JUNE 2023 Finally, along came the month where summer officially makes its debut. But…it seemed like the rain and doomy gloom was endless! Were you as tired of it as I was? Thankfully, it seems the sun and summer days have finally arrived; thank the Gods! 🌞
The second half of the year started off with getting ready for the San Diego County Fair jewelry competition, which was a bit chaotic, but ended up working out well! The San Diego County Fair runs from June 7 to July 4 this year. I had intended to submit 12 designs and was planning that out in March and April. The deadline to submit entry designs was April 28. Unfortunately, my sweet bun, Pickle, passed away in mid-April. The week leading up to his passing was full of vet visits and hope rising and falling multiple times. Then he passed away and my grief was overwhelming in the following weeks, completely scattering my thoughts and my focus. May Pickle Rest In Peace.💙 [Losing a pet is so hard. Sending well wishes for all loved ones and beloved pets.❣️] I ended up submitting 6 entries for the fair and was able to finish 5 of them in the remaining time to turn in the actual completed pieces, which was May 28th! And of course, making that limited time even more limited in those final weeks, I was at EDC (in Vegas).😁 (How FANTASTIC was EDC this year?! 🌟) All the pieces of jewelry in the competition were judged before the fair officially opened, with the award placement (if any) showing alongside the piece in the exhibit for all to see. All the pieces I entered won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in the jewelry competition! I was thrilled.😄😊
Here are all of them and how they placed in their respective categories:
- 🥇 Submission #1: MOON STICK - 1st (Constructed jewelry/Professional)
🌛This is no mere trinket—this is the powerful and beautiful Moon Stick! The Moon Stick is sterling silver with 14k gold bezels, hangs on a 17” sterling silver chain, and has two gemstones. There is a berry Umba sapphire where the wand connects to the moon and a rainbow moonstone placed above the wand, in the crescent moon.
- 🥉Submission #2: MY NEIGHBOR - 3rd (Constructed jewelry/Professional)
🌳🍃This special bangle features a friendly forest spirit from Studio Ghibli’s world that we’d all be lucky to have as our neighbor. You can see that Totoro left room for his friends down the road on both sides of this sterling silver bangle.
- 🥇Submission #3: PAPER CHAIN MEMORIES - 1st (Handmade metal chain/Open)
⛓️This bracelet is one of those sweet things that sparks memories of youth and wholesome fun, and is tied into one of our core childhood memories from when we made those brightly colored paper chains in grade school with simple construction paper, scissors, and a glue stick. This sterling silver piece uses only cold connections; no heat was used in the making of it! As I’m sure you would hope, the bracelet does not open with a clasp—it actually rolls onto the wrist! 😁The texture of the bracelet is rather remarkable; it is polished smooth, yet has a matte look, which somehow translates into the most satisfying feel.
- 🥈Submission #4: CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES - 2nd (Handmade metal chain/Open)
🫧I made this piece with both sterling silver and 14k gold filled metals and created it using new textures and techniques–at a glance, it seems as if there are little crystal gemstones tucked into the shiny bubble-like indents! While the necklace makes you think of lighthearted joy and glasses of champagne, it is not a fragile piece of jewelry; it has a comfortable weight & a sturdy feel to it.
- 🥈Submission #5: THE CRESCENTS MOON - 2nd (Art Jewelry/Professional)
🌛The Crescents Moon necklace and earrings set is an expansion on my popular and loved crescent earrings design! I created this set using both sterling silver and 14k gold filled crescents.
Another event that happened in June (on the 10th) was the 🍄Game of Shrooms 🍄event! This is an annual event that artists from all over the world participate in, by hiding mushroom-themed art for people to find! (Yes, finders keepers, in the same way I’ve been running my Treasure Hunts!) The official account for this event is: @gameofshroomsofficial. It was my first time, and I thoroughly enjoyed participating in it. If you are an artist yourself, I suggest you look into participating next year! I made and then hid three MUSHROOM pieces around town for you all to search for: 1) Eat Me Shroom Necklace, 2) Twisted Shroom Ring, & 3) Mushroom 1-Up Coin. The first one was a sterling silver mushroom necklace with EAT ME written on the top of the pendant (Wonderland vibes 🫖 🎩 🌀😼). The second one was a beautiful & shiny twisted ring, sterling silver, with two mushrooms on top 🍄🍄. The third one was the extra-life-giving 1-Up Mushroom token from Super Mario (Wahoo! 🎮), also sterling silver. I placed them in their secret hiding spots at different times throughout the day and in different parts of San Diego County (Encinitas, Vista, & Balboa Park!) and provided clues the day before and the day of for where you should search for them. While I thought my clues were good and vague, each piece was found insanely quickly, lol! So, I will definitely make my hints a littleeeee harder moving forward. 😜
This leads me right into mentioning my own Treasure Hunts! My most recent one took place a few days ago, on June 30, and was already the 5th one I’ve done. The treasure was a tiny rainbow that peeks out from behind a cloud—it was my first kinetic piece! (The rainbow moves.) I’m having a blast making these treasures for you, and love getting all the messages from you guys as you’re guessing where they are and especially the ones saying you found them! The 4th Treasure Hunt took place at the very end of May, while I was in Vegas. Since this hunt was happening in Vegas, I stayed in theme and made a silver die (as in the singular form of dice 🎲) as the treasure piece. The treasure chest containing the die was confirmed gone a few days after the hunt had started, but I never received a message from anyone about finding it! So, I don’t know where it ended up, but hopefully someone is enjoying it. 😃
Now that we’re finally moving into some sunny days, we’ve got less than 3 weeks to go until SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!! I’ll see you all there in cosplay!
