Symphony Jewels ~ beaded and wire-wrapped handmade jewelry

SHAME ON ME!

I know!!!!! Shame on me.

I've been absolutely dreadful about keeping up with my blog. I know, I swear. I KNEW I was going to blow my new year's resolution of doing a weekly blog! I just knew it. But I am going to TRY much much harder. I do have excuses though! I have tons of valid excuses!!! :)

Okay, so here goes... here's all the SUPER-FUN stuff I've been doing lately that has kept me away from my blog!

FIRST of all... art fairs!! I've been keeping my fingers crossed about my 2008 art fair applications, and I was just accepted into some spiffy ones!! So far, here is my 2008 art fair schedule. I will post more as they're juried and approved.

Aug 24, Sun, 10-5
A Walk In The Park
North School Park, 410 N Arlington Heights Rd
Arlington Heights, IL

May 24, Sat, 10-5 & May 25, Sun, 10-5
Cuneo Gardens Art Fest
Cuneo Mansion and Gardens, 1350 Milwaukee Ave
Vernon Hills, IL

May 31, Sat, 10-5 & Jun 1, Sun, 10-5
Deerfield Festival of Fine Arts
Park Ave & Deerfield Rd
Deerfield, IL

Jul 12, Sat, 10-5 & Jul 13, Sun, 11-5
Art in the Park
Village Green Park, 1320 Shermer Rd
Northbrook, IL

SECOND of all, I've been concentrating heavily on promoting my Etsy store. Check it out... http://symphonyjewels.etsy.com/

THIRD, I really have been playing a LOT with my new wire work AND with sheet metal! Check out the new photo! This is a copper pendant, cut, filed, hammered and patinated. Then I hung one of my wire wrap pearl drops and finished it off with a Swarovski amethyst crystal. On a knotted black leather cord, this baby is so cool!!

4th.... I've been quite busy these last couple weeks with custom orders, and hunting down more boutiques to carry my jewelry. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I'm meeting in a few weeks with an owner of one of my all-time favorite stores ever, and I'm dying to get my stuff in there! It's in an extremely busy tourist town, in one of the most popular, perfectly located shops in town!

FIVE.... my photography. I have been wasting, ooh, sorry, spending SO much time working on my photography. See the first photo? Nifty huh? I'm trying to get photos of my jewelry with the plain light background to show off the piece itself, showing the colors, textures and lines of the jewelry, with no competing "accessories". But I also love the artsy look of different backgrounds and props. So that just means I'm taking about 30-40 photos of every single piece of jewelry. Then downloading it to the computer, editing the photos, uploading them to websites... it's purely exhausting, and never-ending!

SIX... since I have shows coming up, I've been trying to get a beautiful new booth setup. I'm all about image, so I want my booth to be totally warm and inviting. The old booth setup was very "pristine"... it was simple, had an ivory tablecloth, white leather displays, with some silver and black metal displays. But I want some PIZAZZ to the booth! Nothing too shocking, but I just want people to see my booth from across the park and say, "ooooh, let's go there!!!"

SEVEN... I'm actually putting together some videos to post on youtube and webshots. They're basically going to be an introduction of me, kind of a "meet the goofy artist" video, while my cat jumps on my lap and does her smoochy lovey thing she always does. Seriously, during my intro video, she snuck in the room and stole the spotlight. I'll also do videos showcasing different pieces of jewelry, whether there's a special story behind them, or just favorite pieces.

EIGHT... I know there's more. In fact, there's a big one more, but I need to get some rest. I'll save that story for another post. But, to remind myself, it's about moving, back and forth, and renovating a brand new house. Ugh... seriously, I'll tell you all about it later.

And for some reason, my separate paragraphs aren't separating. Sorry about that. :(

Good night folks!