A long time coming...

Well folks, as Liz is back in the saddle, so am I. Sort of.

Being back in school is harder than I expected it to be, and it's keeping me busier than I've ever been before. However, I am still enjoying it and am happy to be on this path. The most serious drawback is the complete lack of free time, which means that I have have almost no time at all to spend on making the world a more beautiful place one piece of jewelry at a time.

However, our friend Carin back in Massachusetts is on the board of the Western Massachusetts branch of a really fantastic non-profit called Dress for Success. It's an organization that helps women get back into the work force and back on their feet after they've been down an out.




Lucky Lizard Art Design has been a sponsor of their spring fundraiser gala two years in a row, and I was flattered this year when Carin asked if I would donate a few pieces to their fall silent auction.

So I pulled out the old bead box , and put together a few things that will hopefully bring in some money for them in November.


In the near-ish future, I'll also be attempting to carve out some time to make my mother a turquoise bracelet to celebrate her birthday, and I have commissions in the wings for a pair of enameled earrings (thankfully those are a mother's day gift, so I'll have plenty of time to work on them), and a set of wine charms.

I also have plans for a home party next month. As always, I'll keep you posted.

So in the meantime, enjoy our jewelry, our catalog and our portfolio, and feel beautiful.

Back in the Saddle again!

So I know it's been quite some time since my last post, but life has been crazy over the summer: the big move, teething babies, getting to know a new area, and of course, hubby starting medical school up here at UNE. Lots of non-jewelry related stuff.

But we did have a really fun party at my aunt's house (during which she managed to purchase ALL of my favorite jewelry! I guess I'll just have to make more...), and more custom orders, and lots of fun. I hope you've all had a great summer as well.

But here at Lucky Lizard, the vacation is over! We have some craft fairs coming up here in New Englad (I'll keep you posted as they get closer), and some more possible parties happening, and some sales in the works. I'll be sending out emails again to our mailing list, so be sure to send me your email if you want to be receiving those.

Okay, that's all for now; just wanted to say we're still here.

Congratulations, Dan and Heather!

Holy cow! My sister is engaged! Hooray!

A few months ago, my brother-in-law-to-be, Dan, wrote me to ask if I could keep a secret and to see if I'd be willing/able to make the engagement ring he wanted to give to my sister. After being sworn to secrecy and promised that he would deny my existence if my cover was blown, we got to work.

We started with pictures of the jewelry she usually wears being sent to me so that I could start the design process. Once I had those on hand, I sent Dan a page with something like 15 different potential designs sketched out. We settled on a favorite, and then the real fun began.

You see, Dan is a very smart, well-educated doctor/chef/pianist who knows NOTHING about the world of jewelry. Here's what Dan told me at the beginning: "I really have very little knowledge about this kind of thin. I've never really bought jewelry for anyone, other than some earrings from Uganda for HB [my sister] that cost like $7.50."
I knew it was going to be fun.

We discussed metals - vetoing silver, yellow gold, and platinum for being too cheap, something she wouldn't wear, and too expensive, respectively - and spent a lot of time talking about stones.


We knew she wouldn't want a white diamond, but weren't quite sure where to go from there. We decided to try to find a colored diamond, which was proving to be quite problematic. I don't know if you've ever tried to find a stone, but I've decided it's much better to find beautiful stones and design around them rather than trying to find the exact stone that fits your design and artistic vision. Luckily for us, Dan overheard the HB talking to a friend about how much she HATES diamonds, so we decided to take a different route.

Here's my favorite exchange:
Me - I have always thought of her as a red. Rubies are worse than diamonds in terms of conflict and bloodshed, so maybe a garnet? What do you think?

Dan - Sweet - a Kevin Garnet? Seriously, I have no idea what a garnet is.

We ended up going with a classic, blue sapphire, because sapphire is her birthstone and because they're just really, really pretty. I found The Natural Sapphire Company which sells only conflict-free stones mined in an environmentally sustainable way. Perfect! I found a gorgeous, square, cushion-cut stone, and another fancy-cut stone that they sent to me to compare. We decided on the cushion-cut to be bezel-set in a palladium white gold shank. (Some of these terms I learned as a part of the process.)

