoga Earring samples I sent to BlogHer ‘09 with Amy of MomSpark:

And one more metal clay piece, The Bee:

All right, so just like that the blog is updated. Will you believe me if I say: See you soon!

Charm Bracelets

A few months ago I was presented with the opportunity to design a charm bracelet for a friend’s daughter. Karen’s grandfather had been a jewelry-maker and a family favorite was a charm bracelet he had made from some coins. The bracelet was a beauty: a heavy chain bracelet absolutely dripping in coins. It looked and sounded lovely.  Karen wanted to have a bracelet made for her third-grade daughter using coins she & her husband had saved from a trip to one of the Caribbean islands (I admit, I forgot which one. Mea culpa.)

So first I made this bracelet to be the framework, so to speak, for the coins:

And then I added the coins:

 

I loved it. Even better, they loved it. So, I re-worked one of my own bracelets (an old Tiffany bracelet with the ‘Return to Tiffany’ charm removed and a Plumeria charm in its place) so that I could have one of these charm bracelets for myself.  ‘Cause I just couldn’t let it go without having one just for me.