TangoPig Jewelry Creations

Belatedly ...

2011-10-29T09:10:00.011-04:00

... I really should mention that the Southern steampunk cons, Upstate Steampunk and AnachroCon, are well worth the trip. I was a vendor at Upstate Steampunk at the beginning of the month. It was a delight to meet so many fans of such vastly varying ages -- including many of my and M's colleagues, hers at Clemson and mine at the tech college! This included Gypsey Teague, a lovely lady who makes killer chainmaille weaponry and who organizes the event with her partner. Overall, the con was small but profitable and with superb gaming, and despite a giggling militant vegetarian who thought she was a pagan but didn't know what a solstice was at the next vendor table, I was delighted to meet a number of other vendors of clothing, jewelry, embroidery, fine art, etc. who were simply a pleasure.

I also had the great fortune of seeing some delightfully colorful steampunk outfits, including a young authoress who had assembled a brilliant bustled tatterpunk outfit in animal print. It worked beautifully.

M and I did some fun multicultural stuff, including (for me) a Scottish-inspired pseudo-military ensemble with a vintage woman's kilt, a wool beret, and rendundant eyewear; and (for both of us) Anglicized/Orientalized North African outfits. Me as warrior, M as harem girl. She pulled it off with her usual aplomb.

Please, Southern steampunks: plan for AnachroCon in Atlanta at the end of winter and Upstate Steampunk next fall. I can staunchly assure you that you won't regret it.

Available here.

In praise of procrastination, and Star Wars

2011-10-24T09:10:00.000-04:00

"What should you have been taught in the LIB100 class?" queries the bulletin board.

See, I do a lot of work in Clemson University's library, down in the basement next to the Congressional reports from the 1880s and the shelves of appendices to the Iran-Contra investigation, and the entrance on the floor above is dominated by a bulletin board on which students are asked a different question each week, ranging from "Give us a midterm assignment!" to the above. Rainbow sticky notes and markers are provided for answering. I stop and read them every Monday; they're like one of those witty, brilliant Facebook or Twitter conversations in concrete form.

My second-favorite answer was this gem of wisdom: "That procrastination is inevitable ... grab a coffee + embrace it." This is one of those important lessons I learned in college that it's hard to convey. Sometimes, you just work best under pressure. Sometimes a task needs to be completed in one marathon block.

Interestingly enough, the students who best understand this, I've found, are ex-military men. I assist a few in the Writing Center, and generally they're not coming in an hour before the paper is due wanting to be told how to make it an A, but coming in a couple of days before with a polished product waiting for critiques.

In every tutoring position I've had, I've realized that moral support is a massive part of my function. My entering freshmen, smart kids who'd happened to flunk the Writing Placement Exam for one reason or another, had overall much higher GPAs than freshmen who didn't have tutoring; a success for the pilot program I was working for. They often found my editing and chatting about their topics useful. And yet I'm tempted to suspect that a significant part of their grade increase might have been as a result of having someone to ask where they could go to get the free cough drops and stress balls, what recourse they had if they were being taught by an incompetent TA (or a competent TA and a lazy professor) -- someone whose dad was the football captain in '85 at the high school where they graduated in '10, someone who would listen as they talked about their depression over being unable to bridesmaid at their sister's wedding due to an exam -- someone to suggest a mediator for roommate disputes. Someone, in short, to talk to.

I'm less patient these days with students who spend their half-hour appointments telling me how hard everything is ("It's college. College is hard," I want to say. "Did you expect this was easy? Do you think I did it because it was a cake walk?"). Yet I understand that this is part of my job -- not as large a part as some students like to believe, but an important part, like the secretarial work and plagiarism reports that also form part of my week.

And yet -- to circle back toward one of my points -- ex-military students don't tend to need this. The student who recently returned from his tour in Iraq and who comes in with a bleakly and elegantly phrased cause-and-effect paper about how his PTSD has affected his wife doesn't want my sympathy, he wants me to help find comma splices. He wants a good grade, not a shoulder. The man who served for 29 years doing First Aid training is far more interested in whether he wants "quicker" or "more quickly" than he is in telling me how difficult it is to be a returning student of non-traditional age. I'm not saying these issues aren't hard or deserving of support, only that it's nice to be helping people by providing them with my expertise, not by functioning as a listening ear that anyone could be.

It was the above-mentioned First Aid trainer who explained to me why military students don't seem to have a problem with procrastination. "You don't get advance notice," he told me. "You're given a project and you do it now, and if you complain you end up with more work and the same deadline."

"So you don't have the same trouble handling the stress of it?" I asked.

"None at all. This is business as usual. You get the work, you do the work as best you can in the time you have."

Bravo, sir! That's a healthy attitude for all college students to adopt. Procrastination can be treated as scheduling if a student is well-acquainted with his or her working pace and ability to cope with the stress of the fast-approaching deadline. Now that's a real life skill -- one that I'm still developing as I learn how much copywriting I can actually do in a given period.

My favorite note on that board, however, wasn't actually the one about procrastination. It was the green one that asserted that LIB100 should teach students how to "bullseye Whomprats with a T130." A blue one below advised the original sticky-noter to turn off his targeting computer.

The world isn't doomed.

Making the blog a blog of merit: Let's see how far we've come

2011-10-04T09:39:00.001-04:00

Happy October! I've been desperately looking forward to fall ever since I moved here, and I can happily report that it is worth it.

Anyway.

Three years ago when I started this blog, it was the irregularly updated chronicle of a semi-itinerant California college student with a struggling jewelry business who did a bit of writing on the side. Now it's the regularly-scheduled ramblings of a South Carolina copywriter who works at a college and runs a small online jewelry business on the side. Life is weird and wonderful and it's taken me for a bit of a ride.

This blog will shortly be going back over to an irregular schedule of updates. Blogging is starting to feel like doing for free what other people could be paying me to do -- so it's time I scale back. I expect that this will vastly improve the merit of the content ....

... and frankly, I've been doing this for three years. I think I have a sufficiency of Jewelry Blog Content (TM). And to the rather small extent that this is still a marketing blog, I'd rather pitch myself as an interesting person than Another Jewelry Person Who Blogs.

Expect an oddly spaced soup of treasuries, against-the-grain business advice, shopping recommendations, press releases, item photos, shop announcements, and links to interesting stuff. I think that you-the-readers will enjoy it more (and hey -- leave me a comment sometimes, okay? I know you're there via Analytics, but it's quiet here). And I think that I'll be giving you more interesting stuff to read, even if there's less of it.

And I promise not to become that blog that consists entirely of posts apologizing for not posting more. Pinky swear.

Social Justice: Why yoni jewelry bothers me

2011-09-29T09:51:00.040-04:00

I am troubled by the yoni jewelry on Etsy.

This is not to say that I'm troubled by the concept. The original notion of the yoni is part of tantric sex practice, as I've been writing about for one of my copywriting customers: basically, "yoni" is Sanskrit for "divine passage," and it refers to the vagina/vulva as a sacred temple. The penis gets a similar reverence as lingam. All well and good. Sex is sacred and beautiful.

It's hard to post even the very lovely examples of yoni jewelry in a post like this, so here are some cowrie shell earrings from D Rae Designs.

I think the problem comes in when women (and men) who have little interest in the Tantra adopt the idea of venerating the yoni. The thing is, once you're worshiping something in a vacuum, you automatically mentally remove it from the realm of everyday practice. To decide that we are now going to revere the vagina as sacred rather than thinking of it as dirty turns the vagina into a concept that is beyond the woman.

If my vagina is sacred, it doesn't belong to me. Sacredness implies worshippers, implies a social construction and concept that is larger than myself. I don't want to think of a part of my body as filthy, as shameful. But I also don't want to think of it as bigger and more sacred than the rest of me.

I'm all for resisting the idea of shame, but replacing it with the idea of sacredness, without understanding the yoni concept as part of a whole person, doesn't grant a woman control of, ownership of, and pride in her sexuality. It only estranges the woman from her sexuality in the opposite direction.

So all that polymer clay yoni jewelry on Etsy (some of which, admittedly, is lovely)? When I look at most of it, all I can see is a woman desperately resisting the idea that sex is dirty ... by putting it away from herself and her life entirely, promoting it as a passage to the sacred experience rather than a part of herself, her sexuality, her pleasure. How is this different from the Victorian narrative? How is this helping anyone?

Recent Discoveries: A slice of tofu and a slice of life

2011-09-27T10:05:00.000-04:00

Southern Fusion Broiled Tofu

Easy, simple, and tasty. Take a block of tofu and press it in a tofu press, or do what I do and wrap it in a dishtowel and pile a plate and about ten pounds of cookbooks on it, then leave it there for 20 minutes. This will press out some of the moisture, leaving your tofu slightly denser and more able to absorb marinade.

Cut the tofu into quarter-inch-thick slices.

