Saving Shelter Pets fundraiser!

Just a quick blog post to let everyone know that from August 22 to 31, I'll be participating in my third annual Saving Shelter Pets fundraiser, where 20% of the proceeds from my nature-inspired jewelry shop during this time period will be donated to help fund low-cost spay and neuter clinics. As a veterinary student, this is a cause that is pretty close to my heart, for many reasons. An intact female cat, for example, can produce over 100 kittens over her lifetime - and that's not counting her kittens' kittens, or the number of kittens that a male can produce with multiple females. Most of these kittens or puppies won't find homes, and will end up on the streets or euthanized in a shelter. We adopted our cats from the SPCA, and sometimes I think about what might have happened to them if nobody had wanted them, and it makes me pretty bummed.

Spaying and neutering is also in the best interests of both you and your pet - it can help eliminate unwanted behaviours such as urine marking by toms, howling during heats, and blood spotting by female dogs. Additionally, health benefits for your pet include reducing mammary tumors and reproductive tract infections - some of which I've seen first-hand, and are really painful for the animal and just gross for us.

So, if you're interested in supporting this cause, please check out some of the great shops that are participating in this fundraiser over the next two weeks:




And to find out more information about Saving Shelter Pets, check out their site.

Thanks guys!

Oh, one more thing: how do you know I'm actually going to donate this money? Last year I had some questions from buyers about how to know that I was donating the money as promised. I assured them I would send them a copy of my donation receipt at the end of the fundraiser, but forgot, which is terrible. So, here is a screen shot of my Paypal receipt:



And a newsletter after the fundraiser, acknowledging my participation (my name is Victoria, by the way).

New and previewed

Clearly, I have discovered the verdigris finish.

Organized crime

Since I started acquiring masses of jewelry supplies in July, I've been mostly keeping them in baggies since I knew I would be moving out east soon after, so there was no point in doing any heavy-duty organization. Since I got to Montreal on Friday I've been itching to organize my junk - yesterday Davis took me to Canadian Tire and we picked up a hand drill for my metal stampings (so excited to start using it!) and this baby:



It was about $20 and has 96 little boxes. I was torn between this one and an upright one with 60 little drawers, which was only $10. But I thought with the extra space I might as well go with this one; plus I can pull out each tray and look at all the contents at once, whereas with the drawers I'd have to pull out each drawer individually to find what I was looking for.


It was a bit of a pain in the butt to sit and pop in all the little dividers. I also found out that unfortunately they don't sit quite flush to the bottom and top, since the corners of the dividers are slightly rounded. I guess if you're storing screws and nuts and bolts and things, that might not matter, but if I were to store the boxes on their side as it's designed for, little tiny things like jump rings and fine chain would slip out of their boxes and visit their neighbours. In the end I don't think it will be a big deal, I'll probably just store the box on its side.


I divided my supplies into 4 categories for each of the 4 trays. Findings:


...beads:


...charms:


and finished products.


Because I don't really have my own studio or office, I'm just storing my box next to my desk. It's pretty convenient though; much better than digging through plastic baggies!


I love hardware stores.

From sketch to sale

Originally posted Aug. 3 2009:

I don't usually have a set design when I sit down and make jewelry - usually I just dump out my stash on the kitchen table and wait for inspiration to strike. Sometimes I shuffle things around like a child's unwanted veggies, seeing if that lights a spark; overall it's a pretty random process.

I bought two vine charms a few weeks ago, and from the beginning I had a germ of an idea what I wanted to do with them, since I also had some lovely cranberry glass blossoms that I thought would match nicely. Since I was starting from a set point, albeit an ephemeral one, I wanted to continue in that vein and plan my piece out a little. I'm a horrific drawer and sketcher, so I traced the vine on looseleaf and added in the details:


I wanted to work more with this cranberry colour - it's so lush, more delicate than red and more vibrant than pink. I visited the bead store to pick up some Swarovski crystals to finish it off - a bicone in fuchsia and a teardrop in blood red, and got to work.


I had difficulty hanging the charms from the vine - I still have a lot to teach myself.


In the end though, I was quite pleased with the result. I love the combination of cranberry and antique gold, plus I found out that another name for the cranberry is 'mossberry' - how perfect to name the necklace!


This item is available in my Etsy shop. The one in my sketch with the bird is in antique silver, and it is available here!