Blooming Rose Foundation

I just checked the website, and it looks like BloomingRoseFoundation.com is up and running! This is a new non-profit that helps the families of those with cystic fibrosis. My friend Kat started the organization after her daughter, Maylie was diagnosed at age 3.

The foundation social worker takes a “Bloom” basket to each family along with a list of positive contacts and resources in their local area. The foundation has been blessed with the support of some well known, established companies collaborating together to advertise on a national level. These companies are launching products using our logo to raise awareness and funds for the Cystic Fibrosis foundation. The foundation also have been given the rights to a beautiful line of rose shaped jewelry made in Montana. The Blooming Rose foundation will send 100% of all donations after yearly operational costs are met to aid in research leading to the inevitable cure.

The jewelry pictured above, as well as similar styles and sets, are available at The Blooming Rose Foundation website.

commissions

Here are some pieces I made this summer for others. I love it, keep them coming!

My mom and dad found this sapphire in the attic of their house here in Montana right after they bought it. They kept joking about the 100 year old house having hidden treasure in the walls, and they found it! Mom gave me the stone 2 years ago and asked that I make specifically a ring with a design inspired by Choteau. We decided to incorporate the leaves of the cottonwood trees that line the streets here. Happy birthday, mom!

These are zero gauge (8mm) ear plugs that I made for my friend and former roommate, Kristin. They were for her heartbreakingly gorgeous wedding held in Virginia in June. I've never made plugs before! Such great low-tech hollow form practice. Kristin is a talented graphic designer, and her wedding invites had a special feather adornment that she designed. The stone settings on these were loosely inspired by that line drawing.

Scarves for sale

Yes, folks, we had our first frost here in Montana, officially marking the first day of scarf season. In honor of it, I rounded up Hugh (and all his natural dapper-ness) for a fall photo shoot. Along with the two hand-woven alpaca scarves I've offered previously, I'm now including one of my art scarves from an installation I did in 2007. The first picture of the three seen here is from a series featured in FiberArts Magazine (Nov/Dec 2007,) and also recently exhibited in a juried craft exhibition in Rocky Mount, NC, where it received a juror's award. Please check it out, tell your friends, check out some of the jewelry (some pieces are still on sale for as low as $22!) at CaitieSellers.etsy.com

Trauma

I have been working on this collar for something like 3 weeks now. I don't get very many hours to work between all my other jobs, all of the errands and planning Hugh and I have been doing, and keeping my house in order. This is my last big piece to finish for Quirk, and the others aren't actually done yet either, but I have needed to get through this.

This picture is from last week. I finished all my soldering and forming, and only had some finishing and polishing to do.

And this is from yesterday. Funny how 3 weeks worth of work can be mangled in a tenth of a second by the polishing wheel. I am an idiot.

The good news is that it has since been salvaged, but it will never be the same. I have had to embrace it, and change my concept a little bit, and work through my ideas around this piece again. You can call it a creative challenge. I suppose it will be better for it. There was about an hour there when I was trying to put it back together that I just knew it was hopeless. Bawling doesn't make jewelry, though.