earcandyarts – a region of StudioWhat

My Holiday Open Studio event was wonderful! If you missed it and are still interested in purchasing some of my pottery or earcandyarts earrings as gifts, please call and you can still come by my studio for a private showing. I have bowls, lidded jars, and tiny dishes and large plates at great prices. Also, I am selling pottery and earrings in two events on Bainbridge Island this weekend, December 10th and 11th:

Saturday, December 10th – 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Holiday Extravaganza – 724 Ericksen Avenue (Eagle Harbor Building) The office of Lydia Harrison, Island Educational Services.
There will be about 8 vendors with many hand made items for sale. Bring a canned good to benefit Helpline House, or enter a raffle to win a basket of items – proceeds benefit Helpline House.

Sunday, December 11th – 1p.m. to 5 p.m.
The Home of Amy Weber, Designer, Wanton Willow Designs, fine hand painted textiles for the home.
6268 Lariat Loop – coming from the north: just before Lynwood Center central, go right up Baker Hill Road to the top of that long hill, then go right onto Lariat Loop.
Amy is opening her home for a showing and sale of Wanton Willow’s exquisite creations. Come by for a warm drink and nibbles. I’ll have my pottery there and a small selection of earrings.

Please pass this information on to friends who might be interested in coming. Thanks!

Dear Friends,
It’s that time of year again and gift-giving is on our minds. My tip: Buy locally and buy handmade…

You are invited to attend my third annual Holiday Open Studio at my home and pottery studio on
Saturday December 3rd and Sunday December 4th from from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
with special guest artist and friend, Wendy Armstrong.

At the Open Studio event I’ll be offering earrings in sets of three (and pairs too), and new pottery creations. My good friend Wendy Armstrong will be offering her exquisite rocks – beautiful, detailed paintings of beetles and other things – like those shown above. She will have a good selection at great prices!

Please stop by for a visit and refreshments. You’ll be entered in a door prize drawing just for showing up!

If you can’t make it that weekend but want to come and have a look, call me to arrange a convenient time. OR call and make an appointment to stop by on the Sunday after Thanksgiving if you’d like to get a head start on shopping. Check my earcandyarts web site for updates on what’s available.

I accept VISA, Mastercard, and American Express  and cash or check for all of your purchases. You can also make earring purchases from my Etsy shop where I accept Paypal, OR use your PayPal account at my shop during the event.

If you’re on Facebook, you can “like” my earcandyarts Facebook page and participate in future earring giveaways. I hope to hear from you soon! Forward this on to friends who might be interested.

Sending love,
Linn
Drop me an email to get directions.

I’ve been busy the last weeks, making new sets of three, but as I worked I discovered something interesting…making pairs is fun too! So, as you will see, I have pairs available now though my Etsy shop and also at the Kingston Farmers most Saturdays. The sad thing is that I’m almost out of head pins.

Last fall I purchased beautiful silver from Rio Grande, a supplier in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The quality of their silver is the very best I’ve seen. I switched to “argentium” silver which will not tarnish! Many summer weekends outside at the market quickly tarnished my shiny bright silver earring parts, forcing me to face polishing with less than perfect results. According to Wikipedia, here is a description of Argentium silver: “Argentium sterling silver is a modern sterling silveralloy which modifies the traditional alloy (92.5% silver + 7.5% copper) by replacing some of the copper with the metalloid germanium. As it retains the 92.5% silver content of the traditional alloy, it is still referred to as sterling silver.”

The slide gallery on my welcome page shows my new earrings using Argentium silver components. Check my Etsy page too!

It’s cold, sort of, and wet, definitely. And when the wind blows it feels colder and makes the wet go sideways. I am always amazed how the Flowering Current, Indian Plum, the tender blooms on the fruit trees, and the narcissus, crocus and daffodils can possibly survive the chill and pounding rains. But they do, although not always well.

The deer are on the prowl for fresh and tasty spring greens and have nibbled away on the not-open buds of my daffodils, the tender day lilies, and of course, the quickly growing grass of which they can eat all they want. I find myself in high spirits when the sun shines, more quiet and pensive when it is gray. But gray it is much of the time so I need to bring those high spirits into play when there is no sunshine to bring it on. Friends, spin class, and beads of lovely colors do that for me.

I’ve been looking at my beads lately, trying to create, but at the moment no creations are emerging. That’s ok, though, because my hands will wake up, my creative curiosity will become insatiable, and I will make in abundance again.

Meanwhile, I need to ask a question: Asymmetrical, not quite matching earrings in threes…is it an interesting concept that is worthy of continuing, or are matching twos more practical/desirable?

Send me your honest comment and get entered in a drawing for a set of three!

Dear Friends,

You are invited to attend a Holiday Open Studio at my home and pottery studio in Kingston, Washington, on Saturday and Sunday, December 4th and 5th from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days. If you’re local or nearly local to Kingston, Washington, contact me through this site and I will send directions. There will be strategically placed signage to guide you here.

At the Open Studio event I’ll be offering earrings in sets of three, my line of PAIRS called simplesweets, and pottery from my hands (when they were both working – see Update below). News! Wanton Willow Design’s Amy Weber (also my good pal) is featuring her beautiful hand-dyed and painted scarves this weekend! Another great reason to come by.

