Filly's Stable

I can't remember exactly how I found Daily Imprint, but I have been following the blog for a while. I am a complete sucker for Australian Art & Design, and love to get bits of it wherever I can. It reminds me of my "other home", which I will always love.

Over on Daily Imprint today, there is a shop featured called Filly's Stable, in Melbourne. Melbourne is known as being the fashion capital of Australia, and rightly so. A wealth of amazing designers live there, and I am living proof that shopping in Australia can be quite addictive. Filly's Stable has a bit of rustic feel to it, yet is at the same time chic and playful. I was immediately grabbed by the name, as I grew up with horses and dream some day of living in a chic yet rustic house with those snorting, hoofing, beautiful animals in my back yard (I still have not one, but two saddles in storage). Now, if only I could visit this cute shop in person!

For those of you in Melbourne, it's located at:

130 Bridport Street
Albert Park Vic 3206
Melbourne, Australia

image via Daily Imprint

Out with the old....in with the new...

Here is a little taste of what will soon be in my Etsy shop...new works inspired by nature, incorporating more patina and texture. I find them more intriguing. The backgrounds, which I have been wanting to use for a while, are a selection of photographs I took while studying for my minor in photography.

What I'm Reading...

Continuing on with the food/health/diet/slow food related theme, I stopped in at Powell's bookstore the other night to see if I could find another one of Michael Pollan's books. All they had on the shelf was In Defense of Food, which I've already read (and loved), so I went searching for a book that I've been wanting to get for a while--Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I have read all but two of Kingsolver's books (those two being mainly essays), and have loved them all. I decided that I needed this book, that I have been refraining from buying since it first came out two years ago.

The first bit of the book felt somewhat redundant, since this subject is all I've been consuming lately, but Kingsolver has such a wonderful 'voice' that it doesn't matter too much. I find myself wistfully dreaming about building a garden and investing the kind of time and effort into it as she and her family have done in this year long journey (which I'm guessing has continued since). Living in an apartment that has no viable space for a garden can only last for so long, I say. Especially for someone who grew up with plenty of open space and wilderness to explore.

If nothing else, reading all of these books has at least awakened the forager in me--I will soon be hunting the plum trees and blackberries of Mt. Tabor, followed by hunting for mushrooms in the fall, and clams in between, as well as the local farmer's markets.

Cuttlefish Casting

I have noticed that I tend to get a lot of traffic through my blog for "cuttlefish casting", so I thought I would post some helpful links to a tutorial and video for those who are interested (see below). I plan on doing my own tutorial of cuttlefish casting sometime in the next two weeks, so stay tuned!

Tutorial

Video

July Clearance Sale!!!

For the month of July, I will be having a clearance sale in my Etsy Shop. Be on the look out for a lot of things marked down drastically. I am purging old pieces from my shop in lieu of an evolving style. I will soon be featuring more one-of-a-kind pieces, patinaed jewelry, and a little more sculptural work too. Stay tuned!

A story of letting go....

These rings have traveled far and wide. I first created them in Australia as part of a self-directed body of work, which was based on playing with anodizing and working with Titanium. As I could not find Ti where I was living in a form that I could make into rings, I ended up purchasing a Ti rod from Reactive Metals here in the U.S.

The rod arrived, and I embarked on learning and applying a series of techniques that I had no knowledge of. First, came the lathe. This was a large, industrial lathe that I was introduced to. I learned how to drill out a variety of ring sizes into the rod, and then how to slice them at varying widths. Then, it was on to grinding. I did some grinding of them on the steel grinder in the sculpture studio, but then moved onto the lapidary grinders in the metals studios to get the shapes. Most of the shapes are simply an exercise in exploration.

Following that, I used a special set of files to smooth edges and sand each ring. Some were brought to more of a polish, others were left with a texture. This was followed by cleaning them, and finally, anodizing them. Each ring is anodized to match the color of an endangered plant from Australia. I decided to do that as a way to educate the buyer (if they're interested), which can be passed on to other people who remark about the jewelry. Sort of a "pay it forward" education about endangered plants, which is usually something people don't think about too much. After all, most of them aren't cute and fuzzy like leopards.

These rings (the ones that are left) will be part of my clearance sale starting July 1. It is a month long sale, and you can find out more about them at my Etsy Shop.

I am a girl of whimsy...

...though you would probably never know it at first. As a child, I used my imagination a lot. I read a lot of books, which I believe helped me in that department. I always wanted an imaginary friend, but didn't have one. I had my horses, my climbing trees, a pond, and multiple forts, not to mention brothers and sisters and neighborhood kids. That was all we needed.

That, and the animals. I have loved animals since I was a baby. My most prized book that I own today is the Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia, which I have had for all of my 27 years. I have spent many hours poring over the pages, drawing the animals, writing animal reports in school, researching and reading.

I absolutely love the whimsy in these paintings by Jennifer Davis. Full of beautiful colors in varied hues and shades. The lines and textures draw the viewer in to take a closer look, which is always rewarding in some sense.

You can find more (much more!) on Davis' website. Enjoy.