126.

Ever since I moved into my apartment, my creative workflow has been off. I've fiddled with it here and there, and small changes have made small improvements, but it hasn't felt really good to me in over a year. I've been missing the juice, the joy of it - the thing that used to make me come home from work full of colorful thoughts and get right to making things. I still have plenty of ideas, but they don't seem to gel right. It often takes me three or four times longer to get a design right than it once did.

A huge part of my enjoyment in my design work comes from pure tactile contact with my bead collection. Being able to move them around and see them together and fidget with them makes things happen in my head. I've often joked about making a giant ballpit for them and playing in it like a sandbox. A couple of weeks ago, I was frustrated beyond the limit with my inability to find a good workflow, and the ballpit of beads joke suddenly seemed like the greatest breakthrough I could imagine. 

So I cut a huge cardboard carton apart into wide strips, taped them to the edges of my kitchen table, and dumped out 11 boxes and two drawers full of vintage Lucite beads. It made a crashing enormous noise, and it felt wonderful, but it still wasn't quite what I needed. After staring at it for two days, I knew what had to happen. I needed the beads to be free range. I loved that idea, but it also made me incredibly nervous. I manage inventory in order to be able to repeat designs by knowing exactly how many of which beads I have, and having all of them together in bags or on strands where I can find them easily. The work still wasn't right, though, and it had to be done. With some smiling encouragement from the good man who holds my hand, I bit my lip and closed my eyes and changed everything about the way I work and run my business. I dumped all the beads out of all the bags, and I threw the bags out. 

The result is pure joy. It's a sandbox full of color and texture and shape and I can't stop touching it and it's unlocked dozens of ideas and put a huge giddy smile on my face. Every time I walk past it, I reach in and give the beads a stir and see something new. I pull out little handfuls of color, and make them sing. I've made more new things in the last 10 days than I have in two months. It feels fantastic. 

My candy revolution means that I'm only going to be making one of a kind designs for a while. It's difficult to find specific beads to pull multiple pieces together for inventory. But I find I'm excited about that idea - offering unique pieces of jewelry to my clients and my stockists sounds like fun.

I'll be in my playground; keep your eyes open for new work at urban legend!

'tis the candy season.

It's sale time! urban legend is participating in Etsy's community-run annual sales event, Christmas in July. Most items in the shop are discounted 25% for the duration of the sale, from July 11-21.* Sale prices are listed, so there's no need to use a coupon code. Happy shopping, and please don't eat the jewelry!

*new designs and necklace of the month club are not discounted.

imperfect tense.

I have an abiding love for imperfection. Rust. Patches. The flaw in the carpet, the chip in the teacup. Scars. Entropy and decay. I think these things are beautiful, and they're also a marker of where the story lies.

And yet, while I seek these flaws out and appreciate them, I have a much harder time embracing imperfections in myself. Lately, this is taking the form of fighting the scars from my surgery last summer. The scars from breast reduction take about two years to fully heal, which means that I still have over a year to go. They will never disappear completely, although most of them will fade to invisibility over that time. I took longer than normal to heal, and I have some imperfections and some scar tissue that aren't ever going away. Some of that can probably be corrected with further surgery at some point, but it's not something I can think about right now. So I'm struggling with accepting what I am, and I perform an endless cycle of reminders to self that I have exchanged the perfection of symmetry and no scars for the perfection of comfort and confidence and much better clothing and prettier bras. Eventually, I'll assimilate these reminders and the shape of my own imperfection and love my breasts the same way I love broken noses and chipped enamel pots and plush with scrappy overstitching and Danny Trejo's ruined face. 

Ok, maybe not exactly like I love Danny Trejo's ruined face, because that's almost a sacred thing. (What was I talking about?...)

In the meantime, I made something, because that's what I do. Make something, then write about it. These earrings are made entirely with broken embellishments. Broken pendants, a flower missing a petal, a broken bone clasp, and a metal finding with a snapped solder joint. They're also made with sterling silver chain, wire and hooks, and have been meticulously designed to hang straight. I love broken things, but I also love good work. 

I don't know that I actually expect anyone to buy these, but I'm pleased with them and I think they're beautiful. They'll be listed at Leaves of Glass in this week's shop update, along with a new pair of handcuffs, an anklet and several other pairs of earrings.

Nothing's ever really what you think it's going to be. But it's all material, and it makes the story.

dressing daisy kutter.

