Further Adventures with Magazine Submissions

I've really been trying to up my game when it comes to submitting projects for possible magazine publication this year.  Part of that is keeping an eagle eye open for the new publication guidelines when they come out and making more of a concerted effort to design specifically for those guidelines.  In many ways it's just like designing for any other challenge except that I can't blog about what I've made (until I know they don't want something)!

The deadline for Jewelry Stringing magazine's Winter 2017 issue passed a couple of weeks ago and I've now heard back from them about which of my designs they would like to publish.  I'm so thrilled that they are interested in publishing several of the pieces I submitted!  I ended up sending them photos of seven necklaces, two bracelets, and three pairs of earrings... the most I've ever created for one issue... and it really paid off!  You'll have to wait until early next year to see the designs that they chose, but I wanted to share the other pieces that I sent in now that I know they aren't in the running.

If you aren't familiar with how Jewelry Stringing calls for submissions, they put out several categories for each issue and give a color palette or other prompts to get jewelry designers pointed in the right direction.  Here are my unsuccessful submissions grouped by category along with the submission guidelines for each.  Enjoy!

This first necklace is one of my favorites that I made for this issue.  I used a polymer clay pendant from Summer Wind Art that Eric bought me last Christmas with a varied mix of materials.  I combined green agate, jade, dragon's blood jasper, faceted garnet, Czech glass, coconut shell, and brass.  I finished the back with some leather cording.  I'm thrilled with the way this one turned out but I wonder if the addition of the dark red into the color palette was just a little too far out there. 

Next up, I made a variation of a necklace that I shared for the May Inspired by Reading Book Club.  You can see that original design HERE.  This time I used some green agate twisted barrels that I've probably had since 2008 with the wooden beads.  I added an extra pop of green by using dark green waxed linen to tie the deerskin leather lace closed at the ends.

I really wanted the gemstones to shine for this necklace.  At the last local bead show I attended, I had bought a premium strand of large Rocky Mountain Picture Jasper pendants from Dakota Stones.  They had a semi-matte finish and gorgeous colors.  I didn't have much in my stash that really worked with them but luckily I found some things when I went to the Dakota Stones showroom sale!  I picked up some matte Red Creek Jasper rounds and some Wild Horse Picture Jasper coins.  Since my only copper crimp covers are bright copper (and coated so they won't darken in liver of sulfur!), I attached a stack of small antiqued copper jump rings to cover my crimp beads and finished the back with copper plated chain.

Full disclosure:  this is the necklace that I am most proud of in this round of submissions and the one that I'm actually sad that they didn't choose.  This is another case where I actually shopped for the perfect stones to use for this necklace.  When I saw the gold and black druzy strands at the Dakota Stones showroom, I knew I wanted to use them for the Earth Form category even though those babies aren't cheap!  Finding the strand of Blue Golden Eye ovals was like a lightning bolt to my brain telling me that they needed to be mixed into a two strand necklace with the druzys.  It took a fair amount of playing with the strand lengths to get the wire wrapped druzys to play nice and I'm actually not sure it's totally there yet, but I'm so in love with the look!  I'll keep playing and wear testing until I get it perfect.

The last of the necklaces that I made for this issue was this lariat style necklace.  This isn't a style that I usually make but I wanted to see if I could stretch myself and pull it off at the final hour before submissions were due.  I picked up some beaded chain from Lima Beads (there was no way that I had the time or patience to make all those tiny links myself!) and used that for one side of the necklace and then strung a purple seed bead mix on the other.  I anchored the look with an amethyst pendant.

Most bracelets and earrings that the magazine editors accept end up in two page spreads that they call "galleries."  This time I sent them a couple of random bracelets that I had just made... they selected one and here is the other!  This is a slight variation on a design that I have done before but using a different size and shape Czech glass bead.  I painted and shaped the bracelet's focal and then added the wire-wrapped links.  This bracelet will be at the July shopping event at Perfectly Random 2 in Lakeville July 7-10.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what I've been working on lately!

New Year Muffin Tin Challenge

Heather Powers has thrown down the gauntlet and is hosting another great creative challenge.  The idea is pretty straight forward... grab a muffin tin and put everything you need for one project in each of the 12 cups and then complete as many projects as possible as quickly as you can.  The theory is that you should be able to finish your projects speedily since you've already made all (or in my case, most) of your decisions.

Since I had to deal with some major bead reorganization before I could even think about starting to pull things for this challenge...and the holidays, I got off to a slower start than I would have liked.  I'm never one to shirk a good challenge, so I dug in as soon as I was able and got my muffin tin all filled!  Here's the before shot:

Ever the over achiever, I actually set up a baker's dozen projects.  (See that little pile on top of the tin?  That's the makings for a couple of pairs of earrings.)  Actually, since a couple of tins actually hold the makings for more than one piece of jewelry, I had 15 projects more or less ready to go.  Lots of art bead goodness in those little cups... focals by Diana P., Andrew Thornton, Jenny Davies-Reasoner, Tracee Dock, Gaea, Round Rabbit and even a couple of pendants that I made!    

