Annual Birthday Bash Sale!

Happy April Everyone. It's April and that means it is time for my Annual Birthday Bash Sale in my Artfire studio, Willow Walker Designs!

Throughout the month of April take 30% off your purchases in my studio by using the coupon code "B-DAY2012"! Help me make this the best sale yet!

Two New Ring Listings!

I'm finally back to listing! I've started with the newest "batch" of rings I've made up.

The first one is my Adjustable Gold & Blue Ripple Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Ring in sterling silver. I've used a larger cabochon in this one and so as to make it lay on the finger better I have slumped it so that curved to fit your finger. ;)

The second in my Adjustable White Opalescent Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Ring in 14 gold filled wire. I really wish I could of caught how intense the colors in it are. Their is a whole rainbow of iridescent colors in it, purples, pinks, coppery red-orange, gold, blues greens and more. It truly is prettier in person.

Also I realized I haven't announced that I am offering free shipping on everything in my studio-Willow Walker Designs for the holidays!

The past week and half has been a rough one for me with my new "real job" delivering papers in the wee hours of the morning, fighting a cold and trying (not always successfully) to get enough sleep to function. I do believe that once I get over this cold and have adjusted to a new sleep schedule things will be much easier. I do feel as if a lot of stress has been removed from my shoulders and I have more respect for myself now that I am a "productive" member of society. This will also allow me to have a steady income to get my teeth fixed, not to mention money for more glass and gemmies! :)

Introducing the New "Elegance Collection"!

I'm finally intoducing my newest jewelry collection! The "Elegance Collection" I know I've been tempting you all for weeks with these pieces. I wanted to time this with the grand opening of the juried jewelry exhibit the first few pieces of this collection are part of in Sage Gallery, on the coast of Oregon in Bandon.

To celebrate I will be doing several things. One is I'm going to do a give away here on this blog! I will be giving away not one, but two pendants! The pendants shown above, my red Sweetheart pendant and the lovely white and gold floral on blue pendant! To enter to win one of these lovely pendants all you have to do is leave me a comment here on my blog. (appropriate, please or it will be deleted and your name will NOT be entered) I will write the names onto slips of paper and put them in a container. At the end of the time period I will randomly draw two names out of the pot. If you help promote this event I will add your name into the pot again! You have to leave me a link of where you promoted this studio at. (I have to be able to follow it!)

I have listed these stunning Black Cherry Delight, Dichroic Art Glass Wire Wrapped Earrings in my studio today. This is the first official listing of the new "Elegance Collection". I have put some items that were already in my studio into this category as they seem to fit the best.


Also I would love to hear opinions on an idea I am toying with. I am very tempted to hi-grade my studio and move a portion of my items to my other Artfire studio, The Glass Goddess. Leaving the fancier, higher end goodies in my Willow Walker Designs studio.

New "Incidental" Art Deco Collection!

I had a lot of fun designing these pieces. And a couple of pieces have given me a niggling feeling when I looked at them. You know how the piece/picture invokes a tickle in the brain? Enough to notice, but not strong enough to figure out the "why". I was looking at some books yesterday for design inspiration. One of them was Art Deco designs. Today when listing a pair of pink earrings it finally hit me. The clean, contemporary lines are classic Art Deco styling! So introducing my incidental Art Deco collection is this fun little slideshow! By the way all these pendants and most of these earrings are listed in my Artfire studio and on sale! The rest of the earrings will be listed shortly!

Winning A Place In the Juried Exhibition!

Remember these three beauties? They were my entries for a juried art exibit in a gallery that will be held later this fall. Those that made the show would receive notification by e-mail on September tenth. Well Friday came and went along with Saturday. Disappointment since no e-mail from the gallery means I didn't make it into the show. I was already resigned to the fact I hadn't made it when I checked my e-mail this afternoon and guess what I found? My acceptance e-mail!!!! All three of my entries have been accepted. I will be shipping these off to the gallery this week. I am so excited! After the pieces arrive they will be further juried to see how the pieces compare to their pictures. There will be awards for the winners of this exhibit. At this point, for me just making it in is a large reward! To think my pieces will be exhibited for a month in a gallery.

New Etched Earrings!

I listed these beauties in my Artfire studio today- Golden Autumn Leaves and Rainbow Butterflies. Also listed a couple of new pendants.

I am working on another pair of fancy earrings. They have "mutated" a bit from my original idea, BUT they look even better!!!

Signed up and picked a space for the new Bend Indoor Market starting just down the road from me. I hope this will turn out to be a good venue for me. My son is a bit disappointed as he was hoping I'd take his birthday off. It shouldn't affect his birthday too much-I'll let him take the weekend off from helping me.

