Yesterday, while biking down the alleys to work, I stumbled upon the happiest little bunch of Poppies. 

I had to take a picture.

This bracelet makes my mouth water:)

Orchard Path from jamisson.etsy.com

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91742434/orchard-path-bracelet

Eye Candy! 

. . . or rather 

Ear candy!

It is past time for a Perlina Peerbackers update.

So here it is:

32% Funded

$2190 raised of the $7000 goal

14 Days to go!

We really are so excited with the show of support from our current backers and Facebook enthusiasts!

Read what some people have said:

1. ‎15 days left to support Jami and Marianne as they source start-up costs for their bead store and education center!

Clemmie and I are pretty broke, but we've decided that we're going to go ahead and pay it forward now for when we're ready to be entrepreneurs. 

Helps these ladies meet their dream. Donate even a $1 today!  -Allison Murdock

2.   Hi Jami! I saw you're raising money for Perlina! I'm so excited for you and I wish you the best of luck. I'll contribute what I can :) I hope you're warm and well -Brigittie Tijerina

3.  lookie lookie........ lets help Jami Stone start the coolest beadstore ever.... right here in SAVANNAH GA ♥ -Molly Lieberman

YAY!

This does not include the e-mails that have been sent in support! Which have helped to boost our spirits, because not every response is alway s so positive.

Thank you to those who have been positive:)

We decided it was time to offer some new rewards for different backing amounts. Here's what is new:

15% coupon to use in the Perlina Shop for every $15 backing

25% coupon to use in the Perlina Shop for every $25 backing

All of the other rewards remain the same, just with some new ones on the block.

Follow the link below to check out all the details.

http://peerbackers.com/projects/project-perlina/home/

HELLO

*** BEAD STASH ***

Here it is! Most of my bead stash:)

I have been collecting all my life.

When I was teeny tiny, not sure how old, my mom bought a bag of assorted beads for me at the local craft store. 

I spent all afternoon inspecting and organizing them by shape and color.

A few hers later, when I was old enough to use a needle and thread she gave me all of her hippy beads. She taught me how to make daisy chains and how to use wire to weave a band that could be worn as a ring.

The love of making things with beads has stayed with me. Of course beading does have to coexist with painting, bookmaking, sewing, glueing, knitting and crocheting. They all seem to get along quite well:)

This week was full of meetings and well there are still more meetings scheduled for this weekend.

I am okay with that, we are talking about something I grow more passionate about every time I talk about it!

Here's the list of accomplishments so far:

We have been chipping away at the paperwork and there is a light at the end of the tunnel now:)

I should mention that all of the things on the check list so far are required except for the last. It just seemed to come out of nowhere. As exciting as it all is, there is the inevitable element of stress that lurks in the back of your mind. Though I thought I was keeping it controlled it got to me on my bike ride home yesterday. 

But I will not be stopped, admittedly a little slowed down, but not stopped:)

My meeting on Wednesday with my girl Carley went really well. Not only because of her professional advise on opening a business bank account but her personal attention to the details. 

She works at a bank and as soon as she heard we were starting a business she offered her help and support. Seriously, the same day!

There are still so many things to do that I will keep you posted on, so until then,

Have a Great Friday!

Detail from a needle book from jamisson.etsy.com

So this past week was a doozy. 

Each day is full of a plethora of emotions during this store organizing and opening process. 

I want to make sure we cover all of the legal bases but I am trying to not get too bogged down in the paper work so I escaped for a brief afternoon into a painting project.

This is only partially finished, I still need to make that circle in the top corner look like a clock and add speckles to the Robin's eggs in the nest.

The composition came from a doodle I found in one of my sketchbooks. 

Above is the original sketch which is only about 1 inch by 1 1/4 inches in my sketchbook:)

Painting always has a way of making me feel like I have been shocked back to consciousness. Like I had been laid out on a cold table and suddenly I am up dancing again. I forget this until I pick up a brush:)

I will repost it when it is complete!

I love my creative space!

I also love seeing other people's creative spaces. It is like seeing someone's soul all strewn about or neatly tucked away, depending on the artist. 

There are books and magazines devoted to images of the various creative spaces of artists and I can't get enough of them!

Click on the links to check a couple out!

Here are some peeks at my creative space.

I was working in Gouache at the time that I took these pictures. THe portraits, like so many of my paintings are unfinished. One is in oil and the other acrylic. 

The designs of little girls  on the desk top are in gouache. I did finish those and will share in another post.

I would love to see some of your creative spaces! 

Send me some pics and I might post them:)

In the midst of all this planning for Perlina I have tried to make time to continue to update my on-line shops.

I have been inspired by copper, it's warmth, it's natural appeal, the way it compliments natural stones, and it's price point;)

I have also been inspired by chain. I have been surprising myself with some of the designs that have come from working with chain. 

These are a pair of chain dangle earrings with moss agate and a turquoise colored drop. 

They can be found in my Etsy shop Jamisson.

I like this angle because they look like little abstract trees:)

I thought today might be a good day to share some of the sketches that I have been making on my lunch breaks, in front of the TV, at my desk, when and wherever.

