Reyna

I went by one of my suppliers today and discovered one of the girls who worked there died Monday, of ovarian cancer. She was 35.

Reyna was my favorite person at the store. She always had a quick smile and said hello and goodbye. She was almost perpetually in a good mood and was really friendly and helpful. She made beautiful jewelry and was always happy to discuss designs and color combinations with me, and she always pointed out what was new since I'd been in last. She was a beautiful, gentle person, and it makes me horrendously sad this happened to her. She'd been diagnosed in November, so I was really unprepared for the news. Four months isn't really a very long time, and I had really hoped she'd beat it, despite how sick she'd been the last time I saw her, just before Christmas. My thoughts and prayers go out to her sister Carmen, her family and loved ones.

In addition to remembering her with this post, I would hope all my female readers will please visit the ob-gyn at least once a year and stay on top of any tests or recommendations the doctor makes. Perhaps have the CA-125 blood test - or a series of it - done. 35 is far too young to die, especially if you have as much to contribute to the goodness in life as Reyna did.

Peace,
Jenie

Special Gifts

So little of running your own business is really appreciated or especially fulfilling. If you're lucky, you get the reward of self-sufficiency, and that's nothing to sneeze at; accomplishment and all that goes with it are great. But when you get the chance to make something especially thoughtful for someone, that's wonderful. I'm doing a custom order (adapting an existing item on the site) meant as a gift for someone, and it makes me so happy to be part of this particular piece. The woman buying it is a special person, and she means it for someone else very special, so I want it to be really pretty. I bought crystals to go on it today in place of some other components, and it's costing me money of my own to make some changes to it, but I'm happily eating the increase, because it's just that important a present, and I want it to be especially pretty. It's opportunities like this that make all the spam experiences worth it. :)

My Paris 'Hood

MP sent me pictures of my neighborhood-to-be yesterday. She went out Sunday and took pictures for me; how cool a friend is she?! :)

And....action!

I got a part in a docudramedy today. :) It's an independent film, and I'm only in one scene, but it's totally just me and the lead in the scene, and it looks like it will be fun to do. :)

Everything Old Is New Again

I love repurposing jewelry. It's just fun to take something old apart and put it with new components to create something new. It's like a puzzle, only you have to invent some of the pieces yourself. Call me a geek, I guess. :)

My very first customer ever, April, sent me some glass components to string into earrings. They were actually a bit of a challenge, because the consisted of 2 light blue, 2 dark blue, and 2 dark pink faceted ractangles. They were pre-fabricated with connections at one end and little knobs at the other, so I couldn't string them together, they really needed to be hung. April likes chandeliers, so I kicked that around a little, but I really didn't come up with anything I liked. Then I thought the rectangles would look neat suspended inside ovals. Specifically, these ovals.


I'm happy to say, I was right. They look really cute. :)

Jenie

Auntie Meme?

My own meme I am passing on to my fellow artists, regarding craft.

4 tools I'd be lost without:
1. round-nose pliers
2. wire-cutters
3. chain-nose pliers
4. bent-nose pliers

4 of my favorite materials:
1. sterling silver
2. wood
3. stone
4. silk

4 of my favorite stones:
1. Larimar
2. peridot
3. garnet
4. ametrine

4 materials I'd like to work with:
1. Ruby
2. Larimar
3. London Blue Topaz
4. Tourmaline

4 things that inspire me:
1. beautiful design
2. nature
3. fluid shapes
4. certain materials

4 things that influence my work:
1. cost (sadly)
2. color
3. the purpose of the piece
4. trends

4 places I'd love to see my work:
1. television (ie. on gilmore girls)
2. on Sigourney Weaver, hands down the coolest actress EVER (actor, actually; the woman's got skillz)
3. in the Sundance catalogue
4. highlighted on some cool, trendy website or magazine

4 reasons I started my craft:
1. it's fun
2. it's challenging and makes me think
3. i enjoy looking at jewelry
4. i love rocks

4 things I'd like to do as an artist:
1. learn more
2. improve
3. take more risks
4. support myself

4 things I wish were better understood about my craft:
1. cheaper is not better; neither is more expensive
2. workmanship is important
3. it can be really time-consuming
4. all materials are not the same

4 things I love about my craft:
1. rocks
2. pretty colors and combining them into a pretty object
3. making people happy
4. satisfaction at a job well-done

