chain chain chain

Hi friends and readers, I need your help! It's time to update a Camp + Quarry classic and I can't choose between the three chains that are in the running to complete the new edition of the C+Q dipped crystal necklaces. I have my favourite, but which one do you like best?

P.S. I recently made two purchases on Etsy that I'm very excited about! Take a look at these fantastic shops and items here and here. Have a great weekend (long weekend if you're 'merican)!

update

I put together a small shop update last night, with more stuff on the way. For now you'll find new silver dipped amethyst core samples and druzy pendants, with more on the way! As I prepare for Got Craft? I'll make new things available on Etsy, too. I'm excited to share some new pieces and new metalsmithing skills that I've been working on soon!

This little piece of amethyst is from my recent trip to Nova Scotia. This little beauty was picked up by a local collector along the north shore of Nova Scotia. Love the texture.

thank you

Thank you for keeping me busy these days! I am so overwhelmed by all of the encouragement you guys offer and your interest in my work. It really means a lot, thank you! I'm learning new things these days and am excited to show you some sterling silver and stone pieces in progress. Moss agate and chalcedony all the way, people! Prep for Got Craft? on May 6th continues. Check out this fun little feature from Delish Mag about C+Q and other great Got Craft? vendors if you have a chance.

packaging

dipped crystals

Spring is in the air every once in a while here in Vancouver...the rain is a bit warmer, there are crocuses popping up everywhere. I've even ridden my bike to work a couple of times and I am a wimp when it comes to riding in the cold or on rainy days. With longer days and warmer weather, I've been working on orders that are headed off to Portland, Montreal, and Ottawa, respectively. There will also be some select Camp + Quarry at a certain bookshop in Winnipeg and Saskatoon...details coming soon. Having so many pieces ready to go, I took the opportunity to update some shop photos and wanted to share them here. I still really, really, really wish I had a new camera with better macro abilities, but with a little photoshopping I can usually get my pictures to look passable.

I love these stones. So much variation. My favourite one right now is a gold dipped clear quartz that has a bit of a tangerine inclusion (you can see it in one of the shots below). I'm saving it for my next online order of that listing. These guys are all live in the Camp + Quarry Etsy shop now-ish. Have a wonderful Sunday!

camp + quarry turns two!

I feel lucky that I caught this date before it snuck by me. It's been two years since I opened my Etsy shop, and (how many jump rings opened and closed?) I'm still here to write about it. I want to celebrate this birthday by showing you one of the beautiful cakes my friend and fellow indie business woman, Camilla has made (the same Camilla that made our wedding cake). I really want to celebrate by eating this cake, but that's not gonna happen because Camilla lives in Montreal and this cake is long gone, I'm sure.

So instead I'll take the time to say this: I hope that making things for C+Q continues to make me happy for years to come. I hope Jeff doesn't get sick of taking packages to the post office for me. I hope you'll hang out and see what happens here. And, above all, I hope that we all continue to make things for the sake of making things, because making things makes us happy. I hope that we make many things that are never for sale and I hope that we all receive gifts made especially for us by others. 

Let's make 2012 the year of making stuff for the sake of making stuff! Now I have an apple tart to put together! What are you working on these days?

getting back into the swing of things

It's been nearly two weeks since the holidays ended and I still don't feel like I'm back on track! Perhaps it's just all of the changes around here that have overwhelmed me a bit, but getting organized and motivated after all of the Christmas madness has been a challenge. As I mentioned before (and as you might have seen if you follow me on Twitter or Intagram) I've brought a lot of amazing new stones home with me from Alberta and I absolutely can't wait to start working on new Camp + Quarry designs for the spring. But, it's still winter (though I've seen the first signs of spring bulbs this week) and dark and I keep spending my evenings hanging out on the couch watching Breaking Bad or just reading for hours.

I do have my studio space somewhat prepped and ready to go though. A new awesome lamp (an OttLite) lets me take decent photos in the evening, without having to make or use a DIY lightbox (with a little extra help from Photoshop, of course...shhhh). And refined black curb chain is my true muse these days; I want to use it in every piece I make. You can see it in play in these new raw stone quarry necklaces, now available in the CQ shop. That jumbo piece of black tourmaline is the only one of its kind. Black tourmaline is my favourite stone right now, and this is the chunkiest piece I've come across yet. I love the way the crystals form in planes, giving the stones a naturally faceted texture. Raw rose quartz, amethyst, prehnite, and citrine stones on long black gunmetal chains are also available.

Finally, thank you all for your patience while I iron out the details of this big change. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about Camp + Quarry and I am 100% convinced it was the exact right move and that it is the exact right name, too. I'll be back on Friday to share some of my current favourites, and next week there will be a giveaway here on the blog that I am very excited about. You're going to love it!

