Time to Get Back to Work!

After three weeks and over 5,000 miles, I am back from a wonderful vacation with my family and ready to get back to work!  As soon as I finish with the dreaded laundry pile, I will get busy glazing some new pieces, so please be sure and check back soon.


The photo above was taken in the Grand Teton National Park, and believe me, the photo doesn't begin to capture the awesome beauty of this national treasure.  If you'd like to see a few more photos from our trip, please click here to visit our Flickr portfolio.

Oklahoma or Bust!

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Grizzly Mountain Arts and Good Dirt Jewelry are on vacation!

While we are away driving across the beautiful USA, we thought we'd post a slideshow of our portfolio so you won't forget us :) See you the first week in October!

It's That Time of Year Again!

Time for the Native American Festival in Sisters, Oregon that is! This is our favorite show to do each year. The Creekside Park setting is beautiful and there is almost always a hint of fall in the air.

Artists will be selling top quality handmade traditional and Native American wares. You will find a variety of pottery, western and Native American jewelry, art work, leather clothing, metal art, log furniture and photography. You will also be able to visit a teepee, watch a demonstration in hide painting, arrowhead making and beading. There will also be a living history display.Western music will be provided on Saturday by the Anvil Blasters, and Native American entertainment will be offered on Sunday.

Picnik.com's New Flickr Slideshow

I've been using Picnik.com for some time now to edit photos for our Grizzly Mountain Arts/Good Dirt Jewelry items, and I've also used Flickr as an online portfolio of our work. Recently, Picnik.com has created a wonderful new utility that makes slideshows from your Flickr sets! It's all integrated--you click on Flickr from within Picnik, then select the set you would like to make a slideshow presentation from, then Picnik generates the html for you.

If you'd like to check out other photos we have in our Flickr portfolio, please click here :)

My Beautious Petunias

I've been spending most of my free time playing outside lately :) My new railing planter boxes are working out wonderfully and my "Wave" petunias seem to love them too. It's too bad that cold weather is just around the corner. I'm in the process of terracing our backyard, which will be a work-in-progress for some time to come.

A Friday Feature!

Be the Mermaid on Athenas Amoury Blog

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me this morning when I logged into my Etsy.com account! Janine, of AthenasArmoury, had written to say she had featured my "Be the Mermaid" pendant shown above in her blog! AthenasAmoury's Etsy shop has a wonderful variety of chainmaille jewelry, so be sure and take a look!

Celtic and Fleur-de-lis Ceramic Adjustable Rings

I finally photographed some of my newest rings and got them uploaded to my Good Dirt Jewelry Etsy shop :) These were all made from molds that I created from some of my antique and vintage buttons. A peach colored fleur-de-lis and two new Celtic knotwork rings can be found in the "Ceramic Adjustable Rings" section of my shop. The prices range from $12 to $15 and include free shipping.

"One Pine" Ceramic Pendant Featured on the BeadedTail Blog!

One Pine Ceramic Pendant

Don't you just love nice surprises? Sharla, of the BeadedTail Blog, has featured Etsy artists from Oregon and included my "One Pine" ceramic pendant shown above.  Be sure and visit her blog to see some beautiful work from Oregon :)

Tibetan Amulet Bolo Style Necklace

This is a new style of necklace for my Good Dirt Jewelry shop. A while back, I blogged about a really neat antique Tibetan amulet I had purchased. While I never found anyone who could tell me who the deity is, I still found it captivating and thought it would make a unique pendant. I've always been fond of the bolo style of necklace and I thought this amulet lent itself nicely to be displayed in this manner. I finished off the tips with wooden beads and copper wire.

These new pieces will be making their debut at the 4th of July festival in Bend, Oregon. If you happen to be in Bend this Saturday, be sure and stop by to say "Hello!" :)

The Potato Experiment

I'm no stranger to gardening or growing potatoes. Our little farm in Oklahoma had a quarter of an acre garden plot that provided our family with fresh veggies, including potatoes. Gardening in the high desert of Oregon is a whole new ballgame! LOL Not only do you have to contend with below freezing temps that can last well into June, but you also have to deal with the problem of having no topsoil. Our home sits at the edge of an ancient caldera (extinct volcano), so our ground consists of rocks and smaller rocks :)

Since we just finished our back deck, we decided to try our hand at gardening in pots, and so far so good! The photo above, is our first attempt at growing red potatoes in a half wine barrel and they are looking great! We'll have to wait a while to see if there are actually any potatoes though :) If this experiment is successful, I'll write a follow-up post with details on what we used inside the barrel.

Update!

Well, our great potato experiment wasn't very successful. The plants bloomed and began to die, as was expected, but when we dug them up, we only had about 6 normal size red potatoes and about 15 tiny ones. I cooked them with a corned beef and they were quite tasty, as they should be considering how much we invested to grow them! :) Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Great New Tynt Tracer JavaScript

Have you ever had someone use one of your photos without permission, or even worse, "borrowed" your idea completely?  I have just discovered the neatest little bit of javascript by Tynt,  that can be added to your blog or website that alerts you every single time one of your visitors right-clicks and saves your content!

What does Tracer do?

Tracer secretly tracks when users copy content from your web site and automatically adds a link back to the original page when your content is pasted.  Tracer allows you to view statistics on how often content is copied from your site, what that content is and what keywords are being copied most. 

Some Things Blue

New Good Dirt!

