See you on Saturday!

Just a reminder that either today or tomorrow, depending on when you guys see this--Saturday the 30th--I'll be at the Boston Handmade Marketplace! It's in Union Square from 3pm to 7pm. Union Square is totally bus-able, or it would make a lovely bike ride. Hope to see some of you guys there :)

Exciting news!

I've been accepted as a new member of Boston Handmade, a group of local crafters who support each other in their endeavors. I've been a fan of their blog for ages, so I'm excited and nervous at the same time to join such awesome artists and entrepreneurs. I'll be writing articles for their blog soon!

ALSO, I'll be vending at Boston Handmade's Summer 2011 Somerville Marketplace, in Union Square. It's happening on July 30th, from 3pm to 7pm. Stop by and see me and my fellow local artists--I'll have shiny things, and there'll be live music!

Etsy shop announcement!

Hey, remember these shiny pendants? They're now up in the "Gleaming Gears" section of my shop.



I've also listed some copper necklaces with handmade silk cords in the "Ancient Steampunk" section. Two of this style of pendant sold at ISC, and two sold to a coworker, but there are still four left for the shop :)

I'm definitely happy with my lightbox. From now on, I'm going to take nice-looking photos as soon as I finish things, so there's not so much lag between when I make things and when they go online.

Most of my bench time right now has been focused on some custom orders, but I'm also thinking about new jewelry designs. I'm playing with ways to use some of the great gemstones in my stash as well as some of my silver scrap.

What makes me tick: Myst

(This is the first post in what I hope will be a series about my influences, inspiration, and the artists I admire!)


Replica of Gehn's Crest by ~rivenwanderer on deviantART

This isn't jewelry, though it has some similarities with the wearable things I make. It's a six-inch disc made for a contest on DeviantArt. I joined a group over there that's all about the computer game Myst and its sequels. And I couldn't resist pulling out all the stops and spending my weekend recreating one of the elaborate designs from Riven, my favorite game.


When I first played Myst as a kid, I was dazzled by the revolutionary (for its time) graphics, and by the concept of books that could literally transport you to new places. It was a concept much like the Wood between the Worlds from the Narnia books my mother read to me growing up. And the linking books in Myst provided me with a way to imagine writing my own worlds, and then travelling to them. My sketchbooks filled with doodles of islands, forests, and buildings.

Riven was an experience like Myst ten times over; a world much bigger, grittier, and realer than any fantasy world I'd seen before. Every surface showed the effects of weather, time, and wear; every puzzle existed for a logical reason; every aspect of the ecosystem fit together perfectly; every building bore the mark of its builder. I spent a wonder-filled week playing the game. Then, I wanted to know how it was done; I wanted to create real-feeling worlds like it. I pored over the "making of" video and learned to make my own computer graphics. In the end, I drifted away from 3D modeling, but the lessons about giving objects depth, texture, and a life of their own have stayed with me.

In making things out of metal, my aim is always to create something that feels like a real artifact from an imaginary world. Something that transports the wearer the way that Myst and Riven transported me.

Regaining my sea legs

Looking at my blog archives, it's been over a month since I worked on a project that required much complex soldering. Now I'm working on a commission that involves a bunch of tiny, multi-step soldering, and it's been great getting back into things. I do love the cold metalwork techniques I use, like sawing, filing, and especially texturing/hammering. But I think I love soldering even more.

I love the nerve-wracking moments where I'm holding my breath to line the solder chips up juuuuust right. The torching, where I first gently heat up the metal, then bring the flame close and fast while praying the little delicate bits of silver and gear will get hot enough to meld with the solder, but not melt into a puddle. The hiss of plunging the newly-soldered piece into the quenching bowl. Turning the newly-fabricated thing over in my hands, tugging at it to be sure the pieces have truly joined. I even love smelling the vinegar working away at cleaning something I've just soldered together, and I normally hate vinegar!

There are a few things about soldering that I can tell I've gotten rusty at over the last month without it. I overheated the back of this little prototype pendant, so there's an unsightly blob of silver on the reverse side. I'll be keeping this pendant for myself for that reason--it's wearable, but not up to my standards for selling. I think that a teeny bit of practice will get my heat control back to its normal form, and I can't wait to do more and more soldering! Yay playing with fire!

EDIT: Some folks didn't realize how tiny the pendant is. Here's a shot with a ruler in it for scale:

My International Steampunk City demo

Photo courtesy of Susan Paykin

At ISC, for the first time EVER, I made a pendant from start to finish as a demo for all passersby to watch. I cheated a tiny bit by drilling one hole in the middle of the copper at home, but otherwise, I did all the sawing, filing, texturing, and oxidizing right there on the Waltham common. I sat in a folding chair and used a short four-legged stool as my work surface, with a bench pin clamped to its edge and my adorable little anvil on top of it.

I was really worried that it would rain again on Sunday, but the weather luckily cooperated throughout the demo. It was a little windy, but no rain, thank goodness!

I had a bunch of opportunities to talk to a wide variety of people--some of them steampunk fans (in costume or in regular clothes), some slightly-confused Waltham residents, some curious folks from all around the Boston area who stopped by to check out the spectacle. I realized that I wasn't going to show a fixed group of people the entire process of making a pendant, but would be giving them snippets of progress on the project throughout the afternoon as they wandered the common, taking in the sights (including a blacksmith's shop, high-wheeled bicycles, and a parade!).

Photo courtesy of
Dan Kissam

My spiel was something like this: "Hi! I'm a steampunk jewelry artist, and I'm giving a demo in this lovely weather. Here's an example of a finished pendant I've made. Here's how this one's coming along. The pendant I'm making this afternoon is going to have this Waltham Watch Company watch movement as its focal!" (This spiel would, of course, be modified if I realized that the other person had no idea that there was a festival that weekend, or even what "steampunk" was supposed to mean.) Then I'd talk about the step I was working on, and point out how the finished example was constructed.

Some observations for the next time I give a demo:

• The project will take at least 3 times as long as it normally would if I were working alone in my studio, what with all the pausing for conversation and the somewhat unfamiliar workbench setup.
• Sunscreen next time I do this outdoors!
• More business cards on a stand of their own (so people don't need to stoop to take them)
• This time, doing a demo on the common (away from my table in the Watch Factory) was the right call, but anytime my table is less distant from the main hustle and bustle, it'd be better to set up shop closer to my table with finished jewelry for people to look at.
• Don't accidentally set up shop along the path of the ENSMB-led parade!
• The purple parasol was a great conversation-starter, even though I'm not a parasol-maker. People were pretty amused by my story of bartering jewelry for it at Strowlercon.
• Take a photo of the finished product! I sold the pendant immediately after I finished it, and I really wish I'd thought to snap a photo. But it was another piece in the same mode as these guys, which I'll be listing on Etsy as soon as I can get my act together.

After I finished the pendant, I packed everything up into my little shopping cart and walked back to the Watch Factory. I remember feeling an immense joy and gratitude. Joy from the lovely weather, the connections I made with interesting people, and the thrill that always accompanies making things with my hands. Gratitude towards so many people who helped me vend at the convention in big and small ways: Susannah, for putting up with my crazy whirlwind of preparation, being there with me every step of the way for the weekend, and watching the table while I was at the demo; Alex, for driving me and my stuff there; C for playing her fiddle on Saturday afternoon; Jer, for carrying my folding chair from the demo to the Watch Factory; Susannah's parents for driving us home. I really felt like, in spite of the stress and the hard work, that undercurrent of purple-tinted enthusiasm was still with me after all. Such a marvelous feeling!

Now if only I can recover from this cold quickly and build on this momentum!