What have you been working on lately? Or are you taking it easy, enjoying some post-holiday down time?

the cave explorers of 2011

Here they are! The final cave explorer necklaces of 2011. These guys are all listed in the shop as of today. Figures range from little children playing in the snow to a old gentleman making his way through a crystal cave with his walking stick in hand. Each stone has been chosen for its amazing shape and crystal features. Take a look at them all in the Sadie shop. 

In other fun news, last week I hit 400 sales in the Sadie shop. My 400th customer just happens to be a local blogger who I connected with thanks to Got Craft? here in Vancouver. Heather has a great blog called Tea with Me. She even wrote about her Sadie necklaces after the craft fair. In addition to her order, Heather is going to be getting a pretty special surprise in celebration of this exciting milestone. 

I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but thank you all for your support! This has been a fun year (crazy at times with getting married, graduating, and all of that) and you guys have all made it even better and gotten me through the nutso times with flying colours, too. And now we have just five more work days until Christmas vacation!

a few new things...

This weekend I'm updating the shop with some new pieces. Among them: cave explorers, rutilated quartz necklaces (one of my all time favourite stones), new pendulum pieces, and a few new vintage paddle necklaces like the one in the middle. I've taken and edited all of the close up shots, tomorrow I'll take a few more of each piece and get the listings up. There's still time to get your order in before Christmas!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend and perhaps hitting up a craft fair or two to support your local makers! Jeff and I spent a lot of the afternoon in Point Roberts, Washington, waiting in various lineups to get American Sadie orders mailed out, pick up some Christmas packages, and take advantage of cheap American gas prices. Not the most exciting afternoon, but we got a lot done. Tonight we're going to our first Christmas party. I'm hoping for shortbread and glogg. Happy weekend, everyone!

we've got a lotta lotta lotta lotta work to do

No, really, you guys are amazing. I'm a bit overwhelmed these days with my day job being increasingly demanding (and challenging, in a good way), holiday shopping well underway, and preparation for one more craft fair this Sunday. And with all of this going on it is all but impossible for me to catch daylight hours to photograph in...it starts getting dark here around 3:30 PM these days! It's been great that despite my long absences between posts, when I do check in here you guys always leave me such lovely comments or send me a message on Twitter wishing me luck with all the things I've got going on. I really appreciate it and am very grateful for the things that you've helped me accomplish this year. (I'll go into that a little more at the end of the year.) I'm looking forward to taking a little inventory of 2011 here on the Sadie blog and I will certainly be sharing my plans for 2012 soon.

Happy December, everyone! Good luck with all of your holiday preparations! Oh, and as a little thank you to my Sadie holiday customers, then next ten purchases from the Sadie shop will ship with a free pair of laser cut baltic birch earrings. I will ship ten different designs to ten wonderful Sadie customers.

Here's a little video to start your Thursday off with:

meet the holiday cave explorers

These new cave explorers will be joining me at Portobello West along with a couple of other new miniature figure pieces this weekend. You might also find them in the Sadie shop this week, though the little man in the beige coat has already found a new home. These guys are really fun to make, but it takes me a long time between batches to find the right stones and materials to use. I'll be sure to let you know when more hit the shop!

In slightly unrelated news, my friend Laura came over last night and helped me do some major prepping for my upcoming shows. I have to thank her here so that you guys can all know how awesome she is! She helped me get all caught up on online orders, ensuring everyone who's ordered up to this point will get things in lots of time before the holidays, and having her and Emily here to chat with helped make the night fly by and we made a ton of stuff. So, thanks to both of you ladies for coming over to our new place! And thanks to Jeff for always taking things to the post office for me! He's the one who really makes sure you get your orders quickly! Looking forward to seeing everyone at Portobello West this weekend! I'll be at table 19, down the middle aisle just in front of the entrance! Stop by and say hi!

white agate pendulum necklaces

As I said in my last post I'm going to be sharing a lot of new Sadie pieces here over the next few days. Previous pendulum necklaces were made with grey quartz, these are made with a beautiful banded white agate. One is accented with a vintage brass tassel charm, the other has a working brass fan with an etched dragon motif. You can find them both in the Sadie shop now. Thanks for taking a look! I'll be sharing an exciting new project here tomorrow morning.

they are coming

Did I mention I've been busy? Well, I've finally had a few daylight hours at home (thanks to being able to bring my office job to my living room today) and have had a chance to catch up on some photographs and projects that needed to get done ASAP in order for me to be ready for Portobello West this weekend. Stay tuned! Over the next couple of days I'll be showing you some of the pieces that will be available, like this dude above who can be found in the Sadie shop this afternoon, both online and in person at Got Craft? and Portobello West. Hope to see you at one or both of these events, Vancouverites! Happy Thanksgiving to my American pals, too!

