Press and Vespas

Fellow jewelry maker Christine was kind enough to interview me on her blog, The Jewelry Sweet Spot, where she also offers crafting and business tips along with other DIYer profiles.

Check it out: Adorned by Morgan at The Jewelry Sweet Spot

A trend I've recently noticed around Manhattan and even in Astoria involves the ever-adorable and sometimes-vintage Vespa. I've seen these cute modes of transport popping up everywhere, including parked on sidewalks.

I have no clue as to whether they are safer or not than motorcycles, but if you want to read up on the history of the symbolic Vespa, head on over to Wikipedia for some interesting tidbits like this one:

"Vespa is both Latin and Italian for wasp—derived from both the high-pitched noise of the two-stroke engine, and adopted as a name for the vehicle in reference to its body shape: the thicker rear part connected to the front part by a narrow waist, and the steering rod resembled antennae."

and this "...the Vespa was much more widely used in the 1950s and 60s[citation needed], when it also became the adopted vehicle of choice for the UK youth-culture known as Mods."

Although I could never see myself riding one, it seems current models are more environmentally efficient than their prototypes, and I do find Vespas to be ever so aesthetically appealing. The pale pastel colored ones are especially so.

Here's a few of my favorite Vespa Etsy pieces that I could indeed see myself purchasing:



A hand painted tile from www.maiziejane.etsy.com.



A digital print from www.etsy.johnwgolden.com.

In the News...day

Adorned by Morgan is on Newsday's blog today!

I was featured as "DIY-er of the Week" and interviewed by the sweet Corris Little.

Check it out at:


http://weblogs.newsday.com/features/home/cheap_thrills_blog/

A Summer in Review

The warm weather is lingering but nowt here's a hint of autumn in the air. Oh, summer, how I'll miss you!

Here's some photographic highlights of the cool activities I did where I remembered to bring a camera:



Kayaking in Astoria on the East River, courtesy of the Long Island City Community Boathouse Yes, the East River. Of course my mom and Mark's mom both freaked out, but as we learned that day, there is life in that body of water.

Exhibit A:



This little guy-- a Blue Crab-- was temporarily reigned in by another community group near our kayaking session on the little strip of sand where we were located. He even got some height out of the water when Mark tried to pet him! I've never seen a crab jump before.

On our tiny corner of sand in Astoria that day a few weeks ago, there were three different activities going on at one time. The little bank was only perhaps a handful of cars long at most, and Mark and I even passed it a few times before we realized that was the kayaking meetup spot we were searching for. Growing up on Long Island, with beaches 15-20 minutes away from my home at most, this was a real eye opener. To see a child's rock-skipping contest, a kayaking class and a waterlife observation group all simultaneously making the most of this tiny bank of sand because it is the only spot like it in the area, well that gives you a real sense of pride in your community and gratefulness for the childhood you had. Yeah, the beaches on Long Island are crowded, too, but having access to them is invaluable.

I think it's great that Astoria has such free events for the community at any given time, however, and I bet those kids rock skipping and exploring waterlife will remember that day whenever they look back on their own childhoods. It just really illustrates how your environment can influence your life.

Speaking of wildlife, here's a pic of a gorgeous butterfly who was chilling just outside of my apartment stoop one day this summer:



As you can see, it was huge! I don't recall ever seeing a butterfly that big before. I caught it on my way to Astoria Park for the first time.



I guess I was still starving for the water, because all of my pictures focused on the waterfront views from the park. You can see the Manhattan skyline below the bridge here. That's either the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building there on the left (the pointy one). I can't remember. Hazy photo.

And one more:



Yeah so, summer was great. Also went to San Francisco in June (seems so far away already). Mark and I went to the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden a bunch of times with friends, tried out lots of restaurants/bars in the East Village and elsewhere in Manhattan, and generally just enjoyed our first summer in Astoria.

Hello

Still here! I've recently updated my Etsy shop with new additions and took pics the other day of even more pieces. Mostly, I've been focusing on earrings but I do have a few necklaces to post. I find it more difficult to photograph them in an appealing way than earrings, I guess because it's hard to find appealing ways to pose the chain that represent the necklace.

I made my first sale at the new Etsy address! This cute vintage pear necklace was hard to part with, but I knew it would get good wear in its new home. As promised, I also gave my first buyer a pair of the Vintage Blue Berkley Button Earrings as a gift.

They're still available in the shop if you're looking to snag a pair as well.

Just for fun, here's a recent listing:



Also, I just started reading Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina. Among other helpful topics, it contains specific information about nutrition, which is exactly what I'm trying to brush up on. Okay... by "brush up" I mean I really am not a science or math person and things like cups, grams, kilo-whatevers fully elude me-- so it's not like I have an extremely well-versed knowledge based to start with. I've basically done things backwards-- immersed myself in a vegan diet with some knowledge of how best to get my vitamins/minerals-- but now I want to ensure myself a solid enough foundation so that I can be a healthier vegan. I truly think that vegan diets are healthy and more than nutritionally sufficient. I just know that as a person in general I have to be less lazy about feeding myself.

