The modern simple bow

Those that know me know that I am not exactly a girly girl, lover of flowery things, and never wanted to be a princess when I grew up.

So I got an interesting custom request this past weekend. A great buyer asked me if I could make her a simple bow pendant. She wanted it to look tied. I told her that I would see what I could do, and sat down with my copper "practice" wire to work out a design.

Maybe divine inspiration took over, but in a matter of moments a super simplistic bow of silver wire was created and I was shocked how much I liked it. It looked modern, simple, sleek...words that I don't normally associate with a bow! I liked it so much I added it to my shop and even made one for myself!

Sometimes it's good to be pushed to think outside the box, or for me, outside my always modern mantra. Even a bow can be modern now.

So here it is....a great piece to give as a gift for a special occasion, definitely remembered each time the bow is worn.

Adventures in wholesaling....

Convo: 1. That is Etsy talk for "you have an Etsy email".

I click....wow...someone is inquiring about my wholesale policies because they are interested in buying some earrings for their shop. Amazing, I think.

So my online adventures with my Etsy shop and 1000 Markets shop has been incredibly fun. It really has gone beyond just posting some earrings on the web and praying someone likes them. Lots of marketing, followup, and, of course, earring making going on.

I have found and newly appreciate a whole world out there of small artisans, doing what they love, and creating pieces to sell that really come from someone's artistic talent and love for their craft. So instead of going to the mall for the same old thing, I encourage you to check out Etsy and 1000 Markets the next time you need a gift or something for yourself. Anything you can think of (and many things you could never dream up) are available there.

And if you happen to live in rural NY, check out RELM. Great store, super great owner. This is where my earrings are going: http://www.relmhandmade.com/Home.html

Top 10 Chicago...Moms on Vacation Style

My trip to Chicago was fabulous!

Here are my Top 10 Amazing Things about my trip:


10) Sitting on a plane by myself in total silence for the entire flight...heaven!

9) Actually getting to read an entire book on the plane without interruption...appropriately it was The Power of Now (reading it again)....mantra of the weekend...Be Present!

8) Going to an amazing authentic Armenian restaurant, without having to worry if they have a kid's menu with mac 'n chz.

7) Ordering an appetizer and dessert at The Grand Luxe because I just didn't feel like an entree....nobody there to set a good example for!

6) Having a personal driver at a moment's notice (aka a taxi) without car seats, snacks, or soccer gear rolling all over.

5) No laundry, no dishes, no grocery shopping, no helping with the potty, no soccer practice schedule....this list could make up its own top 100 if I really thought about it.

4) Shopping, shopping, shopping both on Michigan Avenue and little out-of-the-way boutiques.

3) Seeing and experiencing Oprah...such a charismatic person!

2) Spending the weekend with three fabulous friends I have known for 20 years, and feeling like not a day has gone by since last seeing them!

And the #1 greatest thing about my trip was.......drum roll please.....

1) Coming home to kiss my sleeping kids goodnight feeling renewed, inspired, and rested...ready to be a mom, wife, friend, and artist again.


My post is dedicated to Michelle, my great friend who got the Oprah tickets for us!! Thanks Michelle....I had such a incredible time!

On vacation....

Hello everyone...

Just letting you know that I am officially on vacation and my shops on Etsy and 1000 Markets will both be closed until the evening of March 22, hence the big white space on the right side of the page.

See you on Sunday to recap my Oprah/Chicago adventure!

Girlfriend, I'm going to Oprah!

So one of my college roommates called a couple months ago to say that she might be getting Oprah tickets. Hmm...a weekend away in Chicago with girlfriends and NO KIDS....I'm there!!!

We are heading to the show on Friday, March 20. So exciting! I had a wild idea to bring Oprah a special pair of earrings, but there are very strict restrictions...no gifts for Oprah or her staff. The earrings I posted here are the ones I thought would look good on Ms. Winfrey. :-)

I hope to come back renewed, inspired, and ready to do some serious work on my new modern pendant line.

And yes, I am so DVRing my show. I will be the one in the dark pink shirt with totally fab earrings!

Curse of the afternoon latte...

I admit it...I am limegreenmodern, and I have a serious latte (read mucho caffeine) addiction.