They are plans for the shop layout and ideas about merchandising. I know what I really love to look at and what draws me in so I am hoping to be able to pull these visions out of my head and make them real in our shop. 

Preliminary sign/logo sketches, we have gone with a different one:)
And some ideas for the wall with windows.

Some sketches of things that I have been collecting for merchandising. I want the shop to have a warm, funky, creative, french country side meets, gardening artist type of a feel:) Not really sure what that means exactly but I think we can pull it off!

This is going to be my favorite wall:) We will have to wait to see the reality of the sketch but it will be so rewarding when it happens. 

As you can see this project is all I think about these days. The possibility of becoming an entrepreneur and  running our own shop is so exciting and liberating. That is not to say it is not scary and stressful but it will all be so worth it. 

So just to give everybody an idea of the space and the work ahead of us here is a little collage of the space now, 

Don't judge:) It has been serving as a storage room but soon I want to show everyone the "After" that goes along with this "Before" picture.

I have been sketching floor plans on my break for weeks now. We can't wait to get into the space and start to see the transformation. We will keep you posted up until the end and then the reveal will be a surprise! You will have to be there to see it for yourself;)

Happy Thursday!

So today begins a 30 day adventure in Crowd funding!  "What is crowd funding?" you say. Well you can follow the link in the phrase or we could just say it is when a bunch of people, strangers and not-so-strangers, get together to back a project that needs more funding that the project creator has or can raise alone.

Our crowd funding adventure actually began a week ago when we started filming a project video so we could show people what our project was about. We walked all over downtown visiting friends in their shops, shooting pretty downtown stuff, trying to find interesting stuff, and stopping for coffee and a peek in the local thrift store:)

Oh! I should tell YOU what our project is! My good friend Marianne and I want to open a local bead store. We have the brains but not the money so we are turning to our online community to see what kind of interest and support we can inspire!

After editing all of our footage we collected, adding a sound track and recording our beautiful voices describing our project, we submitted our proposal to one very well known crowd funding site. We found out a day and a half later that we were not a proper fit or their web site and we could probably find our fit elsewhere. And we did at Peerbackers.com!

We were approved in less than a day and up and running as of last night, January 11, 2012. What's really cool is we have already gotten three backers.

Tonight we will have our video up and our avatar will actually fit the allotted square format provided.

Until next time, here is a link directly to our project:

Perlina

Project Perlina

Project Perlina: We are trying to raise money for initial startup; inventory, permit fees, advertising, fixtures, rent and a minor face lift to the space we have found

Nate is inspired again! Yay!

http://typophile.com/files/Tesla_4663.png

It is so hard sometimes to watch a creative person search for inspiration. We get so down when we don't have a thing to escape into or build around us. 

Nate is working on something that I think is going to be great and will make him happy while he is creating it.

The Cloud in the top left is from: http://shop.askingfortrouble.org/products/kawaii-skies-badge-set


Today, it is reassuring to know that I am in good company.
They remind me that a little bit of the blues is inevitable.
Thanks Guys:)

Hoop and Dangle Earrings can be found at jamisson.etsy.com.

Here are some images of the earrings I have been working on. Every so often I get this wave of inspiration to create jewelry. 

I was given a challenge this Christmas to create a pair of earrings by mixing metal colors. It took a while, I didn't think I could make it work but now I an running with it:)

Here are a few pictures I took of Nate, my husband. He is a graphic novel writer and he needed an author picture for his latest book. 

None of these made the cut. He wanted to make sure that his tie was visible. His book is a mix of the old west and urban gangs so the tie was appropriate. It was a gift from a friend who had it specially made just for Nate.

 I have to agree that it is perfect for him given his usual subject matter in his books, however I have had to discourage him from wearing it to work;) I am not sure the customers at the bookstore would appreciate it. 

Lesson of the Day:

This lesson is brought to you today by personal experience.

Do not let self loathing, angry old men in the park get you down.

If they insult you just walk away knowing that they are more miserable all the time than you feel at that moment.

-jami

And if you have a Grover to greet you when you get home that helps:)

Elliot in the Acorn Hat

Here he is all finished!

Say hello to Elliot.

Well, I don't have to be at work until noon so I am going to work on some stuff with Amelia and James this morning.

They are the best crafting buddies!

Acorn Hat

Progress of the sketch from this morning.
Not quite finished.

I have been collecting free photo editing apps for my iPod and iPhone. I know it sounds like overkill to own both but I got a really good deal on the phone:)

Anyways, I like taking pictures of my pencil sketches and adding multiple filters and effects to them.

The outcome can be so far from the original I hardly recognize it as my own image.  

Here are a few variations on this sketch I did of a girl. 

All I know about her is that she is a pilot of some sort. I have not imagined her ship yet but I know it is pretty out-of-this-world:)

Acorn Hat Sketch

We have the most gigantic acorns I have ever seen in our back yard! They make me daydream about all the ways that little garden elves and fairies might use them. In this illustration this little fella has fashioned himself a hat.

This is just a preliminary sketch. I had to get it out of my head before going to work or I might get caught doodling on the clock;)

The painted version will have to wait. Until then, have a good day!