Anyhow, I'm getting a bit long-winded, but it was amazing to be able to be a part of this process and to get to make this for Heather. I ordered 3mm half-round wire only to find that I really wanted 2mm wire, and Margaret, my incredible teacher, helped me draw it down to the correct width. We used the excess wire to make the setting for the stone by running it through a rolling mill and various other things to alter the shape and thickness.

I made a mock-up of the setting in silver, and then drove to Boston (where there were better tools) a week and a half later to make the real thing. The pictures in this post are all from that day.

Everything ran smoothly until we tried to set the stone.

You see, palladium white gold is a much stronger alloy than nickel white, which makes it a lot more durable, but also a lot less malleable. During our first setting attempt, the bezel ripped off the band, leading to a quick design alteration and a repair. Setting attempt number two was also unsuccessful as the mandrel was just not steady enough to use as a base for the ring. In the end, we had to wrap the whole ring in clear band-aids and sink all but the bezel in a bowl full of tar.

No, I'm not kidding. I can't say I my confidence was very high at that point.

But Margaret knows what she's doing, and with her guidance and ample assistance, We were able to complete the ring in time for me to send it to Dan before he and the HB headed off on their cross-country move from Albuquerque, to Portland, OR.

So, on Friday, June 27, at Russell's Truck Stop outside Springer, NM, Dan popped the question and Heather said yes!

No, I'm not kidding about the truck stop, either.

And here it is:


It's too small for Heather right now, but that won't be hard for her to have fixed, and I couldn't be happier for the two of them!

-M

NCMR2008

So this is a bit of a departure from my/our usual post, but sometimes something comes up that just needs to be talked about.

I was in Minneapolis, MN June 4-9 for the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform. 3,500 people from all over the country and the world came together to talk about the state of dis-information in our nation. About how the consolidation of media ownership is stripping cities, towns, and communities of local news and access to locally applicable information. About the disintegration of jouralism and how "news" is more often just the regurgitation of official talking points as papers and stations care more about their bottom lines than about the accurate representation of current events.

While the experience was exhausting as I worked alongside the Free Press staff, it was also incredibly inspiring to see such a diverse group of people coming together for a single cause: a true and healthy democracy. It was awesome.

Anyhow, in other news, it's my turn for the big move. The packers come on Friday, the movers come on Monday, and Ben and I hit the road a week from today. In two weeks we'll be in Albuquerque, and Lucky Lizard New Mexico will take flight. Leaving Western Massachusetts is harder than I can say, but I am really looking forward to this new adventure.

In jewelry news, here's some stuff I've finished up recently:
This pendant was actually started many years ago when I tried my hand at metal working for the first time. It is silver, copper, and brass.
After creating the design, I stacked the three plates of metal and sawed through them simultaneously so that I would actually be able to create three complimentary pendants at the same time. What I didn't bank on was how incredibly hard it was going to be to solder the individual pieces together.
One pendant turned out beautifully and I gave it to my mom. One turned out fairly terribly (next picture), and this one was okay, but had some serious problems so I put it away to deal with at a later date. So here I am years later with more skills and knowledge under my belt, and I was able to not only salvage the third pendant, but to turn it into something I'm really happy with. In the pendant that never came into being, the main background is brass, with the silver in the forground and some VERY TARNISHED copper as well.





In enamelling class, I had a little bit of extra time so I decided to make a pair of Limoge (no wires) earring for the heck of it. I'm quite pleased. I have promised Liz a pair with blue flowers, but will not be able to finish them before the move. I will just have to find a place in Albuquerque where I can enamel so that I can get them to her at least in time for Christmas.

And that's where things are for now.

I'm looking forward to the UNM studio and to the fashion show in Denver that a seamstress friend of mine (my friend's mom, actually) and I will be putting on in a few months. I'll keep you all posted on the new digs, the new studio, new pieces (of course!), and fashion show news.

-Martha

It's really happening!

