My kids have been out of school for about 2 weeks now. Now that they’re older (11 and 13) it’s not so daunting as it used to be, but it definitely does take a toll on my studio hours. There are pools that need to be swum in! Skating at rinks to do! Camping, hiking, car races and let’s not forget our 2 doggies to play with and take to doggie parks.

I also have a ton of shows I’m doing this summer. I haven’t done very many shows here in Colorado since we moved here from Virgina 4 years ago. I did a couple shows at the last minute last fall, and then planned booth upgrade purchases (which were then made before spring) and applied to a whole mess of shows. Many of them accepted me! Hopefully it is a successful return to the show circuit for me, we shall see how it goes.

Here are all the things going on for me this summer:

6/12-6/14: 24 hours of LeMons Race, High Plains Raceway, CO (nothing to do with jewelry, but still a hoot)
6/19-6/21: Art on the Green, Lyons, CO
6/27-6/28: Parker Summerfest Arts & Crafts Festival, Parker, CO
7/17-7/19: Colorado Metalsmiths Conference, Salida, CO
7/25-7/26: Longmont Arts Festival, Longmont, CO
7/29-8/3: Family Vacation
8/8-8/9: Denver Art Festival at Sloan’s Lake, Denver, CO
8/15-8/16: Steamboat Springs Artstroll, Steamboat Springs, CO

If you can make it to any of my shows, please stop by and say hello! If you are ordering from my website(s), Friday/Mondays around these dates will likely be “pack stuff away and organize” days rather than “make stuff/ship orders/work work work” days.

In another return to things I’m doing but haven’t for a long time, I dyed my hair purple! I went pink for a summer long ago when Jocelyn (now 11) was just a toddler gal. I had a corporate gig there and kind of congratulate myself that the HR manual at that company now has a line about “unnatural hair color” not being allowed (grin).

Well, I’ve been a full time ARTEEEEST! for 4 years now, with no corporate gig in sight, so purple it is! I did NOT do any bleach this time around, because I am a fickle, fickle woman, and purple will not be wanted forever, and when I’m done with purple, I don’t want to have to deal with thrashed, bleached, horridly abused WHITE hair. I learned my lesson on that from my adventures in pink. My ends were very light anyway from years of dying it red (which then fades to light blonde after 6 months), so those light ends took the color nicely.

Here are some crappy photos of me and my purple hair:

Purple? Or maybe pink.

A photo posted by amy sanders (@raine137) on Jun 7, 2015 at 12:00pm PDT

Wow, look at me, writing like, STUFF ON MY BLOG! About my LIFE! and ME! And my THOUGHTS AND THINGS I’VE DONE OR WILL BE DOING! SHOCKING!

It’s kind of miraculous. I’d better stop before I bring about the apocolypse.

Ciao,
Amy

ps: Even though I hardly update here anymore, if you do like little peeks into my studio/life/pictures of dogs — then you might like to follow me on instagram. Photos include, what we and my daughter did in the studio for “Take Your Kid To Work Day”, dogs, cats, things I’ve eaten (that sounds weird, I mean pretty food pics, not “here let me regurgitate this so you can see it!”), jewelry, stones, really cheap race cars, cute kids, kitties, doggies, etc.

I have had several requests on how to make a graduated Jens Pind necklace, to go along with my graduated Jens Pind earrings. Well, the wait is over! This video is not a “tutorial” really, more like guidelines. If you need to know how to weave Jens Pind, you will need to see the tutorial for that. Then, to see how the graduation is done, you’ll want to watch how I do it in the Graduated Jens Pind Earrings video. Since the steps to putting the necklace together are a little different than the earrings, I made this video to help folks through putting together a graduated jens pind necklace.

You can also purchase a kit for the necklace right here!