How My Guitar String Jewelry is made

Since half of my handmade jewelry is made with guitar strings, donated by my husband and a few awesome musician friends, I thought I'd share the process of how it all happens.

First I want to share a cool video from the show "How it's made" on the making of guitar strings.  I was pretty fascinated by the process myself.

Then........... step two.  Music is made and the magic begins.

Joe Barborich and Scott Walters of The Katz Sass Blues Band (my hubby is the cute one on the left)

Then......... step three.  The used strings are gently placed into my super special "Guitar String Box"

Then......... step four.  Ta Da!!!!!!  After hours and hours of contemplation and pilot programs and test driving :D............

Then........ step five.  To the shipping department to be packed up and out the door for speedy delivery  to a very happy customer

    

So there you have.  From womb to tomb as they say in the manufacturing business.  Hope you enjoyed this demonstration of a very complex and logistically complicated process.  

Blessings to All

Martie

What do you hear when you see colors?

Trying to describe color is, I think, one of the hardest parts of writing descriptions for my jewelry.  It's easy to write about the kinds of materials you used and what colors and size they are,  but how do you explain a color.  Now, I'm a song writer and am usually pretty good with words and putting my thoughts on paper (yes, I still use paper and pencil).  But this is so totally baffling to me.  I read other artisans descriptions and they are lovely.  They really paint a true picture and emotion of the piece.  Why can't I do that?  And how many ways can you compose an embellishing dissertation of 250 plus words about a guitar pick earring so Google will like you?

The SEO gurus say that you should describe your items as if you are explaining them to some one who is blind.  Well, since I have been seeing my whole life I cannot imagine not seeing color so how do you interpret it and translate it in a way that someone who is without sight can understand.  OK, so red is hot, like fire.  Blue is cold like reaching into the freezer and pulling out a frozen bag of corn, grey is that feeling you get on a damp day.  Orange and yellow are like the feeling of sunshine on your face.  

All these are well and good but how about pale green and turquoise, burgundy could be referenced against the smell of a wine, and rose of course to the flower, but there again you have different colors of roses.  Copper, and purple.  You could pick up a hand full of dirt and say this is what brown feels like but who wants to describe a lovely stone like a brown Labradorite as dirt.  And pink, it's such a soft visual color, is it soft like the fur on my kitty?  But she's a ginger color, so ginger is soft to me.  Ach!!!!

Here-in lies the problem.  

But wait...... I remember my friend Mike saying one time after a particularly rough gig, "don't worry" he says, "most of the time people hear music with their eyes"  Meaning that if you put on a great performance visually, the music then becomes sort of secondary in their heads. 

OK. So. Spin it a bit.  Ask myself - what do I hear when I see a color.  Now I have Diana Ross in my head singing " I hear a symmmmmphony...."  OK, back on point.  But that is the point.  If red is hot and fiery, then it's a screaming lead on a guitar like Steve Vie in Crossroads,  if it's blue then Eric Clapton comes to mind, cause he is the coolest ya know.  Lavender is Stan Getz playing the sax.  Magenta is Cristine Aguilera,  green is ....... Kermit The Frog.  I couldn't resist that one.  But I guess I'm getting the picture at last. 

Note to self - have pad and paper handy when listening to radio in car in case the color Cyber Grape comes on.   

Have a bright, bright, bright, sunshiney day!!!! :)

It's all about planning.

Plan your hours to be productive;

Plan your weeks to be educational;

Plan your years to be purposeful;

Plan your life to be an experience of growth;

Plan to change;

Plan to grow.

- Iyanla Vanzant -

From Rockets to Chocolate - Finding your passion

My husband and I took a little vacation like we do every year to N. Carolina to visit his daughters.  They are both grown and in college and both are doing amazing things with their lives.  They are finding their way through this crazy world we live in and although it has not been easy at times, they have muddled through and are shining examples of what hard work and a little sacrifice will get you.  One will graduate next spring the other has three years to go, but will also being doing a 4 month study in Italy.

On this particular trip we just happened to stop in at a shop called Mountainside Chocolates that was on our way back to our hotel and just off the road.  Well, I've got to tell ya, it was one of the funnest places.  Not only were the chocolate creations and ice cream super yummy but the owners were super nice and such congenial people. We ended up hanging out and talking with them for quite a while.  Ric, had his guitar leaning on a shelf by the door and of course we started talking about music, do you play, we play, my step-daughter plays and the other sings and we started jamming right there in the shop, each taking turns.  It was a hoot.


We asked how he got into the chocolate business and he proceeded to tell us with gusto and great enthusiasm about his journey from being an engineer at Lockheed, to his retirement and how he came upon this shop through a friend of his. How he met his girlfriend who also works in the shop.  It had all come about so naturally that it appeared to be destiny.

He shared his recent experiment with us and explained some things about how chocolate really doesn't go bad, but the white substance that forms on it is not mold but it is its reversion back to sugar.  That's my simple synopses. He went into much more detail than that I just can't remember it all.  He talked about how everything is handmade right there, how he learned the skill, showed us the master recipe book.  Oh it was so informative and fun.