Well, I know I haven't been updating very often, but that is because we are in the midst of trying to pack up our entire apartment and move to Maine! And with two babies, I just don't have much time to do anything, including eat or sleep. So yes, life is crazy, and we have had a string of jewelry events, including Ladies' Night at a church on the Cape, a few parties, and a flurry of custom orders. Martha and I have been going nonstop!

But we have some exciting news for those of you in Southern Maine and in Albuquerque: Lucky Lizard is coming your way!

I'm moving to Biddeford Pool, which is just South of Portland, in a couple of weeks so that my husband can go to med school at UNE in the Fall. And Martha is moving to Albuquerque next month so that she can go to grad school at the University of New Mexico.

So while we are sad to be leaving the Pioneer Valley, we are very excited to be on to our next adventures, respectively. And now we will be available to do parties, craft shows, and other fun things in new areas. We'll keep you posted!

Taa Daa!

Here he is in all his splendor:


I don't know what else to say about it except that I wish I had Ben's camera here tonight so I could get a really spectacular photo. But here he is.
The bezel is entirely handmade, and the stone is a sky-blue topaz (Chris's mom's birthstone). Happy Mother's Day, Chris's mom!

-M

Almost There!

And now he's a little brown monkey and has an eye. Things got a little interesting in the studio when I pulled him out of the kiln to find a big grunty piece of ugly black something that had to be drilled out. The hole then had to be scrubbed with a fiberglass brush, and the piece had to be re-fired before any more glass could be laid.
The repair well well, however, and if I hadn't just told you I'd had to do it, you wouldn't ever have known, because you can't see it at all.
While I hate doing repairs, I like it when the repairs are successful.

The bezel below is what a stone will be set in.
What stone? We don't know yet. We're working on it.

M

It's coming along.

Look Chris, colors!
The Monkey will end up being brown; the white was laid to push his image into the foreground of the piece.
Check back next week for more.

Martha

PROGRESS! (and lots of it)

So it's been a while since I posted, but I have lots of things to show for my time off!
Before we get to that...
Tomorrow night Liz and I will be at the Dress For Success Common Threads fundraiser. It is a gala event thrown to raise money for the organization, and this year, Lucky Lizard Art Design will be one of the event sponsors. Last year we left the event feeling incredibly inspired, and we can't wait to go back again.


I am starting to bring together in my mind a design for this silver that has been in my box for ages. I punched a smaller disc out of this one (hence the hole) for my Robin's Eggs piece.

I'm not entirely sure what to do with this yet, but I know I want to use this beautiful purple garnet with the blue topaz.

Speaking of blue topaz, those are the same stones I used in Meredith's earrings, which are finally done!

The discs are a little shy of 2" in diameter, have a lovely matte finish with little polished accents all over the surface.
Now that it's really spring, the topaz catch the sunlight and sparkle up a storm! They're beautiful.
Meredith will have them by Friday.

I am also now getting to work on a pair of earrings for my mom.

The discs are about 3/4" diameter. I domed them and then hammered one section and etched another on each one. The sections will be separated by rose gold wire. I couldn't do more while at the studio on Sunday because I need a special tool that is coming in later this week. It shouldn't take me too long to finish them up.
I need to notch the longer wire for each earring and solder in the shorter one. Then I'll solder them to the silver, attach a jump ring, hang them on ear wires, and ship them off. I won't make it to the studio this weekend since I'll be in Maine, but it shouldn't be too long.

In other news, or on other projects, my dear friend Callie has comissioned a pair of earrings for a friend's birthday gift.

They are going to be simple enamel pieces without any cloisonne (wires). Her friend is Ecuadorian, so they're modled off the Ecuadorian Flag.

The silver spaces on them now will be filled with N-26, my favorite yellow available. These are right up my alley given that I'm such a sucker for bright, primary colors.

I've also been continuing work on Chris's monkey. I've begun to lay color, as you can see, so it'll get more and more interesting from here.

When it's all finished it will have 9 or 10 different colors of glass laid (right now there are three). After a couple more layers on the background, I will be able to start to fill the monkey and branch.