It started out simple in college, a little cheap dorm cafeteria coffee before an 8 am class, a little more to stay up late for studying. It became a full blown addiction once I had my first kiddo, and realized that the only way to get everything done in a day was to cut out sleep. Hence, the caffeine overload naturally followed.

But what is so apropos about about this short tale I am telling? Well, my jewelry making obsession directly mirrors my path to caffeine addiction.

It started mainly in college, with a few cheap beads and some silver plated wire. (I know, silver plated, I heard you gasp). A little polymer clay here, a few dangles there. I was rocking the early 90s with my designs, but being a poor college student kept the obsession at bay.

Fast forward to now and here I am admitting and writing about my full blow obsession at 2am, with new design ideas keeping me awake. Always looking at the world differently, like a square thumbnail cropped 1000x1000 pixels, to provide the perfect upload.

If only I had a little switch. Off would be nice right now, as my kids will be up in 5 hours. Oh well, sleep deprivation also breeds creativity, with all the hallucinations and such.

15 minutes of fame....

Starting a creative adventure is very exciting...I could talk all day about sterling wire, cool new pliers, my great desire for a kiln....the list goes on and on.

Even with all this excitement, it is a bit intimidating to put your creative side out there for the world to see, for everyone to critique. When someone critiques my work, it's like critiquing a very personal part of me.

I try to balance the excitement and fear and just put myself out there. You know, you reach a point where you just have to give it a try. But maybe I can be a little obsessive about how my shop looks.....

Just the other day, even my daughter asked if she could look at pictures of herself, and not earrings, on the computer.

OK...so maybe I have had lime green modern on the brain lately.

But the other day all my obsessing resulted in some really exciting and validating news for my Etsy shop...

One of my designs, called up-round-over (in the blog pic), was handpicked by the admins at Etsy, a handmade shop site, to be on the front page!

It was super exciting to see my earrings right there for the world to see enjoying their 15 minutes of fame and get sold.

So thank you to all those friends and family who find themselves conversing with me about the ins and outs of the design and making of earrings, bead colors, and brand labeling ideas, though they would rather watch paint dry.

Just for the record, I did upload new pics of my DS and DD onto my facebook page, so she could see her beautiful face on the screen, and not my earrings.

But I did sneak in making another pair of up-round-overs to relist...couldn't help myself.

Are you always stepping on Legos?

Raise your hand if you have random Legos scattered through your house at any given time.

How about toys in the dining room, random game pieces in your junk drawer, and various pieces of Barbie's entourage laying around the family room.

Recently these daily annoyances became inspirational art pieces. Huh? What? And no, I have not risen about the daily clutter of life in some zen-inspired moment.

The background of this epiphany....this past weekend I took an advanced pure metal clay class. Pure metal clay (PMC) is an amazing mix of pure silver with a clay binder. You can form the clay how you choose, then fire it in a kiln to release the binder, and then a little elbow grease to burnish/shine it. Voila....you are left with a gorgeous piece of solid fine silver art from a lowly blob of gray clay.

This is where the clutter comes in....we were asked to bring in found objects that we had around our house to make molds of their texture, shape, patterns, etc; to be used with the PMC clay. I don't have anything to bring was my first thought....until I looked around my house for two seconds and realized the potential.

Suddenly you were looking at ordinary objects as pieces of textural artwork. The clutter I loathed had suddenly transformed into an integral part of the artistic process.

The football sitting inside the house, begging to be put away in the garage for months...well, it has a really cool texture to it...so I mold it.

That ugly plastic button from an even uglier sweater someone gave you....it has a great detailed pattern...so I mold it.

The Legos that are forever scattered all around my house...one block has such a cool pattern...so I mold it.

And last but not least...I never noticed the cool details on Dora's treehouse when it was strewn around my kitchen counter...so I mold that too.

Suddenly ordinary items had super-ordinary talents in what they could give in PMC as an amazing pattern, great texture, or simply being themselves.

All in all, our class had gathered a vast array of ordinary objects that can now be immortalized in pure silver, transforming that awkward teenage geeky object into an amazingly outgoing and beautiful part of an art piece.

If only it were that easy in life. Take a look around...you never know what amazing things you might find in the simplest things of life.