Using Little Bottles as Charms

by Amy Konecny
on April 27, 2015
with 0 comments

I came across some small glass bottles with plastic stoppers a while ago and of course I had to buy all that I saw because they where just to cute.

 

 

They have been sitting around the house for a few years now because I was hung up on the idea that I needed real cork stoppers.   I have gotten over that idea; because really plastic stoppers will actually make the bottles air tight plus they work grate for the Zombie Virus (who would stopper a virus with a real cork stopper?), and have made several styles of earrings using the cute little bottles.

 

 

 

               
          

 I'm supper happy with how they turned out.

The Zombie Virus Earrings you can buy online the other 3 (Mermaid Scales, Fairy Dust, and Drink Me) at the moment are only available at shows....  if you email me because you "need"  one or all 3 of the earrings I can make them available,  I'm just being lazy.   If you have any ideas for other things to make out of these small bottles I would love to hear them.

 

     

 

       

Arts For Art Sake

by Amy Konecny
on April 23, 2015
with 0 comments

May is almost here and that means that either Chance or I will be driving to Winston-Salem, NC  each Sunday for a fun little show called Arts For Art Sake or AFAS.   Here is the blurb directly form the events website  "Every Sunday in May and October, The AFAS Group organizes and sponsors an afternoon arts and crafts festival that's held outdoors on Trade Street in downtown Winston-Salem. Each festival features over 60 artists and includes a fun kids craft corner for the little ones."   It is held from 1:00 - 5:00 pm.   What they did not mention in the blurb:   every time I have participated in this event they had live music, occasional people would show up in cosplay (one of my favorite things), and the street we are on is lined with restaurants , bars, and art gallery's.   So you can grab a bight to eat and drink, check out the Artiest on the road and wander through the gallery's, and just make a day of it.

 

 

Last year I was at the end of the row of tents and I looked to my left and saw this vista.  I just had to take a picture.

 

          

 

    

Doodling Charm Art or Making Charm Art

by Amy Konecny
on April 20, 2015
with 0 comments

Today (Saturday actually)  I have been coming up with more art for charms.   Here are 2 quick (15 minute or less) sketches that I came up with.  

Because I liked the stormtrooper blowing bubbles so much I had to make one jumping rope and one playing a guitar.   They are not my best works, but I think once they are really small  (charm sized) they will look good.  Plus it's just fun and funny.  If you have any ideas of what you would like to see a stormtrooper doing let me know.

 

         

What was I thinking?

by Amy Konecny
on April 16, 2015
with 0 comments

Gack,  What was I thinking starting a blog that needed to be updated 2 times a week?   Oh yeah, I was thinking that I was verbose and loquacious.   Oops, guess I was wrong.   I was going to post about these really cute bottle earrings I was working on earlier today, but I got lazy and only put in a 7 hour work day instead of my normal 12.   I found a new manga called Last Game and my half hour brake turned into a 5 hour reading fest.   It's a very cute story about 2 awkward people trying to figure out love.    I feel like a total slacker, but it was so worth it.   Anyway sorry about this really short post, but I wanted to get something up even if it was just me going Meh.

 

           

What I Saw While On A Stroll

by Amy Konecny
on April 13, 2015
with 0 comments

At the end of March I had to opportunity to go down to FL to see my parents for a week.   I went for a stroll everyday since the weather was lovely and on one of those excursions I looked up and saw this.   The picture turned out lovely without any help.

 

 

Then I had to Photoshop it, because why not.    Always a dangerous thing.

 

 

 

The Moral of this story?   Photoshop can be dangerous if there is work to be done.     F.Y.I   The bee cake-pop swarm is my favorite.

 

 

           

 

 

 

     

 

   

 

 

Q&A 8

by Amy Konecny
on April 09, 2015
with 0 comments

Q:     Hi How are you doing today?

 

A.     Fine? Is your next question going to be as insightful and hard hitting as your last one?

 

Q.     (Gerr) No

 

Question 25:     We touched on your confidence already.   Do you have any fears?

