New Website!

I finally have my new website up online to share with the world!  This is very exciting new for me.  Let me tell ya!!  Click on the image above and it'll send you over to check it out.

I have always made my own websites for years, and they aren't so spectacular. But I am a DIY kinda girl and lacking a budget to pay a website designer to do it right. I just let it slide for way too long.

One day while looking at some statistics for my Etsy, an advertisement caught my eye.  I clicked on it, basically it was a listing on Etsy for 1 page of website design.  This got me thinking... I started a bit of an Etsy search and found a local Portland woman and contacted her, asked her for a quote on making me a new site.

I like the idea of working with another creative entrepreneur, not necessarily an established website design business, but another person like myself that lives in Portland and is following her passion.  The concept is so much more about mutually beneficial business than just services rendered.

And wow - it worked!  I have a site that I love and it promotes my work in focus.

Martha J Baker is the name of the woman, and she is a great website architect.  Thank you Martha!

New Display Concept

I've been working on a new display idea... I painted some simple embroidery hoops (inexpensive round wooden frames) with glossy red acrylic paint and hung them on metal hooks, the idea being that I can suspend a mobile inside the red circle and make a cluster of these circles...

I figure I'll make one circle that has a sign and this will make the cluster a retail display. For now it just looks like a neat installation.

Spring Flowers Mobile

I want to share pictures of the various mobiles I have around my house - this particular one hangs right above my head as I sleep.

With all the trees blooming as spring warms up, I have been taking lots of pictures of flowering branches... so I thought it was too perfect to share a picture of this mobile I made years ago.

I was inspired to make some sort of cherry blossom type of mobile, so I made lots of different five petaled flower beads, all about the size of a nickle. Then I took some thin wire and fixed the beads to the ends and went about trying to make a mobile... it ended up different than I had intended (at first I was thinking some sort of chaotic chandelier of blossoms...) but that proved to make my head hurt trying to manifest. I wanted to use thin wire that was not too stiff to add some character, so the wire was pretty soft. In order to make the "branches" stiffer I wound the wires together making mini-clusters and then free-form branches out of a few clusters. Wound together like this the wire was stronger, but quickly the mobile grew and before long it was quite large and very simple. Not chaotic like I had intended, but very calm and beautiful none the less.

I was then left with a lot of extra flower beads, so one thing I made out them was this fun tree.

In the end I was happy with my creations, but sorta disappointed as well. Its not really something that I could ship or package, the wire is too pliable... but if I used a stiffer steel I wouldn't get the organic branch look that is possible with the thin stuff... I could do a really amazing installation in a gallery, but its not something I could really sell online and just put in a box and ship. Once hung it takes a bit of tweaking and standing back and staring at it, then playing with the branches a bit more, and then its just simple and perfect. And the tree was fun to make, I have always like the wire trees that are made from twisted up fine wires...

So long story short, its a one-of-a-kind sorta creation. And so it hangs in my bedroom, treasured by me. :)

Color Changing Glass

This is very interesting glass.


These two pictures are of the same glass mobile - the glass actually changes color based on the spectrum of light that is hitting it.




I call it chameleon glass, Bullseye Glass calls it "Rhubarb". This name refers to the pink and green tones that the glass shifts between.

The glass looks green when lit by florescent light, pink when lit by incandescent. Sometimes the pieces can look multi-colored. Its really interesting stuff.
I had a little mini mobile like this one hanging in my car for a while - it was incredible, the pieces reflected a lot of different colors. On a beautiful day the bottom edges of the shapes would reflect the blue sky and the horizon, the tops of the pieces would reflect the colors from the road and cars and buildings.

Movement and glass is such an awesome relationship that I attempt to display in my handmade mobiles, and this color of glass really takes things to the next level. I make two small mini mobiles out of scraps of this glass, and larger mobiles to really showcase the color.

Here are some links so you can check them out, if they say they are sold out, look in my shop an you may see I have made more!

Large Champagne Circles
Mini Mobile
Sticky Computer Mobile

The little sticky mobile is a great gift for that geeky loved-one that you never know what to buy for - what makes a better gift than a little bit of handmade goodness!

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Name Suggestions Anyone?

This big guy needs a name. Any suggestions?

Chakra Circles in my Etsy shop!!

Okay, the small size is there... I still have to take pictures of the large size. :)

And I have a great new description of the Chakras (thank you Aimee! You rock!) that will now be included with the purchase of this design of mobile! Yeah for that! Heres a condensed version to give you a taste of goodness:

The Chakras - Short Version

Chakras are the energy centers of the body. Imagine them as whirling wheels of light and color -- each charka relates to different emotions and systems in the body. They have no physical structure and can shift around the body, but are most often visualized running down the midline of the body.