My wonderful friend Dennice makes brilliant, very sexy accessories with the use of yarn and needles. I make very sexy, kind of surprising jewelry with the use of pliers and wire. We share a similar aesthetic and inspirations, and are turned on by classic Hollywood glamour, rusty metal, liquids, Westerns, and accurate spelling. From time to time through our correspondence, our interests come together in a single idea, and we play it out in our two different mediums. Some time ago, we both read Kazu Kibuishi’s graphic novel Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, and were captivated by the stubborn, curly-haired heroine who embraces bad decisions with a whole heart and a loaded weapon. We were also impressed at how well accessorized she is, and that got us started.

For love of Daisy Kutter, we designed two pieces: a mini-vest in wool blend with vintage lace accents and hardware embellishments by Fringe, and a choker and/or boot cuff in vintage glass, rosy copper, and sterling silver by me.

Both pieces will be listed today in our respective shops, with more complete descriptions.

workingworking, plus color friends.

It's been an almost normal week of creative work, as I find my way back into doing my thing. Working with glass again has felt like coming home, and I got to make some pieces for the new collections that I've been thinking about for months. Shana and I put together several color pairs in the last few days. It's amazing how much easier that is when we're sitting right next to each other. No more late-night badly lit phone pictures to try to coordinate colors and lines. It's so much nicer when I can just poke her and say, "Is this awesome or horrible?" We did one this week that I think is my favorite colorfriends effort ever.

One of the collections I've had in mind is a series of jewelry designs inspired by fairy tales, and my contribution to this colorfriends is a pair of earrings in vintage glass and vintage metal. I used glass beads in black and wasabi green, and added vintage metal birdcage charms that I patinaed in a matte, aged white. They're odd and distinctive and lovely. Shana made a yoyo necklace in matching colors with cotton and silk, and in a truly inspired move, used a print with a text pattern that added a whole other layer to the fairy tale idea. Together, they're beautiful. We've called the pair Bird of Sorrow, after a Turkish fairy tale. You can read the full text here.

Shana's necklace is available in her shop, and my earrings are listed at Leaves of Glass.

You can read her post about our other colorfriends pairs on Shana's blog. Stay tuned for more new designs in both my shops, and more colorfriends.

please stay tuned.

I've been taking my product photos the same way for years, and I had the thing down to a science. I get fidgety with my styling, but I've been able to get the same clarity and color for a long time. And now here I am in a new place with new light from new directions and the backgrounds I normally use are packed away who knows where, but I'm doing new work and it needs to be photographed. IT IS NOT GOING WELL, people. I took three sets of photographs of the new pieces I made this week, and none of them are singing to me. It's going to take a lot of experimentation and practice to get them back up to standard, I think. In the meantime, I have work to list so I'm using the third set of photos. My sense of pride in presentation has taken a hit, though; so consider this an excuse post to salve my ego. Argh.

In less frustrating news, I'm enjoying working with vintage glass again and have several new pieces that will appear over the coming weeks. I'm adding to my occasional Holy/Shadow series, and am doing new interpretations of some older designs. I'm hoping to start work soon on a collection inspired by {bloody, dark and grim} fairy tales.

colorfriends.

Shana and I have several new additions to the colorfriends collection from the past few weeks, with more in the works. Here's what's new (clicking on the pictures will take you to the item listings):

aprirsi necklace & barrette

aster barrette & garden party necklace

giverny barrette & bracelet

easy tiger barrette & tyger tyger necklace

s is for shana.

...and also for all these new colorfriends designs we made. I miss her extra this week. You can find her beautiful work here, and my designs here.

i want candy.

My urbanlegend shop is turning 2 years old this month. That's 2 years of making big, fun, candy-looking, please-don't-eat-the jewelry, and I've enjoyed every minute so far. I've also placed no less than 10 orders for beads in the last two weeks, so you can look forward to yet more fun new stuff - and I can look forward to trying to figure out where I'm going to put everything.

To celebrate this sugary bounty, I'll be having a sale from Friday, March 11 (that's tomorrow!) through Wednesday, March 16. Use the code IWANTCANDY in the coupon box of the Etsy checkout to take 20% off your order. Thanks for being a friend to urbanlegend, and I hope to see you in the candy store.

Etsy urbanlegend

a dark gardens glossary

I was so busy when I launched the new Dark Gardens collection that I didn't really have time to write about it the way I wanted to. To make up for that, I'm planning to do a series of short posts on the origins of specific pieces so that some of my favorites can have a little space to shine.

