Salvador Dali Jewelry

I was thinking a lot about jewelry designers, and like, which ones really inspire me, and really make me want to MAKE jewelry, and realized that one of them is definitely, without a doubt, Salvador freakin Dali. A lot of people don't know that he even made jewelry, but in the early 1940's he began to design and produce, with the silversmith Carlos Alemany, his first collection of pieces.



The iconic lips....


The sacred heart



The super iconic eye watch....



My personal fave, the bleeding pomegranate heart....



The SPACE ELEPHANT



Awesome leaf hand





The Pax pin....most of these actually are pins....



Bleeding honeycomb heart






I don't know WHAT the hell that is....but I like it!

Earrings!

So, I've been trying to make something other than necklaces lately. I've never been a big bracelet wearer (though I've been trying) or ring wearer (I have swollen joints in my hands, so its hard to make rings fit). I've always worn like tons of necklaces....like, layering lots of delicate ones, or rocking a really major one. I also wear a lot of earrings. I have 4 piercings in each ear, and lately have in experimenting with mismatching orphaned earrings. These are some photos of earrings I've made recently, all of which are on etsy.



This guy is made from a vintage watchband. Its gold-filled, with a really cool pattern on it. I like how the watchbands are jointed, you know? Gives it a snake-like quality. I wire-wrapped the crystals that hang from the bottom. (My wire-wrapping is coming along, but I still need more practice.)


These are favorites. I wire wrapped these crystals too, and hung them from the ear hook with sterling silver feathers, and a tassel of chain. The chain is knotted, and the knot has adhesive, so it won't come undone.



I made this guy out of a broken sterling and semi-precious stone bracelet. I just hung some sterling feathers (I had jacked a lot of these feathers from really ugly hippie earrings I got at a thrift shop in the midwest....) and called it a day!



This guy was a bit more involved than the others. The gold colored part is actually part of a clasp to a multi-strand necklace. I measured and cut black chain, and added crystals wrapped in copper wire. They're a little heavy, but trust me, they won't rip your ear open!

Oingo Boingo T-shirt Art

Oingo Boingo is pretty much one of favorite bands ever. They had their own unique and super weirdo kind of vibe, but were also just incredibly tight....the musicianship was slammin! They also had some of the most AMAZING concert shirts ever! The art is totally crazy, with a very strong recurring Day of the Dead theme that I LOVE.






Very strong Day of the Dead imagery.




This is the pattern througout the ENTIRE shirt....I've never seen this one up close, but I scour ebay all the time for ANY of these shirts....though, usually they are way too pricey for me....



I actually have this on a sweatshirt....I was like, "It's a skeleton....riding a t-rex through the city....while ufos attack....whooooaaaaah!" I also like how the building behind them says "nervous energy"....wtf?



Badass!

Sadly, I've not beed able to find exactly who was responsible for all this art. Mark Ryden did a lot of their posters and t-shirts. Georganne Deen did a lot of their album covers, including the iconic "Nothing to Fear" cover.


"Nothing to Fear"

Live Music Photography

Music is an overwhelming large part of my life. As a musician, it permeates every facet of me in some way or another. I love actually playing music, but I love going to see live shows just as much. See, despite all that love of sound, I am a very visual person. This is probably a large part of why I'm also very into fashion, and ultimately making jewelry....its my way of creating visual art, or some kind of visual narrative. I got into taking photos of bands performing in high school. I sort of forgot about it until a few years back when I finally got a digital camera. My camera is a piece of crap, and I only know how to use iphoto, but these are some of the best shots I've taken in the past year or so.....


JERSEYBAND at Le Poisson Rouge (so is the photo above)





RAILBIRD at The Living Room






MY MORNING JACKET at Terminal 5




STEVE CONTE at Stubbs BBQ in Austin for SXSW






THE DAPKINGS at the Apollo (I wasn't actually allowed to take pictures, and Sharon Jones hadnt gone on yet....I snuck ONE picture before the guys backstage said I couldn't....damn)






THE CALLERS at Le Poisson Rouge





HOLLY MIRANDA at The Bowery Ballroom





THE REX COMPLEX at Cameo





GATO LOCO at The Bowery Poetry Club






YULA AND THE EXTENDED FAMILY at the Bowery Poetry Club



More photos to come!!!!

First pieces of 2011

So, I've been on a roll in the beginning of 2011, and cranked out some pretty rad pieces....


This one was really time-consuming. I had all this cool wood skull beads, and so I placed them on a multi-strand silver-tone necklace. I hand -knotted the chain to keep the beads in place, and reinforced each knot with a drop of adhesive (liquid crazy glue)

I like how earthy the wood makes them look..



This piece was more straightforward to make. Rhinestones, chain, and a badass sword pendant. Nuff said.

Its missing one stone, but I think thats a huge part of the appeal.

I love swords!


This necklace I made out of a piece of a vintage rhinestone choker, chain fringe from some tacky necklace, black chain, and one of my favorites; wing charms.

I love the mixed textures here....the chain, stones and detailed wings.

I love the color of vintage rhinestones. They have a grey shine to them.


This one is really special, because i wire-set the quartz points myself. I'm still getting the technique down, but progress was totally made. I used copper colored wire, and the bird charm seemed like the next step. I love mixed metals


One of my absolute favorites!