Hear Ye Hear Ye!

Shops close tomorrow evening (Tuesday the 9th)before I leave for the Pacific Northwest to sing at a wedding and see the sights!

The shops will re-open on the 23rd of August.

After I return there are no more scheduled trips out of town, which means creative immersion here I come!!!

By the way, when I was filling out customs forms to mail packages today, I noticed the date was 8/9/10 and I was made really strangely happy by that fact.

xoxoxoxox,

Allison

Something Special for the Shop Tonight

Mental Path:

A. Thinking of our fast approaching two year anniversary I was wondering where we'd go when my mind wandered back to Monterey, CA where we spent last a weekend last October bopping around tide pools and feeding seagulls out our hotel window....

Ah.

B. Tidepools.... I love tidepools!!

C. Get out the hammer - tidepools there shall be, in sterling, of course!!

And so a day later here they are, in three sizes, all languid and limpid and gorgeous.

I recently made the switch to Liver of Sulphur for my oxidation and my oh my, there is such a difference - viva la stench!!!

Don't worry, the earrings smell great: the LOS itself is a doozy, but they get a nice fresh bath afterwards and the brushing process makes them clean as a whistle.

Hop on over HERE and see them for yourself!

xoxoxox,

Allison

Pudding Cake

Please allow me to preface this amazing recipe with a few notes, just for clarity's sake:

1. It's actually meant to be made with blueberries: the consistency of the berries will change depending on the ones chosen.

For this cake, I used a trio of farmer's market organic yummy-but-just-past-their-prime blackberries, raspberries and a few strawberries and the consistency was a little less

'pudding-y' than blueberries, but still out of this world magnificent!

2. the last part of the recipe is kinda weird: just go with it: pretty sure it creates the incredible crust on top!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and mix 2 cups blueberries or other summer berries in an 8X8 inch baking pan. sprinkle with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and set aside!

In a mixing bowl combine the following:

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt (I omit because I use salted butter)

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I use less because the Schmill hates it)

3/4 cup sugar

combine the above ingredients - i like working with a fork!

and in a different small bowl combine

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

mix them well so they become one!

Set one cup of water in a small saucepan on the stove to boil - time it so it's still boiling when it is called for at the end of the recipe (the weird part!)

to the flour mixture add the following and mix it all together well:

1/2 cup milk

1 large egg

1/4 cup melted butter (careful that it is no longer too warm or it will cook the egg!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour the batter over the fruit

sprinkle the cornstarch mixture over the whole pan, evenly.

here's where it gets weird: pour the cup of boiling water over the whole shebang and pop it in the oven to bake for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and gorgeous.

You'll know when it needs to come out :)

Allow your beautiful cake to cool and while it is doing so, make your whipped cream.

Using organic heavy whipping cream (I love its light yellow color!)

mix in a small bit of brown sugar to taste

and place 1/2 teaspoon of lavender buds in a mortar and pestle and grind until fine

Whip it - whip it good!!!

Then

Serve and wait for your guests/husband/children/lover to pledge their soul to your service forever and ever

amen.

You're welcome ;)

Love you,

Allison

P.S. Eeeeeeeek!!!

UPDATE: Boing boing boing!!! 400 :)

In one more sale I will have sold 400 items from my MetalShop!! I will be on pins and needles until the moment I pass this blessed, blessed milestone!!!

If I am this excited about 400, think how many walls I'll bounce off at 500 or even a thousand!!!!!

A thousand?????

*sound of fainting woman delicately crumbling to floor*

END SCENE.

Indeed, Do!

Happiest weekend to you all!!!

Wishing you love and sending you more,

Sunny One.

A necklace for when you lose your path

Every so often I make a necklace that is so chock full of meaning and intention that it makes me cry.

I am pretty sure I've documented that here in my blog numerous times.

I know when I am making it that I am making it for someone who really needs it: who will benefit from the pieces, stones and meaning wrapped in its metal soul.

Oh, and don't forget prayers, but I surround everything I make with those.

They are much like breath to me.

A moving meditation.

I made a necklace like this a few years ago, last year I suppose -(time!) and it had a gorgeous hand-carved wooden owl bead: I was able to find another one after a lootttttttt of digging: this one has two owls, one on either side of the circle, with those beady little eyes and the beauty of real wood...

The owl is for wisdom.

The mookaite, which is effectively ancient mud, represents the sense of being grounded: of standing firmly on the earth, supported and nurtured as you nurture her.

