Monday Motivator: Two Heads

They say two heads are better than one, and I've got to agree.  My roommate is a pretty crafty person herself and when I was rushing to finish the last few necklaces for my big order on time this weekend, she gladly jumped in to help.  And it was wonderful.  I showed her the various techniques for the design I'd been using and we finished one necklace together.  And then, the very next day, she totally blew me away with two awesome new designs of her very own.  And I mean awesome.  This girl is a wire wrapping genius.  Just look at this:

Isn't it awesome?  Like some sort of tiny, fantastic, abstract sculpture.  I just love it.  But I digress...

In addition to making necklaces, we also did some shopping (there was a "buy one get one free" sale on craft books at one of our awesome local shops) and a whole lot of brainstorming.  There were so many ideas bouncing around between us...  Ideas about designs and techniques and somewhere in the middle of it all, the concept for a whole new shop was born.

We've already started planning and setting things up, so I'll give you more details later when things have developed a bit more.  What I can tell you now is, there will be some restructuring happening over the next few weeks.  Some of my jewelry will be coming with me to the new shop and I'll be moving my graphics to their own dedicated shop as well.  The Ash Grove will remain home to my accessories and hand-lettered goods.  I may also be moving to a new main blog, but I'll definitely keep this one and post news specific to The Ash Grove, at least.  We'll just see what happens.

In the meantime and in case I don't get the chance to post again before then, I hope everyone has a very happy holiday!  Save me some of those cookies! ;)

Blog Carnival: Summer Inspiration

Howdy, Folks!  It's Blog Carnival time again!  This week's carnival is hosted by BW:Silver, who says:

It's Summer time! Tell us about your upcoming or current Summer inspired designs!

Well, my most important summer-inspired design is my current banner and avatar.  I redesigned them back at the very beginning of the season, using my Official Summer Color Scheme™--sky blue and grass green.

Right now, I'm waiting for some extra cash to come in so I can buy the beads I need to complete my Official Summer Necklace™, which will feature lovely blue and green fire polished czech glass beads and, of course, a pretty little tree.  This is to be the first installment in a seasonal series.  Each will be a limited edition design, available only through the given season (though, I may offer the summer design a bit longer as I've gotten off to a late start with it). 

As for current summer-inspired designs, I think my mallorn leaf necklace counts.  I've been reading Tolkien all summer, and that is definitely inspiring!

There are more pieces like this on the way--including a more accurate gold version!  And I've decided that I would really like to make literature and fantasy-inspired items a major focus of my shop.  They are certainly the most enjoyable for me to create, and I think they stand out from the crowd a bit more.

Now if I can just figure out how to translate Star Wars into jewelry...  Wire-wrapped lightsaber necklace?  Tiny Death Star earrings?  Hm.  This one is going to take some thought...