Simple Pleasures

Every once in a while it's nice to get away from the ornate (ok, but just for a minute becuase I love me some ornate crafting!) and make something simple and clean. These are all 1/2 inch wide leather bracelets with wee buckles or wee brass clasps.
They make me want tea and something small to nibble.
I really don't know why.
Except for a lovely line of custom orders, Christmas has not nearly been as busy as they say it gets on Etsy. Perhaps a blessing in disguise? I recorded a song today in totality: wrote and recorded it. It's called 'December' and it is the words of an old poem from the turn of the century.
'I heard a bird sing in the dark of December, such a magical thing and sweet to remember. We're closer to spring than we were in September: I heard a bird sing in the dark of December."
http://www.myspace.com/allisonsattinger

Regal Koi Collar

Red Delicious and bold as love.

Necessary Upgrades

My wonderful Fiance helped me create a postcard. OK, he said, "Choose 12 items you love best" and then he made a postcard for me, asking my advice on some of the layout. Sometimes his generosity of spirit just blows my mind to bits.
I don't profess to be an expert when it comes to Photoshop. I am still in love with effects and such, 'lensflare' has not lost its thrill for me, especially since "Sunny" is a part of my business name.
His sense of delicacy, and yet his strong sense of the eye's instinctual path is just so.....sexy.
Behold :)

Spring in November

The little East Coast girl in me still feels the need for spring. It's still blanket and cocoa weatehr here in Los Angeles, and our lovely condo gets minimal light, so I have brought the sunshine, birds and bees into our home with leather.

Belated Birthday Gift!

My parents gave me money for my birthday.

Since, I have been trying to find ways to avoid buying this ridiculously expensive cardigan on Anthropologie.com, and I finally won because I told myself that I could buy many, many things in its place.
Many.
mannnny.

And this pair of vintage Capezio butterfly boots is one of the things I bought. On eBay. This is the look of surprise when I found I had actually WON the auction: people are rabid dogs about these boots!!!





I also got a sweater from Ramona West on etsy -- excellent vintage stuff: I cannot wait to receive all the goodness!!!

Bravery is mine!!!!

Bounty

mmmm....

Fall Has its own Harvest

Oh, fall.
So maligned after the leaves vacate. How perfect that on a day that reminds me wholeheartedly of fall days in Pittsburgh ( by L.A. standards this is frigid ) I made a necklace that sings the praises of LATE fall. Not early fall, but late.
November has also spawned some things I adore more than green leaves ( or as much as )
1. 'November Rain' by Guns and Roses
2. Moody walks in the chilly grey, watching the last leaves let go
3. The luxurious feeling of drinking hot tea, curled up with a book under a handmade afghan next to an antique lamp
4. Thanksgiving dinner....yummm!!
5. Scarf wearing. Yesss!

I am certain there are more, but I have a book to read and tea to brew.
And a little bit of light headbanging to do to GNR.
Rawk.

Excellent!

Sometimes, ideas are born of flow, other times they are born of slogging through the proverbial mud. I had visitors from all over the country for weeks, and I was the visitor as well in many different cities. Sometimes when that good whirlwind passes, there is a sadness that creeps in and renders one bed-bound for days.
Not. this. time.
Yes, that is right: I used the fuel behind my sadness and made calls, sent emails, did, cleaned in small baby steps, organized things. I was rewarded by a song that has written itself out of my sheer force of determination and I was also rewarded by this necklace.
In cleaning out the studio I found that there were scraps of things and bits of designs I had never fully explored and tonight I was the Magellan of Leathercraft.
I discovered a new land: a necklace that is 90% leather and ten percent brass.
Land, ho!!!!!!
I will be making and listing another version on Etsy soon: this one's mine :)
I rarely keep anything yummy for myself, but I feel very much in love :)

Tomorrow I begin my first class in a series of six on silversmithing.
New land indeed :)

Fllllllickr!!!

Finally, I have joined. My photos are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunnyrisingleather

and I am excited for the somewhat impending arrival of our really good camera...it might be a long impen....sion.....or something, but it will come. And there will be photos aplenty.