Whip a quick marinade of approximately one part hoisin sauce (or similar dark, thick Asian sauces might work) and three parts commercial sweet tea (use the good stuff; I used Beacon Drive-Inn's signature iced tea). Make just enough to coat your tofu.

Drop your tofu in the marinade in a sealed container, roll it around until the slices are coated, and leave it in the fridge for an hour or two, turning it over every so often.

Lay the slices on a lightly greased cookie sheet and broil them five minutes. Turn over and broil another five minutes. Serve hot, with hoisin sauce for dipping.

The flavor is weird but delicious, sort of piquant and hard to identify, and the texture is a delightful mating of crispy and chewy with soft, and a touch of crunch round the edges. Hey, I wonder if you could cut shapes out of them!

---

Unrelatedly, a thing I found out while I was doing copywriting research: Someone on the internet is trying to get marijuana smokers to report how many zippy bags they use for their stash each week. He (I'm assuming it's a man, but I don't know why) will then work out how many zippy bags are used for this purpose nationwide, and report his findings to Ziploc in hopes of gaining corporate backing for the next push to legalize marijuana. And this is why I love the weird world of the internet.

A linklist, which should really be one word

2011-09-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

... this spammy blog (is there a term for this?) uses an article I found while trying to discover M's Ratemyprofessor rating, and it is just about the funniest damn thing I've ever seen. M and I did dramatic readings to each other.

Is this a thing now? Seriously someone -- is this a thing?

On a more relevant-to-anything note, here are two of the many cool things I've turned up while doing the copywriting for this lovely site, Keys of Paradise:

This mellifluously written essay on musk is fascinating, informative, and a truly beautiful piece of online writing which is a superb example of structuring lengthy content for the Internet reader.

There is an loa in the Voodoo tradition who protects abused women and lesbians, hopefully not always in combination: Erzulie Dantor.

And everything I ever wanted to know about alchemy can be learned from these sites: Alchemy-Works, which does sell some of its products but is more valuable for its wealth of information, and <"http://www.alchemylab.com/guideto.htm">a page on which I have wasted hours which gives the alchemical properties of hundreds and hundreds of ordinary foodstuffs.

On a vaguely related note, many props to the makers of the Mystery Case Files games, available from Big Fish Games and on disk at many fine department stores. They're a combination of hidden-object with item-adventure games; they capture the essence of the greatest old-style text adventures in their snarky humor, intertextual references, and complex plotlines, but are also absolutely state of the art in graphic rendering and in the incorporation of live-action film with digital art scenes. They have a smoother and more graceful user experience than their imitators as well. And, as I was playing the latest entry, "13th Skull," between pages of my novel-sized list of item descriptions, I realized they also apparently have a really excellent cultural consultant.

"13th Skull" has a few problems in terms of atmosphere, notably the fact that while the previous games, "Return to Ravenhearst" and "Dire Grove," had an engaging and incredibly atmospheric creepiness, this one had sort of a hokey Scooby-Doo ghost feel. I'm quite willing to believe that this was deliberate (M was not so kind about it), but it's a little startling -- perhaps it's the lack of a well-developed and sympathetic victim to save. Or the fact that there are about four actual Southerners voicing the Louisiana residents. Anyway, the point is, despite the oddly built atmosphere, every depiction of voodoo and hoodoo spells is, as far as I can tell in my admittedly amateur experience, perfectly accurate. Right on!

Crap, this post has no subject. Unrelated photo time!

Available here.

Seven Weird Colors and the Sellers Who Love Them

2011-09-20T09:27:00.001-04:00

As may have become obvious to everyone, I have a massive thing for color names. Here are some colors from Wikipedia's list with cool names, cool backstories, or both, and the Etsy items that are tagged with them:

The color: International orange, which appears in a number of service organizations' marks and on World Football League balls.
The item: Seven sellers have tagged eight total items as International Orange.

This hand-braided Maharan wool rug by mrsginther, who also has a great profile page, warns your friends of narrow stripes of high-atmosphere conditions.

The color: Fallow, one of the oldest color names in the English language, referring to the sandy soil of a fallowing field.
The item: It took some manual counting due to synonyms and misspellings of "follow," but there about 26 handmade items tagged with this color.

The porcelain Lucitano horse ornament by SandrasShop reminds your equestrian of his equally old and proud tradition.

The color: Mountbatten pink, invented as a naval camouflage color that only worked part of the day.
The item: Only one item tagged with this!

This crocheted poncho by HEraMade lets you blend in with crocheted naval sunsets.

The color: Fulvous, which chiefly describes birds and means "kind of tawny rufous burnt reddish orangish yellowish grayish, kind of."
The item: Seven sellers tag one item apiece with this color.

This print of an original acrylic breastfeeding painting by h0neyburn uses the name to describe the color of the outline of a well-fed toddler. h0neyburn uses a lot of these color names; I keep seeing her stuff pop up as I search.

The color: Isabelline, apocryphally named after Isabella I of Castile, who vowed not to change her underwear until her husband had broken a seige; victory unfortunately took eight months, at which time her small-clothes were understandably no longer snowy white. Isabelline or Isabella palominos, the very pale-colored specimens of cream-gene horses, are named for this tint.
The item: A whopping 39 items are tagged with the color name isabelline.

This plump crocheted heart by Sabahnur looks nice and clean against your hair on a headband, and if you have a cream palomino, you can match!

The color: Falu red, which is after a paint made of starch and very finely divided hematite, and is used to paint traditional Swedish homes -- a bit like haint blue here in the South.
The item: Five sellers use this color to tag a total of 11 items.

This set of twelve organza blossoms brings traditional Old World color to your modern garment.

The color: Urobilin, named for the organic pigment responsible for the color of urine (yum!).
The items: Four sellers win the "I didn't note the Latinate root" award, and perhaps ironically, all four items are so lovely I couldn't pick just one.

The elegant vintage-style glass and dyed jade necklace by thebeadedhound will have part of its proceeds donated to coonhound rescue. The set of 8 shabby chic hairpins by hbs1406 are stunningly photographed and would be gorgeous for a fall wedding.

A Review of Pottermore by Someone Unaffiliated with Sony

2011-09-15T09:22:00.000-04:00

So, as longtime readers have certainly grasped by now, I have something of a love for Harry Potter. I spoke on gendered intepretations of the broomstick as symbol in modern literature at the 2009 convention; here's some of the massive amount of Potter-inspired jewelry I've made (please excuse the older photos):

So it will surprise no one that M and I were among those who fought for a place in the beta for Pottermore, which is supposed to be an interactive companion to the books containing more information about minor characters, ghost plots, and other things that weren't told in detail within the scope of the series.

Overall, we've found it interesting but disappointing. Most of the problem is in the advertising. There was a massive amount of hype for this -- website countdowns, early announcements, competitions for early-admission spots -- and it was not made entirely clear whether this was a game, or a bunch of illustrations, or an interactive ebook ... or what.

It's set up like a collection of illustrations tied to a social-media game. There are quizzes to take and House points to earn, and there are some little side games, like potion-brewing and spellcasting. However, the actual game bits tend to be buggy and unresponsive, partly because the servers clearly weren't ready when early registration was first opened and partly because, well, it's in beta. But ... there's nowhere to give specific feedback. There's a generalized feedback form that asks you to give a one-to-four rating of how it works, how it looks, and "how you're liking Pottermore so far," but no way to say "When you try to make the Herbicide Potion, the worm mucus isn't clickable; you just pick up the Valerian if you try." Which you'd think would be the important thing about doing a beta run. It's starting to feel like all they really wanted was a demographic survey.

The ... I don't even know what to call it, because it's not a game or an ebook or anything really ... Pottermore is unquestionably beautiful. Each chapter of the book has two or three corresponding "moments" you can access through the ... here we go again ... through Pottermore, and each "moment" has a multi-layered artwork. Chapter thirteen, the one with Norbert the dragon in it, is absolutely breathtaking.

And yet there's nothing to do. You get to collect books and objects throughout the scenes (though in the really lovely chapter, there's not a damn thing to pick up ... and you still end up having to look), but there's no competitive aspect -- it doesn't really penalize you for not finding the jellybeans on the train -- and there's no reward for finding everything. A few things, when you click on them, will unlock interesting extra information that's been written for the ... for Pottermore. For instance, there's an entire biography of Professor McGonagall that you pick up over the course of the story, a few paragraphs for every chapter in which she appears. This is quite worthwhile for people who enjoy the series. There's not a lot of information -- there's a lot less than the advertising suggested there would be -- but it's worth playing through for it.

Yet the social-media aspect of the ... thing ... seems to imply that it was imagined that people would sink time and effort into Pottermore. Would return daily to try to earn House points. But the part that was hyped, the companion to the books, takes less than a day to "play" or "read" or "work" through per book. And here's the rub -- the books open one at a time.