I have class tonight, so hopefully we'll start to get the foreground filled before the night is over. I'm being particularly picky about how thin each layer is because I want to make sure that there are no bubbles in the finished piece. There are already 4 layers of glass on the front of the piece alone. To fill the background completely will take another 7-10.

And that's that for now.
It's finally spring, and all I want to do is sit outside in the sun or work in the studio.

I gave official notice at my job yesterday, and my last day will be May 30th. Not long now. Sometime (soon, I hope) after that, Ben and I will be packing up and heading to New Mexico where I'll be starting grad school in the fall.

Lucky Lizard is going to take on a very different official set-up with Liz off to Maine in June and me off in the other direction, but the business will continue. Basically, we're just expanding the territory. But there will be more on that later. For now, go check out our beautiful new website (be patient if you use Internet Explorer 6, we're still working out some bugs), and get ready for our Mother's Day sale.

Have a great day!
-M

Now accepting credit cards!

I know it's been a long time since my last post; the twins, Matt, and I have all had the Cosmic Death Flu, which we then passed right along to Martha (sorry, Martha!). But we are all better now, and I wanted to share some really exciting news with you all: we take credit cards now!

And not just on the website; if you come to one of our home parties or see us at a craft show, we can take your credit card there, too. Or really any other time, too, I guess. And without one of those fancy credit card machines; we just do it over our cell phones or laptop. Ah, the wireless age! So needless to say, we're pretty excited about this because I think it will just make life a little bit easier.

But that's nothing compared to how excited I am about our new website launch, which should be happening in a couple of days. Or how excited I am about our upcoming event for Dress For Success. We even have an ad in the evening's program, which i think looks spectacular (thanks Ben!). I'll leave you with that. here it is:

For Scale

This is just a quick post to update you all on the monkey progress: The wires have all be laid on the blank, so it's ready for glass and color! While my last post let you see what the monkey looks like in cloisonné, it didn't give you any sense of scale, so here he is, on his blank, with a quarter for scale.

-M

Why I love enameling

I took my first enameling class back in the fall of 2005 at The Hartsbrook School where I was teaching at the time. While the piece I was working on at that time (my first piece, shown here) was cooling, my teacher, Margaret Langdell, pointed me towards the work of a number of current master enamelists. The one that struck me the most was Larissa Podgoretz. She does Limoge, or painted, enameling, which differs from the cloisonné work we do in that it does not use any wires and is just painted.

"Just painted" is unfair. Larissa's work is spectacular. It would be hard enough to paint what she does with watercolors, oils, or whatever, but to do it with grains of glass that get melted in fine layers in a kiln is mind boggling. I will never do work like Larissa's but I still find it incredibly inspiring.

One of the reasons I will never do work like hers is that I love doing cloisonné work. Many of the other students I have taken classes with think I'm nuts, but I love the wire work. I love sitting with my tweezers and scissors and making a sketch become a set of chambers.

All this has come to mind because I spent an hour yesterday bending the wire's for Chris's monkey piece. While I usually work in silver, this piece is going to be in gold. Now that the wires are bent, I will be able to set them into the piece this afternoon at the studio.

The closed ends of the branch actually hang over the edge of the blank and will be trimmed off later. I had to bend them that way so that they will stand up throughout the enameling process.

At the studio today, I also will be working on Meredith's earrings and a pair of earrings for my mom. Hopefully it'll be one of those days in which everything comes together and works out, rather than one of those days in which you can spend hours and hours getting nothing done.

-M

Monkey-ing Around

While we may still be a couple months from Mothers' Day, we have gotten a request for a custom enamel for the occasion.

My co-worker, Chris, and I got to talking about enamels last week - heck, I'll talk about enameling with anyone who'll listen - and he fell in love with our work. He's decided to order an enameled pendant for his mother, and since last Friday we've been in negotiations about colors and cost and design. We've gotten nearly everything settled, and Chris gave me his permission to post my progress here.

So since all we have so far is a prepped blank (not interesting), and a finished sketch, I wanted to put up the sketch.

