Jewelry Care

Read a good post on a blog called Handmadeology today about taking care of your jewelry and thought I'd pass it on -

Keeping the Sparkle in your Jewelry

I like the tip about keeping your jewelry accessible so you actually wear it! I've had good success using a small box on my dresser for the things I wear frequently but you could also put something by the door so they're ready at hand as you go out.

Nightmare on Etsy Street

How fun! My skull earrings were just featured in a really awesome Etsy Treasury called Nightmare on Etsy Street. I love Halloween!

Wunderkammer

Mr. Happy was featured in a spooky Halloween Etsy Treasury today! I'm so proud :D Just look at all of those gorgeous things...*drool*

Simplicity

Wow. Made it into another Artfire collection. This one is called Simply Gorgeous. :)





Still working on some Fall designs. I've got some fun Day of the Dead things in the works. I should be able to start on photos soon. Yay!

I admit it - it's Fall

Well, it looks like I'm done with another summer's worth of street fairs and craft shows. I have no plans for any holiday shows at the moment and I'm really looking forward to taking a break from in-person vending for a little while so I can concentrate on getting my online stores in order.

One of my necklaces made it into an Artfire Halloween collection and I'm thrilled to see all of the fantastic Fall and Halloween themed stuff available out there right there right now. So fun!





I think I'm going to go make up a batch of cocoa, snuggle up on the couch and contemplate the leaves outside. :D

Belmont Street Fair is here!

This Sunday, the 12th, is the Belmont Street Fair and I'll be there in front of Paradox Cafe between 34th and 35th. It goes from 10-5 and is a good one to hit since there's a lot going on and they close the street to traffic so it's very relaxed and fun. Come on out and enjoy!

The Website is Up!!!

Yay! It looks like the website is finally ready to go live! Check it out at LaurasDesigns.com. In celebration of the new site, and the upcoming long weekend, everything in the shop is 10% off through Labor Day! When you go through checkout just enter the code "LABORDAY2010" in the comments section and I'll refund the 10% back to you via Paypal.

swimmy thoughts

So, my son and I drove out to Newport, OR yesterday and went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium where we saw all kinds of amazing and beautiful things. Including these jellyfish -



Now I've got thoughts of jellyfish earrings floating around in my head. I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing anything more than daydreaming about them but it's fun to think about. :)

props due!

Wow! Yesterday was SO MUCH fun! I'd never vended at, or even attended, the Multnomah Days Festival and I was super impressed by how well it went. It was well organized, the street was closed for the duration so it felt leisurely and safe, the organizers, other vendors and people attending were nothing but friendly and kind. Everyone seemed to be having such a great time all day. A snafu early in the day (vendor in the wrong spot) was handled with grace and good humor. There was a fun (if long) parade, good weather and loads of people. Yesterday was the kind of day that keeps me doing this kind of thing. Kudos and thanks to everyone involved with the festival!

The website is really coming along. I think I need to add more pictures to fill out the gallery and then it'll be ready to roll out. Very exciting!

Next up - Belmont St. Fair. Should be a lot of fun. :)

Multnomah Days Festival this Saturday

Just a heads-up that I'll be vending at the Multnomah Days Festival from 9 til 4 tomorrow (Saturday the 21st) in Multnomah Village here in Portland. If you're gonna be around, come check it out!

celebrating the small things

Woot! I hit a milestone of sorts on Etsy this week: as of Monday, I now have 100 people on Etsy who have called my shop a 'favorite.' I know this is still really small potatoes but I'm rather pleased nonetheless.

Also, this Saturday I'm going to be vending at the Multnomah Days Festival from 9-4. If you're in town, come check it out. :D

blog feature!

Laura Salisbury Designs was featured today on TeamBPAL's blog for the Friday Spotlight. There's bit of an interview there that may or may not shed a little light on how things happen around here. It's really up to you as to whether or not that's a good thing. ;-p

new website in the works

So, I've been wanting a real website of my own for ages now but my skillz are rusty or nonexistent and I am a procrastinator at heart so it's been a shelved project for a couple of years now. Well, no more! I got a notion and finally sat down and sketched out a rough idea of what I want my website to look like and then I found a tool (Wix.com) where I could play around with different elements to create a prototype. A practice run, if you will. The result is linked over there on the right or you can click HERE to see what I came up with. It's a work in progress so it's not fully fleshed out and it has a couple of issues but I think I'm generally satisfied with how it turned out.

