Back in the Swing

I've been mad at myself because I haven't been writing more on here, especially since I haven't been writing in my journal, either. It's easy to get caught up in everything else going on and not make time for little things that are important to me. I've been busy since I returned to Ohio. I've been making (and selling!) jewelry, working at the store, fixing up my car in preparation for selling it, researching plane tickets (hoping prices will fall a bit), volunteering at the studio, and doing some painting as a side job. I've also been trying to do things with my friends. I want to spend as much time with people as I can before I leave in January.

One of the painting side jobs...

An old cigarette machine Cindy is turning into an "Art Machine"

I volunteer at an art studio called Blue Shoe Arts, working with adult artists with disabilities. Today I helped load up for and set up a booth to represent Blue Shoe at a local festival called Honeyfest. My grandma had sent me a Blue Shoe pamphlet when I was still living in Athens, and when I moved back to Lancaster a year and a half ago, I contacted them and started working there. It's been one of the most rewarding things I've been involved with. The artists are really great, they have such amazing senses of humor. Working with them always reminds me how much our ability to enjoy life and appreciate what we have is about our attitude.

A few months into my time with Blue Shoe, the board of developmental disabilities purchased Art & Clay on Main, a paint-your-own pottery studio. Blue Shoe now shares a building with Art & Clay, although they are separate entities. It's been nice being at Art & Clay in many ways... it's right downtown, half a block from Ava's, so I can run back and forth between them. I was able to teach some kids' art classes over the summer through Art & Clay, which was really fun. It's also nice because it made it easier to test out a new jewelry idea - ceramic frame pendants! I bought some clay, ordered some nichrome (high-temp) wire, and made little frames, which I then fired once, glazed, and fired again. I picked up the final product today, and I think they'll be really cute. For my jewelry, I take little images and seal them under resin. I typically use little metal plates or antique keytags for this, but I thought it would be fun to do some with ceramic frames for a change. I'll post pictures of finished jewelry once I get that far.

Frames, prior to first firing

All glazed and fired

It is pretty amazing to me how the jewelry thing has been working out. It all just sort of happened. I had never heard of Ava Jeweler's (the store where I have been working for the past year) when I moved back to Lancaster. I was riding my bike around town one day when I recognized some of my friend Cindy Yeager's stained glass stars hanging in the window of the shop. Shortly after that I was almost ready to look for a job, but I hadn't actually started looking yet (I was dreading it). I was meeting Cindy for lunch one day, and she was dropping some of her work off at Ava's, and said I should come down there because they were looking for help. It was perfect. I didn't have to do the dreaded job hunt, and I found a place where I fit right in. I absolutely love Ava, her family and the other girls that work there, and I've learned a ton.

Although jewelry making had been a hobby of mine in the past, I hadn't made much for a long time. Of course I couldn't be around all the beautiful jewelry, materials, and tools without catching the bug again, and earlier this year I started making my own line of jewelry. A friend told me about the Cultural Arts Center in Columbus, where they have an awesome jewelry studio and affordable college level metalworking classes, and I started going there. The first time I displayed my jewelry was for Lancaster's ArtWalk in July. During the week of ArtWalk, I sold just shy of $800 of my work. I also won the People's Choice Award for favorite artist, and received another $500. Last month, I made $400 from sales, even though business at the store was rather slow. My goal is to make all the money I need for my TESL program fee in Prague (1500 Euro, about $2,050) from jewelry sales, but the way things have been going I think I can add in first month's rent in Prague as well. Christmas sales account for a large portion of the whole year's business at the store, so I can expect to sell a lot leading up to that.

Another interesting thing about the jewelry is that when I started making it earlier this year, I had no clue I would be going to Prague. I was still throwing around ideas of farming in France or volunteering in India. The very first things I made though, were pendants with Alphonse Mucha's Four Seasons on them. I ended up making a lot of things with Mucha, and I've sold more of those things than anything else. It's interesting because Mucha was a Czech artist, and I am excited to visit the Mucha museum when I go to Prague. Ava says that things like that are always happening when you're in line with your destiny. I think she's right. It does seem like we get little signs from the universe when we're on the right track.

A couple of the Mucha pieces I've sold