Surprise! Crafty Bastards

my display

Well, remember when I wrote about doing the Fenton Street Market last week? Well, instead of doing Fenton on Saturday, I got the opportunity to be a Crafty Bastard instead! I had been on the waiting list, but it's such a great show that they weren't able to make room for me (because every single person that was invited said yes). That is, until someone cancelled the day before the show. Fortunately, I happened to have lots of stock on hand, so I was able to say yes to this last minute opportunity. And I'm so glad I did! The shoppers were wonderful, I received many, many lovely words of praise about my work and people were gobbling it up. The whole day was like a craft show dream come true, including the weather. Not only that, I but I shared a booth with Monica Stroter of Sugar Paperie. She is so sweet and her note cards are so lovely. She was a source of calm, which was nice on such a hectic day.


So, thanks to Sara and Kim of Crafty Bastards/Hello Craft fame. You guys run a pretty fantastic show and were so great to work with. I am really so thankful to have been given this amazing opportunity!

Vinegar and Lemon Juice?

You may or may not know this, but 2009 is the year of green here at Elisa Shere Jewelry. I started hearing about other jewelrs using recycled metals, and finally have found a source. Even though it took a while to figure that part of it out, it really is the most important part since mining metals is devastating to the environment, and it's pretty easy to buy pre-recycled metals. The harder part is getting rid of some of the other nasty chemicals lurking about in my studio.

One of the things metalsmiths use when making their jewelry is a substance called "pickle". It's a yucky chemical that removes the dirt that collects on your metal after you've heated it. Some alternatives are citric acid and, as I found out today, vinegar and salt. I am currently using citric acid (which is really lemon) in my pickle pot and it works just fine. See, that wasn't so bad? And the earth is just a little bit happier!

Still Life

I love still lifes. I especially love perfect little still lifes that you stumble upon, particularly sparse ones that occur by chance. While photographing some new pieces yesterday I noticed this nice little still life in our kitchen. A little pile of fresh bay leaves that I was drying for future use and a stack of fabric napkins. So simple, so serene that I couldn't help taking a picture of it. In this 250 year old cabin I live in, these still lifes are everywhere.

Weekend Sale: Necklaces!

To kick off the weekend (yes, Valentine's Day weekend) I am having a sale on my best seller - necklaces. 15% off all weekend long just for you. Also, my sale was featured in this week's Etsy "Weekend Deal" email and blog feature, which is very exciting. Thanks to Mary in admin and Etsy for the feature.

• To take advantage of the sale, please enter the code "kisskiss" at checkout and you will be refunded via paypal. Have a lovely Valentine's Day and a restful weekend.

Merry Mart this Weekend!

Still have some holiday shopping to do? Then shop local! This weekend presents an excellent opportunity to do so. This Sunday, December 7th is the Merry Mart craft show at The Creative Alliance at the Patterson. It's worth going to just check out the space, which houses several resident artists, a gallery and a theatre. However, there will be so many talented local crafters at Merry Mart showing their stuff. My pick? Biggs and Featherbelle, my favorite soap in the whole world! And, they are really nice too.

Here are the details:

Sunday, December 7th from 11am-5pm
3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore

See you there!