Whew, it’s been busy here and I haven’t taken the time to blog. The big news is that I’m going to do my first big jewelry show out of town. On October 3 and 4, I’ll be in St. Louis at the Botanical Gardens for their Best of Missouri Market event. I hesitated to participate mainly because the entry fee was so high, but I did some research and decided to go for it. The event is invitation only for artists and is in its 18th year. I chatted with a fellow artist friend who has done the event since the beginning and she said it was great. Apparently, it’s a bit crafty but she thought my work would do well. The big Shaw Art Fair will be going on across the street so there’s a lot of traffic to both events. My fears are not enough inventory and not enough help. Steve’s coming along to assist, but mom can’t come since she’ll be in Des Moines taking care of the cutest kids we know. I’ll survive. I’m currently devoting quite a bit of time to work in the studio and trying to get ahead. I’m hoping my intern can come back in August to continue working.
Speaking of new work, I’ve been granulating like mad lately. I had some ideas and have really enjoyed implementing them. This is the piece that started it all:
Then I made some matching earrings:
Then decided to take that idea onto a round piece with circles cut out:
Although I’m on a roll with granulating and I don’t want to stop, I need to balance that with the production work that needs to be done for the show. [Nena Potts](http://www.nenapotts.com/), the artist I talked to about the show, suggested I have plenty of pieces that reflect themes of nature. While I don’t do a lot of them, I do have several bird silhouette necklaces and I’m planning on bringing back a limited edition flower design I made last year. Gotta serve the audience!
Pretty Pretty Bang Bang 