Website is Finally Up!!!

I finally have a *real* website up and running. It's at www.windingroadjewelry.com.

The offerings are pretty limited, but this is the week I have scheduled for taking pictures and doing the updates. I'm not planning on putting my entire inventory on the web, so if you saw something at a show it's still best to email or call me about it.

Rocks for Christmas

Yep, I'm thinking about Christmas again already. I'm out in the shop turning boring old rocks into gorgeous gems for this fall's jewelry designs. The question of the week is whether I'll get the stones finished or grind off my knuckles first.

New picture

I finally changed out the picture at the top of the page--it's Nancy Damron's close-up of last year's state fair piece.

We survived July 4 on the square in Granbury! It was so hot we could almost bake bread in our tent, and Ed narrowly escaped a trip to the ER. But as always, we enjoyed meeting everyone. The people who come into our booth are some of the nicest ones, and we love talking about rocks.

Updating show schedule

Our summer schedule is coming together, but rather slowly.  A lot of the festivals are put on by non-profits that rely on volunteers to make things happen and I love them for what they do.  I just wish that they would send out definite confirmations more in advance.   So far, here's the schedule for Summer 2009:

June 5-6-7  Alleyfest in Longview, TX

June 20-21 Gruene Market Days

 

July 4-5 Granbury Fourth of July in Granbury, TX

July 18-19 Gruene Market Days

August--vacation and classes

September--pending 

October 24 Texas Country Reporter in Waxahachie, TX

And that's as far as we've got, folks.  Keep checking back--you'll know as soon as I do.

The Latest News

The news is...I got some new pictures back from Nancy Damron this weekend.  I replaced the stone in my State Fair piece not too long ago and decided it needed a competent photographer to do it justice.  I now have a big enough collection of pictures to take them in to a local printer and have some banners made to hang in the booth.  It should liven things up nicely instead of just having plain white walls.

The men's collection is coming along nicely so far.  I have a couple of stones cut with more on the way, and one piece is completed.  I used a petrified palm wood (Texas' state stone) and cut it to show both the beautiful red inside the stone and the great texture on the outside from millions of years under ground.

Ch-ch-changes

Boy, things are changing around here...I have a shop now, and a shop assistant to go with it; my daughter is helping out for awhile.   She's a good stone cutter--she ought to be since my dad gave her her start--and she'll get a chance to work with some of the fabulous rough I've bought the last couple of years.  Look for new pieces in natural American turquoise, Australian black jade, Texas plume agates and more.

My husband has been prodding me to do something for the guys.  He wants to know why the girls get all the cool stones.  So I'll probably debut a small collection in May before Father's Day.  I'm thinking about rings and bolo ties to start, and a friend of mine asked me to make him a silver cross which he loved at first sight.  

Oh wow, I didn't realize just how long it had been since I updated the blog--no excuses there.  Our season has started, with Gruene Market Days on the third weekend of every month.  Other shows are pending, so I'll list them as we get our notices.  

One of the best things about Gruene is that this is our third year there and we have a great little neighborhood of friends.  My next door neighbor is Ann Feldmeier of Clay Hearts Pottery.  She's been a potter since I don't know when and makes the most wonderful hand-painted pieces.  Ed bought a parrot jug from her a couple of weeks ago after he fell in love with it while "booth-sitting" for her.  Ed has named him Pete, and we're still looking for the best place for his perch.  I think Ed is toying with the idea of asking Ann to make a bowl of some kind that he can sit in as a nest, but I'm not positive.

Another of our neighbors is Texas Redneck BBQ Sauce.  Tim and James make the most amazing sauce and they're both great cooks as well.  It makes our potluck lunches on Saturday quite an adventure.  James asked me to make him a silver cross before Christmas and it took me awhile to get it like I wanted it, but he loved it once it was finished.  

We'll be back there March 21 and 22 with lots of cool new stuff, including some new stones cut from rough I bought in Tucson.