 

Answer 25:     Of course I do.   We all have fears you just have to pull up your big girl underoos and face them head on or they will just keep trying to overwhelm you.   Though we all have fears that we struggle with every day.   For example I suffer terribly from Mephobia.

 

Q.     Dear Lord what is that?

 

Answer 25 Continued:   I  t's the Fear that if I become anymore Awesome the human race could not handle it and everyone would die.   It is a constant burden on my heart.  (looks down with a troubled expression)

 

Q.     Can you be serious for 5 minutes? ( in a loud voice, face turning red)

 

A.     I am being serious... mostly.

 

Q.   (Jumps up, lunges over table)

 

…........

 

Q.   Sorry, sorry I lost my cool for a second.

 

A.   (cough, cough) I didn't realize attempted strangulation was part of the interview possess. No wonder celebrities are always complaining about having to do them.

 

Q.   Look I said I was Sorry (Glare)

 

A.   OK, ok I'll answer anything you want to know. (hands up waving in a defensive posture)

 

Q.   Really anything? (evil grin)

 

A.   Um....

 

Q.    How about religion or politics?

 

A.   …(long pause)... I think I would rather go back to the strangulation. (totally dead pan)

 

And that is how the Q&A ended on a not so high note.

 

 

          

    

 

Pintrest: Take a look at my personal page

by Amy Konecny
on April 06, 2015
with 0 comments

If you want to see more pictures of things I do that are not Jewelry follow the “Crafts I've Done” board on my Pintrest  page.    A lot of the time I give quick/brief instructions on how to do it yourself.    Below are a few of the things I have done.

     

                     

It dose not show all the things I do,  just the one's I remember to take pictures of then also remember to post.

          

 

    

Q&A 7

by Amy Konecny
on April 02, 2015
with 0 comments

Question 21:   You said it takes a really long time to make a picture truly look like the product.   Can you show us a before and after?

                                

Answer 21:   Sure.   Here is a picture of my “Yoga, Pepole Pin”  (you can find it above and below since I'm long winded).  The picture on the Left is the before... well mostly before it's been cropped.   As you can see I use a gray background,  I used to use white,  but when I took the picture the digital camera would distort the colors of the product to much.   The picture on the Right is the after.   I cleaned up the background so it was all white,  lightened and corrected the colors so it would more accurately represent the true colors of the pin,  then I had to re-draw the picture on the charm since the color correction proses faded it out.   When you hold the pin in your hand you can see the picture on the charm is a very dark gray, most people would call it black.   However after the color correction it's a light gray or almost invisible in some places so I re-draw it in a very dark gray.   The only thing I can never get perfect is the charm background since most of them are white,  but if I fix it completely then the differences between the charm and the background of the photo is not great enough to tell where one begins and the other ends.

                     

 

Question 22:   This question comes from a customer.  "I have allergies to some metals.  What are your bracelets metal components made of?"

Answer 22:   This is a great question and one anyone that is sensitive should ask.   I use a variety of metals copper, pewter, stainless steal, silver, brass, bronze, and some times base metal.   I try VERY hard to make sure that all my components are nickle free and lead free.   However since I don't have a way of testing the metals myself I have to rely on the company's that I order from to have accurate information.   I am very confident that the Ear Wires I use are Surgical Stainless Steal since they are made by a US company.   However not all of my components are made in the US and some country's have lax testing standards.   I will say that I am sensitive and my assistant Tig  (Tig is great she helps out with sales) is crazy sensitive and neither one of us has ever had a problem,  and in the 15 years I have been in businesses I have only had to make one return because of sensitivity reasons.   Hopefully this means that I'm doing a good job at finding materials that truly are nickle free and lead free.  

Q.   Wow a straightforward couple of answers. I might just die of shock. (hand held to hart)

A.   humph

 

Question 23:   What if the customer is sensitive to your product.  Can they return it?

