I'm happy to announce that Hieropice is now Hieropice™!
We are officially trademarked baby! Yeah!
We are officially trademarked baby! Yeah!
Showing posts with label terrarium necklace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrarium necklace. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Woo hoo Etsy Finds!
Friday, November 15, 2013
Ch-ch-ch-changes!!
Changes are afoot! But change is a good thing, right?! Sometimes...
I launched my website, Hieropice.com, in November. It was an exciting venture, to create a website that was truly my own, that I could design, tweak, make. It is a venue accessible to anyone, whether they're familiar with Etsy, or Hieropice, or not. I can include features there that I can't on Etsy, like images from Polyvore,
where users have styled ensembles with Hieropice pieces, as well as my
local craft-show itinerary, links to my blog, and a gallery of custom
pieces I've made in the past. I get to control the look and feel of the
site, and make it match my brand.
While making Hieropice items available to customers from a variety of venues is good business sense, it wasn't my sole motivation for opening Hieropice.com. At the beginning of November, handmade, vintage, and supply site Etsy, which had been Hieropice's primary online home, made some changes to the site's policies which were...difficult for me, as a handmade jewelry artist.
Shortly before my older brother passed away recently, he asked me, "what's the big deal about handmade anyway? I don't get what could possibly be better about something someone's making with their hands versus a machine."
I get his inquiry. Machine-made things are not only great, but they're sometimes essential. I expect my car to be machine-made, my electronics, my appliances. I know these items often have elements of human assembly, but I feel comfortable with the fact that a machine manufactures them primarily, making each one identical to the next, precise, solid, consistent.
But for things
that I connect with in an intimate way, handmade matters. When I go out
to eat at a restaurant, I think about what I'm consuming, where things
were grown, even what the creatures I'm consuming consumed when they
were alive! I think about how a dish was prepared, how the surface it
was prepared on was prepared, what herbs, spices, fats, proteins and
vegetables went into it, the manner in which it was cooked. Most of us
have thought more about these things as our knowledge of the effects of
food on our bodies and our environment has grown. We care where our
food comes from, and what's in it, as we care about what it does to us,
to those around us, and our environment. And we appreciate being able
to ask the people who grew it, prepared it, cooked it, served it,
questions about it. And knowing that someone is accountable for it.
Handmade, in whatever form it may take, is valuable for these reasons. When I create a handmade piece, you can ask me anything under the sun about it. What is this made of? Where does the material come from? What's the history of this technique? And I can tell you. (And if I don't know off-hand, I'll certainly do my research!) I'm accountable for what I make, so, it matters to me what it's made of, where the materials come from and if they were acquired responsibly, whether the piece stands the test of time, whether a buyer is happy with it. A machine simply doesn't have an opinion about any of those things, and when it's pumping out thousands of one thing at a time with a focus on speed and quantity, it becomes difficult to even determine where issues may arise, where flaws may be, and who's accountable for them.
For
example, there are materials often used in jewelry, like coral and
diamonds, that have controversial histories. Some diamonds originate in
areas where violence and exploitation play a major part in their
acquisition, and some coral is harvested with methods that destroy
environmentally-critical coral reefs. For me, as a handmade-maker who
is accountable, I could never be comfortable with selling pieces that
include materials with those origins. Because I value my work, and am
focused on its quality versus the monetary gains it might provide, and I
know that my customers would also expect me to make my pieces
responsibly, I try to ensure that my work reflects my values. And if,
at any point, I discover a material I'm using has origins I cannot
support, I have an obligation to discontinue using it. Like most
handmade artisans, I am a singular, accessible artist. There's no
corporation for me to hide behind with an endless labyrinth of
communication barriers, no machinery that must be re-designed or
dismantled in the event of a production concern, no "bottom line" I'd
have to consider before removing a questionable material from my work.
There's just me!
