Friday, October 01, 2010

Do You Test Drive Your Finished Pieces???

Just asking you know. This inquiring mind would like to know. When you are finished making a OOAK piece of wearable art do you take it for a bit of a spin?? Make sure the ride is comfortable, smooth while hanging right and looking ever so good. Girl, I sure do!! I would much rather be the one that finds any of the flies in the ointment instead of a customer. There are those little nuances that separate a great handmade piece from so so piece. And I think the damage has been done even if you correct the boo-boo for your customer. Now there are those times when something totally unforeseen goes wrong. You know one of those "acts of God" But I test drive to be sure there aren't any of those stupid overlooked issues. Like a wire that just isn't tucked in tight enough and rubs. A focal that doesn't want to hang right or wants to flip backwards.   A clasp that looks stupid no matter what  you do!
Course it always does your ego good when you are out on a test drive and receive a complement for said piece. Always give me a bit of a thrill and assurance that somebody out there might just want to purchase it. 

Here are a few more pieces I've made for the art walk and bazaar. Yep they were test driven, well all except the earrings. I just don't feel right wearing a pair of earrings and then selling them someone. Oye, that's kinda like sharing drinking straws with a stranger, eeuuu!!!

Here are two bracelets I wired the stones in the center of the circles the same way I did Luci's birthday present.
The top one is faceted tourmaline and little tourmaline stones. The bottom one is faceted button aventurine with little green opals
I also made three pairs of earrings Two with this cool brass chain. But you can only see a picture of the little green aventurine hearts cuz the dork who inhabits my body from time to time forgot to take a picture of the tourmaline pair! :)
But I do have a picture of the brass hearts, turquoise and coral pair I made.
I also finished this turquoise and coral necklace.
It's a nice long necklace that I intermixed the two different stones with some antique brass chain. It seems chain is being used a lot this year, have you noticed??
  The clasp is a heart and antique brass wire hook I made. I placed it along the side instead of the back, for a bit of interest.
For the focal I had this rather cool looking piece of coral. I added a couple of random slices of turquoise and a small sacred heart milagro that I rusted ever so nicely! :)

This week I've been working at the sewing machine so I'll be back in a few days with pictures of the totes I made. However I'm signing off now while my luck is holding. We have been playing hind n seek with our internet connection for a couple of days. Only we have spent most of our time in the seeking mode cuz the internet is very adept at the hiding part!! :( Jeez everytime you go to hit the send button or are in the middle of a download the bloody thing goes AWOL!! Grrrrrr!!Ahhhhh the rainy season, it truly is a love/hate relationship if there ever was one!

Have an audacious art filled day no matter where in the world
  you are.  p;)

3 comments:

Riki Schumacher said...

Hi Pattie, how are you sister? Great to see you're busy putting beautiful pieces together. I try to test drive mine too, just to see what the reaction is on the street. Great idea! Take care, big hug. Riki

stregata said...

Love your new pieces - but the turquoise and coral necklace is just fantastic! I am sure that will fly off the table at the art walk.
I want to test drive the ostrich, LOL! Or was it an emu?

SummersStudio said...

You've been a busy girl making some real lovelies. Yeppers, I test drive. I hate the idea that something might fall apart so I put my pieces through a work day in the studio. And that is often a rough test.

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