Happy New Year! I wish all of you a healthy, happy and peaceful 2017. We rang ours in in the perfect way: we simply spent the night at my in-laws', where we ate Chinese food and watched the Twilight Zone marathon. It was quiet, relaxing -- and just what we needed.
When I was younger, I felt as if my NYE had been a "failure" if I hadn't rung it in in some spectacular way. One time, we went to Atlantic City for the night. Another time, we went down to Washington, D.C. to visit my sister-in-law. Most years, some friend would host a party. However, I no longer feel the need to go crazy on the night of December 31. Truth is, I didn't like those parties all that much. I'm letting them go.
Speaking of letting things go, I've decided to take a break from my enameling class at the Y. I've LOVED that class. I've learned so much, made some beautiful pieces and met wonderful friends... but I'm just not as excited about it as I once was. I've had a lot going on with my glass and music and those have been taking up more of my time. Plus, the enameling class is expensive... and my enamel pieces just don't sell as well as my glass or wire.
The other thing -- and this is hard for me to admit -- is that the class environment has gotten very negative. We've had some memorable discussions about our families, popular culture and world events... but with the way things have gone in 2016, a lot of the talk has been depressing. When it comes to world news, I don't keep my head buried in the sand. I know it's important to be aware. But I really like to keep my art separate from that sort of thing. It's a refuge. I turn to jewelry and music when I need a break from that stuff and enameling was making me feel more anxious than energized.
As of now, I'm simply taking off this semester. I plan to spend my time, well, making jewelry of course, but also networking and seeing if I can get my pieces into some more shops in the area. My goal is to sell my work to two more salons. I also have a similar goal for my music. On Friday, I played a two-hour set at a nearby coffeehouse and really enjoyed the experience. I'd like to book performances at at least two other local restaurants or coffeehouses. So I have a lot of things I'd like to do HERE and figure I should give myself the time to accomplish these goals. I'll see how I feel when the summer semester comes around and can always sign up again, if I want.
Anyway. I haven't made too many pieces in the last couple of weeks because I was preparing for three gigs, but I did finish a few. I made a return to wire wrapping -- yes, I still do that! -- and designed this silver wire wrapped spiral necklace. The black briolettes were a gift from a customer and are large enough to wrap with clear crystals. I then embellished the chain with some additional black and clear crystals. My original plan was to add more crystals to the chain, but I think this is a good balance and doesn't take the design over the top. I also did a version with pink crystals. Really, I can use any color because black is such a versatile base.
It's raining here today, but my husband and I plan to walk downtown. There are several boutiques in the area, so I'm going to mark down the names and then call them this week. See that? I'm already working on my New Year's jewelry resolution!
Start off your 2017 by checking out my handmade jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.
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