I realize I have been posting nothing but video tutorials lately, but I’m pretty busy in the studio, so whenever I sit down to do womthing, I think, “Why not make a video??”

So here you go! In this video, I show how I wire wrap a gemstone briolette. I’d love to hear any comments, feedback, and please subscribe to my youtube channel!

I’ve made another video and posted it to my youtube channel:

Please let me know waht you think! Kits for Full Persian bracelets can be purchased on my website.

Another youtube tutorial! This one, not on chainmaille, but a simple wire wrapping. Please do let me know what you think!

I can’t believe it’s November already. Halfway through, in fact.

We had a nice(ish) 4 day weekend. We went down to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature and saw the new Day in Pompeii exhibit on Sunday. It was beautiful, eerie and sad. Pompeii was a bustling city of 20,000 people when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in volcanic ash — and then lay undisturbed until sometime in the 1700s.

So much was recovered from the city – frescos, statues, columns, ovens, earthenware – it was amazing to see.

Of course I didn’t start taking pictures until I got to the jewelry (no flash, I wasn’t breaking any rules!)

That looks a lot like viking knit.

I loved seeing the clasp on this bracelet. Amazing.

Fortuna on her throne

There was lots to see, but the most touching were the casts made in the hardened ash that showed where people had died.

It was a stunning exhibit — I highly recommend it if you are in the Denver area.

A new video tutorial on how to close jump rings TIGHT and FLUSH!

I welcome any feedback! Help me make my tutorials better by commenting!

A new banner!

Featuring some of my latest earrings (which can be purchased here!)

New banner!

This banner features Jocelyn on a hike in Boulder, and I was trying out the panarama feature on my phone.

When we put in an offer on our Colorado home, it was because of the beautiful floors, 5 bedrooms (well, 4 and a small office they called a bedroom), location, and.. well, I could go on. We really love this house.

But now, I love it even more.

WE HAVE A PEACH TREE!

These are fresh from the tree, barely molested by the birds. The real trick is waiting until they are ripe enough on the tree, but not all eaten by the birds. If you have any tips on that, I’d love to hear it.

Ahhh… the weekend comes to a close, and we all tuck in to bed for the week ahead.

This week will be week 2 of school for the kids. Last week was pretty soft I think.. not really any homework, getting back into the school groove, learning the classroom.. We’ll see how this next week goes. Hope the homework battles don’t start yet!

Saturday was pretty fun – we went to Mile High Comics in Denver, which we thought was only open to the public every few months or so, but after we arrived, we found that they are open 7/days a week now! Still it was fun, and it was HUGE. We all got a comic.. and someone *coughjamescough* got more than one. Wondergirl for Jocelyn, Wonder Woman for me, Star Wars for Ethan, and a ton of Batman for James. It was a pretty cool place, lots of toys, TONS of comic books, and the staff was very friendly and helpful.

We’ll be back. Oh yes, we’ll be back.

James took the kids to the airshow at a local airport. I dropped them off and picked them back up, and caught the tail end of some thrilling fly-bys by I think a stealth bomber (if Ethan was here he would immediately correct me). I picked up the crew tired, hot and sweaty, but mostly happy. Ethan complained that it was awful, but honestly, he says that about everything. If we didn’t drag him out of the house now and then, he’d stay in his room 24/7 building legos and listening to Harry Potter until he starved!

I’ve been keeping busy coiling up a huge amount of coils to cut into jump rings Monday morning, and working on my supplies website. I have been unhappy with my shopping cart platform I was using, and have been working on getting both sites moved to a new location. My jewelry website was done and moved over about a month ago, and I am happy to report that I have made the switch over for my supplies shop this weekend. Yay! I’ll be spending this week checking things over and adding in anything I’ve forgotten.

The downside to the new platform — anyone who previously had an account (on either site) will have to reset their password in order to log in, and there is no order history available. I think the change was a good one — the system I was using before had some quirks that were just a bit too quirky for me, and the admin panel is much more user friendly. It will save me and I hope my customers a lot of time in the long run!

If you’d like to check out my new sites, feel free:

http://www.rainestudios.com
http://www.rainestudios-supplies.com

Last week I went to the gym Tuesday & Friday, to my favorite class — water circuit (basically a circuit class, but in the pool!) This week, I need to do better — I’m shooting for Mon-Wed-Fri or maybe Tues-Wed-Fri. The days I went last week I felt AWESOME. When work starts to pile up it’s hard to make myself go — even though that is when I need to go the most, to relieve the stress!

A few parting kid quotes:

“Mom, don’t worry. I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.”

….

“…. Most of the time.”

— Ethan, age 10.

OK, just one kid quote. Later!
-Amy

Another video tutorial! Would love your feedback!

Purchase a jens pind bracelet kit on my jewelry supplies website.