What's New at My Brown Wren

What's new?  Tons and not much, all at the same time...

Back in April I made the decision to go back to full-time employment as an optician.  It was a difficult decision, but it's necessary for right now.  It's been great working with people again.  I was beginning to feel pretty isolated - even in the group studio setting at Blueschool Arts.  The down side is that I don't get to my studio as much as I would like, and getting ready for a show can be pretty exhausting after working a full day.  It's almost been 5 months since I made the transition.  I'm hoping to find some balance now that the Studio Tour is over and we've gotten our taxes out of the way. 

Now, I'm working on a super fun project that I think will change the future of how I teach my classes.  I can't tell you much of anything about it yet.  It's TOP SECRET.  Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know about this really cool project that I'm embarking on.

For now, I leave you with some pics of the fun pieces I created for the studio tour this year...

Earring A Day Challenge

As you probably know, I've been participating in Victoria Takahashi's Earring-A-Day 2015 challenge.  This is one of those things that I've always wanted to do, but never quite been able to follow through on.  Well, I'm pretty far behind, but so are a lot of the members.  Some have just jumped into the challenge and we are almost at the third way marker.  I am so happy to be doing this.  It makes me think more creatively.  Knowing that others are having a hard time too is comforting.  We're in this together!

Why keep going you ask?  Well, I have the opportunity to connect with other jewelers in an open forum, which is not something that happens as a general rule.  We share what we've made and sometimes how we've made it.  We share our mistakes and our triumphs.  It's very supporting and spawns new ideas and pushes us personally to take our work up a notch.  The newest idea that has come about is to make earrings with what we have - not buying any new materials for the project.  I've been doing this for the most part.  The verbalization of the idea has made me think that I need to explore new materials in my studio - something I wouldn't normally use to make earrings.  I can't say I have any ideas yet, but the idea is in my mind now.  I'm really excited to see where it leads.

Here are a few of my recent earrings made from pieces and parts in my little parts drawers...