A handmade-maker offers a potential customer the
ability to collaborate, though they may not be an artist themself, and
have a concept they've only imagined realized. Buying handmade allows
you to customize a piece, and have something unique and one-of-a-kind
created. I like knowing the handmade piece I own is the only one in
existence. Or the piece I've designed for a loved one was created with
them; their specific preferences, wants and needs, in-mind. Some of the
most fun and creative pieces I've made have been custom requests, like
the miniature terrarium necklace I created for a woman to give to her
sister, who loves pigs and grew up raising them on the family farm. The
manufactured items in my home are useful, no-doubt, but I'm pretty sure
a million other people have the same laptop and bookshelf I do...
Handmade items have a "special-ness" that mass-produced items just
don't.
When a person receives a handmade piece, they get something that someone has connected with, labored over, that contains the artists' imagination and vision, the benefit of their years of study and practice, their skill, their unique method. You know how groups of people go to those trendy painting parties, and they all try to copy a known painting, and every participant's painting comes out looking totally different at the end of the evening? Every artist creates differently, and interprets differently, and infuses their distinct perspective into what they create. While other artisans can imitate pieces that I create, I try very hard to ensure that my pieces are truly my own, and that only I could create them, the way I do, as they are.
And there's always a story behind a handmade piece, which in itself,
has value. I have always loved nature, and when I learned how to make
full-size terrariums; natural environments encased in glass with soil
and charcoal and plants and moss, I was SO excited to share them with
people. But while friends, family, and customers appreciated the beauty
of those terraria, they expressed fear that they'd be unable to keep
the plants lush and green and alive! So I came up with a concept that
would allow fellow nature-lovers to keep an encapsulated natural
environment with them, without the maintenance. And building the
miniature terraria allowed me to imagine more and more tiny
environments, some that I'd never be able to capture in nature, like the
Winter White Terrarium Necklace 
And so my obsession continues! With a handmade piece you get a story,
about what inspired it, why the artist made it, how they made it, and
their vision for its use. You get a tale to recount to friends and
family when they ask "where'd you get your necklace?" And there's a
certain measure of pride when you can say, "a local artist made it,
because..." I'm not sure if my tea kettle has an interesting story
behind it, but I certainly can't ask the machine that made it!
So, that's why handmade is great! I wish I had answered my brother this way when he asked. But it was difficult to articulate. And all of those things, the accountability, the customization, the uniqueness, the artistic vision, the story, have been a part of buying on Etsy, the biggest online handmade marketplace in existence. But, their policy, as of November 1st, 2013, now reads "Etsy's new policies allow you to partner with manufacturers to produce your designs. A manufacturer is any outside business that helps make your items. For example, you can work with a foundry that casts jewelry you've designed, a studio that fires pottery you've thrown, or a factory that cuts and sews clothing you've created. Handmade items must begin with the imagination and creativity of the member operating the Etsy shop. Sellers can use the help of other shop members, or outside manufacturers, to bring their visions to life."
Hmm. Reading that gave me pause. Etsy
administrators held a "town hall" where they explained how this new
version of Etsy would function, with sellers now able to send designs
overseas to be manufactured, to have items shipped from other locations
directly to their customers. For some of my Etsy friends, this means
wonderful things, like they can now sell books featuring their original
illustrations on Etsy. But the policy change also means that a person's
hands don't actually need to participate in the creation of the items
they sell on Etsy. Items can be manufactured by machines, and by their
essence, not handmade. The shop owner has to participate in the
creative process of their items, but there's no definition of that
participation. For some, that could be simply choosing the color chair
or dress they want made out of a manufacturer's catalog. And when the
items I make contain all of the tenets of handmade I described above,
and are in a "handmade" marketplace alongside items that are being
pumped out by a factory, it troubles me. I know that major designers do
this typically; Karl Lagerfeld and Diane Von Furstenburg don't sew a
single stitch on the garments that bear their names. And it has
honestly always bothered me! It seems to be the mark of becoming
majorly successful as an artist, to become increasingly disconnected
from your work. At the same time, major designers aren't selling their
items in a "handmade marketplace," nor claiming they hand-make them
themselves. Etsy has made its name as the preeminent handmade
marketplace. But when items are losing multiple essential elements of
handmade; the hand-labor, the uniqueness, the story, the accountability,
etc., they no longer meet my expectations of handmade. So, while I'm
keeping Hieropice on Etsy open, I've created Hieropice.com
to honor true handmade, and all that that entails. Etsy is a fine
marketplace, that still contains a great deal of truly handmade items,
and still deserves your patronage. There are many dedicated artists who
sell on Etsy, including me! But Hieropice.com will be a handmade venue
exclusively featuring my work, and I hope that you'll support it (and
true handmade), as well!