At this point, the only thing I'm returning daily to do is to check whether the next book has opened up. Sometimes I try to make a potion, but the timing on this requires you to either find 90 minutes of stuff to do in Pottermore (difficult) or set a real-world timer (I'm resisting the nerdiness). As of the end of August, it was still only the first book. With overall opening slated for October, I'm not sure how they're planning to beta later book-companions at this point -- there's just no time.

The material shows a lot of promise, but Pottermore can't decide what it is. This cripples the game because it cannot meet the expectations raised by marketing, weakens the storytelling because the different aspects seem to have been developed at the expense of one another, and distracts from the companion information because the reader is treacherously wondering, "This is all?"

Pottermore could have been a great advance either in interactive reading, or in book-related gaming, but it tried to be both and therefore is neither. It tried to be something new so hard that it isn't anything. It has potential as a stepping stone, and it's still worth playing/reading/social media-ing/whatever, but don't expect your mind to be blown.

It's my birthday and I'll talk about buttons if I want to

2011-09-13T10:03:00.001-04:00

Yes, in fact it is. My age is a palindrome for the first time in eleven years! And until midnight M and I are only 8 years apart!

The buttons from the necklace I posted last week came from the single best deal I've ever gotten on vintage buttons. Here's another made from buttons from the same lot:

Available here.

It was at a yard sale, and the guy selling them had sorted them into jars by color and clearly knew they were of value, but some jars had a horrifically foul-smelling mold in them, so he gave me a price cut on all of them if I was willing to clean them myself. It turned out that only one jar had the mold, and the smell in the others was merely the natural consequence of putting lots and lots of Lucite in an airtight glass jar for a couple of months (Lucite stinks a little; it contains some kind of acid whose name escapes me at the moment). I scrubbed them all with toothbrushes and buried them all in coffee grounds, and only ended up losing the one jar; the rest smell just fine, and there wasn't a single junk button. All primo vintage stock.

Consequently, I can afford to do a special offer on stuff from that lot. So here it is. Buy two items, at least one containing buttons (look here), and get 20% off on the lower-priced item when you check out with the code "Lucite always kinda smells if you seal it in a glass jar for a month." Spelling doesn't count. Add the code to the Note to Seller when you buy and I'll give you the discount within 24 hours through PayPal. Offer lasts until11:59 PM on September 30.

A shopping guide

2011-09-08T10:09:00.038-04:00

If you have a bit of back-to-school shopping left to do, or (like us) you work in education and the first paycheck after Starvation Summer is burning a hole in your pocket, check out the shops of some of my recent Etsy copywriting customers:

Is liberal guilt about brown-bag lunches setting in hard yet? Reusable bags from SeaCute Designs, whose profile page I wrote, are surprisingly affordable for the category, and appear nicely made and rhapsodically cute; the very professional shop owner donates a portion of proceeds to Feed the Children.

For playing after school, tutus from avasmommy07 are made with lots and lots of US-made tulle so they're soft and poofy like the imaginary fairy princess gown you had when you were little. That isn't the item I wrote the description for; I just love that picture, which balances posing and naturalness so well, and which has a very nice contrast of background and foreground.

This purse hanger and similar ones from talented Etsy graphic designer Topview are great; original artist design, and those things are massively useful when there are narrow aisles between desks (one particular classroom in the anthropology department at UCR, in Watkins Hall, was pretty much where we shoved all the spare furniture so they wouldn't take it away before we were able to lay claim to another room. We guarded our classrooms jealously so we could keep artifacts and posters in them. But that room was hell on earth in the summer).

Topview also does very cool Etsy banners -- and, as you can see, very crisp professional photography. She's one of my absolute favorite customers so far; I edited the content for her very useful website for international students hoping to apply to colleges and universities in the United States, which I'll link to once it goes live.

Treasury Wednesday: I'd shank a kitten for a slice

2011-09-07T10:15:00.001-04:00

Until a couple of years ago, I never actually liked watermelon, so it was always canteloupe and honeydew I got at summer gatherings. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that canteloupes don't exist in America. Technically, they're muskmelons. We just call them canteloupe. Actual canteloupes are only available in Europe and Australia -- where I think they're called rock melons or rockfruit.

Funny old world.

There are some neat, weird things in this treasury, really different and cool. A beautiful collection of Etsy's real best, not Etsy's bestsellers.

'Muskmelon Pleasures' by Scribblegoat

Music and food-inspired designs, in rich melon oranges. What could be better?

Bailey Woodland Whi... baileybowls $19.00	Gallop, Canter, Fox... WildLifePrints $20.00	Upcycled Linen Cant... thehighfiberco $27.00	Acoustic Guitar Per... fionadesigns $20.00
Buy 3 get 4th FREE-... songsparrow $	she heard music eve... corid $20.00	Traditional Turkish... Kitty016 $16.90	Wood Fired Bottle a... earthfired $50.00
ballet russe BalletArt $18.00	Cute Pincushions f... BelleCoccinell... $33.00	Goldfish Cracker Ne... BitOfSugar $12.00	Marble Coaster (Mus... j2studios $9.00
Creamsicle Melon Mu... KarinLorenc $20.00	Sweet Slices an Ori... ArtByTemple $165.00	Citrus - Fine Art p... honeytree $30.00	Cantaloupe Bowl-Set... vegetabowls $72.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Instant Vintage

2011-09-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

Available here.

What is it about this color combination that screams "vintage"?

I mean, naturally the color of the large plastic/resin buttons is very vintage -- I generally refer to that shade as "60's peachy pink," though from a quick consultation of that ever-handy resource, Wikipedia's list of colors by shade, I suppose technically it's coral. (Random side note -- I'm that weird genetic anomaly, a colorblind female, so I can't actually distinguish a strong orange from a true red. I have to ask M for a judgment of harmony if I'm designing in reds or greens, and it's made putting together the Mixed Media Packs for Ballet Llama something of an adventure.)

Anyway. It's not the muted coral hue I'm referring to, but the combination of it with black. Pink with black always looks either vintage awesome or modern tweeny "rock star" bleh to me, but this is a particular combination that M and some of my coworkers reacted to in the same manner. Maybe it's the blue-black jet hue of the blacks that's doing it; that's also a very vintage-feeling color.

This, incidentally, is also one where I bit the bullet and included a photo on black, which may or may not have actually been a good idea:

But it looked too bizarre with black at the edges and white in the middle, and this gives a truer idea of the variation among the buttons, so this was the only way to make the contrast work.

In general, these aren't great photos. I'll need to rework the cropping, I think, and try for a deeper focus.

But hey, check out those great 1960s flapper-style rose beads!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2011-09-01T09:28:00.131-04:00

We're a little ways back into the year now -- and incidentally, this is the part I dislike, because no one has papers yet so there are almost no students, except for the panicked older students who are expected to use technology, but aren't being taught to use it. The other day, M and I worked with a very nice gentleman. She taught him to make capital letters on the computer. I taught him how a printer works. She taught him to use the mouse.

There is a lengthy diatribe on educational priorities in here somewhere, but I will limit myself: Did it ever occur to anyone to maybe require a computer-usage placement test? It's seemed to me since high school, when I volunteered to drive some of my friends home after they missed the bus staying late in the computer lab, that the requirement of technology usage reinforces class distinctions in educational opportunity. Clemson University requires that every student own a laptop -- and in my current still-a-bit-under-the-weather state I can't decipher whether this fixes or exacerbates the problem.

Anyway.

We've gotten started now, but before we did, M and I went to spend a couple of days in Asheville, North Carolina, where O. Henry lived for a while. We went on the first day to Biltmore, the Vanderbilt family's estate. After looking at the website, I came away with the impression that it was where rich people go to buy expensive branded wines and jellies and be rich together, but M's grandmother was kind enough to give us tickets and it was absolutely and completely worth the trip.

I've been to California's Hearst Castle, which is a melange of stuff imported over the Atlantic to build a fantasy Mediterranean village -- the architect called the style of that place something like "Franco-Anglo-Arabesque-Mediterranea-Japano-Rusko-screw-the-look-whatever-my-client-wants architecture." Biltmore was a useful companion, since it is also a very Victorian-American estate -- appropriated spoils of empire and of education, combining in a large, somewhat asymmetrical cathedral-inspired house on top of a hill -- but Biltmore is much better-designed, and you can see how people would have flowed through it, both the guests and the downstairs class. It's useful to see how the estate would harmoniously operate.

Also, some very inspiring wallpaper-decor combinations, including some beautiful examples of using rich jewel tones to make the very Victorian damask and tapestry feel masculine -- I'd give a photo, but they apparently never release them, contributing to my previous impression that it was a fancified wealth getaway -- and some wonderful 1890s-1900s clothing was on display, including a probably Worth-inspired gown and several pieces with delightful nostalgic touches that made my inner costumer dance.