core samples

Can I just say that this week is going by waaaaay too fast? Jeff and I are moving in about ten days and we are nowhere near ready! Sure, we have like six boxes in our apartment, but they're pretty much all empty, and the ones that are packed Jeff took care of. I have been busy busy busy making things for the two shows that I have coming up at the end of November and beginning of December (check out the sidebar for more information about Sadie holiday events). Part of my pre-holiday updates included adding new silver dipped amethyst core samples to the Sadie shop, including a listing for a special deal on two amethyst core sample necklaces. This evening I just wanted to share a couple of photos with you of these new pieces. I'm really happy with the way the top image turned out. It's given me some inspiration for how to set up my displays at Portobello West and Got Craft.

Oh, and I picked up Mindy Kaling's new book (normally I'd get it at the library, but I'm kind of boycotting the Vancouver library right now because they keep finding bedbugs in their books!!!) and I'm really enjoying reading it everyday during my seabus commute. My favourite line so far:

There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.

So true. Have a great week, everyone!

a few new things...

I wanted to share with you some of the new things that I've been working on as I'm getting ready for holiday craft fairs and online shop updates. All of these pieces are available in the Sadie shop (don't forget to use coupon code: GOLOLAGO for free international shipping). Some of my new favourites stones are featured in these pieces: pink jasper, aquamarine, and tiny raw peacock ore nuggets. I've also been making more pieces using vintage chains and have been hammering lots of brass, much to the dismay of my neighbours, I'm sure.

If you're in Vancouver and can make it to Portobello West at the end of November or Got Craft? on the Drive on the first Sunday in December, I'll see you there! My next big project is making swag for the Got Craft? show. I'll share my project as it progresses...first I have to get the supplies in the mail! Have a great weekend, everyone. Lola has her surgery tomorrow. We really appreciate all of your encouraging comments!

a few new things before I go

Before I head to Montreal I really wanted to get the Sadie shop updated. I haven't been home on a weekend day in three weeks and today was my one and only day off here in Vancouver to get things done. Jeff and I had a nice day walking around the city, but I also made sure to get to the post office to send off Etsy order #299 and take some photos while it was light out so I could do some editing and put some new listings together tonight. I'm also taking a few pieces with me to Montreal in the hopes of finding a shop to carry my work. Now I have finished editing photos, researching the metaphysical properties of unikite (what are you doing tonight?) and there are lots of new things in the shop. Quartz earrings, aquamarine necklaces, rutilated quartz point necklaces, antique pressed tin earrings, and more. Check it out and have a great weekend! I'm off to New France!

P.S. Thank you all so much for your comments on our wedding posts! We really appreciate all of your kind words and that you've enjoyed us sharing the details of our wedding with you. More to come, though I promise not to talk about it forever!

closed for now

Today is the last day that the Sadie shop will be open until after I'm a married woman! So if you have your eye on anything, you can grab it now or I'll be back in business in early September. You can use coupon code SEPT3 (my wedding day) for 15% off in the shop today! If you ordered before the shop closed, don't worry, everything will ship quickly as usual! I'll still be checking in here all the time to give you some glimpses of what we're planning and to share other fun things, too. Less than a month until we are married!

shop updates

amethyst core sample necklaces: eight and nine

green opal and vintage brass

pastel pink jasper and vintage brass

There are a few new pieces in the Sadie shop that I wanted to share with you. Luckily I took a day off in Vancouver this long weekend and was able to get a lot done...not just on the wedding front, but also updating the shop a little. I'm really excited about being able to offer more amethyst core samples just in time for the real summer weather that's finally hitting the west coast. I've also started incorporating vintage charms into the clasps of my layered pieces, so if you go for a green opal or pink jasper piece, you can look for this added detail.

Sometime I should show you all the mess that I make when I make jewelry. I can't honestly believe that Jeff doesn't freak out. Right now I'm posting these pictures while sitting in a giant pile of little plastic bags and tools and chain bits. I'm gonna have to figure out a new organizing system soon. Happy 4th, American friends!

a few new things...

the miriam necklace

cave explorer necklace

pendulum necklace

Hi everyone, just a quick check-in on this beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon to share a few photos that Jeff and I took today of some new pieces that are in the Sadie shop. My mom brought me a few pieces of jewelry from my 92 year old grandmother's collection of costume jewelry this weekend and one piece had the most amazing vintage brass tassels on it. The tassels have now been incorporated into two new pendulum necklaces in the shop. I also photographed the Miriam necklaces and am adding just one new lonely cave explorer to the shop today. This guy lives in a teardrop-shaped agate geode and is hard at work with shovel in hand. Now back to that book club book!