4 things I don't like about my craft:
1. overhead and when materials are overpriced
2. the difficulty involved in finding and obtaining some materials
3. when people are negative or rude
4. when other designers misrepresent what they are selling, either on purpose or because of ignorance

4 things I just feel like tossing out there:
1. gold mining is bad for the environment (and often at the expense of the indigenous peoples beneath whose land it is found)
2. it can be very difficult to match 2 different pieces of the same natural material
3. big business marks jewelry up 500% - 5 times the actual cost of goods - or more
4. pricing an item is the hardest part of selling what I make...writing the descriptions on my website is the second! ;)

Picture, Schmicture

Or, We Don't Need No Steenking Peectures

I am having major photography issues. They don't tell you when you start your own business that taking your own pictures is a pain. They don't tell you there are days when every photo you take looks like it was taken by a 5 year old with ADD and major coordination problems. Perhaps even missing some digits. Or a limb. They don't tell you about lighting and posing and powder.

I am trying to take mask photos, and they all just look lame. Beyond lame. Super lame. Lame-o.

::sigh::

Happy Happy Jewelry News :)

So, I sent a vogue ring with pearl off to a client who today informed me she's expecting and is happy to finally have a ring she can wear until things get back down to normal size. How cool is that?! I love when people write and tell me I get to be part of things like that. It's just so wonderful and makes me really happy! :)

Ma Maison

So here are some pre-Paris pictures of my home-to-be away from home, in the rue Lecourbe. :)

Paris flats are on the small side anyway, and when you are renting one for temporary lodging, they really lean toward the tiny end of the size spectrum. This will be my living room. See my bed up above the couch there, on the mezzanine? I actually really wanted this arrangement, because I think after about 2 months, folding my bed back into a couch every day would get really tedious, clic-clac or no. And if I know me - and I think I do - I would leave it unmade every single day after the first 2 months, and that would not be good.

This is my kitchen. :) It has all kinds of fun stuff in it, so despite its compact being, it's good to go. My kitchen here is pretty small, anyway, so it's not THAT huge a change, except for less counter space. I'm not good at washing as I go, so that will make for some interesting cookfests, but that's okay. When I cook, it's sort of this big frenzied flurry of activity, so we'll see. I may have to adjust my cooking style. :) The window you see there (and there's another on the same wall just this side of the dining counter) looks out onto a courtyard. The flat is on the 4th floor with no lift, but I actually wanted something on at least the 4th floor, so I'm happy. The elevator would have just been for carrying things up, like groceries and laundry, anyway. More stairs means more weightloss. :)

So there it is. The whole thing is just a little larger than 135 square feet, which I realize is small, but I do not care. I am one person. It's not like I need the Taj Majal. And my landlord(s) seem(s) to be very nice. I am really excited to be going and just so totally psyched I landed this awesome little space for my adventures in Paris. :)

Now I hope all goes well with my visa. The next hurdle is getting a report from the police that shows I'm not a criminal, and I'm kinda freaked I won't be able to get it without writing to Sacramento, and that THAT will take 2 months, which I don't have. I'm finding out Monday or Tuesday, so knock wood.

Jenie

I got it!!!

I have been on pins and needles for a week, waiting to see about a flat in Paris. I finally landed it not half an hour ago, and I am on Cloud 9! It's located in the 15eme (15th) arrondissement of Paris, just east of Boulogne-Billancourt, where my friend Marie-Pierre lives, which is probably THE coolest suburb in Paris. I'll be off of line 8, on the rue Lecourbe, south-southwest of the Eiffel Tower.

OMgosh, I'm just so excited! And freaking out, because I have to save $7000 over the next 4 months, which means no new beads, no fun things of any sort, eating cheap lunches reminiscent of the kind I had in college, and mad, mad saving, because it's a slooooooow time of year, and I still have bills to pay here. Even when I'm there. Alas.

But I'm going to Paris!

:)
Jenie

Ton Amie a Paris

Okay, I tell you tenatively I may have found a place in Paris. I tell you tenatively, because it was a dream come true, with a continuing dialogue between myself and the owner, and my friend in Paris, MP, had given the place a total green light. All was wonderful and well...until I told the man I would take it. Now all is ominously silent. :( I really want this apartment, so please cross the fingers and the toes.

