Fall Line 09 - I'm a machine.

This was one of the first weekend's in a long time where I didn't have massive amounts of plans consuming any potential free time. In other words, I had lots of time to make jewelry! Making jewelry, much like scrapbooking, painting, writing, etc, doesn't just happen. You need to be in the mood and have some sort of inspiration keeping you going. Sometimes I sit in front of my supplies and think "WTF am I going to do with this?" Or other times I would rather waste away in front of the TV rather than face the disaster that has become my craft room. And it always seems that when I set aside time to get crafty, I come up with excuses or have no motivation or inspiration what-so-ever. Thankfully, this weekend, none of these were the case! When I started thinking of what I wanted included in my "Fall Line," the first thing that came to my mind was brass. I have seen alot of it around the craft world lately, so I knew I wouldn't have a problem finding this unique material. I have scored alot of brass charms and findings at Michaels, but the buggers don't carry matching chain in a size of my liking! I found myself in quite the dilemma on Saturday afternoon while staring at dozens of brass charms with no chain to match. Thankfully, the Hubs agreed to join me in a little trip to downtown LA's Jewelry District, simply to find the perfect chain. It had only been 3 weeks since I was last there, but I have already used a good deal of what I bought the first time I visited and knew that this trip would be much shorter than the last since we knew where we were going this time! Compared to our last visit, the Jewelry District this time around seemed more lively and promising (maybe because we weren't intimidated by it's randomness anymore: see picture on right). It's a mix of bead stores, trim stores, fabric stores, button stores, ethnic stores, mixed in between lots of random taco, hot dog, and ice cream stands. Kids run up and down the street playing with toys, guys stand under door frames urge you to step in their shop for a look, florist man corners hoping to sell gifts for sweethearts, and fabric lines the buildings on the sidewalk. We tried to visit a few stores that we missed during our first visit, but apparently this section of town is known for closing at 3 on Saturdays (fine, then!). No worries, the main store I hoped to visit, Athenian Fashion, was open and ready for me to drop some serious cash on some chain! I had a nice chat with the owner of the store and asked him if I could take a picture to share with you all. No dice, though I did at least get him interested in posting some on Yelp. I walked away with over 100 feet of chain and enough fixings to make dozens of necklaces! With the AC and TV on and food in my belly, I sat on my oversized suede chair for the majority of the rest of the weekend, making as many necklaces as I could on my ottoman. In the past, I have been proud of myself for making at least 3 necklaces in one sitting, but with my new supplies in hand, there was no stopping me! I think it also helped that I only had what I knew I was going to use for this specific project in front of me (instead of having ALL my supplies on the table - this only ever overwhelms me!). I also used only one kind of material and had a series of components that I mixed and matched. After a few cuts, bruises, and bandaids on my fingers accompanied by a very sore back, I was shocked when I counted how much I made: 30 necklaces and 5 pairs of earrings! I separated what I planned to sell on Etsy and what I am holding for my upcoming Jewelry Party, and then tediously packaged the two dozen necklaces in preparation for a very busy October. Here's a picture of all that I made: In the meantime, here's what I posted on Etsy this morning - click on any of the images to go it's listing!

I would love to hear what you think! I hope to add more every Monday for the next few weeks until my jewelry party... keep checking in! Now, where's that Tylenol?