The Dark Gardens collection is inspired by poisonous and medicinal plants, with a healthy dose of fairy tale and child heroine thrown in for good measure. Most of my designs in this project feature unusual vintage beads in a dark palette - cobalt, plum, chartreuse, emerald and black. The dark tones are offset with bright metals - sterling silver, goldfilled chain and bright brasses - that give the designs some sparkle and represent the seductive allure of my deadly and entrancing inspirations. I'm very proud of this line (although I'm still arguing with myself about the new photographs - I'm not sure I'll ever be 100% comfortable with my product photographs), and I hope my customers find it as appealing as I do.

My short glossary series begins with an elegant little pair of earrings called Blue Pimpernel, pictured above. The pimpernel was once used medicinally for several purposes. Botanical.com offers a little background on the medicinal lore of the pimpernel:

"This blue variety (Anagallis cerulea) is described as growing in beautiful little tufts about the hills of Madeira.

The plant appears in the Herbals and Vocabularies of the sixteenth century as 'Bipinella,' a name originally applied to the Great and Salad Burnet. It was much used as a cosmetic herb. Howard, in The Old Commodore, 1837, says: 'If she'd only used my pimpernel water, for she has one monstrous freckle in her forehead.' The plant was also said to be a remedy for the bites of mad dogs and to dispel sadness.

This plant once had a great reputation in medicine, and was used as a universal panacea.

'No heart can think, no tongue can tell

The virtues of the Pimpernel.'

Pliny speaks of its value in liver complaints, and its generic name Anagallis (given it by Dioscorides) is derived from the Greek Anagelao, signifying 'to laugh,' because it removes the depression that follows liver troubles.

The Greeks used it for diseases of the eye, and Gerard and Culpepper affirm that 'it helpeth them that are dim-sighted,' the juice being mixed with honey and dropped into the eyes.

It is 'a gallant, Solar herb, of a cleansing attractive quality, whereby it draweth forth thorns and splinters gotten into the flesh.'

'Used inwardly and applied outwardly,' Culpepper tells us, 'it helpeth also all stinging and biting of venomous beasts or mad dogs.'

And again, 'the distilled water or juice is much celebrated by French dames to cleanse the skin from any roughness, deformity or discolourings thereof.'

Another old writer says 'the Herb Pimpernel is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth affirm.'"

My version of the blue pimpernel doesn't boast of any medicinal properties, although I do hope it possesses the power to please and cheer. These earrings are made with vintage black plastic teardrops, a vintage cobalt glass flower, and a length of beautiful geometric vintage brass chain, and hang 2 1/4" long from oxidized sterling silver French hooks.

sentimental journey

I had the honor of doing a lovely little project a short time ago. A wonderful customer contacted me to see if I would update some of her mother's costume jewelry for her. That's a designing favorite for me, so of course I said yes and she sent two pairs of earrings on a short trip to Chicago for redesign. These were the results. I particularly loved the aqua and gold glitter beads, and have been hunting for them ever since (sadly, with no luck). Maybe someday I'll come across another pair, but in the meantime, these have traveled back to their owner, who now wears these pretty mementos of her mother.

more urban legend sneak peeks

I'm still tweaking the photographs, and two days of black skies and pouring rain over the weekend aren't helping. I'm not sure if these are the final versions or not, but I like them enough to use them for sneak peeks. Plainly, I'm in love with gigantic plastic earrings!

the blogging, she suffers.

I know I'm way behind on blogging, and I have a number of things I want to do, but I just plain don't have time this week. So I have to be post-and-run girl and just add a couple more Urban Legend sneak peek pics - I apologize for the lameness. In my head, this is a much more interesting blog.

urban legend sneak peek #2!

Counting down to my shop opening on March 23 (fingers crossed); here's a sneak peek at my new vintage Lucite designs, available soon at Urban Legend.

dear glass: an open confession

Dear Glass,

I have something I'd like to talk to you about. First, I'd like to affirm that nothing has changed between us. I still love you. You know I love you, right? You're the original muse, and you could never be replaced.

That being said, I've been having certain cravings lately that I can no longer deny. Cravings for lightness and playfulness and bold color that I feel are not fully satisfied by our relationship. I need to confess. I've been seeing plastic on the side. You probably noticed. I've been scattering plastic around the house in a quiet way. There have been certain charges on our credit card that, if you looked into them, have probably led you to suspect something was up between me and plastic.