Here's the thing: I've been a vegan now for almost three-ish years. (I never really had an exact start date, although I've been a vegetarian since I was about 5 years old). It was more of a transition for me. Even so, I don't cook often. I like to cook; I just don't like all the dishes or the fact that I'd rather spend my time relaxing after work than prepping to eat. I like to bake even more, but again-- I lack ambition. Anyhow, the point of this tangent is that I bought this book in the hopes of improving my ability to take care of myself in a nutritionally healthy way.

So that's my deal! I'll let you know how the book goes.

New Jewelry Ventures

I've been fascinated by metalsmithing and wirework lately, and I decided to take tentative steps into these techniques over the past week. Eni Oken's work is particularly inspiring, and she even offers tutorials for purchase on her site so that others can learn from her techniques.

Although Oken primarily uses sterling silver or gold-filled components in her work and I usually don't believe in "drafts" in the writing world (that's why keyboards have "delete" buttons, eh?), I figured I should use some base metal wire for practice.

Here's my end result after many hours of wire wrapping, one full mess up, and equal amounts of experimentation:





This vintage glass cabochon is from my Cali trip in June. It reminds me of a sunset with its mix of lollipop red, Jolly Rancher orange and lemonade yellow colors.



Other jewelry designers with styles similar to Oken are Magdalena Borejko and Iza Malczyk.

Although I had fun creating the pendant this week, I'm just not sure I have the patience to do this particular type of craft on a regular basis. It's definitely exciting to try, and I love the end results.

In other news, I have been updating the shop with new items, some of which I made today. (I'm so going to miss having the extra four hours I've been getting on Fridays in the summer thanks to half days at work...)

Exhibit a:



I've never had a promotion before, but today I decided the first customer to make a purchase at the new domain name will receive a pair of these:



Anyways, that's all for now! Goodnight.

The latest

So I haven't been updating the blog or even my Etsy shop much lately as I've been working with some new brick-and-mortar shops and creating new pieces for the fall.

I also opened up a new Etsy shop at Adorned by Morgan to reflect my business name and switched my original Etsy shop, LiteratAvian, to a supplies-only site.

Love Brigade also now officially carries Adorned by Morgan designs and has already placed another order for:



And just for fun here's a few previews of soon-to-be-listed on Etsy:







And this one I'm not sure I can part with yet:



It has vintage pressed glass cabs from our trip to Berkley, vintage filigree from the city, and vintage brass cones repurposed from a necklace I bought in Astoria. The red quartz are from an Etsy purchase. I love the fact that this pair has components from so many different places, and so it's not going anywhere just yet!

In the works

So Adorned by Morgan has been busy busy busy as of late, and it's awesome. Now, if only my hands could keep up with the ideas zooming through my head! Isn't that always the case, though?

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Love Brigade in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The store sells high fashion-type clothing, and if you visit its site you'll see there are very interesting story lines that propel the clothing lines its designers create. I like that concept of linking clothing and a theme through a plot like that; it adds even more meaning to already-individualized styles of clothing.

Anyway, this is kind of monumental for me, as a member of Love Brigade actually approached me about carrying my work, instead of vice versa. I'm still relatively new to this whole brick-and-mortar deal, and I'm very happy with how it's been going so far, so I was even more blown away when someone contacted me. Apparently this girl had purchased a necklace of mine from SITE and loved it! It's really such encouragement that keeps me trying to grow and promote Adorned by Morgan, so I was totally flattered.

Needless to say, I've been working (and buying, uh oh) quite a bit since last week and hopefully I will have enough to offer Love Brigade tomorrow in terms of a range of choice for products to try out. It was funny because my contact had asked me about providing a line sheet (basically a list of descriptions, prices and sometimes photos of the pieces that you offer) and I had to explain that I don't have them. While there are certain pieces I will reproduce, Adorned by Morgan generally consists of one-of-a-kind items. I plan on keeping it this way for a number of reasons, including that it's more fun for me to explore new challenges than take on ones I've already tried, and it ensures that my clients are really getting unique pieces.

Part of the reason I decided to get back into jewelry making was that I began to find I was buying mass-produced jewelry in stores while on the checkout line just because they were readily available for the grabbing and a cheap buy. But quick and easy-- despite any shiny qualities-- kinda lacks meaning, doesn't it?

At least for me it does, especially when I see a handful of people wearing the same thing I am on any given day.

Which brings me to my obsession with vintage. Vintage items are great for jewelry making because not only do they promote recycling by giving new life to a piece that has gone by the wayside, but they also carry a story along with them. Somehow, older components like beads and findings just hold a greater meaning for me in a lot of instances that those that have also been mass produced and put on the shelf. Many bead stores carry the same new products, and so even when creating your own jewelry it can be difficult to be original. With vintage items, the chances of reproduction are fewer and far between, and they give you a link to history.

Using vintage items also allows me to keep in touch with my love of archaeology and historical artifacts. There's nothing like digging up just the right component in a fruitful search that has left your fingers blackened with decades-old dust.

Ah, the sweet, stale smell of history. And don't worry, when I get those pieces-- they'll be nice and cleaned for your wear!