Kalaya Steede

Yeeeeees...there have been voices in my head. And they are asking me questions. Especially after the last market where I did not sell a single new piece. I question whether I am making pieces that are appealing (maybe appalling hehehe) or maybe my prices are too high? AND maybe I should be making smaller pieces which equates to less expensive pieces? OR if I should just give it all up? *sigh* I actually made a piece using gold instead of a more interesting, rusty bottle cap.  Just to give the piece more "worth". Oooooo... I like those earrings! Intentions WOW!  I am taking myself waaay too serious. Okay, let us start over. Mantra... I must make the things my spirit wants to make. Sooooo.... let us begin. Starting with a piece of turquoise. Giving to me by a friend.  Do you see what I see? I wonder? This is a pretty big chunk of turquoise.  Sadly I did not want to make a custom bezel so decided on prong setting it. Wow!  Now I want...

Some things begin with a stone.  A Mexican beauty known as senora turquoise. My intention was for this stone to be used as a brooch/pendant. The design was drawn up and penciled mark where I was going to place the back pin and such. In other words... I had a plan. I used 20g for the base (2"H x 1-3/16"W).  The snake was forged out of 16 g round silver. The Vision I have two torches, acetylene/air and a Smith little torch.  I REALLY love that little torch of mine. I started with the acetylene torch thinking that I was going to get the heat I needed but that failed.  Threw the piece into the pickle pot and meditated on it. Problem...#1 Base is pretty big.   Solution...to #1 Move to Smith Little torch, use charcoal block, and above all be patient. Hot damn it actually worked!  Everything was soldered down, even the snake. Next, clean up all that solder gunky mess. Bezel and snake soldered down.  Hot damn! Time ...

I have come full circle. This Saturday will be my 2nd Freret Street Festival . This marks my one year anniversary of doing markets.  Woohoo!!! Here is me one year ago at the Street Festival. I revamped my booth display this week. I felt that the pieces were not popping, and the props were actually crowding the table so the eyes could not rest on any one thing. So all of the displays were removed for a more wabi-sabi look. A more simple look. I will take a picture tomorrow for you. The forecast is predicting 60% rain...likely! Wow! Do I melt in the rain? YES! hahahaha...well...not really but still! Here is a sneak preview of some of the pieces you could see if you came out for a visit. Some pendants... I was playing with scraffitto enameling.  Lots of fun but time consuming.  All of these were done in a kiln except for the middle one.  That was torch fired. Some dangle earrings... but the real fun was this... 'Wonder' brooch I wond...