Chris and I are both ridiculously excited about the piece, and I can't wait to get started. I have the wire at home, so maybe this evening after going to the gym I'll find time to sit down and make a monkey! I sure hope so. The monkey will be done in gold cloisonne, and the branch will be in silver. The piece will be set either in silver or gold, and the small circle at the bottom of the sketch is going to be some beautiful fruit-colored gem. It's really going to be spectacular.

I will say that Chris's mom is extraordinarily fortunate to have a son like Chris who cares about her enough to do this for her. There's nothing so cool as getting a gift that was made just for you. She'll be blown away, no doubt.

Keep checking in - this one's going to be A LOT of fun!

M

Enameling Progress

Well, class was a couple of days ago, so it's about time I let you know how it went. I finished the enamelwork on the earrings, and all that's left now is making the settings for them.

I decided to have a "frosted" finish on them, which is accomplished by not firing them for a final time after grinding them down. In this case, I really liked how much the silver wires stood out against the white enamel. Having the wires be the only things that are reflective has a very cool effect. I've also decided to hang them as you see in the picture above. They will be set in sterling, and there will be a sapphire hung from the bezels - kind of a continuation of the lower stripe that "exits" along the bottom edge.

I did more work on the tri-pendant as well. It doesn't look that different from what I posted last time, but it's really starting to come together.

After another 3-5 layers of glass, they will be ready to grind and polish as well. This is a good thing since we only have two more enameling classes left this term.

I have a new enamel commission to start working on during studio time on Sundays, but other than that, I don't know when I'll next be able to enamel, which is sad.


In other news, I submitted photographs for consideration by Lark Books for their 500 Enameled Objects book which will be published in April 2009. I don't know when notifications will be sent, but I'm sure it will be a couple of months.

Hope you're enjoying our St. Patrick's Day sale!

-M

Weddings

I, too, have starting re-photographing old pieces and putting new ones on the site.

Our enamels have a totally fresh look, and our sterling jewelry section has been expanded. It's pretty awesome, go take a look!

But really what I wanted to write about in this post is how much fun it is for us to make jewelry for our friends' weddings.

Before Lucky Lizard Art Design ever came into existence, Liz made my wedding jewelry.
Our wedding day was the best day of my life, and while it may seem like a small detail, having jewelry that fit me and my personality and our wedding colors to a T definitely contributed to the perfection of the day.

I know it has been exciting for my friend Anne to be a part of the design process for her jewelry. That's an experience you can't buy from most jewelry stores. The top photo is of her earrings. They are pearl, turquoise and labradorite. She's getting married in the desert outside of Moab, Utah, so the turquoise was an absolute must!

The scrap of fabric is from the dresses the girls will be wearing, and the earrings are lemon quartz briolettes with 4mm moonstones. Neither picture is of the quality we're shooting for now and posting on the site, but they get the job done.

Personally, I love Anne's earrings. I had a bit of a hard time sending them to her when they were finished, and when she got them she wrote to tell me she didn't want to take them off! They are actually the second incarnation of that design. While the first attempt resulted in a very lovely pair of earrings that were quite similar to the finished product, they weren't quite right, and Anne was able to let me know what she wanted changed so we could make sure to end up with the perfect pair.

While Meegan ended up not being able to wear her custom jewelry to her ceremony, we went through weeks of sketches and mock-ups and discussions that resulted in a beautiful set of jewelry I know she cherishes.

The pearls are white and silver because her dress had white and silver beading all over. The bridesmaids' dresses were green, which inspired the color of the crystals.

Every wedding is a unique expression of the couple getting married, and I feel that a bride's jewelry should be no different. Besides, it's a great way for us to let our friends know how much we love them. :)

Soon we'll have a link from the website to a request form for special occasion jewelry as part of the website overhaul. I met with our web designer (my fabulous husband, Ben) earlier tonight about the new design, and I can't wait to get it up and running.

But anyhow, I am off to bed now. I'm looking forward to enameling class on Tuesday. As always, I'll let you know about the progress I make.

-Martha

New Jewelry!

