lemon tree love

It’s really sad that “Shop at awesome new online store” has been on my to-do list for two weeks!

I finally made it over to Lemon Tree Square tonight, and I am super excited about the goodies (and gifts) that are on their way to me. This new site is all eco-friendly gorgeousness, with a focus on sustainable items that are manufactured in the USA, and, bren design jewelry is in the lineup! Visit my Seed Earrings and Necklace (shown above), and Basic Bangle in the jewelry collection.

Other fun finds include shoulder bags from RetroActif made from reclaimed vinyl billboards, bamboo cutting boards from Element, and recycled paper stationary from Greenfield Paper Company.

The offerings I couldn’t refuse include a Bliss soy candle, the bamboo washcloths and soap by Bamboosa, and I really hope that spring is serious about showing up, because I won’t be able to wait to wear the bamboo jersey nightgown!

saturday show

Thanks to everyone who visited my booth at Cupid’s Gems in Lenexa on Saturday. I had a nice little space with plenty of natural light, and I really enjoyed the beautiful venue. The above photo is from my booth looking into the main barn room, and the image below is my space.

I was quite excited to meet a very talented Midwest metalsmith, Makenna Bartel, who recommended a couple of Kansas City summer shows that are now on my wish list. Visit her etsy site here to see her lovely work.

cupid's gems

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be at the Cupid’s Gems show in Lenexa Kansas on February 6th. This is my first year to attend this juried all-jewelry show featuring over 30 regional artists and a variety of media including 18-karat gold, sterling silver, hammered silver, semi-precious stones, antique buttons, pearls, and quilled paper.

After looking at images of the Lenexa Conference Center Thompson Barn, a recently restored space, I’m quite excited to see the building, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed I’ll get a space in the main floor of the barn. It’s beautiful.

I hope to see you there!

Cupid’s Gems
Saturday, February 6
10am - 5pm
Lenexa Conference Center Thompson Barn
11184 Lackman Rd, Lenexa, KS 66219
Free parking and admission
For more information call 913.541.0209

vessels

I have love for vessels. A whole shelf in my tiny kitchen is stacked with hand thrown bowls, gathered from art fairs and shops. My collection of cups, baskets, and wooden spoons spills out of the kitchen and into every other room of our apartment. It would only follow that this soft concave form would find a place in my metalwork. I’m quite delighted with a new addition to my tools: a dapping set, comprised of a 2” square block covered in half circles, with twenty-four steel punches with ball ends. A flat piece of metal is placed in a cup in the block, and the corresponding punch is hammered into the metal, gradually shaping the piece into a hemisphere.

After playing a bit with scrap metal (shown in the image above), I combined one of the small 3/8” diameter recycled sterling silver cups with a small handmade copper bead and a curling ear wire. The finished piece is around 1.5 inches long and beautiful worn front or back.

new

My new pieces are up on etsy! I'll be posting more this week...

applefest

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my booth at Weston’s Applefest this weekend. I am so grateful for all of the support and positive feedback about my work. I’ll be posting new styles from this show on my etsy site this week.

Many, many thanks to my family who let me borrow tables and a tent, helped with last minute display preparation, transportation, set up and takedown and general maintenance of my frazzled little mind. You all kept me sane!

Weston, MO is such a fun little town. We enjoyed a break in the rain, and even some sunshine on Sunday. My booth was close to the stage, and while it was incredibly loud, we enjoyed the entertainment. I have to admit that the bouncy banjo sound is delightfully contagious. My favorite group from the weekend was The Prairie Acre, a bluegrass band from Lawrence Kansas.

I didn’t have time to explore the stores, but did enjoy a lovely cup of tea at Artemis, and a tasty vegetarian squash stew of sorts from the Vineyard Restaurant’s booth.

We spent Saturday night at Saint George Hotel (the building in the front right of the photo), an historic site. The space was clean and comfortable, and after our very long Saturday we enjoyed a drink and live music in the wine bar, complete with ghost stories. Our room is apparently haunted by one of Weston’s ladies who, um, ‘worked’ the hotel. If we were visited in the night, I was too exhausted to notice!

small stones

Three weeks to go before Weston’s Applefest! Little plastic bags filled with finished pieces keep pilling up, and I took time this weekend to play in between soldering and hammering to-dos.

The lovely little beads above were born of scrap silver. I squirrel away filings, destroyed creations, and any extra pieces of metal as I work. These little bits were piled into a well in my charcoal block, and heated until they melted and pooled together.

It was delightful.

…until I had to drill the holes, which demanded deep breathing and zen-like cursing. (Do zen masters curse? I would.) Eventually I was able to line them all up into this row of uneven, textured beads, each like a small stone. I can’t explain how incredibly happy they make me.

Below are two of the beads decorating a simple, curved earwire.

jangle your bangles

brendesign will have a booth at the Weston, Missouri Applefest October 3rd and 4th! It’s my first arts and crafts festival and I really have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into, and I have a lot to do, and am trying to not get freaked out by the limited number of weekends between here an there.

Every spare minute is spent working producing for the show, but still have a long way to go. The above and below pics are an assortment of bangles that will be included in the group.

I do have most of my booth ideas in motion, and will just need to confirm tables…and figure out what do to about covering them. You see, I’m not exactly a table skirt kind of a girl, and I tend to channel my inner Ms. Hyde when forced to sit at a sewing machine.

I also need to design and order new business cards.
...and figure out tags.
...and bags.

Nope. Definitely not going to freak out.

more than a month…more circles

Yes, it has been more than a month since I’ve blogged.

Cue: Guilt.

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that summer can be deliciously deviant. Every day has an indolent manifesto: Must Be Outside! Must Garden! Must Play Tennis! Must Take An Hour-Long Lunch In The Sun!