Love, Dara
I launched my website, Hieropice.com, in November. It was an exciting venture, to create a website that was truly my own, that I could design, tweak, make. It is a venue accessible to anyone, whether they're familiar with Etsy, or Hieropice, or not. I can include features there that I can't on Etsy, like images from Polyvore,
where users have styled ensembles with Hieropice pieces, as well as my
local craft-show itinerary, links to my blog, and a gallery of custom
pieces I've made in the past. I get to control the look and feel of the
site, and make it match my brand.While making Hieropice items available to customers from a variety of venues is good business sense, it wasn't my sole motivation for opening Hieropice.com. At the beginning of November, handmade, vintage, and supply site Etsy, which had been Hieropice's primary online home, made some changes to the site's policies which were...difficult for me, as a handmade jewelry artist.
Shortly before my older brother passed away recently, he asked me, "what's the big deal about handmade anyway? I don't get what could possibly be better about something someone's making with their hands versus a machine."
I get his inquiry. Machine-made things are not only great, but they're sometimes essential. I expect my car to be machine-made, my electronics, my appliances. I know these items often have elements of human assembly, but I feel comfortable with the fact that a machine manufactures them primarily, making each one identical to the next, precise, solid, consistent.
But for things
that I connect with in an intimate way, handmade matters. When I go out
to eat at a restaurant, I think about what I'm consuming, where things
were grown, even what the creatures I'm consuming consumed when they
were alive! I think about how a dish was prepared, how the surface it
was prepared on was prepared, what herbs, spices, fats, proteins and
vegetables went into it, the manner in which it was cooked. Most of us
have thought more about these things as our knowledge of the effects of
food on our bodies and our environment has grown. We care where our
food comes from, and what's in it, as we care about what it does to us,
to those around us, and our environment. And we appreciate being able
to ask the people who grew it, prepared it, cooked it, served it,
questions about it. And knowing that someone is accountable for it.Handmade, in whatever form it may take, is valuable for these reasons. When I create a handmade piece, you can ask me anything under the sun about it. What is this made of? Where does the material come from? What's the history of this technique? And I can tell you. (And if I don't know off-hand, I'll certainly do my research!) I'm accountable for what I make, so, it matters to me what it's made of, where the materials come from and if they were acquired responsibly, whether the piece stands the test of time, whether a buyer is happy with it. A machine simply doesn't have an opinion about any of those things, and when it's pumping out thousands of one thing at a time with a focus on speed and quantity, it becomes difficult to even determine where issues may arise, where flaws may be, and who's accountable for them.
For
example, there are materials often used in jewelry, like coral and
diamonds, that have controversial histories. Some diamonds originate in
areas where violence and exploitation play a major part in their
acquisition, and some coral is harvested with methods that destroy
environmentally-critical coral reefs. For me, as a handmade-maker who
is accountable, I could never be comfortable with selling pieces that
include materials with those origins. Because I value my work, and am
focused on its quality versus the monetary gains it might provide, and I
know that my customers would also expect me to make my pieces
responsibly, I try to ensure that my work reflects my values. And if,
at any point, I discover a material I'm using has origins I cannot
support, I have an obligation to discontinue using it. Like most
handmade artisans, I am a singular, accessible artist. There's no
corporation for me to hide behind with an endless labyrinth of
communication barriers, no machinery that must be re-designed or
dismantled in the event of a production concern, no "bottom line" I'd
have to consider before removing a questionable material from my work.
