Thursday, September 30, 2010

Blue Soup With Stars - Organic Beginnings

Although my jewelry is rather demure in size and number of components, I have always admired chunky, clunky, multi-strand, bohemian styles bracelets. I also love organic materials. For some reason I haven't pushed myself out of my 'demure' box and made more eclectic pieces. That's what I intend to do with this delicious pile of goodies.

Soup One Organic Beginnings

Blue Soup One - Organic Beginnings

There's a variety of wood saucers, small seeds, wooden buttons, rustic ceramic large holed beads, shells, wood rounds, and a few cute little ceramic fishies. I also have one of my own Soul Song poly-clay pendants that I'm thinking of using as a focal point for a necklace along with some poly-clay beads & gemstones I could throw into the mix for bracelets.

I'm thinking of asymetrical bracelets, with leather cord, and button clasps. I'd like the pieces to make magical noise when you move.

So, this will be my next project. I hope to be able to post a few pictures within the next few days. Maybe early next week. Stay tuned.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Grand Re-Opening Sale at RadianTrace Jewelry

The transformation at RadianTrace Jewelry is complete. I'm very pleased with the new layout and colors. I added header graphics to the top of several sections which will be fun because I can change them out whenever the mood strikes. A few of them are made from my own photos while others are made from some of my favorite photographer's photos.

For the Grand Reopening I decided to have a sale. There will be a 15% discount on all items purchased on Friday October 1, 2010 from 12:30am (just after midnight) until 11:30pm in the evening.

Olive Oil Ring

So for example: this Olive Oil ring is regularily priced at $15.00 but it will only be $12.75 on Friday. I love the color combination of the antiqued copper wire with the olivine green glass pearl. Very Maid Marianish =)

Also, the first episode of the Blue Soup with Stars series will be posted soon. I'm just waiting for my camera batteries to finish charging so I can show you photos of the cool bead stash pile I  accumulated recently. Very rustic and woodsy. I'm so excited about this particular stash that I can hardly wait to show you.

My poor old camera really got a work out today. So did my old back! hehe I need to start sitting down to take pictures. Something about leaning over and forward is really messing with my lower back. Does anyone else have that problem, and if so, how did you resolve it so that you could spend more time taking photos?

I'm craving oatmeal so I'll see you again in a little bit.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Site Updates - One Step at a Time

Foot Steps

Website design is not my strongest skill, but by putting one foot in front of the other Whimsy Within is progressing along slow and steady. I'm actually starting to enjoy doing the coding. I think I've finally figured out a way to add an order form that won't be too terribly complicated for buyers. I had to think like an 'artist' to come up with the idea so "nana nana boo boo" to all my 'technically wired' web design friends. Maintaining the order form will require a great deal of vigilance on my part, but that's what I get paid for so no biggie.

Off topic....I went shopping yesterday and scored a tripod for my camera, a new battery charger, and some cool little ear buds so I can drown out my roomie's TV when I'm working online.

And also off topic.....I plan on doing a regular series of posts called 'Blue Soup With Stars' in honor of an old online friend named Magali who had an MSN community named Blue Soup With Stars. Magali is the main reason why I stayed online 10 years ago instead of giving up and unplugging my computer forever. Were it not for her kind words and encouragement I never would have gone on to discover that I'm actually talented at drawing graphics. If there wasn't any graphics, there would never have been any jewelry. In other words...she inspired me, and encouraged me to explore my creativity, and push myself beyond my boundaries.

So the 'Blue Soup With Stars' series will be about taking risks...exploring creativity....trying new things. And I will show my process here on my blog. I don't know whatever happened to Magali, but I've never forgotten the impact she had on me. Thank you kind lady.

(P.S. I think it's serrendipity that 'Soup' will be in the title of my series. Just like how 'Soup' is in Lori Anderson's 'Cup of Bead Soup' series about the same topic.)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Jewelry Making Classes

I posted a 'Classes' section at RadianTrace Jewelry for anyone local who'd like to take a class. I'm also in the process of redoing my jewelry site. This process will probably take a few weeks to be complete. During this time the color scheme of various pages may not match. Don't worry though...everything will be coordinated when it's finished.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Earth, Wind & Fire Bracelets

Earth Bracelet

Earth Bracelet

Wind Bracelet

Wind Bracelet

Fire Bracelet

Fire Bracelet

The above 3 bracelets are for sale. Post a comment if you're interested in knowing the prices and I'll get back to you ASAP =)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Jewelry Designer Lisa Barth

I've been following Lisa Barth's work for a few years, and her imaginative Art Clay designs never cease to amaze and inspire me. She's also an incredibly talented wire work artisan. She teaches Art Clay design & jewelry design classes, and you can find many of her tutorials on both her own website, and on Eni Oken's Jewelry Lessons website.

