reticulated earrings

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Ringing in the Holidays!



A few weeks ago, I had a talk with myself….
Me:      “Self, it’s time you set your fear of rings aside and get with the program.”
Myself: “What program?”
Me:      “The ring business, what else?”
Myself: “Huh?”

You can see there was a bit of resistance.  This meant, along with many other things, that I was going to need to improve my sawing-a-straight-line skill.  Rarely (ever?) have I been that girl who blindly follows that “straight & narrow” path.  Not that I’m inherently a risk taker by any means, I just like to meander some and then make up my own mind.  But the argument from me was irresistible!  So, okay, rings it will be. The Meltdown, as they say, will DIVERSIFY.

Really, I have probably been working up to this my whole life.  I wear rings, several of them: stacked, mismatched, matched, single, plain, special, you name it.  I have had at least one ring on my hands since I was old enough to get a prize—a fancy-schmancy genuine faux precious metal ring—from the Dentist for being a good patient.  Now, “good” here means frequent, so I acquired quite a few of these glamorous accoutrements!

So today, I am  cutting, filing, soldering, pounding, stretching, pounding, annealing, sanding, pulling, swearing, pounding—not necessarily in that order—so that you can be adorned too!  The only difference is that your ring is made by me from my favorite non-faux metals—silver and copper—and you don’t need Novocain to secure the goods!

Stay with me, come by the Etsy shop in the next few weeks because there will be new rings stocking the shelves.  If you’re a local, please come by the Holiday Pop Shop market over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, and/or my friend Barry Perez’s Holiday Show in Elgin, Texas on the afternoon of Saturday, December 1st.  Check out the postcards on this page for details.

Even if I don’t see or hear from you, have a safe and thankful Thanksgiving!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Need a little Ooo La La in your wardrobe?



Looking for an original outfit, or better yet, fresh dramatic pieces that fit you?

Need a “radical, magical, beautiful” clothing connection that your friends don’t know about yet?

I’ve got just the place.  Nestled between Write Now and Heights Vinyl on White Oak is this delightful little secret:  a clothing boutique like no other.   La Camella is a clothing and accessory shop, opened about a year ago by Houston native Camella Clements. 

Camella, proprietress and member of the local Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre troupe, decided after a decade of working in academics that a change was in order.  The shop was born of her love of fashion and her need to expand her creative side beyond the classroom.
What will you find?
Shoes?   Of course!
Dresses, tops, bags? YES!
Jeans? Indeed!
Fancy Schmancy under things?  Oui Oui
Jewelry?
So glad you asked!  Local artists, including Maggie’s Meltdown are available here!

If you are wandering around through the Heights and find yourself on White Oak for a bite to eat, check the shop out.  After all, the holiday party season is just about upon us.  Where better to find that special something than a truly unique boutique?
La Camella
713-808-9377
3122 White Oak
Tuesday – Saturday         11-6 pm
Sunday                            12 – 5 pm

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Next Stop, One Green STREET!





Thanks to my dear friend from my old neighborhood, Rose, my work is now available at One Green STREET, on the SE corner of White Oak and Cortlandt, here in the Heights!
One Green STREET


This shop is so cool and I am so honored to be a part of it.  Sherry Eichberger started the shop from a vision of eco-friendly products in a neighborhood-friendly space.  Some of you might remember Margarete Sanchez’ Artful Corner—that’s the space, now a LEED certified building divided into quadrants, each devoted to a different part of the whole body.  They have a variety of organic and natural products to enhance life.  These rooms house home goods, makeup & beauty products, locally mixed and marketed tea from the Path of Tea, clothing, handbags, and of course, handmade jewelry.  And they are a community-minded bunch too, with a Friday afternoon (4-6pm) Front Porch “wind-down-from-the-week” party, a book group, a Friday food truck and several green-living related talks a month.

Everyone, let’s support this excellent concept and the good people who have brought it to our neighborhood!  Oh, and pick up some jewelry from Maggie’s Meltdown while you’re there!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Last Week's Harvest



Renewal earrings

Two weeks ago, I tortured myself, as I do every year.  I spent a whole day at a relentlessly tedious seminar to renew my certification for a job I hope I never have to do again.  For a day I pretended to listen to speakers who warned of various civic dangers, like failing to pick up dog poop (apparently, unpleasant odors!) and restaurants serving ill-gotten oysters (did you know oysters could be procured by shooting them with a 22?).  Anyway, it promised to be a wasted day, but, in the words of my practical dad, “you should always have something to fall back on, in case this foolishness does not work out.”  So I went.

Domino Effect earrings
Now you know what these things are like:  all-you-can-eat Sam’s Club banana nut muffins, the desperate run on giant percolators of god-awful coffee, the lunch buffet (oh joy…taquitos and a side of raw broccoli with ranch dressing), the butt numbness, the afternoon head-bobbing, the dreadful networking, and of course, hours of mindless doodling disguised as note-taking.

Fortunately, the hours of mindless doodling paid off.



The culmination of the week came Saturday night at a party when the realization that I goofed when I set up the Facebook page struck terror in me.  What was I thinking?  I set up my BUSINESS as a PERSON!  EVERYONE knows a BUSINESS is NOT a PERSON!!  Sheesh!!  Anyway, trying to correct such a mistake after the fact is not the breeze you might think.  A flurry of postings ensued asking people to forgive my  ineptness, to “LIKE” my new page, and send money to my new Super Pac. 

Diversion earrings


Today begins a new week in the Meltdown studio and I am anticipating a good one. 


Ecliptic II earrings
Ecliptic III earrings

   Thanks for staying tuned.





 















Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Summer of Solder

How did I spend my summer, you ask?   Soldering and sweating, I answer.  It’s all about heat, baby!  When I’m not behind a torch, I’m in front of a fan, trying to ward off either the honest hard-earned sweat of work, or the devious annoying sweat of a hot flash.  Torch, fan, torch.  Repeat.

Early in the season, maybe even in the spring, I took a class in texturing metal.  It was great fun, even though from the moment I registered, I felt like an imposter, a sham, a pretender, a massive loathsome blob in the cozy glorious world of real metalsmiths.  In fact, I absconded with a few secrets. 

For the a process called Shibuichi (hold the wasabi), we melted down scraps of copper and fine silver in a small crucible to make one big scrap.  Already an exciting development, but it gets better; then I found out that if  you heat silver to a point just before it liquefies you can break it into these fantastic jagged edged pieces.  By soldering those jagged pieces together you can make something really interesting. 

Shibuichi (with Wasabi)



Well, you can make something really interesting.  The process was so cool and simple and inspiring and awesome that I had to put it on the back burner.  Instead, I have been trying like a melting fool to become a “master” solderer.
Django Jingles Necklace
Nestled Necklace

Yeah, well, don’t call me Master just yet.  Yesterday was a soldering bust.  Nothing I touched with a flame worked the way I wanted it to.  I’d been boldly bonding all summer and suddenly I had to pay some unforeseen toll—the toll of abrupt inexplicable incompetence.  At least this time it did not involve lighting my arm on fire. 
New hand wrought clasps
 But the nice thing about life is that today is a whole new day.  With new energy and enthusiasm, and a shimmer of fresh sweat, here’s what I am working on today.
Today's experiments are tomorrow's treasures!
And before you go, don't forget to check out the new work in both the ETSY shop (just click on the picture of the door) and behind the Gallery door. Leave the door cracked and the light on, somebody else will probably stop by. Try to stay cool and thanks for coming by.