Also, this fountain:

This view of the gardens (August is not a good time for gardens in the Carolinas, but these still looked pretty good):

And this carved marble pillar from the outside, which I'd love to "translate" into a jewelry design, somehow:

As for dining in town: The Jerusalem Garden Cafe is out of this world. We ate there the first night and went back the second. Try their curried mango shrimp -- it's delicate and warm, not spicy, and is served over perfect couscous. It's atmospheric and lovely, especially the floor seating, and the servers are wonderfully attentive. Asheville's more famous Tupelo Honey Cafe, however, was terrible and not worth the wait. M's meal, the shrimp and grits, was drenched in hot sauce (not listed on the menu) and too spicy to eat; when we remarked on it, the server suggested stirring it around a bit. Mine was a fried chicken something-or-other and was too salty to have more than a few bites. However, if you still want to go, the peach rosemary lemonade is delicious.

Asheville can be described like this: If you took a mellower version of the free-spiritedness and general artsy insanity of San Francisco and fused it with the prissy exclusivity of San Diego, their hipster love child would be Asheville (two silent E's. And it went to North Carolina. You've probably never heard of it). The shopping is delightful -- don't miss the Spice and Tea Exchange, where they sell ras el hanout with black pepper and hibiscus flowers, and also onion-infused sugar and powdered extract of burgundy wine. Malaprop's Bookstore is also a must-do -- we shopped a while and then sat drinking their amazing ginger lattes for hours. And Woolworth Walk is not to be missed -- yes, there are all kinds of little art studios down by the river, but they were like an IRL Etsy, so you might as well visit through a screen -- and also overpriced and of questionable quality. Woolworth Walk is right in town and features some truly amazing art -- pottery, installments, and traditional. We purchased, or rather my parents purchased us through the magic of plastic and our birthdays coming up, a piece by Brenda Marks. It's a three-dimensional giclee over wood rendition of her photo collage "Serenity." Here's a picture of it on our wall, but visit her site because our lighting does it no justice:

Doesn't the dark luminous aqua balance the red so very eye-catchingly? Stunning.

As a matter of interest ...

2011-08-30T10:02:00.029-04:00

While my suppliers are trying to calm everyone, the laws of supply and demand would indicate that turquoise prices are going to hit the roof again like they did in the 1980s. China is going to be dramatically slowing its production of turquoise rough -- a couple of sources are suggesting that that country's output may fall by as much as 75%.

Available here.

While this is no doubt exaggerated, it has some interesting implications. A lot of turquoise miners are going to lose their jobs -- but the loss of life in mining should slow too. The environment around some of the turquoise mines should improve.

And as for what this will do in the jewelry industry ... well, turquoise was recently a Pantone Color of the Year, and it is still exceedingly popular, since it fits both the fruity jelly-bean shades that are in everything this year and the dustier ones predicted for next summer. As the prices rise, we may see a surge in substitutes, like dyed or undyed howlite, which pleases me -- I much prefer howlite. Turquoise may be found in fine jewelry more often than casual jewelry by the end of this decade -- as it becomes priced as a luxury, it may be paired with sterling, gold, and precious stones more often than leather, fiber, and bone. That could conceivably redefine tribal/ethnic-inspired jewelry styles.

This will be interesting to see!

Unrelatedly, I am sick. I do this every year, but usually I manage to weather it before the school year begins. However, it's possible my body is still on California scheduling (UCR starts in late September) and thinks it's got plenty of time to be ridiculous.

A Little Grin

2011-08-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

In the description for the earrings below, I actually used the one really cool thing I learned from the Etsy writing workshop: Using a quick, unusual story to explain damage to a vintage item.

Sold!

To wit: "The two large pearl beads have slightly different shades and imperfections (I like to imagine it comes of their being worn by a dangerous gang of flapper girls for a famous faux pearl heist), but this is barely visible and what can be seen only enhances the vintage feel of the earrings."

It's always nice when something you wrote makes you smile a little later on. I got this feeling from the descriptions of some of the stick incenses for my current Elance client, too. It's a high, like suddenly realizing that the beads are falling into an additional pattern you didn't even plan but which is perfect. Flipping over a pancake to find you've judged just right and it's wholly fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth gold. Or perfectly executing a martial arts form.

Things I Am Slightly Chagrined By

2011-08-23T09:37:00.003-04:00

I'm making more in a month of copywriting than I ever made even in Decembers from my jewelry business. Admittedly, most of it's coming from Elance, but I've been at the jewelry for three years (going on four) and the copywriting for three months. There is something slightly frightening about this.
I'm officially giving up the ghost on frontal toggles. Every time a new Stringing hits the grocery store, there's a new and interesting way to put the clasp in front, to the side, as a pendant base, interchangeable, adjustable, convertible -- just stop. I am going to accept that my jewelry has boring clasp placement, at least for a while. I use too many different toggle designs (because I match them carefully with the piece's look) to put myself through this anymore.
Teapot earrings -- a billion variations on a single finding -- beat out every other category I can make for top jewelry sales ever. Maybe this is less chagrin and more astonished laughter. But yeah.

Sold!

Finding Changes

2011-08-18T09:53:00.049-04:00

I like to delude myself that I make these posts so that when I'm rich and famous, my slavish scholarly fans will be able to date my work. Also, I figure you customer types like to know I actually think about this stuff.

In the past, with some variations, I've used flat headpins and fishhook earwires, as such:

However, especially with doing all the bridal designs, I've occasionally ended up using ball headpins and French wires, as such:

Images courtesy Fire Mountain Gems.

I've just finally made the investment to switch over more or less entirely to the second option. I prefer the look of ballpins, which give the effect of a tiny additional bead rather than a "stopper" -- and they mimic the look of hand-fired ones better. Also, while I never believed all the people who told me this, the coiled fishhook wires genuinely don't balance quite as well. Admittedly, I don't have problems with them -- and I send all my heavier earrings with rubber stoppers to solve any problems others with less beefy earlobes have -- but the ball-end ones give a touch of confidence. And they're rarer, so I think they look more professional.

So I'll work through my former stock -- especially since there are some design types that the coiled wires suit beautifully, I just don't do them that often. But overall, I've decided that it's going to be mostly ball-type findings from here on out.

With exceptions to be made, of course, for cool headpins like the enameled ones in these earrings:

Available here.

But ball earwires, anyway. Although wrapping a colored wire over the coils might be cool ... I'm off to experiment.

New favorite plants

2011-08-16T09:50:00.001-04:00

So, in the past month, the milkweed has had an Osiris-esque cycle of death and rebirth. The coleus ... coleuses ... colei? ... have doubled or tripled in size. The Wandering Jew has reseeded itself in among the gladiolus.

And I've got a couple of new favorite plants (all images are courtesy the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at wildflower.org):

Tall Meadow Rue
Thalictrum dayscarpum
So this native beauty was unfortunately beheaded when our window box fell on it, but it seems to be doing okay as an abrupt low grower. I love it not for the flowers, which haven't turned up yet on ours, but for the leaves, delicate little cress-shaped rounds that array themselves very gracefully around the tall stems.

Calico Aster
Symphyotricum lateriflorum
Another tall slender native wildflower with a graceful all-over leafing habit and interestingly hued herbal parts, and it seems to enjoy the hot weather.

Purslane spp.
I cannot recommend this plant enough for anyone in a high heat index climate. It's not a native plant, but it's a well-behaved, low-maintenance ground grower. Even in its pot, it seems to require no care at all beyond a splash of water now and then to produce gorgeous flowers and healthy, interesting foliage. And it seems to absolutely love hot, dryish weather (dry being relative, of course; this is the South). While everything else droops and has histrionics, our purslane -- we got a lacy double-blooming hybrid -- is shooting up by inches and throwing out romantic nickel-sized, canteloupe-hued, layered-petaled blooms. Perfect for gardeners who like plants in the summer but also like to be inside where it's air-conditioned.

Huh?

2011-08-11T10:22:00.011-04:00

Two mystifying pieces of feedback we received recently on Ballet Llama recently:

"Item much nicer than expected."

"haven't seen them yet, I know I will like them."

...
So ... um ... vintage beads and findings from Ballet Llama are so nice that you'll be able to tell how high-quality they are before they arrive! ... even when you're ... expecting not to like them at all?

Man, I'm supposed to be the expert and I have no idea how to spin this.

Thanks to the relevant customers for their purchases and their lovely feedback, even though it confused me. <3

A necklace I wanted to talk a little more about

2011-08-09T09:28:00.002-04:00

Available here.

I named this necklace Arc of Ages, which is supposed to be a cleverish allusion to Rock of Ages (still a'rollin, rock of ages ...). We got the vintage (I date it to the 1970s based on style) necklace base from Grandma's Antiques and Things, a fantastic little store run out of a garage in Pendleton which has become my primary steampunkerie supplier (the octogenarian proprietor is really having trouble figuring out what those nice girls are doing with all that weird hardware).