…so it’s not that I’m not busy…just not exactly productive.

The one new piece I have to share has been my favorite thing to wear, an extra long chain of circles. This 32” chain started out as 100” of 16ga recycled sterling silver round wire. I cut, soldered, pickled, sanded, and hammered it into a string of bubbles, which can be worn long, or doubled over, or worn as a belt over a dress. The perfect piece for these long summer days.

And just in case you were wondering, I thought I would share a few things that have been fantastic distractions:

1. The Katy Trail: Pell, Mom and I spent Memorial Day weekend biking 51 miles along the river bluffs, listening to blues, watching hula-hoop dancing gypsy children, and ultimately walking away with sun tans and sore bums.

2. Kids: I was midwife-in-training for the birth of two goats (my parents keep a small herd).

3. Scuba Diving: Under the instruction of a very patient Father/Instructor, Pell and I completed our confined water dives for our PADI scuba certification. Next up: Open Water.

4. Vegetables: I have a garden! The fantastic group at Gifford Park Community Garden has welcomed me into their world, and I’m happily enjoying basil, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, beets, arugula…and more from my 5 x 15' plot.

5. Film: Sita Sings The Blues. My new favorite film. A funny, creative handmade work.

fire+metal=circle

I can brag about a new toy in town, an addition to my studio collection, a defining tool that separates the metal workers from the metal players: The Torch.

It rests, with its torch tail sweetly curled on one corner of my desk, waiting for the whoosh of the regulator valves and scratch of the striker before bursting into an elegant little 4800̊ degree flame.

I admit I’m still slightly terrified of this thing.

But, I am willing to grit my teeth and face my 5th grade fear of power tools to make a circle. It is magical, this ability to take a piece of wire and connect end to end, so perfect now with the cyclical season change from cold into this blessed sunshine.

This new tool crowds my desk with its friends, a turntable with charcoal blocks on pumice, and a pickle pot. In my effort to maintain a sustainable studio I’m using a mixture of water and citric acid for my pickle rather than the standard sulphuric acid, which is toxic and quite scary to use. The citric acid is food grade, and won’t burn holes in my skin or clothes if I accidentally splash, and it is much easier to dispose of. The only disadvantage is I have to leave the metal in the pickle a little longer to remove any oxidation…long enough to have a cup of tea. Not a bad trade at all.

The above and below photos detail my first hoops. What began as four pieces of recycled sterling silver wire ended as 2” hammered hoops and ear wires finished with a beaded end…another fun metal melting trick.

leaves, la, and love

A new design for spring…whenever she finally decides to show up. This organic leaf shape was hand cut and pierced from a 22ga recycled sterling silver sheet, then hammered like crazy to end with a crinkled, curved surface. At 1 ¾” long, they make a statement! I enjoyed wearing them out last night for a dinner and movie date.

Last weekend I traveled to LA for my day job. And it rained. I refused to believe weather.com and packed sandals and a skirt anyway. I was freezing. Now I’m home and we’re back to 30 degree weather, and I’m still freezing.

Mr. Brainwash, an LA graffiti artist, left this message outside of the fashion market…

...and my husband left this message in our living room…

I think they are both quite right.

The very big news (that I should’ve shouted about first) is that I have finally updated my etsy site, new policies, and most importantly, new pieces! Check them out here.

mosaic memories

Hooray for a holiday weekend! I finally feel caught up with work and moving preparations. After unearthing my desk from piles of cardboard boxes and packing tape, I found myself, sitting, with metal and saw in hand.

These earrings have lived as a sketch since my trip to Italy. It was amazing to witness the abundance of history, buildings built on ruins of other buildings, and beautiful bits of mosaic and tile that peek out from layers of time (certainly a study in the futility of physical attachment). I was especially drawn to a section of tile (see the image below) tucked away in a room of illuminated manuscripts inside the Duomo di Sienna, which is famous for its mosaic floors representing the sibyls and stories from the Old Testament.

Starting with a one inch recycled sterling silver circle, I’ve repeated the crescent shape, with smaller cuts to represent tiles. An extra long ear wire allows the piece to swing one and a half inches away from the ear.

pod blog

These began their lives as tubes of recycled sterling silver and survived cutting, sanding, hammering, drilling, sanding, hammering, oxidizing, hammering, buffing, and general overworking. The result: two pods, minus peas.

twig

I'm not sure I can adequately describe the kind of crazy my day job has snowballed into, so spending time in the studio this weekend was a must. Nothing like a hammer and anvil to make a girl feel like herself. These earrings are a new favorite in an attempt to balance both of my worlds. I cut, etched, and oxidized a curved piece of recycled sterling sliver to look like a twig, or piece of bark. They're light and lovely and will be a talisman against the hordes of post-its tomorrow.

In other news, brendesign is now included in the collections at Circular, an eco-friendly, earth inspired shopping haven in Anchorage Alaska. I'm happy my work has found a home in the 49th state, and I would so love to visit...

still sleepy

I good day in the studio ended in another addition to the sleep series I started two weeks ago. Half of this 1" recycled sterling silver circle is cut, etched, oxidized, and bound with a 14k recycled gold wire wrap.

sleep

Last night was a roam the house night, which doesn’t really work, as there are only 5 rooms and the hardwood floor creaks. So, last night became a sketch the dirty dishes on the counter night (I was desperate).

Needless to say, Sleep is the only thing on my mind in the studio today. The result is a set made in honor of my evanescent goddess, a ¾” piece of recycled sterling silver, the front buffed to a shine, and one edge a delightful uneven cut oxidized to a smoky grey. A contrast of our (occasionally) lucid state, and the subconscious beyond…