All In

And miraculously, all unpacked.
Here are a few pictures of the day, Jones appreciating the comfort of a late 18th century chair, Schmilly and the Poppy ( my father ) finding studs ( insert joke here ) and bits and pieces. I am so excited to have these wooden and marble friends, so many of which I have known since I was wee.

How lucky am I :)

Uh ohhhh.....

Went home to Pittsburgh to commence trip, got food poisoning. Ack! The two or so times I have gotten ill in L.A. I have definitely wept for the lack of my mother, because when you're sick she's awesome, isn't that so?
And here I am, with her. And my Poppy. She made me homemade chicken soup, and I am struggling to digest it.

Orders are happening in my absence, and I need to walk Schmilly through the packing process tonight.

In spite of a lack of focus and tummy pain, there is something amazing about being in the bosom of those who created you when you're under the weather.

Here's to a speedy recovery :)

The largest of journeys starts...

With a single idea. Like making the koi necklace, having no idea where to start, but guided by an excellent mental picture that thankfully haunted me porperly until I made it real. Thanks, necklace ghost!

"Twerpie, let's do the cross-country trip soon!" ( says my father three years ago )

A big journey starts verrrrry early tomorrow morning. A plane trip to Pittsburgh and then? A long drive with my father. My parents are indeed still together, but my father took me out to L.A., rescued me from New Jersey and a heart-rending live-in-boyfriend situation, drove me to college, etc. This is something he has mentioned much more than once since I moved out here: the chance to do it all again.

Something about us and the open road brings closeness and understanding. And he's a goodly portion white knight, too.

This time we cart loads of delicious antiques for my new home with Anthony: eight-legged marble topped table, Early Tiffany style lamps, marble-topped dresser with hand-carved grape leaf pulls and a four foot tall mirror...sumptuous high-backed upholstered chairs in colors like berry stain and scarlet....my parents moved into a smaller house and are passing the bounty on to me, as tends to happen with generations.

This time my father and I will take the northern route, for the leaves. As a fall baby I have missed the leaves for four years now. Not this time :)

Hopefully there will be pictures from the road!

Trunkt Rating

So I am on Trunkt. I think it's awesome. It's beautiful, I drool over people's work and have felt some great comraderie. They do, however, have a rating system where you can see what people rated your work. Right now I have an 8.2 out of 10 from 5 total buyers ( or sellers, not sure if they have different sections ) and I really, really don't want to know that.

I would rather not know what people think of my work, other than that they buy it or don't. Feedback is always lovely, and I have had some of the best ideas and most gentle criticisms come from friends, family and associates on Etsy.
Thank goodness for that. But this rating thing, it serves no earthly purpose for me other than to make me wonder who just gave me a poor rating since it was at 8.75 yesterday.
It just feels strange. I bet it works great for a heck of a lot of people, but without any reasoning or human interaction to back it up, I don't want to read the numeric equivilent of people's opinions.
If someone could write to me and say, "Sweetie, I just don't like your aesthetic and here's why" I would at leasy know the reason behind the rating. And I would be comforted. "Everything ain't for everybody", says Jill Scott. I don't expect my work to be loved by the majority. As it stands, I just see my Trunkt shop looking like a ship listing towards the waves, and that makes me feel like a lonely third grader walking home from school alone on the last day of fall.
**Somewhere a violin plays for me ** ;)

On the Road Again

San Fran and the Bluegrass Festival this weekend, and then off to Pittsburgh and across this land that is your land and my land with my father. Then back home. Then a big gig. And a smaller gig. And back to the grindstone with my creative ideas.
Can you tell I am totally living in the moment?
( that was a joke, just in case )
Made a necklace that makes me want to be still, if only to remember certain things.




It is the moon. The moon I sigh over and exclaim to Anthony, "It's a perfect crescent!!" -- or -- "It's Waning!!" with an urgency that makes it seem as though I am witnessing its exotic changes for the first time.

Anthony is my Sun. A blonde, exceptional sun.

I think Jane and Jones are Venus and Uranus. ha!! Haaaaaa!!!!!

Perhaps I should quit my tooling and mine my comedy gold at The Laugh Factory ;)