Citronne, originally uploaded by antigenre.

I found these lovely vintage glass beads today at my local bead supply store. They are a pale lemon-y lime-y color, and I thought they could be used to make something light and summery for my shop. I had a difficult time, though, photographing them because the background colors I was using all made them look a bit gross. I would use white or a pale cream, but whatever photo I go with still has to blend in with the rest of the shop. I ran out of light and just threw this polka-dotted paper down for fun. I actually like it!

Earrings, originally uploaded by antigenre.

I don’t have a name for these earrings yet, but they are part of a series of items that I’ve been playing around with. They will most likely appear at my first big craft show this weekend in Highland Park, NJ. I’ll see what the reaction to them is and make some more pairs of them to sell online. I liked the name ‘buckshot’ because of the random pattern of holes I drilled into the silver disc. It reminded me of stop signs on rural roads that have been shot up by bored teenagers with hunting rifles. I’ve also got some funky torpedo-shaped brass findings that I might use to sort of expand on the theme.

Friends of Joey Donation, originally uploaded by antigenre.

Back in February, the EtsyNJ Street Team decided to create a gift basket full of beautiful handmade items to be auctioned off at the annual Friends of Joey Foundation benefit dinner.

The Friends of Joey Foundation was created in 1999 in memory of Joey Reiser, who lost a year-long battle with cancer at age 11. The foundation supports the families of children with cancer and raises funds for cancer research, a college scholarship and the Joey Reiser Playground. This year’s foundation dinner is being held on April 26th.

The team chose a very spring-y color scheme to tie all the pieces in the basket together, and these earrings are my contribution.

To read more about the foundation, click HERE, and to see more of the terrific items donated by members of the EtsyNJ Street Team, take a look at the EtsyNJ Blog!

I spent about 20 noisy minutes the other day just banging different sized discs out of a sheet of 24 gauge copper, trying to come up with new ideas and looking for inspiration.   When I was done, I just sort of spread all the discs around on the table and played for a while with different shapes and configurations.  I decided to do something less complicated in structure, but interesting in shape and texture.  These earrings were among the results and are now available in my shop!

In other news, I applied to participate in the Bust Spring Fling Craftacular in Brooklyn, and I’ll find out if I got in or not tomorrow.  Here’s hoping!

I’ve just ordered a bunch of new material from Rio Grande and am revamping my work station.  Watch this space for new and exciting items that will make perfect Valentine’s Day gifts!  In the meantime, I’ve already got a gift section set up in my Etsy shop, AntiGenre Arts, full of sparkly treasures, including my Cassis and Lillium Earrings.

I’m in love with freshwater pearls now.  I just got a great supply of these lovely magenta pearls, and they look great with blacked sterling silver hoops.  I linked three hand-forged hoops together and hammered them slightly out of shape.  I love the irregular, organic look of these earrings.  They are now listed in my Etsy shop!