Catching Up

I am finally starting to catch up on my listings. Today I finished listing all of the two tone Modern Bold earrings after finishing the pendants. So now I can start listing the etched earrings, like these frolicing Blue Dolphin Dichroic Glass Earrings.

Don't forget that these are on sale in my studio, Willow Walker Designs! If you purchase matching earrings and pendant use the coupon code "SETS" during checkout to receive an additional five dollars off! Take advantage and start your holiday shopping early!

New "Elegance" Collection

I have been working on a new style, I'm calling "Elegance" These are fancy and challenging. I really, really enjoy making these intricate pieces. I love these pieces-this is what I want to do with my dichroic glass cabochons. I have many more designs sketched out and am excited about getting to sit down and make them. Three of these have been submitted for a juried exhibition in a gallery. "Golden Rainbows", "Fire & Ice" and "Flight". I have another week before I know if I made it or not. I sure hope so! So here is a slideshow with all these new pretties for your viewing pleasure!

p.s. This weekend is a two day show at the Central Oregon Saturday Market. I will be there for both days!

Make your own slideshow design

Out With Old!

I managed to get these two pendants listed yesterday, Red Drop Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Pendant and White Dichroic Glass Wire Wrapped Pendant-"White Dragonscale". They have bee n listed ten dollars off the regular price for my Fall Clearance Sale.

Today I am listing all those pendants in the picture from my last post. Help me do some fall cleaning by taking these off my hands! I need the space in my booth and my studio for the new designs I am working on.

I have come to the realization that I have spent a lot of time and energy trying to come up with lower price point items to sell-and they just aren't doing well. Whether they are to much like pieces others have done or what I just don't know. I do know that when I try to make things to sell based on current styles, trends or to "fit" some kind of category-when I design something for other reasons than what I like I end up stuck with the pieces. So I have decided to be true to myself and make what I like and not worry about the current styles, colors and whatnot. When I allow myself the freedom to create what I like I get so much more enjoyment in the creation process and I save myself a lot of time, energy and stress!

Fall Clearance Sale!!

above-Modern Bold Collection, Two-Tone Pendants & Earrings

It's that season again-Fall and that means a Fall Clearance Salein my Artfire studio, WillowWalker Designs!!! Fall is already here-about a month early for my area. The temps of cooled, there is a chill in the night air, the leaves are changing color and school starts after Labor Day. For me it is time for a little fall cleaning. Out with the old so I may bring in new. The prices have already been reduced and the sales banners put out. Take advantage of these great prices from now throughout the month of September. This is a great chance to start your holiday shopping!



I will be busy adding many pieces that are new to my studio, but not since late spring/early summer. I've been so busy this summer I never did get a chance to list all the Modern Bold Collection. All the two-tone solid colored pendants and all the matching earrings need to be photographed and listed. That is my goal for this week. Besides all those there are many new classic wire woven bail pendants, classic earrings and etched earrings that also need to be photographed and listed. I will be very busy the next week or two trying to get the listings caught up. This also means I should start blogging regularly again too.

Other news I just mailed off my first submission for a juried exhibition for a gallery on the coast. Needless to say I have fingers and toes crossed that I make it in. I have long know that I would like to see my pieces for sale in galleries. So say a prayer for me pretty please!

Two New Pendants Listed!

I can certainly tell it is summertime. I'm so busy that my blogging is hit or miss. This time of the year I am showing a minimum of two days a week or more. Then you add in the addition of all the yard work-those weeds just came outta nowhere this year I'm tellin' ya! I've also been busy making more goodies to sell. I have close to 50 pairs of earrings that I have yet to take pictures of let alone list in addition at least three dozen pendants. For now I will just keep pecking away at it. Sooner or later I will get caught up!

Today I listed this lovely Turquoise Drop Dichroic Glass Pendant and the Pink & Green Dichroic Glass Heart Pendant. I still really like this wire woven style of bail on these. I think it is very classic. What do you think?

I learned something new just the other day-how to post pictures with links on here! So if they are listed I will have the pictures linked to the listing from now on!

Also I would like to mention what to me is a very worthy cause, Beads of Courage. My daughter would of loved this program. I feel that it not only gives the children a visable and tangible reminder of what they have been through, but adults too. This reminder will help to promote funding for research to cure the many horrible illnesses and diseases our children and others suffer through. Please vote!

New Pendant Style!

For the most part I have tried to take it easy today and be lazy. As you can tell my muse had other ideas! Up till now I hadn't found a way to make swirly wire wrapped cabs. I came across a variation of the "traditional" wire wrapped cabs with swirls-but it wasn't quite what I was looking for and I didn't want to buy a bunch of wire for it either.

