Formed By Fire Design Studio

Formed By Fire Design Studio
Artwork, Prints, Jewelry and Everything Else

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Etsy Featured Crafter

I've joined the Promotional Frenzy Team On Etsy and I'm really loving it so far. It's wonderful to have a team that helps you in your promotional efforts.

The crafter that I want to feature today is sewinggranny. Sewing Granny is Mona. She has a 30 year old son, and a new grandson in November. Her dream is to run a full time craft business. She is an active member of the etsyangels team. For more information on the Etsy angels team click here

She features in her store a variety of items. From quilts to potholders and everything in between. Mona is willing to work with you so that anything in her shop can be customized and made especially for you.


 These are some of my favorites:
Bear Wallhanging

Blue Tones Sampler Block


Oven Door Dishtowel
I hope you enjoyed the visit in sewinggranny's etsy shop.

Until next time,
Kim

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

New Painting

We've had a pretty bad snowstorm here in Missouri. They called in the National Guard to assist the Kansas City Metro area. School's been out and one woman joked that they were calling it "Snowmaggadon". Of course, I'm using all this time off to my advantage. I'm sleeping late,  and I'm working on my new painting.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 4 or 5
I'm thinking of calling it Hearts to Heaven or Hope Has Wings. I'm not sure which or something else entirely. What do you think? Or perhaps you have an idea, etsy friends.  Now I'm almost at the last stage.

Inspiration behind the painting: The Hearts are prayers that, as they ascend to heaven,  are transformed into birds. the DNA like columns are the prayers lifting to heaven, In the back, are prayer flags.


Almost final version


I have a few decisions to make:
1. Finish the bird in hands, finish hands(more details)
2. I think the column by the bird is too cluttered, maybe take it out and have one more bird.
3. Darken the sky.

So what do you think? 

Until next time,
Kim

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Weekly Finds: Valentine's Day Etsy Style

Etsy is geared up for Valentine's Day, and so are we!  Some of these finds are so romantic and others are just plain yummy. They say the way to a man's heart is through is stomach. The way to my heart is chocolate!

                                                                   PoisonGarden









                                                          robynsnestboutique






                                                                Laurali






crumblescookies




Until next time,
Kim

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

And the stupid movie award goes to . . .



The Graves. Larry likes to watch horror movies, which is really not my kind of movie, but this movie has to be the stupidest movie I have ever seen.

It starts out with these two sisters who are like a great team. The older sister is going away to New York, while little sister stays home and lives her life. Big sister is the tough one. Before big sister, Meg goes away, they take a little road trip. They stop in the desert in the town of Unity.

At the dinner, the waitress recommends that they stop at Skull Mine. Little sister has a smart moment and says no. Big sister insists so off they go. As they are eating in comes the creepiest black preacher and his prisoner. Long story short, at the mine is where they kill the tourists, the whole town is in on it, and the town is demon possessed. The town kills the tourists to keep the town of Unity prosperous.



Incredibly stupid highlights:

1. Big sister is trying to lead the killer away from little sister. She cuts her wrist long ways and so deeply that she should have bled to death within minutes.



2. Little sister has fallen into a ditch and has been knocked unconscious, she knows that the killer is hunting for her. She yells for her sister.



3. Big sister has been taken hostage. Little sister stands in the window so the killer sees her and takes her hostage too.



4.Little Sister knows or she is too stupid to realize the whole town is in on the scheme. The first killer is related to the second killer. The waitres is related to the killers, etc. So Big sister gets stabbed, and where does little sister take her for help? You guessed it. Right back to the town who has no hospital and no phones and the nearest town is over 25 miles away.

5. The sisters are taken hostage, the whole church has a revival and is going to sacrifice the sisters to the demon known as savior. Townspeople all cover their noses because the smell causes them to be possessed by the Savior . The horrible smell takes over the sisters and they start trying to bite each other like crazed dogs. Thank God the smell of feet and farts do not cause us to become demon possessed. They smell bad, but that is one problem the world does not need. We would all be in danger and the human race would be extinct.