What I wanted to point out, because my blog, not my item descriptions, is the place for annoying self-congratulation, is the rather coherent symbolism that forms in the strange combination of materials here. (Note that M deserves the majority of the credit for this.) The large watch face, of course, aligns it with the sf-clockwork look. The rectangular shield has an odd, delightful filigree pattern reminiscent of a somewhat mechanized paisley -- and of course, nothing is more neo-historical than shamelessly appropriating the motifs of other cultures (see here.) The arrangement of the subtle gears (really, they're barely visible in person, the light picking them up for an instant before they vanish for a moment in the harmonized chaos of the design) arcs gracefully around the watch face like an event horizon. Also suggesting the passage of time and the "message of ancient days," as the sole quote I know from Cicero pontificates, is the centerpiece of the watch face: an antiqued silvertone pewter connector in the shape of a Celtic knot, representing infinity.

Multicultural, neo-Victorian, time-traveller-esque -- I think I found steampunk, honey! Two different thicknesses of triple-link cable chain (vintage) complete the necklace in a statement-goddess-waterfall shape.

I'm also proud of the rather slick wirework on the piece. See the back:

Scribblegoat Press Release: Jewelry Still Best Gift, Say Designers

2011-08-04T09:20:00.002-04:00

I wrote the following press release for one of my Etsy copywriting clients. Please notify me in a comment if reposting or quoting. The link to my client's shop is at the bottom of the short release, after the jump. -Chelsea

Jewelry Still Best Gift, Say Designers

21 June 2011 – The classics still work best when you want to please and flatter. For women and girls of any age, the traditional gift of jewelry is still a top choice for special occasions.

Mother’s Day, graduations, children’s birthdays – all of these are occasions when something that sparkles or shines is usually welcome, according to designer and online shopkeeper Linda Ann Stewart.

Statistics bear her out on this point: The second-largest sales category on the popular website Etsy.com is jewelry, and a visit to the jewelry section of that marketplace shows that trade – in everything from couture wedding jewelry to retro friendship bracelets – is moving with the briskness of Wall Street circa the middle of the Roaring Twenties.

Business picks up around the gift-giving holidays – Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s, Hannukah, and Christmas, among others – when Etsy executives transform their sellers’ blog and buyer landing pages, encouraging the thousands of individual vendors to contribute to the building of a mass holiday theme.

Stewart has not neglected to market her handmade necklaces for special occasions. A simple ivory pearl necklace, equipped with a magnetic clasp easy for youthful or aging hands to fasten, is touted as perfect for both loving mothers and young girls just beginning to build their jewelry boxes.

Another necklace, which features a pattern of crystalline glass beads in seven colors, is described as “matching every outfit that Mom loves to look great in.”

Jewelry makes for easy gift-giving as well. In addition to the multicolored piece (no need to remember Mom’s favorite color, just narrow it down to seven), Stewart also sells casual necklace and bracelet sets which stretch to loop comfortably on neck and wrist. Below an earthy set made from olive wood and antiqued silver, her store reminds shoppers that matching pieces look exponentially more thoughtful in a gift box than single ones.

Stewart is also careful to cater to a more modern sense of style, suiting those who already have a large collection, as evidenced by an unusual piece which features fantastical overlapping loops of chain and pearls hanging asymmetrically from cotton cord.

Buyers are regularly advised that recipients, especially women graduating and starting careers, will appreciate a “truly versatile piece of handmade jewelry” that goes from gardening to business meetings to afternoon weddings.

The message is clear: For annual gifting and important life events, jewelry is still the present to rely on.

Linda Ann Stewart’s collection of handmade fashion jewelry can be viewed at Michae456.Etsy.com.

Treasury Wednesday: Why was I doing wintry stuff in June?

2011-08-03T10:19:00.004-04:00

I guess I figured I might as well follow the front-page style for once. Hmm.

I pay a lot of attention to writing the treasury description when I do treasuries under the Scribblegoat account. Sure, only 8% of Etsy clicks come from internal things like Storque and Treasury, but if I'm doing it for fun anyway I might as well toss myself a bone in the form of free advertising.

'Bleached Vanilla' by Scribblegoat

Along with its crisp but soft greyscale and cream palette, this treasury is all about interesting photography. A visual feast of clear images, well-used props, intriguing cropping, unconventional angles, and perfect close-ups.

romantic collared s... ghostofagipsy $49.00	50pc 4mm bicone gla... craftisland $1.00	White Sequin Mini S... partydressesby... $42.50	Hammered Quartz Ear... heartsabustin $28.00
cast iron sign wood... OldNewAgain $42.00	Earrings In Silver ... casamoda $28.00	The Fox - Original ... BearFollowsCat $60.00	Buttercream Handspu... LondonHandspun $25.00
Small Moon Jellyfis... fieldstudy $19.70	S A L E - Spilt mil... norsola $40.00	Crochet Baby Girl B... inhstyme $12.00	WHITEFAWN felted t... VitalTemptatio... $40.00
40% Anniversary Sal... Maddenphotogra... $15.00	SPECIAL ORDER for K... thecottagepath $	HOT and COLD 8x10 s... bethberg $35.00	Cluster of Fresh Wa... LillyputLaneDe... $58.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Business Chatter

2011-08-02T09:15:00.016-04:00

Business-minded readers may wish to check out a recent Bullish column here: Doing Business with Friends and Still Having Friends (and a Business), by Jen Dziura. You can find me "joining the discussion" (i.e., rambling to the faceless 'Net; that site doesn't have much comment activity and I was excessively lengthy) at the bottom of the article.

And check out some of the new jewelry items in the Steampunk Assemblage section of the shop. Shown are a pendant, a necklace, and a brooch, ranging from clean utopian styles to gritty post-apocalyptic assemblages:

Work-Life Balance and a Schedule Change

2011-07-29T09:40:00.001-04:00

As I may have mentioned, I've started selling copywriting on both Etsy and Elance, and ... well, it's going pretty well, actually.

The Mafia-themed social media game didn't pan out -- I don't think they liked my character-dialogue audition piece, but since I submitted it without any real idea of the mood or character type they wanted, I don't feel much sense of failure over this -- but I'm currently writing product descriptions for Keys of Paradise, a fantastic spiritual/magickal supply shop, with fantastic herbs and candles and such, run by some fantastic people. Apparently they consider my descriptions fantastic as well, because the job morphed from a fixed-rate 400-descriptions deal to a long-term by-the-piece to a continuing semi-permanent article writing and editing gig.

Unfortunately, this means I've been neglecting the Etsy shops ... but I'm working at learning how to balance the two better. M and I have been making a lot of steampunk assemblage jewelry of late, since I'll be a vendor at Upstate Steampunk in Anderson this year. And I need to contact the awesome purveyor of hair accessories DaringlyDonna, a lovely local who we keep running into at Hancock's Fabrics, about swapping custom hair flowers for teapot earrings.

So we're not dead on the jewelry front! Just slowed while I find the proper equilibrium of the two creative businesses, and I should be finally adding more steampunk like I keep saying I will.

Available here.

Speaking of slight slowing: Since I'm doing so much paid writing, and since I was glancing through the lengthy list of MWF webcomics I read and realizing how much competition those days have got, I'll be switching the blog to a Tuesday/Thursday update schedule starting next week. It's only one less post per week. Also, Treasury Wednesday is becoming a monthly feature, first Wednesdays of every month. I get some traffic and some lovely comments, presumably from Google alerts, on those posts, but they're quite time-consuming and I'd like a better balance of written content, considering, y'know, I'm a writer and all.

And a day-brightening fact (for me, anyway): As I was building the updated APA citation guide for our tech college's Writing Center, I was modeling citations for weird stuff (historic photographs of unknown subjects, letters from university archives, that sort of thing) and it occurred to me that one of the dresses from the Met's "Orientalism in Fashion" web exhibit would be a great example. This led to me finding that my June blog post "Multiculturalism in Victorian Accessories" is, as of Tuesday, the seventh Google result for the terms "Victorian clothing Orientalism." And that, my friends, is sweet.

Treasury Wednesday: The unsubtle beauties of lipstick red

2011-07-27T10:14:00.013-04:00

I've wanted to try on a deep, lush, '40s-esque crimson lipstick since I was thirteen -- and no one will ever let me. Longtime readers will not be at all surprised that makeup is a world I treat with half-dismissive, half-deferential wariness, being not any good at it myself, so I'm not entirely sure why.

This is a tribute to one of my favorite character archetypes: The no-nonsense, sensual modern femme fatale. I like stories where efficiency is made into something that's desirable and hot. Some say this makes me a bad feminist.

My favorite item is that fantastic shoe photo in the first slot. There's a lot of great photography in this treasury, vintage-inspired styled shots and nice crisp white backgrounds. It was a fun challenge balancing all the shades of red across the columns, too!

'I Like to Make You Suffer' by Scribblegoat

Sultry slinky dresses, strumpet-red lipstick, heels and red wine and vixenish behavior. Sexy handmade and vintage-inspired designs.

