New Website!

The new website is up! If you're interested, please go visit Shy Violet and let me know what you think of the new look. The Woodlands and Garden Collections will be coming soon, when we have our new digital camera available. I also have several more pieces in the works for all four collections.

New Collection

I have several pieces finished now that will be the showpieces of the new Garden Collection. Of course, with no camera, I can't get them on the site yet, but that is coming soon. The most time-intensive was Sun Dew, a coiled bracelet with citrine nuggets and sterling, citrine, and peridot accents.

We've been working on the new website and it should be up in the next day or two as well. I think it looks a lot better - I really like the new look.

Classes start tomorrow. I am taking four grad classes, for twelve hours. It's a bit much, but that's the program here. I didn't register for classes myself; the administrative people did it for me. I think I'm going to aim for passing the language test with Spanish, despite my deficiencies in that area. Then in my free time *wild laughter* I will try to work on Mandarin.

These earrings are simple drops of Botswana Agate and sterling silver. Botswana Agate is one of my favorite stones at the moment. It's so sophisticated.

www.shyviolet.net

Orientation is over. Welcome to grad school! I'm a bit intimidated, as several people, second year students, professors, the stress management person, etc, specifically told us, "you will have more work than is humanly possible." So, I may not be writing much for the next few months, but I'll try. The program sounds really fascinating, though, and I am glad to be here.

As far as jewelry, I don't have that much new to show, since we still haven't replaced our digital camera. These earrings are pretty popular - I've sold several pairs that are essentially the same. They are freshwater pearls and sterling silver.
Shy Violet

Orientation

Thus begins my two years as a grad student - orientation! Three and a half days of it, to be exact, beginning today after lunch. Luckily I found out that I'm not the ONLY one coming back to school after some time "off." Mine wasn't much of a vacation, since I was working while DH was finishing his undergrad, but still, I wasn't in school. However, I'm a bit concerned about the idea that I'm supposed to be functionally proficient in some language other than English in two years. I am terrible at learning languages, as evidenced by the fact that I had 4 years of high school Latin and 4 years of college Spanish and can read/speak neither. I can puzzle out some things, but I'm not exactly functional in them.

So... any suggestions, anyone? Keep in mind that this is to be a language suitable for getting me a job in national security. So far I am leaning towards Hindi or Mandarin as the most useful, though not necessarily the most possible.

Malachite cube earrings. I love malachite - it's so very green, and yet so very... interesting looking. Rocks are great! I think I'm a rockaholic. I haven't done anything with my new moonstone beads yet except take them off the string and admire them. I guess I'm really a crow at heart - anything shiny is irresistable.

www.shyviolet.net

Support your favorite grad student!

Just thought I'd share this:
Comic

www.shyviolet.net

Cyclical?

Are there any other artists out there? I've read someone's suggestion that many artists go through acquisitive/creative/destructive cycles in their creativity. I know that for me this is true. Sometimes, I just want to buy, buy, buy supplies, with ideas for all of them, but I don't really do much actual, physical creating. Then there are times that I just feel inspired and create piece after piece. Then there are times that I can't work up the motivation to come up with a new idea, and find myself redoing something that needed tweaking, or finishing off something that had been sitting on the work table 95% complete for weeks.

Am I the only one that does this?

I HAVE to be through with my current acquisitive stage, since I've just gotten such a big order of new supplies. So it's on to the creative phase for me. A lot of times when I'm not really creative I can do some simple earrings or a relatively simple strung necklace and that will inspire me to something more artistic later on.

The picture posted is of a bracelet of blue aventurine and sterling silver. It's called Navy Sky.

Classes start a week from Monday. My orientation starts Tuesday afternoon and goes until Friday night - because we're special. My hubby's orientation is nonexistant and he gets a two hour class on being a TA. That's it. Nothing else. I also get an office, despite the fact that I'm NOT teaching, while DH (Dear Hubby) doesn't. Fair? I think not.

www.shyviolet.net

New Beads!

I have new beads to play with! I got in a big shipment of gemstone and silver beads today. I finished several pairs of custom earrings and a pendant that had been waiting on jumprings. Now I have all kinds of fun things to play with - flat diamond shaped pearls, kyanite, coral, and lots more.

Unfortunately, in the move from SC to TX three weeks ago, we managed to lose the digital camera. It's the ONLY thing we lost, so it could have been worse, but still - it does make posting pictures of my new creations difficult. So for now, I'll post this one. These earrings are turquoise and handmade sterling silver earrings made by the people of the Hilltribes in northern Thailand.

Thai Hilltribe beads are certainly beautiful, but after my experience in Thailand, I'm even more glad that the beads are becoming popular here in the US. I am glad to support the artisans that make such beautiful beads by incorporating them into my own work.

www.shyviolet.net

Frustrating

I've been frustrated with the response of jewelry stores and galleries when I present my jewelry, hoping they'll want to carry it. There seem to be two responses:

1) "Oh, that's WAYYY nicer than anything we carry. If it's over $10 or $15 dollars, it's too much for our customers." or
2) "Is it gold and diamonds? We don't carry anything but gold and diamonds." (insert condescending tone of voice here)

Unfortunately, I'm not going to work with sterling silver and gemstones and spend hours on a piece just to sell it for $15 dollars - I can find easier ways of losing money. I like working with silver. It's inexpensive enough that I can make a few mistakes without bankrupting myself. It's popular - if you haven't noticed, everyone under 30 and a large percentage of those over 30 are wearing silver quite a bit more often than they're wearing gold. It's pretty, it looks good with the techniques I'm using, it looks good with the stones.

If I used gold in the type of jewelry I'm making, a bracelet like the first picture I posted Tuesday would be thousands of dollars. Instead, because I used silver, it's only $295. Considering the amount of work that went into it, and the quality of the materials used, that's quite reasonable. I don't want to make my art inaccessible. I want real people to be able to enjoy what I do.

www.shyviolet.net

I'm currently working on upgrading/redesigning my website, www.shyviolet.net. Although I think the website is very pretty, I'm not sure it conveys as professional of an image as I want it to. Any opinions, anyone?

This is a newish link bracelet I've made. It has fancy jasper faceted rondelles and faceted nuggets, moss agate ovals, and lots of sterling silver. The coiling came out nicely on this bracelet.

Shy Violet - Designs by Cecilia

So how did it all start?

In my quest for yet another hobby, about a year and a half ago I began teaching myself how to make jewelry, based mostly on pictures and info on the internet. Self-taught, I very quickly became impatient with simple stringing. With my love of natural stones and my taste becoming rapidly more expensive, I moved on to wire wrapping and coiling, trying to find my own voice or style. I am still developing as an artist, but I have found my own style.

I enjoy letting the natural beauty of the stones take center stage. The intricate detail of coiling, setting off natural stones, satisfies my perfectionist side. I also like casual elegance, as in the link bracelets, and these faceted amazonite coin earrings. Handmade silver beads are irresistable.

This blog hopefully will chronicle my progress in jewelry design. Currently, I use sterling silver, fine silver, gemstone beads, and occasionally Swarovski crystal. I use the techniques of stringing, hammering wire, coiling (a la Eni Oken), and other wire techniques. One of my favorite bracelets so far is this one. It's called Autumn, and it's part of the new Seasons Collection.

www.shyviolet.net