The hammered, thick sterling ring is a promise ring: a ring you give yourself in faith, promising that you will always be here for you, always be working on new ways to love yourself, to find your best Soul and stay focused on being That.

The necklace is not overly long, but it wears kind of like a lariat with the length running down into your heart chakra.

On purpose :)

I cannot wait to see whom she belongs to....!

This and a special little necklace made of chrysoprase and coral will be in the Metal Shop tonight. After this coming Monday all of my updating ends and preparing for my trip begins:

I am exhausting the muse so she'll allow me some good refueling and rest while I am away and seeing such beauty with my parents.

xoxoxo,

Allison

Opals and Amber

In the Metal Shop this evening!

Amber and nearly the last of my coral (I will not be purchasing more - unless I find a farmed source)

Mexican fire opals with 14k gold dots, asymmetrical in the subtlest way and just too gorgeous to bear!

The smudge of solder under the gold on the earrings leftmost in the above picture means I am selling them for a song compared to what they'd have been perfect - my goof, your benefit!!

Lastly.... a simple opal ring. The gorgeous fire opal in the above picture was not particularly fiery in the pictures this evening, but rest assured: it is FLAMING with greens and reds

in a really big way.

The ring is a size 8 with a normal band.

To the shop I gooooooo!!!!

xoxoxoxox,

Allison

Significant Joys

1. Living five blocks away from one of the largest libraries west of the Mississippi

and finally taking a morning to get a card

I am salivating, honestly. Five floors of words, ideas, truth and fiction....

I find libraries to be holy places.

I missed you, borrowed book smell!

2. Tender, fragile evidence that my Maidenhair Fern, Marian, is appreciative of the filtered water and near-perfect light she receives.

Fiddle on, babies!!!!

Fleur de Sel cupcake with a side of Anthropologie-gazing.

Oh, yes.

Sigh!

Him.

My heart sings arias about his face every time I behold its feline grace.

Her.

Ahhhhh- the cuteness!!! Please, blow up this picture, and look at her miniature sweet face!

(incidentally, yes we still have a half-full room of boxes: two moves in one year and we kinda said "F*** it - let's unpack when we get a dining room table and a few cupboards"....yeah. Our priorities are in order - love, happiness, business, everything else that could possible matter, dining room set.)

These mice are evvvvvverywhere.

Janey brought one to bed and proceeded to play at our feet at 5 AM.

This is not a complaint: every creature should be so lucky as to have more mice than they could ever chase down

and every pet owner should be so lucky to have a happy small chirping kitty playing at their feet while the sun begins to shine.

Life is such a gift.

Such a gift that I couldn't even keep count of my joys today :)

Love,

Allisunny

Why my Shoulder Aches

A lovely clutch, part grasshopper green garment leather, part tooled leather with scallops and a Luna Moth.

Please do feel free to convo me about reserving it: that seems to be the way it goes these days, which is thrilling and exciting for a creative soul.

This clutch got snapped up by a savvy reader last week, and I cannot wait to see how it turns out once it gets its resist and antique!!!

Here is the big Luna Moth bag (already privately reserved) having been completely tooled and awaiting its colors.

Anyone who has ever tooled anything larger than a patch or a strip cuff will tell you how much it gets into the body: you have to break it into segments

otherwise the body starts feeling so....

polarized?

Is that the right word?

Right and left do not function the same after a long day of tooling and so pieces like this take days to complete for the breaking up of the work.

It's worth it: the waiting creates a sense of patience and a really happy smile when it's all done and on its way to the woman who will rock the hell out of the piece.

And then Inspiration unpacks her bags, asks which bed is hers and says she's not sure how long she'll stay and the whole process begins again.

Actually, she's already here and the next big bag is going to be a sea turtle:

face and fin on the front

Tail on the back.

I am too excited!

Love,

Allison

Organizing: what do You do?

Delicate

So, for the last few days I have been puttering before my big silver order arrives ( all recycled sterling, to boot - woot!!!)

with the scraps I've had left.

That's likely why you've seen so many earrings and so little of anything else.

Something is going on inside of me.

When phases like this happen I wish upon wish that you could touch the screen and it would show you, via osmosis, what I am experiencing.

There is great healing taking place in here, great peace.

I am meditating again, in earnest.

I will be posting a video blog in the next few days to talk about some organizing principles I've been embracing since I got home, again in earnest.