Hello Ladies- Signe... AliciaBock $35.00	Teardrop cocktail h... hellostrumpet $25.00	Signed print, &quot... Lovinda $33.00	Small Lipstick Trac... Samskiart $40.00
K.Antoinette Signat... kantoinette $40.00	Irony - Natural Red... pdxblacklipsti... $9.00	The Red Stockings E... ArtByO $15.00	3 Lipstick Soaps F... sweetsoaptreat $3.50
Silk Mistress Knick... MistressCollec... $45.00	Skirt Altered Red P... bytheway $25.00	Red Leather Hartman... judeslore $160.00	Framed Real Lipstic... BentheButterfl... $16.00
Killer Heels... Lar... emmakisstina $200.00	Handmade 1940s dres... UnforgettableY... $89.00	Lipstick - Velvet C... thetwistedcow $19.00	Vintage Black See T... ragdollady55 $

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Starting Monday with a Nastygram

2011-07-25T10:02:00.039-04:00

I received this email in June from the business school attached to my undergrad university.

Dear Chelsea,

Our records indicate that you have either recently finished or will soon complete your undergraduate degree at UCR. I am proud of your accomplishments and certain that you will continue to be successful in the future.

While finishing college is an exciting time in the life of any graduate, you may be feeling discouraged in your search for a suitable job. As the Dean of the Anderson Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at UCR, I am keenly aware of the impact of the economic downturn on professional careers available to recent graduates. It is indeed frustrating and disheartening to attempt to enter the job market in the current financial climate.

The good news, however, is that this is an excellent time to consider starting your graduate studies. Our records indicate that we have been in touch with you about our graduate programs in the past. Therefore you may already know that a Master of Business Administration (MBA) is, by far, the most sought after and competitive graduate degree. At AGSM we offer an MBA program that is accredited by AACSB and is focused on developing leaders ...

[further platitudes ensue]

***

Dear Dr. [redacted] (or manager of this inbox),

Thanks for your interest in having me apply to the Anderson School of Business Management. While I have moved across the country and my degree from UCR was in fact in the social sciences, not in business, I am now a freelance copywriter having reasonable independent success despite your concerns about my employability.

Consequently, I have a counter-offer for you. For the relatively competitive price of $25, I will ghost-write the email that you send to candidates like me in such a way that it removes the paternalistic and condescending tone which, sadly, reeks from the first two paragraphs of the email I received from your program dated 16 June, 2011.

If you intended for the air of condescension to be so apparent, then I apologize for the assumption on my part. Thanks in advance for your consideration and I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Chelsea Clarey
Copywriter
scribblegoat@gmail.com
elance.com/s/scribblegoat/10180/
scribblegoat.etsy.com

Two Musings

2011-07-22T09:46:00.044-04:00

Available here.

1.) Somewhere, there is an earring civilization. Venerable sterling elders with French hooks advise plastic clip-ons on how to raise their feather-and-kidney-wire young to be good and productive earring citizens. Their mythology always seems to center around the quest to find one's soulmate, becoming a perfectly matched pair -- er, couple.

2.) I was reading an out-of-date travel magazine the other day while I waited for the laundry quarters to be spent, and there was an article about the memory triggers of smell. This is something I often tell students about their papers -- scent is the single strongest memory trigger, you can tell me about how Grandma's house at Christmas looked for three pages, but if you add three lines at strategic intervals about how it smelled, you've doubled the narrative's force. It's inspiring in that maddening way -- if only you could make jewelry of a smell.

I'll never forget the first time I stepped out of the airport in Charlotte. The smell of the South is like nothing else, and describing it is as hard as putting into words that waxy, fleshy sheen of a salad-plate-sized magnolia blossom, or finding the perfect metaphor for the sound a cicada makes. Think of clean water, freshly cut grass, and an assortment of fine cigars pristine, fragrant and unsmoked in their cedar box.

Yeah. Like that.

The garden in mid-June: Coleus, native asters, thrift and liatris and rue.

Treasury Wednesday: Everyone loves some tentacles! Also birds.

2011-07-20T10:18:00.000-04:00

Part of a series of treasuries I did which took the most overdone motifs in jewelry and found fresh interpretations of the same themes. I wanted to find sellers who were putting time, effort and creativity into working with popular motifs, instead of adding a jump ring and purchased chain to the Hobby Lobby pendant and dropping the result on Etsy with a copyright notice. I realize that sounds very negative; it was less motivated by anger than by a desire to emphasize the many, many real designers who are fashion-attentive but fresh, and whose exquisite work is available on Etsy.

I did red poppies (remember those Ohai I'm Modern Art enameled pendants?)and then the swooping swallows that are absolutely bloody everywhere. This one took the longest; it's so hard to find anything tagged "swooping bird" or "swallow" that isn't one of the same two tattoo-inspired components. The second photo is my favorite; it's the classic shape, yes, but the bird is made of an upcycled measuring tape. So clever! The yellow tee is actually the same tattoo silhouette, but I liked the clever inscription so much it had to go in.

'Motifs, Reinvented II: Swooping and Soaring' by tangopig

Highlighting both newer shops and older ones exhibiting truly unique artistry, a series of fresh takes on old standbys -- no two alike. In this edition, interesting and labor-intensive takes on the ubiquitous flying swallows that speak of hope and freedom.

A custom pair of lo... orlydesign $95.00	Blue Bird Necklace ... yasminellis $64.00	Yellow Blue Stripe ... johnwgolden $12.00	The Tattooed - Wool... woolville $26.00
Content- Bird print amberalexander $18.00	Tree with Birds - V... ModernDecals $30.00	Uzumaki-- Original ... TheStrangeBird $275.00	Blue Bird Glass Pen... APOCALIPSTICKA... $20.00
Yellow and Blue Lea... jewelrybystace... $7.00	Rio - 8x10 redbeandesign $25.00	Violet Swallow Quee... TheNightjar $20.00	Itsy Bitsy Bluebird... DeliciousHobo $13.00
orange/blue/green s... SweetTrash $17.00	Happiness is Perfec... onegearclothin... $18.00	Tattooed Sky- Blue... FACEtheWALL $20.00	Vinyl Wall Sticker ... urbanwalls $45.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Then I decided it was time to honor those who have rethought the Vernian octopus. I was hoping to find that octopus stamping (yes, the one you're thinking of) somewhere in a really unique and different design, but I couldn't.

'Motifs, Reinvented III: Spectacular Tentacular' by tangopig

Highlighting both newer shops and older ones exhibiting truly unique artistry, a series of fresh takes on old standbys -- no two alike. In this edition, unusual uses and re-envisionings of the long-suffering steampunk octopus.

Ascension. octopus ... schin $18.00	Leather Octopus Eye... SnappingDragon $36.00	Gorgeous Sea Green ... skybirdarts $130.00	Ghost of Cthulhu Mo... ArtsiBitsi $40.00
Reversible Recycled... TrilbyMade $25.00	Monster Coffee Mug ... wildcardpotter... $28.00	Octopus embroidered... audelaine $15.00	SPRING SALE JAPAN D... Leviticus $54.60
Green Octopus Art P... thedreamygiraf... $18.00	TOUCHED In The HEAD... blobhouse $50.00	Small Glass Octopus... EmergentGlassw... $30.00	Celery Squidy Neckl... PurpleToedGyps... $24.00
SALE Giant Pacific ... TileGoddess $20.00	Green Octopus- 8x8 ... karingrow $18.00	Cephalopod Sconce jtopolski $150.00	Jade Octopus Neckla... noadi $30.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Turning the evil eye, or, Multicultural beads! Yay!

2011-07-18T10:39:00.002-04:00

My favorite big-box wholesaler recently (and by "recently" I of course mean "four or five months ago") put up an interesting article which is a brief discussion of the history of "eye" beads in multiple cultures, including African and Arabian ones. Great resource for those doing multicultural steampunk, as I find that steampunk designs are often at their best when their cultural affiliation and their salvaged nature, if any, are subtle and harmonious parts of the design. After reading it, I'm thinking of working some agate eyes into one of my "steamsonae."

I've gotten some excellent evil-eye pendants in the recent past from Lorienna on Etsy. The items come from Ankara, but I've found her remarkably speedy, and the evil-eye glass items are handmade in Turkey:

And a weird pair of earrings for your pleasure:

Available here.

Tribal Done Right

2011-07-15T09:54:00.038-04:00

I highly recommend that readers with an interest in ethnic-style jewelry check out the Flickr photostream of Anita Quansah London, a "designer to the stars" whose work actually completely thrills me.

Her designs are exquisite; unconventional and deconstructed in their unexpected shapes, with interesting different manners of draping to adorn more than the expected parts of the body, with a beautiful use of shells and other natural/traditional materials that is both very true to the "roots" of bodily adornment and beautifully joined with more modern materials. Her pieces combine couture and warrior looks and are just generally stunning.

