Blog Carnival December-Twigs and Heather's custom pieces

Today for our Etsy Metal blog carnival we are talking about our custom pieces. We do a couple of different types of custom work. First is our "natural casting". We have had customers from all over the world send us twigs, seeds, feathers, etc. to cast in sterling silver and make a special piece of jewelry that is sentimental and will tell their story. One of our most recent and favorite custom pieces was made from a "nut" that a man found while walking in the woods. The inside had a perfect heart shape. We cast in and made a necklace from it. It was big and heavy and totally one of a kind. We loved doing this project.

Another piece that comes to mind we made a few years ago. A customer send us a tiny feather from her beloved bird. We did not cast it but imprinted it into a piece of wax. That was cast in sterling silver and made into a ring with a birch bark band.

Kerry makes so many rockin' pieces. They tend to be big and heavy. But there is always someone who wants it even bigger and heavier. We love that! Some recent custom Kerry Alice's pieces have been a giant sacred heart and triple pin cushion. So cool. Kerry also works on all of our custom sea glass pieces. People can send us a piece from their collection and we will bezel it and make a pretty necklace for them.

But I have to say that my favorite custom pieces are the twigs. We have had many people over the years send us twigs from sentimental places. Many times they come from a childhood home that they have moved away from. Hearing these stories make what we do all the more special. I know that for myself, whenever I look up at the trees, no matter where I am, I think of home. I guess that others feel that ways as well. That makes me happy.

Please check out what my friends at EtsyMetal make for custom pieces. All their work is excellent.
Inbar - http://www.inbarbareket.net/2010/12/blog-carnival-december-2010.html
ES Designs- http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Victoria Takahashi http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
2Roses http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Nodeform http://nodeform.blogspot.com/

Blog Carnival- EtsyMetal team "What does it mean to be successful?"

Kerry and I are part of EtstMetal. It is a international collective of artisans who create jewelry and works of art in metal. This is my first time participating in our Blog Carnival. We all answer the same questions and write about it in our blogs. We can't wait to see what everyone else thinks about this topic...What does it mean to you to be successful in business as an artist?

We feel like a success because we have been sustaining our business for over 12 years. We have the freedom as artists to make what we want. We have repeat customers who love our work and want us to make jewelry for them that is special and cool. And we have never had to compromise who we are in the process.


Question 2- How do you walk the line between creativity and profitability?
When we first started making jewelry all of our organic castings were one of a kind. Now we have two lines of jewelry, our one of a kinds and our molded production pieces. We change the production pieces every year to keep them new and different. The customers still love them and we can keep them at a nice price.

Question 3- What is the best thing we have done for my business?
We have always done things our own way. Everthing from our designs to the way we display our work has always come from our clear perspective of who we are and how we want the world to see our work.
We have always followed our hearts and our guts. Being true to ourselves and our art has been good for our business. We think that when you make your own rules and follow your own path you stand out from the crowd.

Check out what my fellow members think about this topic.

stacey http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com
victoria takahashi / experimetal http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
2Roses http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Jenny: http://ridgeschool.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr: http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Purified: http://purifiedart.blogspot.com/
Nina Gibson ~ http://ninagibsondesigns.blogspot.com/

Inspired by color

I went to America's Oldest Fair this weekend. It was the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield MA. A good time was had for all. I loved seeing all that carnival stuff...Oh the colors! I am thinking about trying to use more color in our jewelry...but how? I will let you know what I decide.

Why we love Vermont...

Nature!
Foliage!
The Peru Fair. We just got back and it was super.
The Vermont Country Store. Lots of weird and wacky stuff. Can I get most of it online or at the mall? Yes, but who cares. I'm in Vermont!
Bluegrass music. It played all day at the fair. So sweet and lonesome.
Good food, friendly people.
Chainsaw art. Especially the bears.

We want to start a artist house and studio exchange program. We love on the ocean, you live...in Vermont? We would love to. Glad we asked!

Vermont show

Last weekend we did a tree day show in Manchester VT. It was on the Hildene Meadow, home of the Lincoln's...Yes, those Lincolns! So needless to say it was beautiful there. The show was put on by Craftproducers. It was our first year doing any of these shows. We really wanted to do this one because we fell in love with Vermont last year. Vermont is so strange and different than what we are used to. We are city/ocean girls so being in the mountains is weird and wonderful.

The show was good. Nice customers and some people who recognized us from the Peru Fair last year (also in VT). Kerry's pieces were very popular. Especially the Day of the Dead skulls. A few twigs sold but my theory is that if you live in the woods you don't really want to wear it around with you every day. And that's OK! We were thrilled to see some of our favorite lady skulls find good homes with obviously some very cool people.

The best thing about the show was hands down our fellow artists. Some of them have been doing shows for over 30 years! Craftproducers offered camping so many of the artists had campers and RV's. It was pretty old school. Kind of a hippy vibe. It was very inspiring to be around these artists who are still doing what they love, still showing their work to people at shows. Thanks to all of you who were so kind and friendly.

New pieces...For men!

I have been talking about adding a men's line to our collection for a while now. Recently we have had a few custom orders for the special man in a Twigs and Heather's fans life. So I made a few old favorites into nice necklaces for men and also some new one of a kind sterling silver birch necklaces that are big, bold, and beautiful. My amazing husband will be adding the page to our website soon. Look for it!

Hand project.

My friend Andrea asked me to help with a craft project during my daughter's day camp this week. I came up with this sweet project. We traced all the kids hands and decorated paper plates. We then cut the hands out and made flowers, sun-shines, angels, and some other very clever designs.
I was really impressed how creative the kids were.

I love this project because when my girls are older we can see how little their hands once were. Awwwww...But the best thing was watching these kids express themselves through art. It was a very special day for me. Makes me want to work with kids more.

Here are some of their awesome pictures.