When I left for Los Angeles I realized something had to change: I've felt so busy for so long, juggling the two shops and new songwriting urges and running this big ol' house with the ten million plants I seem to have accumulated throughout the last three months.

I kept having moments where I felt too overwhelmed to even choose a cabochon to set: the muse was always here, the work was piling and I was unfocused and in a bit of psychic pain over it all, quite frankly.

I like when the machine of my life is humming and balanced, and something had tipped over quite a bit.

I am now trying for that glorious middle once again, making with the imposed limitation of scraps (Twyla Tharp would love where I am now, Annie, my love!) created an odd amount of space in my heart.

I have come to realize that though I may embellish with dots and lines and such, my creating style is quite simple and lately I've been loving the idea of letting the stones sing even louder.

I've also been loving the idea of using glass and beads and new things.

I am also teaching myself how to engrave metal with tools.

In short, I am growing.

So simple, so clean and delightful are these Mint Mojito earrings... I am in love with the idea of a foxy lady wearing them for cocktails with her love, in heels and an elegant trench to ward off the evening chill.

Cheers!

And these.....

ah, these special special drusy earrings: the stones have little diamond shine in them, lots of sparkle and man it just kept eluding the camera.

Rest assured they are like a thousand facets in the light.

And even in the dim.

Tomorrow my sterling should arrive, and that means unlimited choices, but before this round of minute pleasures is over, I will be showing you some opals and some chrysoprase and even some amber tomorrow: delicate beauties with art deco coloring.

Ooooh, la la!!

Loving you,

Allisunny

Nom Nom Nom

A sumptuous color feast for the eyes, meant to decorate the ears

and thrill all six of your senses (that's right, I said six*!!)

*I think the color may boost intuition!

These earrings are a combination of stones and vintage beads: resins and glass, fired long ago.

My favorite bead shop carries all manner of old deadstock beads in such a rainbow of colors, and when I visited on my trip my eyes could no longer resist the wall of gorgeous trinkets.

The turquoise cabs in the earrings on the left are from the Kingman Mine, prized and rare.

Everything is hand-done on these beauties, right down to the ear wire.

In the Metal Shop shortly!

On the Benches

Luna Moth big bag: snapped up already, but will definitely make more :)

A collection of tropical, summery earrings to delight the soul: silver components in the pickle pot.

A glorious clutch I am finishing up: should be in the Leather Shop next week: in between the two wings there will be a white quartz cabochon I am excited to set

And the back reads "fly" in hand-drawn, feathered letters (and two sea-bird silhouettes!). I am gosh-darn-golly-heck excited about this piece.

Think I may line it in cherry red suede....

oh the decisions!!

Off to yoga,

Love to you,

Allison

What I learned and Custom Order Delay

Just wanted to fill you in on what I actually studied while I was away: a triple layer 'story' cuff that blew my mind and gave me more challenge and teeth gritting than I thought possible.

That's what it's a class, you know?

Firsts:

New torch with a tip that made a burly flame and more heat than I am used to working with

Different techniques

(or shall I say 'actual' techniques, as my self-taught shenanigans are rather unpolished)

The rhythm of questions and progress

chasing tools (more, yes, please!!!)

Liver of sulphur (never going back to silverblack)

forming with a bracelet mandrel

Magnesium brazing boards

pins to hold the work

So glad I had the experience.

So glad I am home.

As for custom orders, I am plumb out of silver sheet, and so I will be waiting until the 3rd for it.

Being that I am traveling to Seattle and slowly down the coast with Les Parents from August 11th through the 20th (I am singing at a wedding in Morton, WA and my parents happened to be traveling my way!!)

it makes little sense to start more orders before I go, meaning delays and and designs on the brain when I should be away and refilling the well.

Custom listings will be up on the 21st of August: maybe even a few in the Leather shop!!!

This is the last travel for some time until December, so normalcy will return soon :)

Thanks for understanding and for being so darn great.

Love,

Allison

I am Back!

with a heart full of babies

and puppies

and unexpected family

(the man in the picture is my ex, and his beautiful little baby girl and tremendous woman Crystal were kind enough to have me out for dinner. What a lucky girl I am to be surrounded by generous hearts!!!)

More of the little Miss, just so your eyes can behold such loveliness!!!

Newlyweds (love you!!!!)

nearly newlyweds (heavens, we miss you guys!!!)

Kittehs I love

And seriously diabolical plans to make beautiful things out of leather and silver and stone.

Word.

Please tell me what your heart is full of today: let's talk in the comment section :)

Love you,

Allison