Additionally, the description on the second piece, here, is a splendid example of describing this style of jewelry without being over-the-top. She identifies what people inspired her work -- the Masai in Kenya and Nigeria -- and makes strong but not offensive connections between ethnic traditions and modern needs -- the relationship between the use of body ornament to establish identity in various folkways and the fierce, feminine draping design of the jewelry pieces themselves. In this way she establishes "story" and makes the jewelry feel more "ethnic" or "tribal" without ever having to resort to overusing the cliche, sometimes-offensive style names.

Treasury Wednesday: Royal Albert China

2011-07-13T10:10:00.007-04:00

I made this treasury while M and I were planning the tea-and-jewelry party for our coworkers. M's wedding china was in the Old Country Roses pattern, which I initially disliked rather a lot, but then I actually took a close look at it -- it was hiding behind wavy panes in her grandmother's china hutch until we moved -- and realized it was red and orange, not the pink and peach I initially assumed. I still like to set it with our green and white china to mellow it a bit, but I like it now.

'Teatime: Old Country Roses' by tangopig

Inspired by the Royal Albert "Old Country Roses" china, which is growing on me.

Scrabble Tile Magne... lalucita $9.00	Small Needle Felted... kmwatkins $10.00	6 Small Fabric Cove... PatchworkMill $8.00	StayGoldMaryRose - ... StayGoldMaryRo... $49.00
Spring Flowers - Ne... VayZONE $23.00	Roses Gift Box Neut... ShannaMicheleD... $5.50	large herbal tea ki... purposedesign $40.00	Little Leaf Houses ... thelittlereddo... $28.00
Rose Water OOAK Lin... goshthatsposh $15.00	Roses Flower Hair P... apocketofposie... $18.00	Vintage Old Country... dishfunctionld... $45.00	SEPTEMBER SUNRISE H... BitsandPurses $45.00
Bouquet For Every D... sewhomegrown $35.00	Variegated kit Swee... BrotherWorks $10.99	Dollhouse Miniature... fairchildart $23.00	English Garden - 11... LaurenFaythe $75.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Most inspiring drinky things

2011-07-11T09:39:00.008-04:00

So, do you think the folks at the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen would mind if I turned everything they've ever photographed into a pair of earrings or a pendant?

Admire these fruity beauties! The depth of field in this photo is just stunningly handled. The gorgeously casual, utterly perfect tumbled look could probably be replicated with various sizes of Swarovski Cosmic Freeform Diamonds, dice beads and Simplicity cut beads:

The fruity shades and the very organic look of the skewers in these Watermelon Basil Martini Jelly Shots could be replicated with a stack of varying shapes of frosted resin and polymer clay, plus a messy, twisted spiral headpin in plastic-coated or nylon-coated wire.

These are their mimosa shots, glossy and tempting in this well-styled photo, and the minute I saw them, I thought that I could mimic that exactly with ball-end headpins worked into spirals (or, heck, just wire) supporting a stack of three lentil-shaped beads, maybe a lemon quartz or a nice glass, spaced with squares of thin yellow fabric.

Wonderful, weird couture

2011-07-08T09:26:00.005-04:00

From the Department of Cool Victorian Clothing, in conjunction with the Department of "Stuff You See a Lot Of in Steampunk Jewelry that Is Surprisingly Historically Accurate":

The internet was abuzz a couple of months back over the restoration of the dress from John Singer Sargent's Lady Macbeth:

Courtesy JSSGallery.org.

If you missed it, it's well worth a look: here are Virtual Victorian's and the Daily Mail's articles on the dress.

The interesting elements? A.) The dress was famously worn by the gorgeous redhead actress Ellen Terry, who I have always found M to rather resemble, in 1888, and B.) it's adorned with hundreds and hundreds of actual beetle wings. You know, like these and these.

The description of the repair process in the first article linked is also quite technically interesting for those who do such delicate work.

Treasury Wednesday: A combo of Japanese and medieval designs

2011-07-06T10:02:00.007-04:00

I'm beginning to have this funny feeling there are certain theme/color combinations I like a lot.

'The Tower Kitchen' by tangopig

A seamless blend of Japanese-inspired and medieval designs in earthy brown, inky black and vivid red, with natural materials preferred and the newest shops (under 50 feedback) emphasized.

Red Cherry Wish Bow... holzfurhaus $54.00	Black and Red Journ... boxturtlebooks $44.50	Porcelain Teapot wi... kristenkswanso... $125.00	OOAK Unique Ostrich... jackoalltrades $50.00
Japan Relief Karma ... honeygirldesig... $25.00	Japanese Turnips Ha... drenculture $45.00	Viking Replica Neck... MMSSN $35.00	Hand Painted Silk S... silkshop $40.00
Brocade Terracotta ... TerracottaToys $5.00	Mortar & Pestle JournalandTea $140.00	ARANWE - RedBrown W... CarvedNature $25.00	Mandala Series - Iv... herbleedesigns $6.50
Spiced Mahogany Soa... asliceofdeligh... $6.00	Wheel-thrown decora... Ningswonderwor... $65.00	6 inch gold, red an... HeatherOstrow $7.00	WEEKEND SALE - 50% ... BestArtStudios... $12.50

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Some recent photos with nice lighting

2011-07-04T09:42:00.018-04:00

A couple of recent photos I've been very proud of, but which are of things in the Ballet Llama shop:

Magnetic hematite 8mm beads, available here.

Hand-sculpted polymer clay rose pendant, available here.

Retro plastic alphabet beads, available here.

Getting good photos is definitely harder on a saturated-color background, but I'm pleased with the lighting and cropping in these!

A glut of history lately? Now, necklaces!

2011-07-01T09:51:00.010-04:00

I expect the two weeks of Oh Hai Super Intellectual are probably wearing on everyone by now, so a light post of pretty stuff today!

Observe the evolution of the steampunk button necklaces. From this:

Available here, and okay, it's not actually steampunk.

To this:

Sold!

To this:

Available here.

I need to work on getting back to the relatively simple, found-object assemblage style in the middle of the process -- while I like the multi-buttons, especially with the very unified rope-and-flower motifs, I think the cleaner lines and simpler contrasts were a different look and got better reactions.

Treasury Wednesday: Sugar and spice? Also, my "rules" for making these

2011-06-29T10:10:00.034-04:00

When I make a treasury, I select items with this sort of "decision tree." This isn't anything I've codified, mind you, these are just the priorities that have evolved naturally as I became dedicated to the idea of letting these be my community presence.

First of all, I won't feature anything that I strongly suspect to be a reseller item. I'm certain that some slip through my grasp, but I'm pretty careful. Also, blatantly incorrect tagging and glaring spelling errors drop things very low down the list of things I want to feature.

After those basics, my first priority is photo quality. I try to emphasize both good photography and well-made items -- decoupaged clothespins go in way after hand-drawn sketches. Good crisp lighting, however, trumps it; if the clothespins were photographed well and the sketch poorly, in they go and out goes the sketch.

I select to match both a color family and a theme, but color comes first.

If I have the option of a well-known, oft-featured shop and a newer one, all other factors being equal, I go with the newer one. I try to overemphasize shops with fewer than 100 instances of feedback.

Last and least important is avoiding competing with myself or M. I won't feature fairy doors or plush squid, and I do attempt to limit jewelry, though mostly that's because I try to have a wide range of item types.

This treasury is a great example because I managed to get a good number of newer shops, to emphasize some really excellent photography, and to make every single item fit a theme/story. It's a little naughty, which I always expect people to remark on more than they do -- you'll notice some bondage-themed items, never mind the corsetry -- but has an appealingly innocent look covering the wickedness, with a light blue and dark blood red combination that's unconventional enough to intrigue but could easily be a standard slightly-vintage Fourth of July scheme.

'One Way or the Other' by balletllama

Light blue and bright red in a variety of beautiful vintage-inspired designs. And once you see the story, just a bit scandalous.

Giclee illustration... choumie7 $15.00	SALE SALE 1970s lig... Threefeathersv... $20.00	Royal Blood - Chain... rabbitdance $70.00	pretty blue ribbon ... labellefairy $299.00
SALE. Group of thre... HouseOfCeramic... $54.00	dog waltz - fine ar... olivedear $30.00	Personalized Pet Bo... patspottery $26.00	Red Leather Rose Fl... Wycked $199.00
Hilarious, Mean Any... goatcards $3.50	Caught in a Net of... FruttiTuttiBea... $33.00	Red satin cupped lo... MorganaFemmeCo... $995.00	Classic Cameo Heart... lovesoapapilla $8.00
Untitled 12x8 Fine ... alicelily $35.00	Burlesque Gloves wi... DelilahBurlesq... $25.00	Baby blue linen cus... copperpod $30.00	Hand painted Doggie... jakeybb $399.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Multiculturalism in Victorian Accessories

2011-06-27T10:30:00.003-04:00

Victorian clothing was slightly more resistant to extremes than we are sometimes led to believe. Then as now, Paris was the center of the fashion world, where extremes of couture included (during Jane Austen's era) piercing the nipples and wearing sheer, dampened bodices so the piercings were visible through the clothing -- and the Parisian fashion plates we think of as our primary sources for Victorian clothing were to the dress of, say, wealthy English and German women in the 19th century as high-fashion magazines are to day-to-day celebrity attire today.
However, while dresses might stay plainer and more conservative than fashion plates show, worldly socialites wished to bedeck themselves in all the luxuries of Empire; colonial capitalists wanted to adorn their daughters in the spoils of their trade. This meant both other parts of Europe, plus "the Orient" (Africa and the East). Yet, this article discusses, the Eastern woman was stereotyped to be the antithesis of everything a Victorian woman ought to be. So how to combine that "exotic" allure with good, stolid Western virtue?