There's just me!
A handmade-maker offers a potential customer the
ability to collaborate, though they may not be an artist themself, and
have a concept they've only imagined realized. Buying handmade allows
you to customize a piece, and have something unique and one-of-a-kind
created. I like knowing the handmade piece I own is the only one in
existence. Or the piece I've designed for a loved one was created with
them; their specific preferences, wants and needs, in-mind. Some of the
most fun and creative pieces I've made have been custom requests, like
the miniature terrarium necklace I created for a woman to give to her
sister, who loves pigs and grew up raising them on the family farm. The
manufactured items in my home are useful, no-doubt, but I'm pretty sure
a million other people have the same laptop and bookshelf I do...
Handmade items have a "special-ness" that mass-produced items just
don't.When a person receives a handmade piece, they get something that someone has connected with, labored over, that contains the artists' imagination and vision, the benefit of their years of study and practice, their skill, their unique method. You know how groups of people go to those trendy painting parties, and they all try to copy a known painting, and every participant's painting comes out looking totally different at the end of the evening? Every artist creates differently, and interprets differently, and infuses their distinct perspective into what they create. While other artisans can imitate pieces that I create, I try very hard to ensure that my pieces are truly my own, and that only I could create them, the way I do, as they are.
And there's always a story behind a handmade piece, which in itself,
has value. I have always loved nature, and when I learned how to make
full-size terrariums; natural environments encased in glass with soil
and charcoal and plants and moss, I was SO excited to share them with
people. But while friends, family, and customers appreciated the beauty
of those terraria, they expressed fear that they'd be unable to keep
the plants lush and green and alive! So I came up with a concept that
would allow fellow nature-lovers to keep an encapsulated natural
environment with them, without the maintenance. And building the
miniature terraria allowed me to imagine more and more tiny
environments, some that I'd never be able to capture in nature, like the
Winter White Terrarium Necklace
And so my obsession continues! With a handmade piece you get a story,
about what inspired it, why the artist made it, how they made it, and
their vision for its use. You get a tale to recount to friends and
family when they ask "where'd you get your necklace?" And there's a
certain measure of pride when you can say, "a local artist made it,
because..." I'm not sure if my tea kettle has an interesting story
behind it, but I certainly can't ask the machine that made it!So, that's why handmade is great! I wish I had answered my brother this way when he asked. But it was difficult to articulate. And all of those things, the accountability, the customization, the uniqueness, the artistic vision, the story, have been a part of buying on Etsy, the biggest online handmade marketplace in existence. But, their policy, as of November 1st, 2013, now reads "Etsy's new policies allow you to partner with manufacturers to produce your designs. A manufacturer is any outside business that helps make your items. For example, you can work with a foundry that casts jewelry you've designed, a studio that fires pottery you've thrown, or a factory that cuts and sews clothing you've created. Handmade items must begin with the imagination and creativity of the member operating the Etsy shop. Sellers can use the help of other shop members, or outside manufacturers, to bring their visions to life."
