Inspiring Client Follow Up Post

As a follow up to this post Inspiring Client~ 
I wanted to share a couple of shots of all four pieces I did for my most awesome client JR. The original post shows the first piece a created for him as a memorial to his beloved Grandmother who had recently passed away. Her name, Rosemary :)

I was in such a hurry to get them off to him I didn't realize I hadn't taken the best shots possible and I was working with a brand new camera to boot. So apologies for the photo quality!

Happy gardening~

The name "rosemary" derives from the Latin for "dew" (ros) and "sea" (marinus), or "dew of the sea".

Using Every Little Scrap~

I love to use every piece I can when working with the vintage silverware. Sometimes you make a mistake when stamping or bending and end up with odd pieces. I have been or will be turning these odd pieces into beads, buttons, guitar picks, toggles and anything else I can think of so nothing goes to waste.

To that end here are 2 new listings of items I have made using every little scrap~

I Pick You (sold)

This pick was hand cut from a 1930's spoon bowl I flattened. It is silver-plate over brass & it does show some wear from it's previous life as a spoon. I have filed the edges so smooth it's like butter. I drilled a small hole off center so it could be used as a charm if you don't want to use it to play.

 It's truly one of a kind ( OOAK ) if you like food and music and want a pick with an 80 + year old vibe rather than some mass produced blank from overseas, look no further. This is a no waste, upcycled product.

I Pick You had only been listed for a few days with 2 views when it sold!
I consider that real success! I already had another one I was working on and decided to show a before and after. 

Next time I'll have to do some progress shots as well~

Music Is Life

This pick was hand cut from a 1916 era spoon bowl I flattened. Holmes and Edwards Silver Inlaid Pat 04 ~ Jamestown Pattern circa 1916. I tried purposely to leave as much of the original patina on this one as possible. The back side has a lot, the front lost a lot! The soul of this pick is almost 100 years old~

I almost always listen to music when I'm creating whether it's my art or cooking. Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my favorites to cook with and create by.

Here is a rare video of SRV

 

Taking a Break

I have become a “goal setter” since I quit my day job. I even post in those pesky “what are you goals this month” threads in the Etsy forums. I feel like I’m throwing it out to the universe and I don’t want to let the universe down of course! Really, it’s more of a personal shaming especially when those equally pesky month end “how’d you do with your goals this month” threads come back to haunt me.

In May I set some pretty big goals for myself. It was my birth month so I figured the universe might reward me with some gifts! I met or exceeded all but 2 of my goals and even got some done that were going to go on the June list. I’m not going to bore you with the met goals; instead, may I introduce the un-met:

1. Get 75 items listed in the Anvil Designs shop. 
2. Curate a treasury that makes it to the front page. This is on my list every month…

On May 31^st I had 58 items. I’m not complaining I sold about the same amount of items in May as I did in Feb., March & April combined. I still ended the month with 10 more listings than the prior month so I’m carrying this one over. I might make it; I have 63 items listed as of this writing.

I have an obsession regarding curating a treasury that makes it to the front page. What can I say? I think it may be a whole post one of these days. At any rate I cant complain about this one either as I hardly made any treasuries in May due to working on realistic goals.

All that said back to the title of this post. I decided to give myself a bit of a break this week as far as the shop is concerned. My only goal is to do only things I feel like doing during my normal working hours. Yesterday I felt like working in my garden and spent about 3 hours doing so until it got too hot. But oddly when I had to take cover from the sun I went to my work bench and pounded out these 2 garden markers. Isn't it nice when nature inspires even when we are taking a break? 

Brand new design inspired by my morning yard work.

Not a new design but a new font for this design.

Now I'm off to collect seeds from my lettuce plants I let go to seed! 

Happy gardening~