14 March 2011

Collections!

Recently I've been featured in several new Artfire Collections (much like Etsy treasuries). I wanted to share them with you! I'm so honored to be included! Here's to HP and St. Pat's day...




This beautiful collection by Illuminating Designs features all sorts of HP geekiness! My Golden Snitch Jewelry Set has since sold, so you won't see it in the collection any longer.



I am a member of the Artfire Fantasy Guild, and the amazing AngelicShades put this guild collection together. It's all about Celtic Green! Heehee, I'm in here twice!



Another guild I am a member of is the Artfire Chainmaillers. LittleMetalMerchant put this St. Patrick's Day-themed collection together.




Thank you, everyone who has featured me in their collections!

Car Part Anvil and Celtic Knotwork

*best hillbilly voice* Ma daddy's reaaaal awesome. 'E got mea anvil!

That's right-- I now have an anvil for hammering wire jewelry. You'll never guess what the anvil actually is!



Honestly, I'm not even sure what this thing is. All I know is that it is a car part. Dad used to work in the automotive industry, and this is a casting of a thingamabobbers he worked on.


This random car part works wonderfully as that anvil I had on my wish list. I scrubbed it clean (even though it doesn't look it!) and have driven my family crazy with the bang, bang, bang of the hammer.

My brother is now officially jealous of me. His dream is to become a blacksmith someday, and he's been asking for a real anvil for ages. This is the first time he's actually bothered to help me make some jewelry!

I've been having too much fun with this whole idea of hammering wire. Below you can see all of the trinkets I have made so far:


I'm really impressed with how well this works! The hammering really strengthens the aluminum wire and is so pretty and sturdy!

And... I can do CELTIC KNOTWORK in jewelry!!!

I've listed some beautiful new hammered-wire jewelry on my artfire Shoppe! And on quite the sale, I tell you. :)



Since this is a new technique, I've got all the new designs on a first-batch sale for under five dollars-- some as low as one or two bucks! Seriously, that's like the price of the chain the designs come on. I would love it if some of you Faerie People could try out some of these designs and tell me what you think!


I've already made myself a pretty knotwork bracelet, which I shall wear on St. Patrick's day.




Now all I need is a wire jig... I'm having fun free-forming all of this, but whenever I try a repeating pattern (such as my bracelet, which you can see in the middle of the picture), I can't get it even.

That and sterling silver. Because if I were using silver wire, not aluminum, I'd be able to tell these same designs for $30! Seriously-- I was browsing Etsy and Artfire for inspiration. Apparently no one makes these desings in aluminum... but they do plenty in silver. You can have the same designs for 1/6 the cost. Although, I wish I could afford to work in sterling silver wire. (I'll do it if I have a custom order! Hint, hint!)


By the way, I was inspired to ask about an anvil after looking at my friend Leia's post on her hammered wire earrings. I fell in love with those... You can see that I used the same design on a necklace-- except I hammered much more.

11 March 2011

Oh, no! She's disappeared! ...and other updates.

No, I haven't disappeared! As I mentioned earlier, I am cutting back on my computer time this Lent.

I'll still be checking my email and the Shoppe daily, so nothing important will be missed. :)

As far as the Faerie Blog goes... dear Fairy People, never fear! I'll be posting once a week or so.... and I have some awesome guest bloggers lined up for y'all. I can't wait to introduce them!

Speaking of guest bloggers... if you would like to be featured here on my blog, there are plenty of days to fill in the weeks ahead. :) Check out my previous post for more information. I'm not picky and I'd love to have you!



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March's issue of Ink and Fairydust is released!


...well, actually, it was released on the first of March. I just forgot to tell you all. But those of you who are my fans on facebook (or I&F's fans) already knew about this!

As always, we've worked very hard to bring this issue to you! Please check out our latest issue, bookmark I&F, and spread the word. :)








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Okay. So this was very embarrassing. You know that toolbar at the bottom of my blog?

Can you see this picture? lol, just look at the bottom of the screen to see what I'm talking about.
Anyway, several months ago I had set it to give a pop-message. It said something like:

"Hi, this is Shaylynn, I'm testing out this really need toolbar widget called Wibiya. Blah blah blah yada yada (I was saying something else, too), and don't forget to check out my Christmas link up."

I thought I deleted that pop-up message sometime in December. I clicked "delete" and never saw it again!

Until I opened my blog up on Dad's laptop. There it was. Staring me right in the face. An old, unprofessional message. And I've had hundreds of brand-new visitors to my blog in the past couple of months. Every single one has to have seen that message.

I think I finally got it deleted. Please let me know if you see that message again. (I mean, I might put up new messages every now and then, but  let me know if you see that Christmas one).

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Wow! I have 78 Blogger followers! 

Do you remember what I said back in early January?

Can we get up to 80 Blogger followers?

At that time, I only had 39 followers. Dear amazing Fairy People who had been with me since nearly the beginning of my blog.


There's still going to be a giveaway when we reach 80 followers! Only 2 away! .  

And when we get to the grand and amazing number of 100 followers, there shall be an even bigger giveaway!

I normally don't do giveaways very often, but eeep! 80 followers? Two months ago I thought it would take half a year to get there!

(So that means that if you've been lurking around my blog... I would really appreciate you clicking that "Follow" button!)


(Random side note: For the past week, my followers have been 76, 77, 76, 77, 78, 77, 78, 77, and now 78 again. I'm trying to figure this out. At first I was sad that someone had left. :( but figured that I had my ego inflated to care so much. Now I'm wondering if someone is continually following and unfollowing? Because this keeps happening!)

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