Also, check out my new blog, Your Friend In Paris. I thought maybe I could pick up some cash while I'm there, showing people around Paris for the day. I got the idea talking to my mom, who was complaining to me about how much she hated Paris, because it was all too confusing to get around, and no one spoke the language.

I know. My mom's not a yokel, I promise.

She just doesn't handle high-stress situations well at all, and I think you could probably term getting lost within half an hour of getting off the tour bus in a huge city where no one speaks english and you can't read the signs a high-stress situation. Apparently, the bus that picked up her group from the airport and took them to their hotel didn't so much take them to their hotel as sort of dropped them near it.

In Pigalle.

Mom got separated from her pals, and she wandered around until she happened to bump into someone she recognized eating dinner. This was in the 80s, and either Mom's memory is a bit histrionic, or Paris was a vastly different place back then. I do know Pigalle was a slum and not a good neighborhood back in the day. For that matter, it's still pretty iffy now, 20 years later.

But Mom has a poor view of Paris and found negotiating the place rather confusing, and I know other people who have been there in the last few years with the same boggled issues, so I figure there's cash to be made helping tourists (shuh; I know: tourists - pff ;) find their way around the big, mean, European city, and if they are willing to part with their money for the sake of someone to hold their hand and show them how to get from Notre Dame to Montmarte, who am I to say no?

Hence, Your Friend in Paris. :D




Here's the view from the living room window of Marie-Pierre's old house, where I stayed in 2003. It was on the 4th floor, up a narrow and treacherous spiral staircase (well, okay, but it was narrow and rather steep). This was some time my first week there. I want to say it was July 16, which would make it Day 4. Unfortunately, I did not journal the 16th, so I have no handy reference that says "il pleut." Note the cool UFO flying throught the upper left quadrant. The truth is out there. ;)

Keepin' my fingers crossed,
Jenie

ps. I'm just kidding about the ufo. I think it was a plane. honest. ;)

Sacre bleu, I've much to do

I've been remiss with the blogging, but life has been unusually stressful lately, so sometimes something's got to give, whether you want it to or not...

Trying to get things in order for France, which means a trip to the consulate and finding longterm housing there (France, not the consulate), as well as finding out whether or not the book I want to work on while I'm there necessitates a certain type of visa, which will then require a second trip to the consulate, and time is suddenly at a premium, now that I need it. Before the trip to France came up, all kinds of time. Days in a row with no work and nothing going on. Now that I really need a day or two to just handle France stuff, I can't get a day off to save my life. I was supposed to have yesterday off, and then at 11am (when I'd gone to bed at 4), the phone rings with the request I come in and work on a rush job. I'm happy for the income, but I have to get this consulate stuff done ASAP, so it's a little frustrating.

I'm really looking forward to my book project, which is a coffee table book of photographs of a certain part of Paris. Paris is sort of my Eden, just a wonderful, magical place, both jangling metropolitan and quiet retreat. There are pockets of Paris that are so serene and peaceful I could spend all day there and never want to leave - and in fact, did. I just fell in love with one of those places and spent 5 or 6 days there in 2003, taking digital photographs. If my digicam had a high enough resolution (say, 9 megapixels), that would be good enough, but it only has 3.5, so I have to go back with my 35mm to do the work for the book. Which I don't mind, and if I have 3 months to do nothing but work on it there, that will be awesome. I'm a little leery of my photographic skill, though, so we'll see. I don't always get the picture quite focussed right. With a digicam, you can tell that immediately. With film, not so much. So cross your fingers for me, please. :)

I'm really excited to go, but it just doesn't seem real yet. And I'm not sure it will until I'm actually at the airport, waiting to board the plane, at which point I will be far too freaked out and nervous to enjoy it, on accounta a) I hate flying, b) I'm horribly afraid of flying, and c) that's a scary thing, to head off to live in a foreign country for 6 months. What if something goes hideously wrong, either there, or here, while I'm there? Wow. Now I'm freaking out. Let's not go there.

Hey, Lizzy Wishes is having a sale to benefit people who suffer from eating disorders. Get a Know Your Beauty or British Bankers tee by Eve's Rib and benefit the National Eating Disorders Association - you NEDA one of these tees! (Okay, I know, that was bad, but sometimes a bad joke's just gotta be made!)

There. That's better. :)

Jenie