An interesting lesson in life.  Back around 2005 when we learned that our company had declared bankruptcy and they were going to close our factory a lot of folks were in a panic as to what the next phase of their lives would be.  I was fortunate that I could retire and I had my music and my jewelry to fall back to.  I just kept telling everyone that this was a golden opportunity to find that one thing that you'd always wanted to do but never had time.  Turn your craft into a business, go back to school, learn something totally new.  Find your passion.  A few of my work mates have and Bravo to them.  I didn't have to find mine, I already had it.

Ric, too, is an example of life after your corporate job.  Who would have ever thought that a rocket scientist would end up making chocolate delicacies in a little shop in Silva North Carolina and loving every scrumptious minute of it.  

Making it happen, Keeping it happening.

 "Either you're working hard trying to make it happen, or you're working three times as hard trying to keep it happening. There's a difference between lifting something up and holding something up. There's two different degrees of strength.” - CeeLo Green

Some of you are familiar with CeeLo Green from the TV show "The Voice" and from the group "Gnarls Barkley" and maybe all kinds of other musical endeavors this talented music artist has been involved with.  I only knew of him from the show and the group myself.  However I just finished reading an article from the website Fastcompany.com with their picks of the 100 most creative people in business in 2012.  Being a musician and artist I like reading about what inspires people and what keeps them going creatively.  This was a very inspiring article for me.  

That whole article and a few of the others in that list got me thinking a lot about innovation and the proverbial box that needs to be thought outside of.  I have struggled with this my whole life trying to balance practicality with expressing what is truly running amok in my being.  There came a point where I said screw the practicality and just go for what is driving you Crazy ( that song by Gnarls Barkley is one that I can totally relate too) 

I am not having much luck on the musical front, mainly finding other musicians who want to  perform music that says something meaningful, matters, and is entertaining too.  I can make music happen but a lot of folks are pretty much stuck in the mainstream rut of "if it ain't played on the radio 40 times a day I don't want to hear it".  Really??? What a shame.  There is so much amazing music out there that unfortunately falls on very few ears, even with the influx of internet and phone apps that cater to personalizing a persons listening enjoyment.  So I guess that's where the keeping it happening part comes in.  

And then there is the jewelry design side of me.  Just like the music business it is very competitive and saturated with expectations on the latest trends and flavors and I've asked myself too many times, " so how do I keep my voice in that genre too".  I'm doing well, reaching out and continuing to travel down new roads.  Building a business takes time.  The learning curve,  the world wide web, fan bases, web sites, SEO.........

In re-reading my last two paragraphs I have to ask myself, "Are music and jewelry design that much the same?" 

The point I am trying to get to is one of perseverance and fortitude, experimenting with different mediums, and stretching the thought processes beyond what is immediately in front of your face.  What about branding and getting yourself out there not just in your designated circles but grabbing on to the fringes and tugging at them too.  That's what I've started to do and will see where it all takes me.  

I'm OK with the lifting and holding up part of both my creative out-of-the-boxes.  I believe that what I've started can only expand and grow because that is the nature of energy.  Keeping everything fresh, constantly, and being aware of my own consciousness and following that spark of an idea that takes me in another direction, again, is what keeps me strong and celebrating my creativity.  

Does that make me Crazy.......... possibly.  

Thanks for visiting my blog
Blessings 
Martie

A cluttered desk.........

Creativity Running Amok

In an article from Flavorpill - 15 famous authors on why they write,  Don DeLillo said "It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture, but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.”  This struck me hard as I believe this to be true for any artistic medium.  There is something in us artistic types that needs to do what we do.  It is not a choice.  It is innate. Creativity runs amok in our blood and the only way to tame it is to get it on paper, canvas, music notation, strung on beading wire, wrapped around a crocket hook........ etc.  

Without our craft we are simply blobs unable to function properly in our everyday lives.  It is our dissatisfaction with the mundane, the conformity, the everybody must be and do what some media or social device tells us is the cool thing to be doing at this moment.  This may work, and obviously does, for so many people.  But for others, not so much.   


I can't tell you how many times people ask me, as a jewelry designer, if I make 'such and such' a thing.  You know, the latest trendy trinket that Everybody is wearing.  I say No.  Because to be honest, when I've done that, I've been so miserable because I felt I 'sold out' and compromised my creative process.  And because my spirit wasn't into the thing, they never sold well.  Lesson learned quickly and I'll never do it again.  


Now, I'm not saying this to dis anyone.  We all have to make a living and if one enjoys and is completely content and satisfied with what they are doing then more power to them.  I respect that whole heartedly.  I believe in and have become intimate friends with what runs amok in me.  I can see no other way.  I can find no other relationship that quells that stirring.  


Being an individual in this world is vital to my survival as a human be-ing.  To tap into the 'amok' is the most freeing thing I've ever done.


Thanks for visiting my blog
Blessings
Martie