playing Archives - Try Handmade

k. o’brien jewelry

March 26, 2018 by Erika Jurney 2 Comments

I’m loving these simple, clean rings by k. o’brien jewelry. I especially appreciate how she squares the ring bands so the large stones don’t twirl around on your finger. Such attention to detail is remarkable.

k. o’brien: I received my BFA in Jewelry and Metals from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. During my training I came to realize that I love making jewelry from sterling and fine silver and adding color to my pieces with enamel. I am enamored with the problem solving of making adornments as well as the ability to be able to manipulate metal into the form that I want it to become by hammering and bending it.

During my undergraduate education I also came to realize that my other passions are textiles, bookbinding and paper arts. No matter what the medium is I am always influenced by nature. Its patterns, colors, beauty, forms and rebirth always find a way into my work.

My jewelry is influenced heavily on nature and the Art Nouveau movement. I love to play with textures on metal and seeing how different techniques pick up reflections of color and light. I prefer to make one of a kind pieces, playing around with piece after piece leaving some ideas behind and taking other ideas along to blend with the new.

Gift Guide – For the Little Ones in Your Life

October 13, 2017 by Amy L. 2 Comments

3D Mobile is from: Gosh and Golly

I started prepping for the holidays this weekend and I don’t know what it is but I’m already singing Christmas Carols and looking forward to time off in December! Inspired by this, I’ve gathered some items to share in what will be the first in a series of holiday gift guides I’ll be sharing with you in the weeks to come.

Before I jump right in I’d love to hear about your favorite holiday memories! I have some fun ones from last Christmas… My family lives in Iowa so the husband and I made our way down there in December like we always do. Little did we know we’d be snowed in for all 6 days at my parents’ place! We had fun though, putting together puzzles, playing board games, and on Christmas Eve – wondering when the power would come back on (luckily it was only a couple hours with no power – but we enjoyed eating our Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight and listening for updates on the wind-up radio)!

These adorable shoes are courtesy of LaLaShoes – this talented artisan is a trained industrial designer who worked many years in graphic design as an art director.

Rikrak creates these really fun personalized stockings – pictured below:

I love the bright colors featured in the Brooklyn Bib Shop

I hope you enjoy these bright items I’ve put together – if you have any requests for gift guide themes you’d like me to follow in the weeks to come, leave me a note in the comments and let me know!

language & meaning designworks

March 16, 2017 by Erika Jurney 2 Comments

language & meaning designworks: I’ve been mesmerized by paper for as long as I can remember. I can’t tell you how many portfolios of paper I have…well, actually, I can since they’re right next to me, but I digress.

I started doing fine art collages in college. Inspired by Hannah Hoch and her Dadaist counterparts, I enjoyed playing around with a mix of found images and objects, advertising cut-outs and text and found that I was drawn to their interplay. Really, I suppose you could take it all the way back to when my sister and I would cut out words, fashions and famous people from magazines and make huge poster board displays for our rooms. Luckily for everyone, I won’t be making any homages to the Cure or Benneton any time soon..

I never could wrap my brain around large-scale projects. Instructors were always telling me to step back from my projects for perspective, telling me “you’re too close to that canvas;” guess I was trying to make something big, small. Instead, I opted to create vignettes that (I hoped) had a Joseph Cornell vibe to them. Small seemed intimate, personal; a window into a certain feeling.

I take the same care with my cards, invitations and other paper crafts. I like to think of them as tiny works of art. I LOVE paper! I see ideas in those sheets but I’m not gonna lie, not everything I make is a hug from Jesus. You won’t see any of my design step-children here; only the best for you peeps!

I’m a total and complete art history nerd: modern and contemporary art/photography and mid-century architecture/furnishings. The weirdest thing about me is the way I eat ice cream from the carton – it’s gotta be scraped in a flat, level pattern or all is no bueno in this house! Currently in grad school for my MFA and loving life with my husband, the company of good friends and MAKING STUFF.

Kristin Beltz

February 5, 2017 by Laura Trevey 3 Comments

Kristin Beltz is an amazing photographer, but more importantly an amazing person! She is so full of life and appreciates the natural beauty around her. I think she captures this emotion so well in her work. She is an Island Girl who loves to Run, Bike and Swim. She enjoys working with plants and enjoys everything to do with being outdoors. She loves animals and is especially fond of Boxers. This first photo is bursting with bright color! It makes me want to get out into the garden.

Kristin has a wonderful ability to capture the magical quality in simple pleasures. I love the out of focus background that lays behind the simple pine needles. Perfection!

Once again, here is another example of how Kristin makes a single green leaf become a beautiful piece of art!

Kristin states, “I like playing around with the lighting during the day to see what type of shots I come up with. There is a beautiful field of these Daisies on the next road over and on Sunday I went down there and shot from different angels. I liked the deeper tones I got from this shot. I like the pretty bokehed blossoms. This wasn’t intended to be in focus, I used another focal point to get the bokehed Daisies. I intended to create a textured feel and a lingering memory sort of feeling.”

Thank you Kristin for sharing you talent with us. You are truly an inspiration to us all. You may view more of her work on Flickr.