6. Remember, I told you big sister has been stabbed in the chest? Don't forget she cut her wrist so deep she should have bled to death in a few minutes. Oh never mind, that because the writers want you to feel the touching moment between sisters. So big sister has told little whiny sister to pull herself together. Little sister pulls it together, and saves big sister. Big sister tells little sister I am proud of you. Little sister punches big sister in the chest where she has been stabbed. Little Sister tells Big sister," I am going with you to New York. Someone needs to take care of you." The moment is so touching, big sister feels no pain.

What I have learned from this movie:
1. No matter how fast you run, the killer will catch up to you even if he is walking.
2. Don't trust anyone from small towns, they are all in a plot to kill you.
3. When you seek help, just remember killers are always related.
4. If you try to keep the killer from finding you slit your wrist and lead him awy with your blood. 5. Bad smells can cause demon possession. Keep the world safe, eliminate bad smells.
6. You can be whiny and scared and still be the hero at the end of the movie.
7. Getting stabbed can be cured from just the right amount of sisterly love.
8. All Chrisitan are psycho killers, and a little religion makes you a lot crazy.
I wish hollywood would stop perpetuating this. Craziness is no repecter of persons. It crosses the boundaries of race, gender, and religion.
9. It is too stupid to be scary.
10. Good writers don't write for Hollywood.

Until next time,
Kim

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I'm still blogging!

Well, guys I bet you thought it would be another month or so before I would be back! Nope, I promised I would get better so here I am.

I've been working like a madman to get a couple of pages done in the Diary Book Project. It is a wonderful opportunity to get free publicity, no matter what handmade product you sell. I plan on doing this every year that this is done.

Diary 2011
On to the week in review. I know it's not Sunday, but I want to get the habit of blogging once a week and then I'll start blogging more often.




So on Tuesday, I went to renew my driver's liscence and I failed the eye exam! I couldn't see anything from my left eye. So now I have to either get special permission from my eye doctor or find some better glasses. I can see fine really, I never drive with my right eye shut!




On Wednesday, We went to the Moon.








Moon Marble that is! I love Moon Marble! It is located in Bonner Springs. Bruce makes marbles of course , and gives demonstrations. It's a fun, busy shop. We go there to pick up our glass and all of our bead making supplies. We even bought our kiln from Moon Marble. If you are ever in the area you should stop in! Bring the family and watch how marbles are made.

On Thursday, teachers finally got the letter from the school district, telling us our placement. I will be teaching art at two schools this year. So far they have laid off a lot of teachers. Thank God I still have a job! Two of my friends, Marilyn and Cindy won't be teaching this year. It's a big mess, teachers can't make plans. I'd be devastated if I couldn't teach.

I have to go and list some more on Etsy. I'll give you a sneak peek:
These are the artworks I've been working on this week .











Here is the pendants, my husband made using the glass from Moon Marble. I've made some beads and will be making them into a necklace soon.


More to come tomorrow!









Until Next time,
Kim




































Sunday, July 18, 2010

Eventful Week

Ok, guys. I promise I'm going to get better at this whole blogging thing. I plan for Sundays to be my week in review day. It worked for my former principal, so I'm going to make it work for me too!

On Monday,I started a new group on facebook for handmade jewelry makers. I got tired seeing jewelry groups that promoted their own shops and called promoting your own shop "spam". So I created a facebook group for handmade jewelry makers to give and get support. Jewelry makers I hope you will stop in and join!






On Wednesday, Larry and I celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary. We had promised each other no working on the jewelry business, but it didn't work out as planned. So we celebrated for another few days for good measure.



On Thursday, I finished my second in the transformation series painting and took photographs and listed them on Etsy. One is called Guidance and the other is called Guardian.





Guidance is the picture on the right. Click here to see Guidance on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/51532374/original-painting-transformation-series

Guardian is on the left and I love how it turned out. As an artist, this is my first time painting in a series. I've been doing a lot of reading on how to improve my paintings and I'm discovering ideas I never thought of before. I'll write more on my paintings soon.











Friday and Saturday, We're giving Etsy our best shot. Tried the showcase to see if it works for us. Spent most the week redoing pictures and descriptions, and backlinking our items.
Added new earrings to our website. See them here: http://www.formedbyfire.com/Handmade-Earrings-Page-1.php
Alright, now I'm going to work out with my kettlebells, which is food for another blog.
Until next time,
Kim

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Photo Gallery of Handmade Jewelry

This is a sampling of some of our handmade jewelry. I think the gallery turned out really well.