Hmm. Reading that gave me pause. Etsy
administrators held a "town hall" where they explained how this new
version of Etsy would function, with sellers now able to send designs
overseas to be manufactured, to have items shipped from other locations
directly to their customers. For some of my Etsy friends, this means
wonderful things, like they can now sell books featuring their original
illustrations on Etsy. But the policy change also means that a person's
hands don't actually need to participate in the creation of the items
they sell on Etsy. Items can be manufactured by machines, and by their
essence, not handmade. The shop owner has to participate in the
creative process of their items, but there's no definition of that
participation. For some, that could be simply choosing the color chair
or dress they want made out of a manufacturer's catalog. And when the
items I make contain all of the tenets of handmade I described above,
and are in a "handmade" marketplace alongside items that are being
pumped out by a factory, it troubles me. I know that major designers do
this typically; Karl Lagerfeld and Diane Von Furstenburg don't sew a
single stitch on the garments that bear their names. And it has
honestly always bothered me! It seems to be the mark of becoming
majorly successful as an artist, to become increasingly disconnected
from your work. At the same time, major designers aren't selling their
items in a "handmade marketplace," nor claiming they hand-make them
themselves. Etsy has made its name as the preeminent handmade
marketplace. But when items are losing multiple essential elements of
handmade; the hand-labor, the uniqueness, the story, the accountability,
etc., they no longer meet my expectations of handmade. So, while I'm
keeping Hieropice on Etsy open, I've created Hieropice.com
to honor true handmade, and all that that entails. Etsy is a fine
marketplace, that still contains a great deal of truly handmade items,
and still deserves your patronage. There are many dedicated artists who
sell on Etsy, including me! But Hieropice.com will be a handmade venue
exclusively featuring my work, and I hope that you'll support it (and
true handmade), as well!Love, Dara
Saturday, October 19, 2013
More newness!
Expanding the palette of Hieropice's miniature terrarium necklaces, I'm introducing our new miniature terrarium necklace in soft blue! 
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Introducing: One of A Kind, by Hieropice
I've so appreciated all the love folks have shown me, and support for Hieropice. I think, as an artist, you've got to keep innovating,
changing, doing new things, to keep your brain from atrophying, or
burning out. As I was making one of many made-to-order terrarium
necklaces recently, I thought, man, I am working SO small, the vessel is
so tiny, I really wish I could expand this and create a whole landscape
in this thing! And my next thought was, um.....I can! So, I started
thinking about ways to create miniature landscapes under glass, and for
some reason, the first thing that came to mind was Tucson, Arizona,
where I lived after high school. The desert there was the most
surprising place I'd been to-date; contrary to my impressions from back
East, it was not "deserted" at all, but full of life, and amazing
shifting color palates that revolved around the movements of the sun. I
saw more shapes, colors and textures in the desert than any landscape
I'd encountered previously, and an abundance of plants with romantic
names like "agave" and "ocotillo." And weird things, inexplicable stacks of boulders balanced on the edge of a cliff, oversized cactus blossoms that only bloom at night and just once a year, and an aspen forest, covered in snow at the peak of Mt. Lemmon in the middle of the city, while miles below, it was eighty degrees and sunny. |
| Barrel Cactus Detail |
My goal with this new line is to experiment with vessel shapes and sizes, creating miniatures incorporating a variety of techniques, like re-creating miniature plants from bits and pieces of other ones, hand-painting, dyeing, etc., with a focus on realism.
This first piece includes a miniature barrel cactus that I impregnated with a slew of little wire spines, a stack of stones that I created to match my memories of Mt. Lemmon, lichen tumbleweeds and layers of sand that I hand-dyed, to recreate the changing landscape of the desert. Red-tipped agave, cholla, and of course, the iconic Saguaro cactus, that the Arizona desert would be bereft without. There are a lot of other goodies tucked in there, and the piece so reminds me of the Sonoran, I wish I could crawl into it!
 |
| Agave Detail |
Monday, April 29, 2013
Spring is Sprung, Assembled, and New Additions
Hi all!
The sun is finally out, on a
regular basis, here in New England. The sun and I have a troubled
relationship (I'm allergic) but I'm still glad to see it! Things are
blooming, and my allergies are punishing me, but I'll take it! It's
Summer show season, and I can get back to taking photos for Hieropice
outside, in gorgeous natural light. Doing that in January was brutal.
We're just coming out of a tricky, scary period here in Boston, and I'm
happy to feel good about going outside again. After the Boston Marathon
bombings and the manhunt for the bombers that followed, we were on
lock-down here in my neighborhood as they turned up about 10 minutes
away, in Watertown. We were prohibited from leaving our homes, and it
turns out the local man who they car-jacked in their escape attempt was
car-jacked two blocks from my house. I have several friends who live in
the neighborhood that was a constant fixture on the news for days, as
the police exchanged gunfire with the bombers and searched for the
surviving bomber in resident's homes. Everyone I care for is safe,
thankfully, and I'm relieved the worst is over.