A week ago Sunday when I was at the Crook County Gem & Mineral show I picked up two new wire wrapping books. I must confess that I have a weakness for books...I always love to see how others do things and I figure the more I learn the more I can expand my creativity. One of the pictures on the cover that caught my eye were swirly wrapped pendants. I had looked through the books and decided I would pursue them more later. Well later was this morning as I was trying to be lazy. . I was so excited when I looked at the swirly wrapped dichroic pendants in the book and realized that they were built around a channeled dichroic cabochons!!! My muse took over and I managed to wrap two today! I found the instructions to be confusing-BUT I was able to figure it out enough to make these. My fingers are sore and my muse is happy!

These are listed in my Artfire studio! Blue Dichroic Glass Swirled Wire Wrapped Pendant and Purple Dichroic Glass Swirly Wire Wrapped Pendant!

New Pendants & New Cabochons!

I have been so very busy these past few weeks. Weeding, driving my aunty around and working on glass. I've been so busy that I didn't even realize until this evening I haven't blogged in quite a while. (blushes in embarrassment)

So here is my works in progress. A bunch more cabs for earrings, pendants and rings. Also here are some cabochons that I have gotten finished in the past few weeks. I have been listing pieces and now have a bunch of my fancy Modern Bold Collection Pendants listed. I've also started listing some of my newer Image Pendants. And to top this all off I had the pleasant surprise of finding out that I am the featured AJDJSS, Artfire Jewelry Design & Jewelry Supply Shops studio of the week!

I will be at the Central Oregon Saturday Market tomorrow and will be at the Old Fashioned Fourth of July Show in Bend's Drake park on Sunday for the Fourth of July.

Weekend's Work

To stay busy whiling away the long hours of the show this weekend I wire wrapped all these lovely pieces!

Personalize your own free slideshow

Sadly it was another long, slow weekend. I feel the past two shows are probably indicative of the current financial climate in my area. I think that the slow sales I expected last summer have shown up for this one. My area's economy has not improved all that much and there still really isn't any work to be had. To top the whole mess off the unemployment benefits are getting close to running out, so who can afford anything extraneous.

Slideshow Of New Images Pendants!

It's seems as if my blogging is starting to become hit or miss with all I've been busy doing getting new product for the summer show season. My muse was a bit slow this spring. Combine that with having a short timeline cut in half I have been very busy playing catch up. I am getting there though and here is the proof-a bit of what I've been getting finished. Enjoy!

Personalize a free digital slideshow

New Image Pendants

Well...It appears I no longer can choose fonts...

Anyway here are some of my newly finished pendants. I got the images fired onto them last week and this is a quick shot I took of the ones I managed to get wrapped for the show. I love how these turned out!

Last weekend's show was very disappointing. We had excellent advertising yet not a lot of people showed up. And most of those weren't buying. I do hope next weekend is better. To top it off it looks like my biggest sale will be my first debit/credit card rip off. When it was phoned in we were instructed to "retain" the card....Still not bad for five years. And this just had to be the one time I forgot to get a phone number. I did check id and verify the signature. I will know more tomorrow.

Show Time!

Just wanted to take moment and share pictures of my booth set-up and displays!
This weekend is the start of the Central Oregon Saturday Market. This is the thirty sixth year it has been running!

Also sharing a close-up picture of my new earring display racks with my new "fancy" Modern Bold pendants and earrings. I really hope these do well as I really like making them!

All Cooked!

Here's the finished, fused pretties! I now have the findings on these and the glue is setting. I still have seven pairs of earrings to finish if the findings get here in time. ;)

I'm back to my "grueling" work pace. Rolling out of bed bright and early and getting right to work. As a result I have already fired a load of pretties to apply 22K gold decals and now have a "low fire" load cooking.

While the these have been/are cooking I have been busy gluing stuff up. Not only did I get the bails glued onto these I have also glued up a bunch of inexpensive adjustable rings and basic post earrings. So I now have those all restocked for this weekend.

My ex has cut one table down to 24 inches wide. Turns out they weren't 36 inches wide but 30 inches. And the legs are about 26 inches at the feet. Argh. Can't a person have some decentm sturdy tables without paying an arm and a leg?

"Modern Bold Collection"

I finished all but four pairs from the start of my newest jewelry collection. I'm calling this new collection "Modern Bold". These pieces are all about color. Bold, striking vivid colors. These pieces will definitely make a statement. These are also great conversation starters. Now all I have to do is take pictures and I will be able to start listing them in my studio. This is just the start of many of the colorful ideas I have for this collection!

I spent the rest of my day marking cabochon shapes onto glass slabs for cutting. Tomorrow I should be able to start cutting them out.

Apple Blossoms Dichroic Glass Bracelet

Just listed this lovely Apple Blossoms Dichroic Glass Bracelet in my studio.

Yes my frit arrived and I am very happy with the colors!

Have class in bit so I have to make this short and sweet!