Tuesday, October 30, 2007

the "green" city of Portland, new friends, and all things considered

i'm back.....


(labradorite & onyx bracelet ... if you click on the picture for a better look, just click the "back" arrow when you're done, not the X, or you'll exit out of the site!)

Portland was so much fun! I truly enjoyed myself despite my hotel room. Perhaps I didn't mention I slept on a cardboard box filled with concrete? It was disguised as a mattress, but I know different. Let's just say, my BACK knows different. So, ahem, despite that ... Portland was fun.

As you can see here, my booth looked absolutely wonderful ... so happy I invested in those black velvet necklace displays afterall! And despite having no electricity the first two nights of the show ... you can sort of tell if you look at the picture below, there was at least some overhead flourescents that enabled customers to see the displays and, all things considered, the show was a success.


(my booth at Portland Fashion Week)

finally...I had lights on Saturday night! That's also the night I lost my keys, my cell phone died, and I had to catch a cab to the hotel at midnight... not an altogether pleasant experience!


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would I do that particular show again? I'm not sure at this point since it was my first fashion show. Hopefully, by the same time next year, I'll have had a great deal more experience with these things and my decision to do it or not will be based in knowledge. Certainly six nights was a marathon! At the same time, I met some wonderful people and have decided to mention them here so you may check them out as well!

Izzy Lane is a wonderful company out of England that creates sustainable fashions from the wool of rescued sheep. What a fabulous concept! What darling sheep! I also met their wonderful designer, Helen, who's booth was next to mine at the show. Her cashmere sweaters, and plaid skirts and vests were adorable, simple and classic. All from sheep that are loved by their keeper and who will live out their lives on a beautiful estate in England where they are cared for as all animals deserve to be.

On the opposite side of me was Nicole Gionet, a handbag designer from Portland whose line of hand-sewn, elegant leather purses are original and unique.


Nicole uses a variety of textures, colors and metallics and each piece shows her spot-on fashion sense and unwavering attention to detail! Soon, Nicole's gorgeous bags will be in fine shops everywhere, but in the meantime, you can visit her website and contact her directly. She takes orders! Click on her name above!

Across from me was Madeline who is a young fashion designer in the Portland area who sells her totally hip dresses (resewn or made from salvaged or handmade materials) at the Le Rouge on SE Hawthorne. If you are in the Portland area, you must look her up! For amazing youthful, fun designs you'll find nowhere else ... this is the shop! Please tell her I sent you! She bought one of my wrap necklaces for her mother! I hope your mother enjoys her birthday gift, Madeline!

Meeting these wonderful, brave women was the very best part of the event! Our little corner of the vendor area was awesome. Thanks for the comraderie and laughs, ladies! It was a pleasure I will forever hold dear!

And now, it is Tuesday morning and I am off to attend to things that have nothing to do with jewelry, such as cleaning a basement, for one. It calls. Sadly, I must go.

Thank you once again for stopping by my blog, I've enjoyed our chat!
~L

Sunday, October 28, 2007

images of fall

a beautiful day here in the pacific northwest ...


the bloodgood was crimson against the azure sky


the japanese maple like spun gold


the hydrangeas ... blushing violet

I am grateful to have witnessed such a spectacle in my own garden. I hope wherever you are, your day was as beautiful...

~L

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

catching my breath before the plunge

hello to you, dear readers who've dropped in to visit me on your daily blog rounds. Thank you! Please indulge me for a moment if you will and listen to my wailings. It is mid-week and I find myself not yet ready for my show come Friday evening. Because this particular show is 6 days long I have concerns about having enough jewelry or ... it being the wrong venue for any sales, in which case I have too much jewelry. And so I wake at night with my mind spinning with varying scenarios. It's sort of like having a baby, I think. I remember for years my husband and I said, when we can afford it, we'll get pregnant. But upon hearing my plan, a friend's wise advise to me was, if you wait until then, you'll never have a baby, because you can never afford it and you're never ready. So just plunge in.

today, I am remembering that sage advise (thanks, Alma) and realizing, I can never be as ready as I think I should be, so I will take the plunge must take it ...and hope for the best. Crossing my fingers and my toes, and holding my nose. (I was never good at jumping in and I'm a terrible diver, but I can swim like nobody's business! Hold that thought.)

in the column on the right, you'll see a badge entitled "One Thing be brave" ... and I found that on Jesse's site, Diary of a Self Portrait. You don't know me, Jesse, but you did inspire me to be brave. Thank you. What's so amazing is, I'd just watched a program on Eleanor Roosevelt, from whom this quote originated (Every day you must do the one thing you are afraid of doing), and had been telling myself "look at all she accomplished" and I was thinking about her when I stumbled upon Jesse's blog. Jesse is also a talented artist and has a shop on Etsy with lovely things. For those who would also like to find themselves a little braver in this life, click on the Be Brave badge and play along.

oh, by the way, we did take the plunge and get pregnant 17 years ago and today I am ever so glad to have the most wonderful son to prove it!

and so, another ending to a very discombobulated blog entry as I ride off to Portland to sell my wares at the fashion show. A little frazzled. But feeling braver.

anyway ... it's too late to back out now ....