So it's really late, and the boys have gone to bed, and I'm just too tired to write a full post. But I wanted to say that I have been posting all kinds of spankin'-new, never-before-seen jewelry on the website! You should definitely check it out!
-Liz

I Got Skills

That's right. I've been honing my heretofore dull photography skills to ... um.... a less dull edge. And our catalog is reaping the benefit! After the babies go to bed, I set up my tabletop studio and get to work. You can see some of the new photos on the main page of the catalog, and peppered throughout the categories of jewelry. And just for fun, here's one:


We've also been renaming our pieces of jewelry because, although the title "Sardonyx and turquoise necklace" gets me all hot under the collar, I realize that many people don't know or even really care what sardonyx is. Which makes the new title of that piece, "Desert Sunrise", much more enchanting. I hope. We also have fun ones like "Betty Rubble", "Jungle Love", and "Golden Delicious". Feel free to suggest more names, because I'm sure my baby-saturated brain will run out of witty phrases very soon. Enjoy!
-Liz

Upcoming events

Martha reminded me today of the upcoming Dress For Success gala dinner, and it made me get very excited about Spring and all of the fun things that we have coming up. We did the Dress For Success dinner last year, and loved it. They are a non-profit that provides professional clothing and career development tools to disadvantaged women. I love what they do, and we love supporting a cause that we truly believe in. It is such a fun event, too! Last year, dinner was great, and we met a lot of really cool women, and heard from some of the women who have really benefited from the organization. They also had a fashion show at the end. All in all, a really great event. I'm so excited to be there again this year!

And we have so many other things going on, too! We are in the process of revamping our website (with the help of Martha's awesome husband, Ben), we are ordering new tags and earring cards, and changing our whole display.

We also have some home parties coming up, which is always a good time. We will be having some great sales at our website, too, which you'll hear about in our new email newsletter. If you're not getting our newsletter and you would like to, just let us know! We'll keep you posted on all the fun stuff and great deals!

-Liz

It's amazing what sleeping on an idea will do.

So I woke up this morning thinking about Meredith's earrings and the 60 degree conundrum.

Anyhow, I decided to pull out all of the topaz and the bezels to see what could be done. I placed them on the earrings and realized that I didn't really like the look of six stones around the hole, so I tried 8. Not only does it look much better, it will be much easier to make happen. Hooray for good ideas while sleeping!

Have a great day.

M

More Progress!

Wow! I'm beat.

I just got home from the enameling studio again (for the time being, this is a Tuesday trend) where I made more progress on the earrings and the pendant I posted pictures of last time. Here's a picture of how the pendant is coming along:

As you can see, I've started laying the colors, and next time they'll get a little more evened out. I put three layers of glass on this evening, and probably have another six or so to go.

I put several more layers on the earrings as well, but as I am just using clear to fill at this point, they look just like they did last week, and I am not posting new pictures. They need very little more glass before I grind and polish them. If all goes well, I will be able to do that next week and start making the settings. Enamels must be ground down with four diamond grinders of various coarseness before being scrubbed with a fiber glass brush and put in the kiln for their final firings. These last steps are what give them their smooth, polished finishes that make them so incredibly beautiful.


We don't have much going on this weekend so far, so I think I will be able to go by the studio this Sunday to work on the silver earrings I am making for my sister's birthday (which was almost a month ago).

They're big silver discs with off-center holes. The stones in the picture are 3mm blue topaz. Each earring will have six stones set around the hole.

For a moment I have to geek out about math a little bit - this is something I do fairly often. There is no geometrical way to trisect an angle. It is not hard to divide the circumference of a circle evenly into sixths by using an accurate compass and placing the center of a new circle with an equal radius on the circumference of the first circle, but it is extraordinarily difficult to do this on a concave surface when the center of your circle is in the middle of a big hole in your surface. Where's Euclid when you need him? Not that Euclid could really help either: he's the one who proved you can't trisect an angle.

So there's my jewelry construction gripe for this week. My next step for Meredith's earrings is to drill six evenly spaced spots around each of the holes. Wish me luck.

Liz and I had a long business meeting last night. We talked about our website revamp, our new print materials, and the future of the business in general. After letting Lucky Lizard sit on the back burner for a while, it feels great to be back in it full of ideas and plans and energy. Stay tuned! Great things are afoot.

Martha