Answer 23:   As long as the item is in good shape i.e. it was not chewed on by the dog, run over by a car or played ruffly with by a kid,  Sure.   I will say that it is my policy to not make returns for people that are mean to me  (it's only happened once in 15 years so it's a rarely used policy),  I don't like to be yelled at or made to cry.

Q.   Who Dose?  (hands in a spread open gesture)

A.   Masochists?   (head tilted to side with a look of total innocence)   Anyway I'm not one,  so I don't want to cry.  However if someone is not mean I'm fairly laid back about my return policy.   I want my customers to be happy,  so I'll repair, exchange,  or if I have to even return an item.   I admit I want to keep the money my customers gave me so I would rather repair or exchange,  but I also want them to have warm fuzzes when they think about me so I try my best to achieve that end.

 

Question 24:  Do you like Chocolate?

Answer 24:   Yes.  

A.   Was that the best question you could come up with?

Q.    I lost my notes and was stalling for time.

A.  Oh for the love of Pete.  (sigh)

 

         

 

        

    

It's Getting Toasty, Toaster Art

by Amy Konecny
on March 30, 2015
with 1 comments

Some days I need to make art, but I don't want to make jewelry nor do I have a lot of time.   On days like that I will do something small and fast that has a large impact.    Back in February I had one of those days.   I was in the kitchen looking around for something to do (it was clean for a change) and my eyes fell on my old and boring white toaster.   I have wanted a cool colored toaster for about forever, but they cost money and I'm cheep.   On this day my brain said "you don't have to leave it that way.  Your an artist fix it".   So I pulled out my paint pins and this is what happened.

 

 

This was a really easy and quick project.   Below are the instructions to fancify your own toaster.

Project time:  10-30 minutes

What you need: Toaster, Paint Pins (Oil Based), Vinegar, Soap, Water, Cleaning cloth or sponge.

If your toaster is already clean and you know what you want to draw already this will be a short project.   If your toaster is dirty and you have to think about what to draw it can take much longer.   Like a lot of art projects the prep-work is what takes the most time.

1)  Clean the outside of your toaster thoroughly this is were the water, soap and cleaning cloth come into play.   Make sure   when cleaning to not get water inside your toaster.   Also if you get the plug wet make sure it's completely dry before you plug it into the socket. 

2)  Once it's clean wipe it down with Vinegar 1-3 times.   You can use white wine vinegar or apple cyder vinegar it dose not matter.   Since I don't like the smell of vinegar I'll do a last wipe down with a damp cloth (water).

3)  Dry your toaster completely.   Paper towels or a linen dish cloth work really well, but so dose just letting it air dry for a few hours, what ever you like best.

4)  Using oil based paint pins draw your design.   I like to sketch I ideas first on a scrap piece of paper.

5)  Let it dry over night and your done.

   Customer Question YEA!

Q.  Neat DIY! What does the vinegar step do?

A.  It's to prime the surface.   It cleans off  oils and stuff that soap and water do not get, as well as the residue soap/cleansers leaves behind.    In other words it makes it so the paint will stick better.

 

        

Q&A 6

by Amy Konecny
on March 26, 2015
with 1 comments

Question 16:   Recently you posted about hand making your own charms.   Could you go into further detail.

 

Answer 16:   I would LOVE to.   Charms are one of the basic building blocks of my jewelry.   I have used them in just about everything I make, and even thought I love metal charms I have always been frustrated with the lack of options.

 

Q.  Wait. Lack of options?   There's thousands heck tens of thousands of options for metal charms out there.

 

A.  True.   However to get the best price I have to order 200 or 1008 (weird number I know) of the same charm.   Plus a lot of those options are within the same category i.e.  you can find almost every flower out there in charm form.   So I ended up with a much smaller selection that I would like.