Now the trick is going to be creating something from scratch on my own without the handy-dandy bells and whistles of the tool that makes it so easy. I installed WordPress and I'm going to give that a go and I've been spending time pouring over stock image websites looking for and gathering elements to play with. No small task I'm finding. I'm trying to persist in the madness and I keep telling myself that I can do this but, holy crap, this is complex. :-\ I hope this works!

Yay! I made it into a fun treasury!

My Flower Beetle (Mr. Happy) made it into an awesome Etsy Treasury called Feeling Kinda Buggy. It's a really fun treasury and I think he's in good company. :)

Fits & Starts

Went to a gem fair yesterday and came home with a few goodies, although mostly I just restocked some supplies. Gem fairs are always so fun, even if a lot of the stuff is the same time after time. I always look forward to seeing some of the vendors and seeing what new things they are excited about. I got some fantastic crystals to make into pendants that I think are going to be very nice.

I got some new things made and am sifting through and editing photos so can get them listed. One of them is this -


I suspect the pendant is some kind of calcite or maybe even chalcedony shot through with streaks of carnelian but that's just a guess. Whatever it is, I think it's gorgeous. I paired it with serpentine, carnelian, red jasper and some fire agate and gave it a silver wire bail. I'm quite pleased with it.

I've also added a new street fair to the summer line-up. I'll be at the Multnomah Days Festival in Multomah Village in Portland on August 21st from 10-5. I've decided against vending at the Hawthorne Street Fair this year but I will be going just to hang out and have fun.

I said what now?

HAHAHAHAHA! OK, so making plans to post on a weekly basis is obviously a lot easier than actually doing it, it seems. Why is it so hard? Not really sure.

So summer has finally arrived in Portland - YAY! The warmth feels sooooooo good. I've been inspired to sketch out several new designs and now all I need is find the focus to sit down and make them. Not easy when the sun has come out to play. :)

The craft fair I did this past Saturday was a mixed bag. Attendance was, if I'm entirely honest, absolutely dismal. I have to admit I was pretty bitter about it at first. I mean, I gave up going to the Annual Family-Friends Summer Solstice Camping Trip to attend on the chance that it would be a source of some dearly needed income. It was not. At all. That was a hard pill to swallow. However, with a little perspective, I realize that it did give me time to sit with and think about my jewelry for awhile. I polished silver til I got cramps in my forearms. I reconsidered and reorganized my displays. I found several pieces that I really want to rework differently and thought about how I could improve things overall. I feel like I'll be better prepared for the upcoming Mississippi St. Fair because of the time I've spent thinking things over and that is a good feeling to have.

I'm really excited to get to work on new pieces. I've cleared and organized my workspace so that it no longer resembles a picture out of an I Spy book and I'm ready to go. :D Look for some new things coming soon.

Wow, time really flies! I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. Not good. Time to get back on track here.

I guess the first order of business is an update on craft fair appearances. So far it looks like this:

*Creston-Kenilworth Craft Fair, June 26th, 10-3
*Mississippi Street Fair, July 10th, 10-9
*Woodstock Festival, July 17th, 10-6
*Belmont Street Fair, September 12th, 10-5
*Last Thursdays on Alberta Street starting in June

I haven't decided/heard yet, but I'm also considering these:

*Division/Clinton Street Fair, July 24th, 10-6
*Hawthorne Street Fair, August 15th, 10-6 (this one is a big maybe)

I've been working on some Spring/Summer designs that I've really been enjoying, including some more delicate necklaces that I've fallen in love with. Everything here in the Northwest is so green. I mean, it's June and it's still raining almost every day and I feel ungrateful complaining because everything is so lush and beautiful but, um, some sun would be nice too. Everyone needs their vitamin D. I am noticing more than ever before the effect that my environment has on my work. I'm drawn to greens more than usual and I've been using a lot more light stones, including, to my surprise, more rose quartz and moonstone. I still want to do some of my larger, bold designs but I think they'll come out later on as summer starts to get a foothold and things heat up. For now, things around here have an almost fairy feel to them so that's what I've been paying attention to.

A Crystal Fairy Blossom Necklace

Ocean Shades

So, I promise not to be such a stranger. You can look forward to more frequent posts as I try to make blogging more of a priority around here. My goal is to shoot for a weekly kind of thing, more or less. Hope you all have a wonderful day. :D