It's cold and rainy outside, so I thought I would take the opportunity to photo some more items and add them to my Good Dirt Jewelry Etsy shop! I wonder if the gloomy weather is what influenced my choices of blue today? LOL I actually love all shades of blue, especially the more organic shades as is evidenced in many of my pieces.

One of the new pieces added today, is another of my Old Irish Blessing Stones which has been glazed with a wonderfully earthy blue brown glaze. This unique 1 1/2" diameter pendant has been made to look like the Buckquoy spindle whorl, which was excavated in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland in 1970. The old Irish Ogham inscription is believed to date back to the 8th century.

The unique Crescent Moon and Stars Ceramic Bobby Pin Set were made from a mold of an antique metal button. White earthenware clay and a pale turquoise glaze were used. The beautiful ceramic pieces are attached to 2 1/2 inch long silver plated bobby pins.

And the last added is another bobby pin set, "Tiny Tendrils", which are also made from earthenware clay. They have been kiln fired with the same rich, earthy blue brown glaze as the Blessing Stone mentioned above. The bobby pins measure 2 inches in length and are brass.

Don't forget! Everything in my Good Dirt Jewelry Etsy shop ships for FREE!

Ceramic Bobby Pins

I finally got around to taking photos and listing some of my ceramic bobby pins in my Good Dirt Jewelry Etsy shop. I sold several of these at our last show and had the best of intentions of getting them listed as soon as we returned from Yachats. We all know what is paved with good intentions ;)

Celtic Heart Ceramic Pendant

Celtic Heart Ceramic Pendant

I made this dainty little baby blue Celtic heart ceramic pendant from earthenware clay. Like most of my ceramic jewelry, I have glazed it to have the appearance of an old piece. No two pieces ever come out of the kiln the same, so each piece is a unique treasure! This beautiful little pendant has an Aanraku bail attached and hangs from a suede cord which you can easily removed if you have a favorite chain you prefer to use.

You can find more photos of this item at the Etsy listing.

Back and Forth!

It's nice to have several online selling venues. I'm doing a little house cleaning and am in the process of moving some pieces back to my Good Dirt Jewelry Etsy shop. Several of my international customers have been inquiring about buying some of the Celtic, Norse and Druid jewelry that had been listed in my 1000markets.com shop and since Amazon is the only payment system allowed there (and not available to international buyers) I thought I would move them back to Etsy. Wow, that was one long sentence! LOL All apologies to my past English instructors :)

You can now find my Druid's Eggs and Celtic Oghams in my Etsy shop, with more pieces to come in the future :)

I've made a couple of rings.....

....or 20!

Contrary to the popular belief that all I do is lay around eating bonbons and reading "True Confessions" all day, I've been busy :) I seem to go through periods of complete burnout, especially when I have an upcoming show, and then have a million ideas present themselves with only a few weeks left to create. In any case, I had to get it in gear to prepare for our show in Yachats which is only weeks away.

These rings are a new item for our 2009 show season, so if you happen to be in Yachats, Oregon May 24-25 be sure to check out the Crafts on the Coast show!

Spotlight on ArtsyBeat Blog!

Spotlight on ArtsyBeat Blog!

I love finding nice things in my inbox! Today, I was contacted by the editor of the ArtsyBeat blog to let me know my "Dreams of Peace in Tibet" necklace had been featured in an article about "Charming Handcrafted Ceramic Jewelry".

This wonderful blog features artists of all mediums and has a lot of helpful information for artists such as tips for promoting and marketing your work.

A Belated Birthday Present to Me!

Four Cork Wristlet by Cork and Cotton

I just bought myself a beautiful belated birthday present and I wanted to share! The fabulously unique wristlet pictured above was made by 1000markets artist "Cork and Cotton". Yes, the material the wristlet is made from is CORK! How cool is that?

Below, she describes this beautiful purse:

"Four different cork fabrics are used. Harmony for the main part and strap, and strips of Monaco, Dark Utopia and Casablanca for the front design. The interior cotton fabric is a Joel Dewberry's. A rust colored background with brown and cream pod flowers. Each cork seam is top stitched. A dark brown zipper keeps contents secure."

If you'd like to learn more about how cork fabric is made, click here to visit her blog!

Norse Eihwaz Protection and Enlightenment Ceramic Pendant

Norse Eihwaz Protection and Enlightenment Ceramic Pendant

I was recently contacted by one of my international customers asking if I would be putting any more Norse rune jewelry on Etsy. I had moved all of my Norse jewelry over to my 1000markets.com shop, but since they only use Amazon payments, my international customers weren't able to shop there. Hopefully one day 1000markets.com will allow international buyers, but until then, all of my Norse Rune jewelry will be found in my Etsy shop :)

I created this Eihwaz rune ceramic pendant from earthenware clay. It has been glazed with a rich blue glaze. No two pieces come out of the kiln the same! This 1" diameter pendant hangs from an 18 inch ball chain, which can be easily removed if you have a favorite chain you prefer to use. A gift box is included with your purchase.

The Eihwaz rune symbolizes protection, strength, reliability and enlightenment. Whether you are a practicing Druid, or just love the art of ancient traditions, this pendant would be a unique addition to your collection.

What I've Been Workin' On Lately!

Since I gave myself "permission" to detach from the computer and the endless online marketing and promotion, I've actually gotten a few things made for our upcoming May show in Yachats :) I'm still working with the gorgeous antique Art Nouveau and Celtic button molds and have many more yet to use!