~*Wipes dust off blog*~

What, an update? You mean I wasn't kidnapped by goblins and hidden deep underground in their lair? Actually, that might be a bit more fun than what actually happened: I've spent the past few months finding (then getting used to having) a second job and trying desperately to locate an apartment my fiancé and I can afford- a difficult task in Pennsylvania, let me tell you! But good luck has arrived, after taking its sweet time getting to us. While it does take away some of my creative time, I do like the second job and it means my fiancé and I will be moving into our new apartment on July 1st. That's the day after my birthday and I think being able to finally afford to move away from my family and into my own life again certainly counts as a celebration in and of itself! ;)

(My fiancé and I have been talking about hopefully getting married in the spring, so I'm sure there will be ramblings about that in the future. Fingers crossed, anyway!)

I'll be posting art updates again soon, but just wanted to do a quick post about what's been going on. Once the move is done and we're unpacked, I'm looking forward to life calming down. Just haven't had a lot of time to make art, work on costumes, write, or work on my D&D game and that makes for a sad elf-girl. Believe me, I'll be working those muses hard soon, though!

Giveaway to celebrate my Etsyversary!

April 16th is the five year anniversary of the day I first opened my Etsy shop- I'd say that's a reason to celebrate!

My fantasy team teammate Aquariann is hosting a giveaway for a $25 gift card to my shop. It's really easy to enter; just go to her blog here and check out the many ways to snag entries (like following our blogs, twitters, facebooks, that kind of thing- and there's also a discount code I have going that'll give you 10% off items from my shop and 10 entries to the contest!).

You can enter until 11:59pm EST on April 25, 2012. Since most of the items in my shop are $25 and under, this giveaway gives you a really good selection. :)

Art Update - Yup, I'm an elf who makes far too many earrings

I haven't been completely slacking off with art updates, I swear! Last week I updated my writing blog with pictures from a photoshoot of the elf costume I've been putting together (it's on the writing blog because the costume is technically a cosplay of one of my characters). There's nothing I like better than wearing an elf costume; there's just something about getting to be someone else for a while and getting to wear pointy ears that makes me incredibly happy. :)

I'm not going to repost the whole thing (please just click that link above), but here's one of the photos:


I have lots and lots of costume ideas, so assuming I can remember how to use a sewing machine and find one to borrow, I'll be doing more costume posts later this year. Anyone want to make a sewing machine magically appear for a certain elf-girl to use? ;)

Cartilage chain earrings:
Like usual, I've been working on some cartilage earrings over the past month or so. The first four of these were custom orders, the last is one in my shops.

Black and Silver Music Cartilage Chain Earrings- A music-inspired pair of chain earrings with a double chain on the cartilage one.


Brown feather connecting lobe chain earrings- This is a pair of chain earrings that both connect between two lobe piercings with double chains. The beads dangling are wood and the feather charms are pewter.


Purple and Yellow Feather Cartilage Chain Earring- This connecting chain earring was a remake of this earring but in a different set of colors and with a cuff.


Brown and Green Feather Cartilage Chain Earrings- Another pair of connecting chain earrings for multiple piercings. I'm not sure why the colors are showing so blue in this; the links in the chain are the same as in this version of the earring.


Black and Green Shamrock Cartilage Chain Earring- This earring is a remake of this one since I ran out of the shamrock bead that I originally used. This is on Etsy and Artfire.

Ear Cuffs:

Larger cross cartilage ear cuff- This one was a custom order for the person who also wanted this one:


Tiny cross ear cuff- This one is very tiny (only about 10mm long for the cross dangling), but it's subtle and cute. I did have enough charms to remake this one, so it's up on Etsy.


Black and Gold Crescent Moon Ear Cuff- This ear cuff is pretty much this silver and black one, but with a color change. You can find this one on both Etsy and Artfire.

Wow, that's way more earrings than I thought I'd made. Sorry about the long post!

Art Update - Crochet time! (Plushies and ears)

Last catch-up blog post; these were the crocheted things I made as gifts for the holidays.


This doll was a gift for the same friend who got the purple and white bracelet in the last update. This is Arthalion, one of her characters. I remembered that this character was really into books, so I made sure to make one of those for him. (That's leather and linen fabric sewn together.) Most of the doll is crocheted from acrylic yarn, the buckles on his shirt are fabric paint, I painted his eyes, and his belt is felt. He's about 6" tall.

I made this doll to match this doll that I made her last year. I'm just happy whenever I get to make elf dolls. :D


Two of these things I posted about in the last update, but that crocheted mouse was a gift for her new kitty. If her cat's anything like mine, he'll completely ignore it. Ah, cats. XD



Rawr! It's a blurry dragon! (I hate finishing art when it's not a bright sunny day, lol.) This was crocheted from a pattern I found on Ravelry and was a gift for a secret santa who is into fantasy. I figured a dragon who looks like Smaug would be a fun thing to give her. :) He's crocheted from acrylic yarn with orange-yellow safety cat eyes. If I remember right, he's a foot or so long; he's a pretty big plushie.