There are seven primary chakras:

• The root chakra -- muladhara -- is represented by the color red. This chakra is located at the base of the spine or the groin. It governs the sense of the body and our connections with the family we were born to and/or raised in.
• The sacral chakra -- swadhisthana -- is represented by the color orange. This is the sexual and creative center.
• The navel chakra -- manipura -- is represented by the color yellow. This chakra governs digestion, both of food and of life experiences.
• The heart chakra -- anahata -- is represented by the color green. This is where the physical and spiritual halves of the self meet. It is also where strong emotions (like love and hate) reside.
• The throat chakra -- vishuddha -- is represented by the color blue. This is the chakra of communication, both spoken and unspoken.
• The third eye or brow chakra -- aina or anja -- is represented by the color indigo. Located on the forehead, this chakra governs vision, insight, and intuition.
• The crown chakra -- sahasrara -- is represented by the color white. It is located at the top of the head. This energy center connects us to a higher power.

Collaboration Mobiles

I have been collaborating with another artist friend of mine, Amanda of Bread and Badger. Amanda is an incredible artist and she free-hand etches her designs onto glass. Check out her Etsy store to see more! Shes got a fun blog as well! So... Amanda etched the pieces and I made the mobiles. One is ocean themed and a second mobile is forest themed.

Heres a little video diddy of one dancing.




I really enjoy Amanda's work and it's a great combination, bringing her artwork to life in my mobiles. The first two are now available for sale on Etsy - go check them out!

there is an Ocean Mobile

and a Forest Mobile

Dancing Mobile

More Photos

I made these cute little slide-top boxes and took some more photos of these beautiful pendants... the box shows how it comes packaged, as well as propping up the pendant for a good view. Better pictures than the ones I took yesturday, I think.

Neck Shots

Okay, so I seriously just need to have a model for jewelry photo shoots - but in the meantime...

in response to a recent discussion at Tea Time (PDXEtsy style) I was inspired to take some shots of necklaces on my neck with no skin showing, (shirt vs. skin) something with a high neck so the necklace is laying on fabric and not skin. I found a pale gray top in my closet that has a big neck, it sorta worked, at least well enough to exhaust my amateur attempts to take a few shots.

New Glass Jewelry

This set is for sale in my Etsy store.

I'm pretty darned excited about this collaboration (is it obvious)

Glass Pendants with Flowers

I could imagine wearing this around my neck. Beautiful.

I am collaborating with a friend to make these glass puddles into lovely wearable jewelry. Judi is a fellow seller on Etsy living here in Portland Or. She and I are both members of PDXEtsy, the local street team. I love her jewelry, and this collaboration will be really fun.

check out her Etsy Store: Curly Girl Glass

I've made up a dozen or so of these pretty puddles... this one in particular really speaks to me. I love how it turn out. The branches underneath the flowers and leaves were really neat, I purposefully made them multicolored and put lots of little nooks and crannies... the way the trees look now outside, I love how the flowers seem to come right out of the gnarly bits of the trees

NEW Orange!

new orange
Originally uploaded by LeahPellegrini

Yeah - look how orange the orange (on the right) and how yummy it looks with the red/orange and the coupla blues. I am so happy with this new orange... I am going to make a whole bunch of jewelry out of it. I'll post pictures soon.

The big news for today: this little puppy is now for sale in my Etsy shop! A sibbling of this one is dancing in my car now too! Yeah for new orange!!

my head!

photo taken by tangyoren

my crush on Orange continues... my mind is all a buzz with new orange ideas for jewelry I'd like to start making...

today I went on a bikeride to take pictures of the trees blooming here in Portland.

there are pictures in my flickr

I want to make some orange jewelry that is inspired by the blooming trees. The blooms are startlingly beautiful. My new orange glass is yummy. So far I have just dabbled with it, testing out the color... I made a few little mini mobiles, just to taste it... I'll post them in my Etsy shop soon.

Orange you glad...

photo taken by WGyuri and found on Flickr

I am very excited about a new color release from Bullseye Glass (a local color manufacturer that I buy a lot of my materials from). For a long time I have craved a good translucent orange... I use a lot of the 001125 - which is an orange that reminds me of the Crayola crayon "Orange Red", but what I desire is a more fruit like balance between red and yellow - a good tangerine.

Well now Bullseye has it! Yeah!

I am thinking about a whole line of orange with red-orange and some deep blue, like a transparent steel blue, almost navy... yum.

DesignSponge Biz Lady Meetup

DesignSponge meetup crowd shot
Originally uploaded by LeahPellegrini

Last night I attended a most incredible biz women in design meet-up. Organized by Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge and hosted by the Design Within Reach Pearl studio.

There were four discussions: sales (consignment v. wholesale) , finances (Mercy Corps NW opportunities), finding success as an artist (Amy Ruppel), and an amazing PR talk by Grace herself.

The picture does not do the meeting justice. There were A LOT of local business ladies there. I was shy to take pictures (me?!).

Grace posted notes from her talk: really good stuff - check it out if you are interested: http://www.design-sponge.net/bizladies/DSPublicRelations.pdf
I will be utilizing this "four-pronged attack" for sure! How could I not! This advice is like gold!