 

Answer 16 Continued:   So about 2 years ago I started making my own charms.   I found this really cool artistic medium.   When I first started making my own charms I would hand cut the shapes and stamp the picture.   This gave me a good idea of how the finished product would look and how my customers would react to a hand-made charm.   I was thrilled with the end result and my customers where quite happy as well.   So I invested in a CAD system,  the cheapest one I could find.   Now 98% of my charms I cut out using my CAD system then I hand draw each and every picture onto the charms.    The great thing is it's a bit cheaper to make my own charms the down side it has dubbed my work load  (ugg).    However I'm happy with the end results.

 

Q. CAD

 

A. Computer-Aided Design.   The original CAD systems did drawings, mostly for blue-prints and other technical things, but now there are CAD systems for all sorts of things.   Mine cuts things out for me.   (do you think I used the word things enough?)  The cool thing about CAD.... (deleted do to length)

 

Q.   (eyes glassed over) You do know I'm going to delete most of what you just said.   I think my brains have turned to mush. (trying to push fingers through skull)

 

A.   Sorry  (dose not look sorry at all)

 

Question 17:   Where do you get your pictures from?

 

Answer 17:   Some pictures I will completely create from scratch.   This is particularly true for the charms that have a definite shape (out line shape of the thing) like a wine glass, bunny, rainbow or cat.   I will free hand in the lines to create shadow, shape, form and/or texture.   A large portion of my charms are not outline shapes, but simple blanks like a tear drop, circle, tag, or Moroccan widow cutout.   These charms I hand draw the pictures on.   A few I will do a free-hand sketch, but for most of them I will trace a picture since this gives me a much more consistence end result.   A lot of the art work is my own, but to be honest I just don't have the time to make all the pictures from scratch, so I find some artwork or photo that is close to what I want and then I will Photoshop the heck out of it.     Since what I draw is really small I have to delete most of the detail and then draw lines and fill in to create negative space  (a lot of the silhouettes started out as a picture).   I learned this technique in art class when I was in collage, but it was not on the computer it was all by hand.   My professors where all about the hands on experience.   They would say things like “learn how to do it in real life, it will translate easily to Photoshop”.   A few of the pictures I use where created by friends of mine  “Hay while your just sitting there could you draw a horse for me?”.   I just love talented friends.   And some customers have sent pictures to me because they really wanted a particular thing.   I still have to Photoshop these pictures, but not to the same degree.   The on the rare occasion I will be browsing royalty free clip art online and find something that is perfect just the way it is,  I just have to re-size it.   Oh do I love these gems,  the time savings, Joy.   I do still stamp some of the pictures onto the charms, but it's a small portion.   I think I hand make something around 2500 different charms and about 20 of them are stamped.   I should mention I also make a few of my charms out of polymer clay.   Oh one last thing about the charms.  I draw everything in revers so I have gotten really good at mirror writing (writing backwards).

 

Below are a few different examples of the charms.  The type of picture will be to the left.

 

  Free Clip Art  Oh how I love you.   Still had to trace by hand

 

  Free-hand.   Doodled strait onto the charm.  Yea 12 years of art classes

 

  Photoshoped from photo.  Was a picture of a cat, got rid of the background, cropped and filled everything, but the eyes.  After all that was done had to trace by hand.  Turned out really well I think

 

   Created the shape on my CAD system let it cut out the shape and hand-inked in the starfish. 

 

  Made from polymer clay.  Each book is just a bit different, witch is kind of fun.

 

Question 18:   What charms do you have to make the most of?

 

Answer 18:   As you might imagine wine glasses, alcohol themed in general, cats, and dogs. Are all very popular.    Also my Geek themes are really big.

 

Q.   Geek Themed?

 

A.   Oh yes Geek is big.   Actually it was the need for my inner geek to come out that really lead me to hand-make my own charms in a big way, not just dabbling.   As a jeweler it's next to impossible to find well made not crazy expensive geek charms.   This translates to the customer.   It's very hard to find well made, attractive geek themed jewelry at a reasonable price, though this is changing.   Because geek is big.

 

Question 19:   You said you have used charms since the beginning, but what do you use them for and what is the item that used up the most charms?