I don't want this to hurt you (you know I love you, right?), so in order to explore this playful side and still allow you to shine (you deserve that), I'm proposing to set plastic up in its own house. I'm planning to call this new house Urban Legend. It's going to take a little time for plastic to move out completely. It needs time to grow, and to establish an identity of its own. You and I, glass, need time to bond and rejuvenate our love. You have needs, and I know I've been neglecting you. I'm planning to open plastic's new home around the third week of March (as with all real estate deals, this date is a bit flexible).

Glass, I hope you can understand. I hope you can forgive me and that you and our loyal friends can embrace this new side of my life. I hope you can learn to love plastic as much as I do. To help you with that, over the next several weeks I'll be showing you some pictures (a sneak peek, some boudoir shots, if you will) to show you what we've been missing. You should know that my core values have not changed at all, and that the plastic I love is all vintage. You'll notice that in some cases, plastic is paired with brass instead of silver. The brass is handmade, and fair trade. I haven't really changed so much. And to reaffirm my commitment to you, and to our eco-friendly life together, I've redesigned your packaging using 30% recycled kraftpaper cards to showcase your gritty, sparkling loveliness. Shine on, my first love!

So for now, glass, I remain, as always, your faithful

Kateri

swoon

(click the pic for a link) Now that's just brilliant.

Best Project of 2008

I'm a long time getting around to this post, but better late than never. I had a wonderful project a few months ago that turned out to be one of the most rewarding and amazing things I've ever done, so I've been meaning to write about it here.

One of my favorite regular customers loved my Loft Earrings, made with vintage cotton pearls. She's a longtime fan of the wonderful artist Michele Oka Doner, and admired a pearl necklace that Doner often wears (you can see it in the picture on her website, although not very clearly), and asked if I'd be willing to undertake a custom order for a necklace made with the cotton pearls from Loft. I adore those pearls; I was definitely up for the idea.

My lovely customer is a fan of my Noir and Urban Seaweed collections, and asked if I could incorporate one of those design concepts into the necklace. Michele Oka Doner is from Miami Beach, and has done a number of marine-themed installation pieces in Miami; in tribute to the original inspiration for this piece, I decided to try to work an Urban Seaweed theme into the necklace. The concept for that particular collection is to incorporate reminders of urban decay and commercial waste into the piece of jewelry. In a classic 2-strand pearl necklace, this posed a definite design challenge. I toyed with the ideas of stringing or looping chains into the design, incorporating some fused plastic, using oxidized torn copper pieces, adding a drop, and a couple of other outlandish concepts. For one reason and another, none of these struck the right note (some of them were just flat out unworkable). So I went back to look at my original Urban Seaweed bracelet to refresh the idea, and had the inspiration that simply using recycled glass beads would work beautifully. The shape kept the integrity of the classic pearl choker idea, the material related to the Urban Seaweed collection, and the rough, organic finish and luminous milky green look of the beads were a nice echo of the idea I was trying to evoke. So in the end, what I made was a classic double-strand pearl choker with the very slightest of twists - vintage cotton pearls and recycled African bottle glass beads. The recycled glass beads are interspersed at irregular intervals, and serve both to accentuate the classic pearly gloss of the cotton beads, and to interrupt the eye with a luminous little reminder that this is not quite your mother's pearl necklace.

My customer requested to have the silver findings oxidized before I shipped the necklace, but otherwise these pictures show exactly how it looked when it was completed. I'm incredibly proud of the way this necklace turned out, and was so pleased and grateful to be able to work on such an interesting project. (Thanks, A! xo)

guerilla marketing: adorn your friends!

My friend Julia came to visit me a couple of months ago, and I made her a pair of earrings using vintage glass pearls I found at a flea market. Just a very simple, classic pair of drops on bright sterling leverbacks. They seemed to suit her beautifully. She wore them on the airplane home, and gave my card to a woman who admired them. The woman visited my Etsy shop and bought two pairs of earrings. Julia wore the earrings to the grocery store. The woman who rang up her order admired them, and Julia gave her my card as well. She ordered the same pair, and then commissioned me to make her a matching bracelet and necklace set to wear to her daughter's wedding later this month. She was thrilled with them, and handed my cards and some printouts of pictures from my shop to her coworkers. And on it went...Thanks, JJ!

I neglected to take pictures of the custom bracelet and earrings before I sent them off, but this is the necklace. I'm pretty pleased with it; I wish I had more of these pearly, heavy textured beads, but I used the whole strand on the three custom pieces.

bound in chain(s)

I found this cool brass chain a month or so ago, and I just can't stop using it. Bring on the intervention, I don't care. I'm in love.