Accessories and trimmings.

Victorian outerwear mantles from the 1850s and 1870s, North African inspired, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose online exhibit of Orientalist clothing is here and as droolworthy as it is educational.

Hence, we get turbans worn for evening in the 30s, patterned Chinese and Japanese silks and velvet brocades in at-home and bedroom wear throughout three centuries (the wallpaper in the Ribbon and Ladies' Bedrooms at Woodburn is another great example), and mosaic jewelry, Etruscan Revival jewelry like the demi-parure below, and (I kid you not) chandelier earrings.

Image courtesy of Jewels at South Kensington.

Unbeknownst to most, cameos are actually an expression of, not Orientalism but definitely multiculturalism. They're an old art form; there's a tale of Alexander the Great presenting his lover Bagoas with a cameo portrait in chalcedony. The best place in the world to get cameos was (and is) Pompeii, where there was a school of cameo-making and where students sold their work to pay their tuition. Lava cameos, made from the remaining lava rock from the Mt. Vesuvius explosion, were most popular. Lava cameos were a frequent gift to sweethearts when a young gentleman just out of school finished his Grand Tour. Owning one meant that you or someone you knew had either been to Rome or paid an exorbitant amount for an import.

For more on multicultural Victorian accessories: Have a look at the references to African imported silks and the turban Algerienne (remember Algeria was a violently oppressed French colony at the time) in these 1844 fashion forecasts, and later, this discussion of Poiret's exoticized Edwardian hats and slippers. And Beyond Victoriana has a wonderful analysis of what incorporating Orientalism (or the delightful neologism "Victorientalism") in steampunk actually means; I don't entirely agree with the discussion, because I frankly think the alternative to Victorientalism is whitewashing, but it is intelligent and anyone interested in Orientalism should give it a read.

The glory that was Rome

2011-06-24T09:58:00.066-04:00

A necklace heavily inspired by Gradiva, the novella by Wilhelm Jensen based on a Roman bas-relief; the artwork and book jointly inspired some of Freud's ideas about fetish and a Dali painting.

Here's my interpretation:

Available here.

The cameo is a vintage glazed ceramic piece I've had for donkey's years, worked into one of my nest-type bezels. When I'm making those I'm always convinced they're not working, but they almost always do ... The wirework on the chain is not just decorative, but secures the connections between the chain and the beading in a graceful, textural manner.

Cameos are an old art form. In the pre-industrial age, cameos were not the molded-resin pretties we are familiar with today, but were hand-carved from ivory, shell or stones. There is some (possibly apocryphal) record of Alexander the Great presenting his Persian lover, Bagoas, with a ring containing a portrait cameo of himself carved in chalcedony. You can still find some natural-material cameos, like these black lip shell examples, but hand-carved ones are rarer than ever.
More on cameos, plus multiculturalism in Victorian accessories, on Monday!

Treasury Wednesday: Still in the monochrome box

2011-06-22T10:10:00.006-04:00

This time, a medieval theme!

I used to do a lot of charcoal portraits, which I like to think left me with an appreciation of greyscale tonal values. Or maybe it just left me covered in black dust. One or the other.

Anyway, there are a couple of new artisan blacksmiths on Etsy I've been featuring a lot, because I lurve art ironwork.

'Of Home and Hope' by tangopig

Quiet, peace and strength; the return of hope. Medieval-inspired designs in black and white.

Holyrood Abbey Ruin... TweelingPhotog... $15.00	Chapel Veil / Manti... LadyinBlueShop $	Blackthorn michaelbudd $3000.00	Knight 01 milemurtanovsk... $100.00
dark secrets journa... ThreeTreesBind... $86.00	Medieval Weapons 1 ... nichestitch $6.99	SALE - NEW GOTHIC R... granddutchess $49.99	Gothic (buy one get... angiemuldowney $10.00
Black and White Asp... wildideasglass $28.00	Estonian Blacksmith... morbidanatomya... $9.99	Woven Leather Cuff ... SnappingDragon $54.00	white and black jew... etcArts $42.00
Black and White Med... SuzCocoon $45.00	FOREVER ROSE Handma... CheringtonMeta... $55.00	The Splendor of Kin... kclarkphotogra... $30.00	Handmade Black Leat... peaseblossomst... $32.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Anomie and Etsy: A sociological approach

2011-06-20T10:17:00.046-04:00

Student quote of the day: "Dr. Mazhan Khan discussed the felt and pitfall when my grandmother is an emergency room."

Yeah, that has no relationship to anything, I just had to share. Anyway.

The Slate.com article from Friday's post and my recent rumination on the site's weird pricing competitions make me think of anomie, a concept in the theory of criminality I was recently explaining to a student. Basically, the idea is that deviant behavior results from a disconnect between a.) that which society teaches as worthy goals and b.) that which society offers as methods to achieve them. Much of the time, b. doesn't accomplish a. At this point, the individual can either continue to strain themself psychologically by continuing to accept both a. and b. (conformism), refuse to accept a. or b. or both (ritualism, innovation, or retreatism), or replace both a. and b. with more suitable alternatives (rebellion). In other words, when you are told what to want and how to get it but the "how" doesn't give you the "what," you have a couple of choices as to how to cope with that.

On Etsy, the teaching of the weird little internet subculture is a.) to live on the profits of an Etsy shop is a worthy goal and one we should all strive for; and b.) the way to achieve this is through creating unique, high-quality products and selling them with diligent work.

The problem is that these aren't as cause-and-effect as the Etsy Success newsletters would like us to believe.

Consequently, we have a number of options:

Conformism: We blame ourselves for our inability to reach the goal, and keep at it like the little Skinner-boxed hamsters we are. (For an interpretation of the Skinner box, see here for the history, here for the interesting applications).
Ritualism: We reject a.), saying in effect, "I can't quit my day job. Whatever," and continue going through the motions of listing and relisting.
Retreatism: We reject both a.) and b.). We close our shops. We give up.
Innovation: This is the insidious one and the one that causes both brilliant and deviant Etsy behavior. We keep a.) but reject b.), saying, "I'm quitting my day job, damn it -- and I'm doing it my way." This can range from finding a totally wild product (dog butt covers, anyone?) to assembling products poorly and relying on volume to cover the poor result to selling mass-produced Chinese wedding dresses and pretending they're handmade in your little studio.
Rebellion: We say "To hell with all of this." We reject a.) and b.) and replace them with new ends and means of our own We go start doing IRL craft shows again or, alternately, move to Artfire.

Hopefully this will help my fellow crafters: Next time you find someone on Etsy who makes you want to solder yourself to the wall and end the misery, think pityingly, "I see you're rejecting society's legitimate methods in pursuit of its prescribed goal -- but in an unintelligent manner. Poor silly thing," and feel the urge to kill drain from your body, leaving you light and free and sociologically educated.

Feminism and Etsy

2011-06-17T10:56:00.001-04:00

I've always liked Slate's practical, tough-minded approach to feminist concerns, so I was immediately interested when I saw this op-ed piece on Etsy's appeal to women:

Etsy.com peddles a false feminist fantasy, by Sara Mosle.

Quote: "I’m not immune to the siren call that brings many women to the site. After decades of being encouraged to forego the unpaid “women’s work” of our mothers and grandmothers, we are tired of being divorced from our hands and from the genuine pleasures such work can afford. This is the female version of Shop Class as Soulcraft, the recent book by Matthew Crawford, the philosopher-turned-mechanic. Women, too, hunger for concrete, manual labor that has an element of individual agency and pleasure beyond the abstract, purely cerebral work found in the cubicle or corner office. It’s become satisfying again to sew, cook, and garden. But unlike our mothers and grandmothers, who were content to knit booties for relatives, younger women want to be recognized and compensated for their talents."

It's an interesting take on the nature of traditionally feminine craft in the 21st century, the problems of "going global," those condescending "Quit Your Day Job" features, and why Etsy's demographics fall out the way they do. I highly recommend a read.

This led me to apply the sociological concept of anomie to Etsy, about which more (in plain English, I promise) in Monday's post.

In the meantime, I'll be teaching myself how to write game flavor text by lurking in Magic the Gathering forums until I absorb the knowledge by osmosis. I love being a freelance copywriter.

Until then, have an unrelated globe necklace.

Available here.