Here's some of Lisa's recent work. A Fish Tale:

barthfish01

Lisa's design sketch before creating the pendant

barthfish02a

The other side

barthfish02

The back of the pendant

barthfish03

A special arrowhead Lisa wire wrapped

bartharrowhead

A beautiful woven wire bezel setting

barthwovenbezel

You can see more of Lisa's work on these websites:

Lisa Barth (her commercial website)
Jewelry Lesson's (Eni Oken's tutorial site)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Why a Dragonfly?

dragonfly

Why do I use a dragonfly for the logo on my Whimsy Within website? It represents lightness of being and transformation to me. I have always been attracted to dragonflies, but the intensity increased when I became ill. I was told to expect a long 2 year recovery. I used to be a somewhat high energy, scattered type of person. As I age though, I'm becoming more calm and peaceful with a mental clarity that I'm very grateful to possess. I'm just generally very grateful everyday for everything I have in my life. Life is so short, and I'm trying to enjoy every moment to the fullest. I think I owe it all to the connection I have with my lil friend Dragonfly.

Dragonfly: Illusion, the Power of Light

Dragonfly is the power of light. The dragonfly inhabits two realms: air and water and the influence of both these elements will be felt by Dragonfly people. They will be emotional and passionate during their early years (the influence of water) and more balanced with greater mental clarity and control in as they mature (the influence of air).

Dragonfly is the essence of the winds of change, the messages of wisdom and enlightenment; and the communication from the elemental world. Dragonfly medicine beckons you to seek out the parts of your habits which need changing. Call on Dragonfly to guide you through the mists of illusion to the pathway of transformation.

The number 2 is important to Dragonfly, so think in terms of two year periods when you begin a change. Dragonfly brings the light and color of transformation into your life.

Dragonfly Totem Description from Lin's Domain

Artist Jennifer MacNeill-Trayler

Horse lovers beware! I discovered the very talented artist Jennifer MacNeill-Trayler a couple of years ago through the One World One Heart Blog Giveaway. I immediately fell in love with her beautiful equine art. Jen is a very interesting artist in that she has a 'thing' for Halloween and out of that grew her fondness for carving pumpkins. She enters carving competitions and all her entries are displayed on one of her many blogs which you can find links to at her The Mare's Tales blog. (I think Jen also has a 'thing' for making blogs ;p)

When I 'met' her she was handpainting horses on wooden tiles and selling them as pendants. She still does that, but now she's also an official artist at The Trail of Painted Ponies. One of her painted horses will be released as a mass produced figurine.

Here's just one example of the beautiful artwork you'll find at Jen's Ponies.

The Sketchbook Project

I just read about this really cool project on Julie's blog (Recapturing Creativity) Click on the image below to view the project.

The Sketchbook Project: 2011

Metalsmith Carole Axium

As I often do I was just surfing through flickr when I came upon this very talented metalsmith named Carole Axium and my jaw dropped open. Her style is rustic yet elegant.

Lampwork, Silver and Gold

I love the wire scroll details she adds to some of her work. It looks like vines. Very organic and breath taking. Her 'style' resembles my sketches. I imagine my pieces will be very similar theme wise.

Plume Agate and Zircon Necklace

This one is very unique. I've never seen anyone attempt this type of design. By the way it's a pendant. At first I thought it was a ring =)

Under the Sea-Atlantica

She's originally a wire work artisan. Crazy talented!

Back to the basics this week

Designs by Carole Axium

Friday, September 10, 2010

Inspiration for the Spirit

This is my friend Patricia's website. Go take a peek. You'll find it very inspiring. Careful though....it's still under construction.

Inspiration for the Spirit

This is one of the sections I keep returning to time and time again

"Still Waters"

Thursday, September 9, 2010

All Site Updates Will Be Added Here

In the interest of simplicity, and getting myself more organized I will be adding updates for all my websites here at Ronnie Unplugged. If that doesn't work for you and you'd like specific site updates you can sign-up for my Newsletter. In the right hand menu you'll see the sign-up form titled Subscribe to Ronnie's Sites. Just enter your email address, uncheck the boxes for the items that don't interest you, and click submit. It's a double opt-in so you'll need to sign into your email account and confirm your submission.

You can also follow my supply site Whimsy Within on Twitter for quick updates. Twitter.com/WhimsyWithin. My RadianTrace Twitter account is a mixture of site updates and personal nonsense, but feel free to follow it if you don't mind occasional silliness. Twitter.com/RadianTrace

Ronnie Unplugged will also be used for posting articles and commentary about artists, other jewelry designers, books about making jewelry & books about various techniques. I have an amazon Book Nook at Whimsy Within, and as I purchase and read some of the books I have on my list I'll review them here. AND speaking of books...this is a very cool website - Blog2Print.

I'm also taking a metalsmithing course so I will be posting pictures and comments about my progress.

To navigate through this blog click on the various links in the Blog Categories section to the right.

My off topic ramblings, and poetry etc...will now be posted only on my 'Inked Soul Songs' blog located at soulsongs.posterous.com

Eventually, one day at a time, I WILL get myself more organized.

Building My Supply Site

So I decided to sell supplies. I sold them at the last 4 events this summer, and it went well so now I'm busy building my supply site to sell them online. I'll be taking photos and editing them then adding them to the site over the next several days.

It will take me awhile. I haven't done much site design or editing for the past couple of years, but it's coming back to me as I go. Things have changed quite a bit over the years in regards to scripts and web design. I won't be adding anything fancy. Just the basics. Have a peek. I don't mind having an audience as I build.

Whimsy Within

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