~L

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Necklace Collection



Hey! Where'd she go? She ... (me, actually) will be furiously working on show preparations this week, so while I'm otherwise indisposed, I hope you, my visitors, will still stop in and take a moment to enjoy this really neat video of my necklace collection.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

a matter of stone



this week I've "co-inspired" with my muses creating like a mad woman ... and despite the cold outside, and the cold in my head, ideas have bubbled up like molten lava, manifesting in stone ... wrap necklaces dance before my eyes in boundless variations and combinations; this one of golden Citrine and purple Flourite ... reminiscent of the drops of rain on my fading hydrangeas as fall gently nudges summer aside and takes her place in my garden...



click on the photos here for a closer view! This wrap, like the others, can be wound up tight as a choker, or worn long and tumbling like a reflective water fall.

below, more Turquoise and Coral are bound with silver findings... the chunk of Coral speaks of abundance, and seems almost magnetic here ...nearly edible, packed with the codified knowledge of the garden, dangling from a silvery stem, like the apple that caught the eye of an ancient Goddess...



and finally; visions of gold have danced in my head (and led me astray from my silver roots) ... asking to be combined with plum colored Pearls and Amethyst as dark as a king's robe and deep purple dreams ...



and tumbling into matter as the elegant wrap necklace pictured here.

my week ended with a raging head cold and this weekend I will tend to my wounds with chicken soup and a soft blanket, so that by Monday I can begin again. There's so much to do!

all of these creations will be displayed, and sold to good homes at Portland Fashion Week starting on the 19th. I hope you can come!

fondly,
~L

Thursday, October 4, 2007

focusing on stone

i've been making things ... perhaps you guessed, which is why I've neglected my blog, other than to post the fruits of my labor so you may see what's been keeping me in hiding ... a beautiful pendant of Crazy Horse Jasper called to me (click on the photo for a close-up of this Jasper's kooky spottiness) ... but it took me awhile to find just the perfect mix of elements ... I've fallen in love with coin pearls ... and of course, the fall...



Turquoise and Coral are bound together, our ancient deserts were once the sea, and here they are bound once more.



a splendid pendant of Galaxy Quartz looks as though it might be filled with a tiny amber sea or rust colored sands from Sedona... it is a "farmed" crystal and not created by Mother Earth. Still, it caught my eye. I combined it with amber Czech glass crytals for a touch of sparkle... like rain on my window...



and then ... another a delicate wrap necklace was born...



filled with blue-green light ... I call it "River"



it calls to mind the cold green waters that rush over mountain boulders in the Cascades...



pouring forth from pristine, frozen lakes, reflecting snow-capped peaks and the delicate colors of the sky...



this one is "Winter" a fine wrap necklace that seems to have risen from just such a lake ...

but now it is fall, and I am in love with the colors of the season ... when the sun shines through the rain and for a brief while ...



the world is golden ... today was such a day



i hope your world is as beautiful...

~lora

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

"fall" wrap necklace

i remembered still having some 24K gold dipped leaves ... i mixed this one with freshwater pearls (i love the coin shaped ones!), Czech glass and Austrian crystal...



and of course a good length of Sterling silver chain ...



wrap it up as an elegant choker, or let it spill into your bustier! ... for a night at the opera, or to accept your Oscar... or ... who needs a reason? Wear it because it's beautiful...



wear it long and flowing with a gown ... or with jeans and a black sweater



or turn it around and let it spill down your back.

Tres chic!

~L

what i've been up to today

i've been quietly preparing for my upcoming show and so haven't been posting to my website or etsy, however, here's a peek at what I've been up to.



silver wrap necklace using smokey quartz, freshwater pearl, carnelian and crystal quartz



silver wrap necklace using aventurine, chalcedony, moon stone, quartz crystal, Austrian crystal and flourite


i just love the delicate mix of colors!



these necklaces can be wrapped many times or just once and worn long down the front or, if you're so inclined, down the back



silver wrap necklace using lemon quartz, died quartz and peridot


these items won't be posted for sale until late October, since they are show inventory at present ... now, back to seclusion!

hope your Tuesday is fabulous!