Jewelry by Artists Exhibition: Today, 2pm - 7 pm

If anyone is looking for some cool, local, handmade gifts this holiday season, why not jewelry? Sixteen Austin jewelry artists, including Kristin Laing, Maria Retzlaff, Stephanie Jimenez, Jamie Spinello, Elizabeth Baird, Mary Newton, Jenny Guild, Claire Buck, Astra Poyser Laughlin, Amy Holton, Christine Terrell, Lisa Linbrugger, Kathryn Babboni, Hillary Blumanthal, Rachel Salome & Maggie Goen, will all have their work on display and for sale.

Where: Gallery Black Lagoon - 4301 A. Guadalupe St. (At the corner of 43rd St. & Guadalupe)

When: TODAY! Saturday December 4th - 2 pm -7 pm

www.galleryblacklagoon.com

One day only, Free to Attend! SHOP LOCAL THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!

Click here to see flyer

Etsy Shop Updated

Now that September's rolled around, it's slipping ever closer to the end of the year and the holiday season, so if you want something cool & unique & handmade, check out my Etsy shop! astraeadesigns.etsy.com

Etsy astraeadesigns

78704 Artisan Market

Well, I'm finally taking the plunge and doing my first real show today. I'm a little nervous, not quite knowing what to expect. Fortunately, my sister-in-law, Kara, is gonna come hang out for part of the afternoon. It'll be nice to have a friendly face around. I just hope I sell at least one thing. If I can make $15, I cover the cost for the table. That's an attainable goal, right?

If anyone reads this blog, wish me luck! Oh, and the show is called the 78704 Artisan Market, and it's down in the SoCo area. It's at the intersection of South Congress and Gibson (in the LAZ parking lot where Austin Pets Alive is located, and across from the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store).

More details can be found here: http://www.weare78704.com/arma

On the Horizon

I've been busy lately. My brother's movie got into Sundance (yay!), so the family's all headed up there, and his lead actress has graciously agreed to wear some of my jewelry. I'm having a hard time designing with big, bulky sweaters in mind, though (given that it's gonna be COLD up there!), so I've mostly been cranking out earrings. We'll see how it goes.

Friday morning, I'm meeting with some friends to discuss some custom wedding jewelry. I'm excited by the prospect. I had such fun designing my own, so I'm really looking forward to the opportunity. Maybe if I get a decent-sized collection going, I can approach some of the local boutiques that might specialize in that sort of thing.

With that in mind, I've been designing some flyers and promos (such as the one to the left). I wish I were more comfy with this whole self-promotion thing. I love designing flyers and whatnot, but when it comes to handing 'em out and approaching shops about carrying my work, and basically being one of those pushy you-should-totally-buy-my-stuff kinda people, I balk. It's just not really in my nature. I'd much rather just crank out the jewelry and leave that to someone else. But who? I imagine this is the number-one drawback for most creative would-be entrepreneurs; we're all much happier behind the scenes. That's why we do this sort of thing in the first place, isn't it?

Still, should be some good stuff on the horizon. Wedding jewelry and Sundance. Looking forward to both!

-Astra

Vampire Night

This really just started out as a brainstorm one night while I was making jewelry. I'd been watching a lot of "True Blood" (my husband and I are both hooked), and then I just started thinking of vampires in general, and I decided, hey, I should make some "vampire-themed" jewelry. At first, I was just going to make pieces modeled after those worn by characters on TV and in movies. But my web-searching wasn't turning up a whole helluva lot to go by.

So it morphed from there, into just generic vampy-jewelry, but I thought, hey, I could do another photo shoot and get the models to dress like vampires, and, oooh, what if we had a show/exhibit afterwards, of all the work? I hated asking my resident photographer, Jessica, to just do another show for free, but this was a way we could both potentially come out ahead. She gets to show off her photos, I show off my jewelry... everyone's happy.

And then it kept growing from there. I roped in another photographer, four models, and we shot on location at Prague, an underground nightclub straight out of Transylvania, with all its gargoyles and brick walls and old-world decor. The photos all look great -- I was second-guessing myself and wondering if all this planning was going to pay off, but y'know, I'm happy just to have those pictures. I didn't take them myself, but they wouldn't have existed if it weren't for that initial late-night brainstorm.

So it's all underway. The event is next Friday, October 30, the night before Halloween. I've dubbed it "Vampire Night" -- a nice, simple title that gets the idea across. We've been advertising and planning and putting up flyers -- I hope we get a good turnout. Mostly I hope it's a success so that I can justify doing it again -- I've already got ideas churning for future photo shoot/events. Maybe this'll be the start of something pretty damn cool!

We shall see.

-Astra

Jewelry Slide Show

It's really pretty amazing what you can do on the internet these days. I remember laboriously writing out code just to change a background -- now everything's made easy and all the code is done for you. Anyway, I was browsing the forums on Etsy and saw that some folks had made slide shows of their stuff, so I figured that couldn't hurt. More excuses to play with pictures, and this time you can add music, too!

So here's my slide show. If you don't like the music, just click on the little volume icon and it'll turn itself off. I think it's a pretty song, though; I browsed through quite a few selections before I found this one.

(Edited to add) I decided to link rather than embed -- it's less intrusive that way. Click here to see the slideshow.

As always, you can find the jewelry itself at: astraeadesigns.etsy.com.

Thanks!

-Astra

New Flickr Page

A couple of folks have advised me to use Flickr as a means of promoting my work. Of course, you have to be careful, since Flickr frowns upon including price info on your photos. But as long as you obey the rules, I guess it can be a handy way to showcase your stuff.

I had a Flickr account already, and had been using that to post my jewelry in groups, but I finally decided to just make a specific one for my work. That way I can keep the original for photos of family and friends and all that good stuff.

Therefore, here's the new Flickr site, just for my jewelry: www.flickr.com/photos/astraeadesigns

If you've got a Flickr account of your own, feel free to add me!