Inspiration Friday

This has been a great week full of learning and positive growth.

1 thing I learned this week is how important it is to do things for people to show I care.

I'm going to work on creating things for my friends and family, surprising them, because they expect to get nothing. I just did that this week! I created a picture of my two instructors sort of in cartoon form.

What kind of gifts do you treasure most?

Mobius Strips

I have been working on a commissioned jewelry set using Mobius strips. The Mobius strip is a pretty interesting concept. The Mobius is a surface with only one side and one boundary component. Trying to replicate a true Mobius strip surface as functional jewelry has really been getting my creative juices flowing.

Paper People

Under my bed I have a cardboard box full of a collection of cut out drawings of people that I did from the time I was 8 or 9 until I was 12 or 13. Up until recently I had no idea what to do with them. After some thought I've had some ideas of possibly turning them into magnets and maybe even pins. See the pic of Betty, who I plan to turn into a magnet, below to the left.

Here are some pics showing how the paper people changed over time (from left to right).

So stay tuned to see what will become of this bunch and if they end up in my Etsy shop.

Also please share your story of childhood projects you did and possibly kept to giggle at later :-)

More Faces to Come :-)

To the left you see the 3 face pendants that are currently in my Etsy shop, Pieces of Elise's. Lila is the one in the upper left with the eye shadow. In the center is Merona, with the flower in her hair. And off to the right is Wilma, looking off into space.

I have always loved drawing people's faces. Between the ages of 9 and 13 I created over 300 paper people. I still have them and plan to take pictures of them and make a post about them here.

I plan to make more face pendants as well as brooches, hair pins, and possibly rings. I also hope to be including drawings and maybe even some new and improved paper people in my shop! So stay tuned, you should start seeing the new items within the month of May :-)

Drawings I've Started

Etsy--What does the Name Mean?

I love mysteries and the origin of Etsy's name is definitely a big one. It seems as if Rob Kalin, Etsy's founder, is choosing not to reveal the conception of the name on purpose, to keep the heads of answer-thirsty people like me spinning in wonder.

Even "The Name Inspector" could only speculate at its meaing. Here's a link if you want the satisfaction of knowing what the name might mean. http://www.thenameinspector.com/etsy/

The whole Etsy mystery reminds me of the hit television series "Lost". Except "Lost" was full of mysteries (which they epicly failed at solving for all the completely lost viewers out there), but so far this is the only Etsy mystery I've stumbled across. I have a strong feeling that the Etsy admin want the members to make up their own meaning for Etsy. Maybe they feel that they would be limiting what the imaginations of such creative people are capable of. If everyone comes up with their own interpretation of the name's meaning based on their personal experiences on the site, it is bound to have more import to them.

That's my 2 cents. What about you? What do you think Etsy means?