Silk & Opium: New and On Sale!

For sale on Etsy [link], just marked down from $42 to $33. Part of the Summer Reading List Sale :-D


Silk & Opium

I stood on a boulevard paved with prim orange poppies, and suddenly I tasted brandy rolling down my throat, and pale smoke filling up my lungs. My green-scarved quarter was savoring her snifter and her opium somewhere far from me.

Inspired by the short story Palimpsest, free to read online:
http://www.sensesfive.com/samples/palimpsest.php


A pale green ribbon flows around and over beads of green aventurine and golden yellow glass. 18.5 inches long with a 14k gold toggle clasp finishing the ends.

This is actually the first Palimpsest item I was inspired to make. There will be more ribbon necklaces, and bracelets, in the future. Possibly without the arcane associations ;-)

My dress, my sail!

A new serialized novel by Catherynne M. Valente. Technically free, but donations are luv ;-)


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Updates every Monday!

I forsee much, MUCH jewelry makings in my future ;-)

Social Experimentation

I've hit a lull. Not quite a rut, because I don't feel stuck or unhappy with my crafting. I just can't buckle down and get it done. It's not exactly like a creative block, because I have the ideas and write them down for later. Am I distracted? Depressed? Disoriented by the rising pollen count?

Eventually I should snap out of it, and I am scribbling down lots of new plans and ideas. I just need to be more patient with myself.


As far as the craft fair experiment goes, Brooklyn Indie Market is really wonderful. The lady who organizes it is very sweet and accommodating, the other vendors are nice, the neighborhood is quiet (if somewhat sleepy) and safe. My ploy to lure in younger customers with the $5 pendants is working out great, and next time I'm going to bring even fewer high ticket items. My friends have been really awesome with helping me out, too. I highly recommend this market both to buyers and sellers, especially new sellers who want to find their feet in a happy, safe environment.

So the fact that I still don't like selling at craft fairs indicates that it's not them, it's me.

Sci fi cons and kink fairs are different. I sit at my table and chat with other weirdos, and get to watch the con wander by. The audience in Brooklyn is lots of nice normal people, very very kind and complimentary but ... I just don't know how to relate. It's not you, it's me! You are wonderful for oogling my beadwork, and your kids are very awesome! Thank you for stopping by!

I wonder if I'd feel better putting more time and energy into making more stuff, taking better photos of said stuff, and hawking it on the internet. For part-time artisans like me, the larger part of our customer base is people we know. And the people I know really enjoy looking at my online listings, jump all over the sales I have, and tell their friends and family all about it.

I'm going to keep on working at BIM, because they are soooo wonderful and I'm doing well there. This may just be a weird kind of stage fright phase I need to get over. They may also have another Steampunk event in October, yay. But in 2010 I may decide to stick with 3 freak-cons a year instead of monthly craft fairs.

There will be firmer plans by the end of 2009, but I'm already looking into some new SF cons for next year. New to me ;-)


Also, I started putting up the last of the clay necklaces, still on sale:

Priestess of Ma'at, $15 [Etsy Link]

Enjoy!

Save Our Cat!

The state of the U.S. economy is still taking it's toll on our favorite artists, and is now encroaching upon one of my favorite authors Catherynne M. Valente.

What's the best way to help an artist out of trouble? BUY THEIR WORK. And now all of her books are available to purchase online as e-books. The rare first novels, the poetry, her newest book, EVERYTHING. And by purchasing the e-books, the cash goes 100% direct to an artist and her family.


And I'm not just here to tug on your sense of humanity. I'm also here to bait your sense of capitalism.

Most of the jewelry-based blogs I've seen are part of a sales-promotion ploy. There's no shame in that, mine is. Ironically most jewelry blogs are watched by other jewelry makers and crafty types, who are usually less inclined to buy jewelry when they can make their own.

So let me tell you fellow jewelers- this author's work inspires more jewelry to be made than any other writer I HAVE EVER SEEN. By purchasing her books, you are also investing in your own creative reserves.

You would also be joining a larger cult of Cat-fans who really really like jewelry. Looking at it, purchasing it, showing it off on their blogs and feeds. Other crafts as well! In fact, there is also a new online community called Adopting Cat, full of auctions for jewelry, crafts, writing, and a variety of other products and services by the fan-base, FOR the fan base, to help our fave authoress.

By auctioning off YOUR work on the community you will gain more exposure with a new fan-base of your own, plus you help out a wonderful artist. Financially and karmicly, you come out ahead.



Help Catherynne M. Valente



So go forth, wreak havoc, invest in art and artistry.

I'll make this city long for you...

Palimpsest is a slow, steady stream of inspiration for me these days.

But Quartered, the album inspired by Palimpsest, has it's own charms ;-)


This track definitely influenced the necklace I made by the same name.



The whole album is available for purchase as a CD, or MP3s. Follow the links ;-)

And if you've read Palimpsest, CMV is launching a cyberfunded serial novel on Monday: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Prepare yourselves for awesome, and more awesome sparklies from here ;-) And I'll put up the serial's address when I find it.



In other news, I had plans to be very industrious this week, but I seem to have the soul flu? I think it's due to the unseasonably cold & wet weather pattern that hit NYC this month. Fie.

Remember to come see me at the Brooklyn Indie Market on Saturday! And if it's still monsoon season, pls bring me herbal teas!

Calling all courtiers ;-)

I'll be selling my sparkling gear in Brooklyn this weekend!

Brooklyn Indie Market
And I'll be there Saturday, June 13th, from 11am-7pm.

Stop by and say hello ;-)

Summer Reading List Sale!

Its almost Summer! That means it's time to start combing the book shops for your between-semester reading assignments, or languid beach side amusement.

To celebrate, and because we're in a Recession this Summer (*shrugs*) I'm putting most of the pieces in my Song and Stories section ON SALE for the next few months.

ESPECIALLY the Palimpsest pieces ;-) Casimira, November, and more to come in the next few weeks. Most discounts range from 15 to 20% off.

Enjoy!

Dream yourself to death...

I have assaulted Etsy with more darkness. Hurrah.

Casimira, Dressed in Green [Etsy link]

Matriarch of Palimpsest, lady, general, temptress, teacher, lost little girl.

She wears a severe dress, just the sort of thing a governess might wear, green-black from throat to floor, clasped by an enormous copper wasp at her collarbone... Her curly hair is piled high, an artful, decorous shade of green, deeper than emeralds or water, a sedate and proper color. It is the exact shade of her eyes...

Deep green ribbon with onyx, green Czech glass, metallic Czech crystals, dainty antique brass colored insects, black cinnabar hearts, sterling heart toggle clasp, and a black cinnabar cameo.

Based on the character by the same name in Palimpsest, a novel by Catherynne M. Valente. And the sister album Quartered by S.J. Tucker.








I ended up getting a lot of them, but I don't think any really captured the deep vibrant green of the ribbons. I've been having a lot of other problems with my camera lately, usually when my photos are either blurry or grainy.


And if you luv Palimpsest, or don't but would like to know what the hell I've been mooning over for the last several months:
Cat Valente and her touring partner S.J. Tucker will be putting on their Palimpsest performance of prose and song tomorrow night in NYC. It's the last show of the tour that started in Brooklyn. But this time it's at South Street Seaport, ON A PIRATE SHIP. June 2nd @ 7pm. How can you miss that and live with yourself?!?
For more info: The New York Review of Science Fiction, Readings

Stay tuned for more Palimpsest pieces, anon.