 

Answer 19:   Everything and Funky Bracelets...

 

Q.   Your doing it on purpose aren't you (glare)

 

A.   (smirk) Yep

 

Q.   Fine

 

Question 20:   Tell me about your Funky Bracelets why do you use most of your charms on them

 

Answer 20:   I came up with my Funky Bracelets after visiting my brother in Seattle (he lived there at the time).   We had gone to this cracked-out store called Archie McPhees and my now sister-in-law bought me these small plastic ninjas.   When I got home having been inspired by my trip I made the first few funky bracelets, one of them had the ninjas.   A few weeks latter I had a dream about wearing one of the bracelets as a necklace.   I think I must have completely designed the adapter in my sleep, because it only took me... I usually say it only took me 5 minutes to make it, but that is probably an exaggeration I loose track of time when I'm creating.   Anyway, so each Funky Bracelet is created around a theme and comes with an adapter so you can also ware it as a necklace.   Each Funky Bracelet has 5 charms and 20 beads.   They always have the same number of beads and charms so I can keep the price the same.  Also they all have a name

 

Q.   They each have a theme?

 

A.   Yep.   Some themes are normal(ish).   Like wine, cats, dogs, shopping, but I also make bracelets that are inspired by movies, TV shows, books, fairy tails, geek, and things that make me laugh.

 

Q.   Give me an example of one that makes you laugh, include the name.

 

A.   “I Scream, You Scream, The Police Come It's Awkward” It has Ice Cream Cone's and Handcuffs and the beads are in sherbert colors.

 

Q.   (snort) Really? That is funny. (giggle)

 

A.   (smile) It's one of my favorites.

 

Q.   You said books, movies, geek, fairy tails.   Examples please

 

A.   “Gone With the Wind” it has silhouettes and quotes and the beads are in red and white (since most of Scarlet's outfits in the movie had red or white in them,   “Princess Bride” Inconceivable, As you Wish, Sword, Castle and done in mostly creams and crystal because she was a bride, yellow for Princess Buttercup and blue for his eyes (yes I do over think these things).    Um... Alice in WonderlandLittle Red Riding Hood,  "Wizard of Oz" done all in green's for the emerald city, "I Don't Like I Obsess"  this bracelet has charms to represent 5 different fandoms, I usually change the charms out to the persons particular taste,  but to start it has 5 of my favorite fandoms represented,  Puss In Boots,  I just made Hansel and Gretel,  “I Don't Believe in Humans”  this bracelet was inspired by a sketch I saw.   “Happy Endings Are For The Weak”  done in greens and has 3 Witches/Queens an apple and “I do what I want” because the evil queen dose not get enough press, "Labyrinth"  I made this one because a customer wanted it , liked it so much I had to make more and "Loki" .    A lot of the ones listed are available on my website, I have a bunch more that are not and I can make just about anything someone wants.   In some ways I find it easier to make a bracelet around a concrete theme, in other ways it's more challenging, but that is part of the fun too.

 

    A customer asked me a question.  YEA!

 

Q. "I have allergies to some metals. What are your bracelets metal components made of?"

 

A.   This is a great question and one anyone that is sensitive should ask.  I use a variety of metals copper, pewter, stainless steal, silver, brass, bronze, and some times base metal.  I try VERY hard to make sure that all my components are nickle free and lead free.  However since I don't have a way of testing the metals myself I have to rely on the company's that I order from to have accurate information.  I am very confident that the Ear Wires I use are Surgical Stainless Steal since they are made by a US company.  However not all of my components are made in the US and some country's have lax testing standards.  I will say that I am sensitive and my assistant Tig  (Tig is great she helps out with sales) is crazy sensitive and neither one of us has ever had a problem, and in the 15 years I have been in businesses I have only had to make one return because of sensitivity reasons.  Hopefully this means that I'm doing a good job at finding materials that truly are nickle free and lead free.  

         

 

   

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