For the same friend I also made these fingerless gloves:


And these elf ears weren't a gift (it was a custom order), but since it's crochet, I'll include it in this entry:

Blarg, yet another reason I hate winter; photos are always so dark and blurry indoors! But hey, costume ears. Who doesn't like green ears? ;)

I think I'm caught up with back entries- now I only have to remember to get around to blogging current art. We'll see how that works out. ;)

Art Update - Presents of jewelry and chainmaille

You can tell how behind with blog posts I am because these things were all Christmas presents. I made some crocheted things, too, but this update is just going to be a quick post of the jewelry gifts. Click the pictures to go to the larger versions on flickr.


I made this necklace as a Christmas present for one of my best friends; she's really into purple- understatement time! The chainmaille is aluminum jump rings, the beads are acrylic and glass and the pendant is metal (and glass? I can't remember). I was going to add more embellishments to it but decided against it. That pendant was too pretty to not take center stage!


This purple (they're a bit more purple than they look in the photo) and white bracelet was a gift for another friend. I really like how the white looks on one of these bracelets; I'd never used white rubber jump rings before.


My best friend got the chainmaille red and black cross necklace and the Irish flag bracelet (I'll have to make more of those!), her boyfriend got the silver and black bracelet, and her mom got the eye of Horus necklace (this is polymer clay).


And this jewelry set was for my grandmother. The beads are glass (the blue ones and the pearls) and the gold beads are metal, and the earring posts are 14k gold. The bracelet is on a stretchy cord, which I figured would be best for my grandmother to wear. I don't usually make "normal" jewelry and am out of practice, so I'm really glad she likes them! :)

Art Update - Custom Cartilage Chain Earrings

I've been working on a lot of chain earrings recently, mostly involving custom orders. I always love custom orders with these because it lets me be creative and try out new ideas. :)

These ones were custom:

Key and cog silver, black and blue chain earring: This was an earring I made special for someone who has five piercings in her right ear; I sketched out some designs and she liked the three-two idea best. The chain is a thin silver-plated and connects between two upper cartilages and the top lobe, then the two bottom lobe posts connect together. The cogs are handmade from polymer clay, the beads are a turquoise and black colored glass, and the key charms are metal.

This looks bunched up on the mannequin's ear, but that's because the mannequin isn't life-sized. On an actual person, this earring will look smaller.


Blue and Black Double Lobe Chain Earrings: This design was a custom order, too, but I'm really liking the idea of chain earrings between two lobe earrings (I'd done this once before), so I'm going to make more of this style for my shops at some point soon. I'm really happy with how much the blue beads match the blue rings in the chain, too!


Gold and purple cartilage chain earring: I left the loop at the bottom empty on this earring because she's going to attach her own matching charm to the bottom. The chain is gold-colored copper, the earring posts are gold-colored metal, and the purple bead is glass.


Cartilage connecting chain plug earrings: These two earrings were requested by the same person; they wanted their gauged ear plugs turned into one of my cartilage chain earrings, so my fiancé and I worked to drill eyepin things into them for the chain to be connected to. That loop at the top is so the earring can slide onto a barbell cartilage earring (kind of like this earring).


Silver and Black Feather Connecting Cartilage Chain Earrings: This was my first try at using a premade chain rather than the chain I put together by hand, but I got a request for a thinner chain so I figured I'd try it. Luckily, it worked and I had smaller earring posts on hand than I usually use which fit this chain well. The chains and earring posts are silver-plated and the feathers are a silver-colored metal. There's actually a third earring that goes with this set that's for the left ear; that one just has the two lobe posts and a single chain like the right ear's (that's for if she wants to wear the earrings without the cartilage part sometimes).


Black, Blue and Purple Dragon Cartilage Chain Earring: This earring was a custom remake of this red/gold/silver version. I'm honestly not sure which color combination I like best, but now I want to make more of these in lots of different colors.

And new(ish) earrings for my shops:

Red and orange cartilage chain earring - Messenger's Feather - Etsy and Artfire
This is kind of a remake of this brown/red/orange version because I ran out of some of the beads, but I realized after I'd made it that I forgot the brown and did two reds. Whoops! So at some point I'll make a new-new version that's brown again.


Ice Crystals Blue and Silver Cartilage Chain Earring - Etsy and Artfire
Man, I seem to be on a color change kick recently. I ran out of beads on the original of this one, too, so remade it in just blue and silver (originally it was blue and purple).


I've been working on more chain earrings, too, so I'll share those in a later update. I do love earrings!