Fall/Winter Jewelry at Lansing Art Gallery

 

A few weeks ago, I dropped a fresh color pallet of jewelry off to the Lansing Art Gallery for their Michigan Made Holiday Show. I've been working on pieces for our wedding so much that I didn't realize how badly I needed a color change. As much as I will always default back to purple and green, I was really excited to pack up a whole bunch of new bead colors. I gathered and had to thin down beads for the train ride to Chicago for our honeymoon. I didn't get as much beading done in those 6 days that I thought I would. Which is good, because it means I was not stressed about producing and I was enjoying our honeymoon moments. 

I started with this wide St. Petersburg Chain bracelet, just to get my colors lined up and see how I liked them together. It has some fall colors but still includes plenty of pops of brights that I've been enjoying working with.

Leaf Clasp Bracelet

5-Leaf Daphne Necklace Variation

This necklace can be worn off-center or with the leaves in the middle.

Tiny pod earrings

Hints of muted turquoise are running rampant through my beading right now. I'm sure I'll get tired of it soon. The weather has started to change and I'm feeling like crawling into yarns with my weaving and knitting. If you'd like to shop this collection, they will be at the Opening Reception for the 2022 Michigan Made Holiday Art Market; Thursday November 10, 5-8pm.  I'll be by that night too!

2022 Spring/Summer Beaded Jewelry

I've had this bag of beads pulled since the beginning of April but I wasn't feeling like making jewelry for quite a while.  Then I had a baby shower to go to that I got to dress up for and made a new earring design for it. From there someone posted a cute photo of herself wearing a pair of earrings that she had purchased from me and it seemed to have lit the spark to get back to making some jewelry. 

I pulled out the bag of bead colors that have been sitting in my studio and went to work. First making some earrings...

Then I really wanted to play with stripes like I have been on the garage, so the above bracelet happened...

And I got carried away with leaves for a necklace:

The corals and greens are reminding me of past sets from Spring 2015. There were a lot of pinks used back with that grouping which I've apparently replaced with bright purple and lavender. I actually cannot get enough of this matte lavender tiny seed bead.  

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the above lavender crystal earrings but experimentation can easily move into other ideas so who knows where these could go.

I've been beading more than I guess I thought I had been. 

Midnight Madness at Bløm Meadworks in Ann Arbor

New bead colors have got me making all sorts of earrings, these will be available at Midnight Madness

I'll be at one holiday event this year (outside of what galleries are hosting) and it's THIS FRIDAY.  I was invited to be a pop-up artist at Bløm Meadworks in Ann Arbor for a night of Midnight Madness. December 3, 2021 from 5pm-11pm.  Shops and galleries will be open late for shopping.

A small part of me misses selling in-person and talking about my work to an audience.  A perk for this indoor event is that Bløm is able to have an "in" door and an "out" door so the traffic will be going in one direction and will hopefully feel less chaotic than what I experienced at Midnight Madness in a past year as a shopper.  

Jewelry set up from a show with Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild some time ago

I picked up jewelry from Angelwood Gallery, some that I haven't had my hands on in 2 years and dropped new work off to them. When I was going through the box they gave me I was all "Oh look, there's the Pac-Man Bangle!" So I will have that work with me along with any newest of pieces of jewelry that I have happened to make while snuggled in on the couch with my Boo and the cats.

As much as I've been trying to stick to making leaves for Leaf Me Alone, I get distracted by other colors and fashion trends, and what I'm going to wear to the New Year's Even Ska Show. Neon yellow/green. bright purples and deep bright pinks are grabbing my attention in sparkly beads at the moment. Midnight Madness will see a bit of those colors in my displays.

Here's a sneak peek at what's coming in the next blog:

Return of Checkers and the 4th Wave of Ska Music

Since High School I've been following ska music. My love of it started with Reel Big Fish which was my first concert at Clutch Cargos back in 1997. I have gone to ska shows whenever I can for an upbeat live concert fix for the past 24 years.  Last year it felt like there was a huge resurgence of ska music. Maybe it was just that I had the time to really explore more as musicians took to social media during lock-down. With the ska documentary "Pick It Up" coming out it just feels like the internet and Instagram has blown up with a 4th wave of ska. Two-tone checkers pattern represents the music, there's a whole background on it, watch "Pick It Up!" Clothing, record covers, you name it, it's the visual key that this is ska, especially wandering around a town before a ska show, you can point people out and say "I'll bet they're going to the show."  Now checkers are back! I just saw a customer at work wearing a checkered dress...I don't think there's a concert going on near here this week.

Checkers are popping up everywhere, there's a bit of checker in Interior Design in THIS article.

I'm excited to see checkers back, it's how I pattern my larger weavings and they are my go-to when I don't know quite what to do with an idea.  I just start to move it into checkers.

Video: Adding a tiny bangle to a more normal-sized one.

Speaking of not knowing what to do with things; I've been staring at these tiny bangles in my studio. I was making them for something "less expensive" to sell, but they're not fun to make, they don't keep their shape in the same way that my larger bangles do and I'm just not that happy with them as a product.  Not selling or making much jewelry in the past year has really reminded me that I need to make what I love, not just "stuff" to sell.  I have a day-job so that I don't have to do that!

The bright colors of this year's Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2021 collection  has checker built into it and the images may have helped me realize what I needed to do with these bangles. The Tim Walker photographs in particular are really fun, (check those out HERE), so I started with the turquoise tiny bangle and just started to bead checks.

I wanted to keep going so the warmer colors were what I picked up next.

And of course some fun earrings:

So I'm taking those little bangles and putting in checkers between them until I think of something else to do with them.  I love how they're turning out. I knew eventually something would come to me with what I needed to do!  You'll be able to find the first bangles at The BLOCK: AID in downtown Lansing on June 10th, I'm doing a pop-up booth for this event. My first show in a long time.

Interested in new ska music? I've been putting together a playlist on YouTube HERE.

Mini Earrings and Bangles for Bridgefest and Beyond

I decided I should probably post a blog, I've been distracted with the changing of jobs and interviews, lawnmower drama, and wanting to fix things and tinker on the house rather than create.  Well, the tinkering and fixing is creative problem solving for me, so I guess it counts, but that's not what this blog is about, I suppose I need to get back to jennyandbryan.com for that.

ANYWAY.  I have been trying to make some smaller items for the artist's village booth I'm doing at Bridgefest on June 21st.  My more expensive pieces don't tend to sell at free concert events and I like playing with color so that's what I'm doing with these tiny bangles and earrings. 

This is this week's productions. I even got them post on my Shopify page (which I still need to get that sorted out but I don't want to sit at a computer any more than required these days).  If they don't sell online, they'll be at Bridgefest since it's my next pop-up type event.  After that, Convergence®! 

This event was so fun last year, I'm glad to be part of it this year!

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available or purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.

Available for purchase HERE.