For most of my muffin cups I took an idea that Erin Prais-Hintz put out there and ran with it.  She had mentioned that she planned on using this challenge to work on projects for magazine submission.  I totally copied her and focused on ideas for some upcoming magazines.

In the end, I managed to pull together seven necklaces and six pairs of earrings (one pair that never actually made it into a cup.)  Technically I still have 4 cups left unfinished after that, but I'm going to call it a win!

But enough talk, I should get back to sharing the projects that I completed!  But there's just one small catch... Remember how I said I was mostly working on projects for a magazine?  Well, they do this thing where you can email them pictures before their official deadline and they will let you know which, if any, of your designs they'd like to see in person for further consideration.  I emailed them nine designs, and they have asked me to send in eight of them!  I'm super excited for this opportunity even though there are no guarantees that they will choose to publish any of my pieces.  It's a step in the right direction at any rate!

The bad news is, since most of the projects I finished are under review for the magazine, I can't really share them with you yet.  (Which is really, really difficult since I'm pretty proud of my work and WANT to share.)  So, as a sort of a compromise, I made a PicMonkey collage of my finished project and focused in on some of the details for most of the projects and then did some funky effects to blur them out.  Hopefully you'll get to see at least one of them in focus and full color later this year.  Fingers are crossed!

A huge thanks to Heather for hosting this challenge and giving my creativity a much needed kick start!  I had a lovely holiday season, but it might not have been the most productive couple of weeks from a jewelry making perspective.  Thanks to the muffin tin challenge (and the looming magazine deadline) I had a great week of making some fabulous, if I do say so myself, jewelry.  It's a strong start to what I hope will be an amazing 2015!    

Now it's off to fill out all the paperwork for my submissions and get them safely in the mail!

Be sure to pop on over to Heather's blog to see everyone else's muffin tin creations HERE.

Progress Towards 2014 Goals: Getting Published

In my first post on this blog for the new year I laid out a list of goals for myself and my business for 2014.  You can see that post HERE if you missed it.  I'm happy to report that I'm making some serious strides in several of my goal areas already, one in particular:  to pursue getting my designs published in a jewelry making magazine.

I'm no expert on how all the different magazines work, but Stringing Magazine puts out themes and/or color palettes ahead of time for each of their issues.  Jewelry designers can choose to email pictures of possible submissions to the magazine ahead of time and get a response back about which (if any) of your work they would like to see in person.  (This is a nice service that they offer which saves the jewelry maker time in filling out forms and the expense of mailing things back and forth that the magazine knows they aren't interested in.)

Right at the beginning of the year Stringing was accepting entries for a special issue that they do.  I didn't have time to make anything specifically for the color palettes, but I had a couple of pieces on hand that seemed to fit.  I dutifully (and hopefully) emailed in a couple of pictures, and to my surprise, they wanted me to send a pair of earrings in for closer inspection!  To make a long story short, they didn't end up wanting them, but I refused to let that get me down.  You can't win if you don't try!

In the meantime, I had let the email deadline slip past me for the summer issue but decided to send a couple of items in anyway (you don't HAVE to run things past them, it's just a nice service they offer).  Just two days after my first rejection letter (you see, I have no doubt that there will be many more in my future) I got exciting news... Stringing wants to publish not one but both of the items that I sent in for the summer issue!  I'm going to be published in a real live print magazine!   Just a tiny taste of success, but it is sweet indeed.  I can't wait until the issue comes out and I can share with you all.

With that tiny victory under my belt I was more excited than ever to try and design something specifically for the Fall issue.  Three out of the four themes were right up my alley and I ended up emailing pictures of four necklaces to them.  Of the designs I sent in, they only asked to see one in person (and have since declined that one) so I thought I'd share the pieces with you all.

Their first category for Fall is "Wanderlust."  They wanted travel inspired jewelry with a mix of components that convey a richness of culture and a worldly feel.  Here is the suggested color palette (not that you have to use all the colors they show).

I had already made my necklace for the January Inspired by Reading Book Club based on The Enchantress of Florence and I immediately thought that it would be perfect for this theme.  I know I shared this one on my blog already, but here is the collage I made to send into the magazine.

For "Shiny Copper" they really did want a focus on bright, shiny copper.  Most of my designs with copper tend to be on the more antiqued end of things, but I was hoping that this necklace with the etched copper blank from Vintaj might be shiny enough to spark their interest but, alas, it was not.

The last category that I made a try for was the only one I got a nibble on... "Dark Glamour."  It was all about a dark, gothic, almost fantasy look.  This one felt the most up my alley and I made two looks for this theme.  My first necklace was probably more on the glamour side with the tasseled chain and rhinestone rondelles.  (I love the way this one turned out and might just keep it for myself!)  The second design features a resin raven pendant I made paired with pyrite rounds and black Czech glass rondelles.  The magazine asked to see the raven necklace, but, as I mentioned, it didn't make the cut.

As I write this, the Winter 2015 Stringing guidelines have just been posted.  So, it's time to see what I can come up with for the editors' consideration this time.  The deadlines always come quicker than I want them too and there's already a lot on my plate so wish me luck!