Sale at Earthenwood Studio website

  Just a reminder, in case you don't subscribe to my newsletter, I have added some fun new skull themed items to the website and am having a sale to celebrate the fresh new site design!  Use the code NEWDESIGN at checkout until the end of the month for 20% off your entire purchase!   Click here to go to Earthenwood Studio!   Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.

New work at Michigan Artisans!

  I had a busy couple of weeks on my quest to branch out with my jewelry line and stock up some of the popular galleries and shops that I have been wanting to work with.  Another place that you can now find my jewelry in the Detroit area is Michigan-Artisans, located in Detroit in the Historic Eastern Market in the old Germack Pistachio building at 1400 E. Fisher.  It's a fun little shop filled with lots of Michigan made goodies.  I saw lots of my artist friends' works there, which made me happy!  I left them with a scattering of jewelry, heavier on the Michigan/Detroit/auto-industrial themed goods.  I am curious to see how it sells there.

 These are new, tiny car earrings.  I think they are pretty fun! :) Vroom vroom!   Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.

Retired Logo and Rusty Banner

In the process of editing and redesigning the Earthenwood website, I decided I need a fresh start when it comes to my logo.  I have been using the one below for over 15 years. It's a great logo, and it has served me well and has been through many changes over the years. My ex-husband designed it all those years ago, which I must admit is part of the reason I would like to retire it. Over the years, I have changed the colors, worked with it in black and white, and twisted and turned it every way I could think.  But that's a long time to look at one graphic, and my business is changing, so I feel the need to change my web style around more often too.

 I made the new banner at the top to use for now.  It might not stay for a long time, but its new and I like it.  It feels fresher and cleaner, lighter and not as heavy handed. I held on so long to the old logo, feeling the need for brand recognition, but maybe the name Earthenwood itself is sufficient.  Maybe even my work is recognizable enough without the branding.

My new site (at least at the moment) is mostly white!  That's a huge departure for me.  I love things that are earthy, dirty, clay covered, rusty.  But I think designwise, I overdo it.  So I kept it mostly white, put a subtle torn edge frame around all of the product photos, and added my rust into the banner.  I used this photo for the background: it's from two huge pieces of rusted metal I found i my backyard a few years ago when tearing down the crazy Kludge fence. The metal is beautiful, rusty, textured, crusty.  I toned it way down for the background of the banner, but I wanted it to be something from my life, not just a stock texture.

I am pleased with the site redesign for now.  I still need to edit the pages, update my show schedule and links, and redo my About Me page. Its a slow process, but it is starting to feel like I have accomplished something and can move onto the next new things, which I have been researching while I edit the old. It's starting to feel like a fresh start, not letting go entirely of the old, but incorporating it into the new in a satisfying way.

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.

Earthenwood Website Update Progress

I have been making progress in changing directions with my work to focus on wholesaling jewelry lately.  While I am moving ahead and fine tuning my jewelry lines, I am also editing my bead and jewelry component lines.  I am not ending that part of my business entirely... not at all.  But I am definitely narrowing my focus with beads.  My main goal right now is to take a good look at my Earthenwood website, take new photos of my best sellers, and make the site look better than ever and more efficient too.  I am about a quarter of the way done with this time consuming process of photographing, editing, and reworking my product entries.  Some of the items have never had very accurate pictures, like some of my best selling face stones, so it is good to be going through and getting everything cleaned up and complete.  Maybe another snow day or two and I will get it all done!

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.

New Work at Yellow Door Art Market

 Wow, it's been a really long time since I blogged! I guess the holidays took over my life and then I needed a month to recover.  But here we are in early February and I am working on lots of changes in my art and career!  My goal has been to focus more on my finished jewelry line and working with galleries and wholesaling.  I am making lots of progress there, starting at the local level.

Just a few days ago, I set up at the awesome art market Yellow Door in Berkley, MI.  I have loved this gallery, and it's sister stores Catching Fireflies, for many years and am very proud to be a part of it now.  I signed up for an endcap space and got some new displays.  My theme is rusty colors and gears with a little bit of filigree elegance.  I think it pulls together the variety of jewelry items that I have on display.  Yellow Door was the push I needed to change directions from my jewelry component business and start to plan for more galleries, so I am excited to get to work now!  Hopefully I can stay motivated and begin blogging again... we'll see!
 

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.

More New Work

Here are a few of the newest carvings I have done recently. They are studies really, sketches in clay.  It's exciting to be playing and exploring new imagery, different clay, different surfaces.  I have done test tiles and started a few vessels...mugs that I am really excited about. If I can finish up what I have in the studio this week successfully, I will be showing these pieces at Noel Night at CCS (the college where I graduated) this Saturday for an evening sale.  I wanted to have this new work exclusively for the event, but have not been as productive as I had hoped (and also I have sold several pieces already... yay!) so I might have to augment with jewelry. Or decide to pass and stick to Rust Belt for the night.  We'll see what the week brings...

 "Cherry on Top" ~sold

 

 "Caged Freedom" ~sold

 "Contemplations on Service"

Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.

What's New?

I have been working larger lately.  I switched to red stoneware, which is what I use to make my gift tiles.  I started making some of my goddess tiles again, too, since I have the clay out.  But what I really want is to work with new imagery, not from molds, so I am not repeating the same things over and over so they bore me.  I want something more fresh, images and symbols I can explore, that can feed off of each other.  I started with the tile format, drawing and lightly carving line drawings into slabs of clay. I did a few shallow little plates, but they seemed impractical for hanging.  I did the two large bowls above, which I really enjoyed making, but as an end product, I am not sure how much I will like them, as they will not be functional bowls for eating upon. I am still not sure what format I like best, and I am bouncing between the tile (as it is just a simple blank canvas) and something more functional, to go back to my potter roots.  I am even thinking that if I am going for the blank canvas route, why not just paint or draw on wood or other materials, and not bother with all the steps of ceramics.  On the other hand, clay is what I know and love most, so if I follow that, perhaps I can explore a highly functional format, in the ceramic tradition, like the coffee/teacup. I have always loved cups and they are items that are easily understandable and easier to display and sell than less functional sculpture.  This week's goal is to experiment with a cup or two, to see if that inspires me at all...


Melanie is an artist, blogger, writer, and ceramic beadmaker at Earthenwood Studio. Her beads and components can be found at her Etsy shop and her jewelry can be found in her Etsy Galleria. To comment on this post, visit the original post at the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Blog.