Please stop by for a visit and refreshments. You’ll be entered in a door prize drawing just for showing up! Also with the pottery, I’m offering a “Buy One, Take One” deal, where if you buy one of my “firsts” you can choose a free pot from my “seconds” shelf. If you can’t make it that weekend but want to come and have a look, send me an email to set a convenient time.

I now accept VISA, Mastercard, and American Express  and good old cash or check. Earrings come in gift packaging and I can mail them to anyone, anywhere in the US for free if you like! Bring your address list and I will provide gift notes to include with your gift which you can fill out yourself. You can also make earring purchases from my Etsy shop where I accept Paypal.

Remember to check here for updates, and if you’re on Facebook, you can “like” my earcandyarts on Facebook page and participate in regular earring giveaways. I hope to hear from you soon! Let your friends know. Special note: If you’ve read this far, mention this blog post when you come by and get 15% off your purchase! Indulge yourself silly.

Sending love,
Linn

If you like earcandyarts on Facebook, you can be a contender in my regular drawings for earrings. They’re free and sent to you in a gift box, but you can’t win if you don’t play! I’ve had three drawings where I ask followers to post a “hello” in any language to be entered in the giveaway drawing. The most recent drawing was a big one. Rather than ask you to post a greeting, I put ALL of my Facebook followers in the basket and drew THREE winners! Usually, the Impartial Accounting Firm is the one who is blindfolded before picking the winner, but he wasn’t available, so I did it myself! Next time, you might win. Next time I’ll be asking for you to post your favorite quote to be entered so stay in touch! And if you’re on Facebook and want to  follow earcandyarts, click here and join the growing crowd: earcandyarts on Facebook

I'm somewhat fuzzy and so is my scarf.

And every single one of them were put into the basket.

Three names were chosen. Coincidentally, they all know each other.

Congratulations to the winners, Terri, Susan and Lila! I’ll choose the earrings and send them to you.

Today, Friday 3 September, the Impartial Accounting Firm randomly chose the winning name in this Earring Giveaway. How can you get involved? Find my Facebook page and “like” it! I’ll post announcements that a Giveaway is in place and all you have to do is post a hello in any language to be entered. After the winner is chosen, two more names are randomly drawn to be automatically entered in the NEXT Giveaway. Play!

Here is the evidence:

The Impartial Accounting Firm

The IAF chooses the winner!

And the winner is Diane Quitslund!!! Two additional names were chosen to be automatically included in the NEXT Giveaway: Tiffany Lin and Tami Mathisen.

One of the things I love about making things, whether it be earrings or pottery, cookies or cupcakes, is giving them away! I decided to have my very first (of many I hope) giveaways through the earcandyarts Facebook page. When I announced the giveaway, I asked everyone interested to respond to my post with a greeting, and they were entered. The first event drew 15 earcandyarts followers and I hope the next one is double that! Everyone’s name was added to the bowl and my faithful Impartial Accounting Firm, blindfolded and gagged (well, not really gagged), drew the winning name from the bowl. Two more names were drawn – they will automatically be entered in the NEXT earcandyarts Giveaway! So join me on Facebook and when I announce the next one, post a greeting and you’ll be entered!

15 entries!

All the names are in the bowl and the winner is ready to be chosen.

Meet the Impartial Accounting Firm.

The Impartial Accounting Firm chooses the winning name!

Several weeks ago I was visited by two throwbacks from another age in pirate-like costumes that reminded me of a Johnny Depp film. Today it was all about gaga for Lady Gaga, who is performing tonight at the Tacoma Dome. These young women had a long wait in make up and stillettos for their hero. The pirates were on their way to pay a visit with their pals at the Society for Creative Anachronism. I love costumes. Although I don’t donn them often, I would love to appear at the Market in a ball gown some day. Maybe next week?

Two very handsome pirates.

Ready for Lady Gaga's performance

Next, there’s Amber and her Mom, Vicki. They come by every single week and are my most frequent visitors (and avid eca fans!!). Amber loves LONG earrings though She decided to make off with this entire array of deep purple/blue cubes. The middle set I made first. Within minutes of finishing them and hanging them on my display, Amber came along for the first time and asked if she could get them one bead longer. I said, “come back in 1/2 hour.” She came back and claimed the long set, then several weeks later bought the original set. The single bead set I made because these were my very LAST three beads of this kind. I don’t know if I will ever find them again! But that’s what makes these special…they are definitely one of a kind. Thank you Amber and Vicki!!

Shortest to longest on this side. I love that Amber thinks like I do.

Three in one, longest to shortest.

Pottery offers so many challenges, both creative and technical. I’m not a technical sort, so I work with what know-how I have though I continue to seek more. My latest kiln opening offered these porcelain lidded jars. Photographing pottery is not easy and these images don’t do justice to the surface colors and details in some cases. I’ll be bringing them to the Kingston Farmers Market in the next weeks so come by so you can see them!

This is where they live for now.....on the piano and under Greg's paintings.

This is a set of three. Their insides are the colors of the outsides but mixed up!

...and their tops

This is a whimsical jar that I had a lot of fun making and glazing. Side 1.

Side 2 of the Whimsey Jar.

...and its lovely aqua interior.

Cobalt - deeply beautiful blue and soft, round lines. It's yellow on the inside.

Inside the cobalt jar.

Lid detail.

Moonrise over the dark horizon...a lovely, light jar with domed lid.

The colors on this are stunningly beautiful, like the sea on a sunny day.