WOOHOO!

I am the featured artist for this week from the AJDJSS Guild!  SUPER excited about that but haven't had time to blog about it till right now.
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=forums&op=view_topic&tid=6650

And I have some new pieces to show off as well.  Not all are listed in my studio yet but I'm hoping to get that done this week.

The pictures you see are just a sample.

Lilishop

Congradulations to Lilishop for being my very first featured Artfire Artisan! Thank you to Evelyne for being such a good sport and going first.

Evelyne says all her friends and family call her Lili, which is where her shop name came from. She is 23 years old and resides in Belgium. Recently, she graduated from school and is currently working in interim jobs as a social worker.

I asked Evelyne some questions about herself, her craft and her studio. Here are her answers:

How did you first get into your craft?

I've been fascinated with glass craft for a long time. A couple of months ago I heard about something called the "Hot Pot". This is a kind of box that you can put in your microwave to fuse glass with. I looked up some info about it and viewed almost every movie there is about it on Youtube. I was immediately sold. It's not expensive compared to other tools for fusing glass. It's easy and quite safe. I do not regret my purchase for a moment! I've made over 30 creations now and many more to come! I love the fact that you never truly know what your glasswork is going to look like. It's always a bit exciting.

Is there any other particular artist or person in your life that influences or inspires you?

My boyfriend... I know it sounds terribly corny... but it's the truth. He could sit next to me, watching the microwave for hours. He gives an honest opinion about my work and he encourages me to make more pieces.

What are your favorite materials to work with and why?

Glass! You never really know what you are going to get. I love the way it melts, starts to glow, forms shapes.... and there are so many different varieties.

Is there that you do that you think makes your creations stand apart from similar ones/ your competitors?

I put my heart and soul in it. I try to make it as perfect as possible. If you buy one of my pieces of jewelry, you can be sure that it's a work of love.

Anything else you would like my readers to know about (sales, coupons, other services you offer)?

I only just opened my Artfire shop. That's why I'm offering a 10% discount on all items until March 31st! This weekend I will add many more items to my shop!

You can see Lili's lovely glass fusion jewelry pieces at http://www.artfire.com/users/Lilishop

Piece in progress

OK. So, i donated three pieces to our local art gallery to auction off at their annual wine tasting and art auction. All the profits go to the gallery so they can remain open and continue to show local artist's work. I currently have a few pieces in the gallery so I figure this is a wise donation. I got free tickets in return for my donation to the auction. This is great since I attended last year and had a great time.

I bought these great, huge, blingy earrings while I was on vacation and I plan to wear them to this event. But I decided I wanted to "advertise" my own jewelry as well. So, I began working last night on a necklace to wear with my big rhinestone earrings.

For this piece I decided I wanted to go the upcycled vintage route. I have a lot of miscellaneous vintage jewelry bits and pieces that have been waiting to be used. I decided to use three fancy silver toned links form an old necklace. They have blue rhinestones on them. Then I decided against the vintage faux pearls I had in favor or using some remaining swarovski crystallized pearls instead. Then I took apart an old vintge earring to use the AB crystal beads on it. So far, I am liking the design. I am hoping to finish it up either today or tomorrow. The picture above is of the piece thus far. I used silver toned artist wire instead of sterling. Sterling silver was too bright for the rhinestone links.