On a positive
note, on May 18th, I'm taking on my first craft show as Producer, and
I'm quite nervous, and excited about it! I've been reaching out to all
the artists' whose beautiful work I've seen at shows, purchased on Etsy,
found in consignment shops like Boutique Fabulous and Magpie,
or elsewhere online, and asking them to apply for the May 18th show,
particularly those with Etsy shops. Somerville Beat interviewed me about the show, and did a great piece on it here , wherein they featured my Orange Flower Terrarium Necklace
and we chatted about the vision behind the Assembled show on the 18th.
And, I'm even more excited about some new, one-of-a-kind pieces that
I'm about to launch. I'm finishing them up now, and can't wait to show
them off, I'm really proud of how they've turned out and they're really
different/unique, which is my constant goal.
I've never seen anything like them in my 31 years of life, so I hope you'll all respond as positively to them as I hope you will! Anyway, get outside and enjoy the proliferation of Spring, if you can! I know I will.
I've had this vision of making an all-Etsy craft show happen for a while now, and it's finally going to happen! The
Cheers!
Dara
The sun is finally out, on a
regular basis, here in New England. The sun and I have a troubled
relationship (I'm allergic) but I'm still glad to see it! Things are
blooming, and my allergies are punishing me, but I'll take it! It's
Summer show season, and I can get back to taking photos for Hieropice
outside, in gorgeous natural light. Doing that in January was brutal.
We're just coming out of a tricky, scary period here in Boston, and I'm
happy to feel good about going outside again. After the Boston Marathon
bombings and the manhunt for the bombers that followed, we were on
lock-down here in my neighborhood as they turned up about 10 minutes
away, in Watertown. We were prohibited from leaving our homes, and it
turns out the local man who they car-jacked in their escape attempt was
car-jacked two blocks from my house. I have several friends who live in
the neighborhood that was a constant fixture on the news for days, as
the police exchanged gunfire with the bombers and searched for the
surviving bomber in resident's homes. Everyone I care for is safe,
thankfully, and I'm relieved the worst is over. On a positive
note, on May 18th, I'm taking on my first craft show as Producer, and
I'm quite nervous, and excited about it! I've been reaching out to all
the artists' whose beautiful work I've seen at shows, purchased on Etsy,
found in consignment shops like Boutique Fabulous and Magpie,
or elsewhere online, and asking them to apply for the May 18th show,
particularly those with Etsy shops. Somerville Beat interviewed me about the show, and did a great piece on it here , wherein they featured my Orange Flower Terrarium Necklace
and we chatted about the vision behind the Assembled show on the 18th.
And, I'm even more excited about some new, one-of-a-kind pieces that
I'm about to launch. I'm finishing them up now, and can't wait to show
them off, I'm really proud of how they've turned out and they're really
different/unique, which is my constant goal.I've never seen anything like them in my 31 years of life, so I hope you'll all respond as positively to them as I hope you will! Anyway, get outside and enjoy the proliferation of Spring, if you can! I know I will.
I've had this vision of making an all-Etsy craft show happen for a while now, and it's finally going to happen! The
Cheers!
Dara
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Hieropice on Scoutmob
Just a quick post today, because I got really excited when I received
the most recent Scoutmob Shoppe e-mail. If you're not familiar with Scoutmob,
I highly recommend it! Kinda like Groupon, but cooler, and it features
a Shoppe with handmade items from artists all over the US. And they
promote shopping local by showing you artwork and goods from artists in
your city. Anyhoo, I sell some of Hieropice's wares on Scoutmob, and
my Winter White Terrarium Necklace was featured in Scoutmob's Shoppe e-mail! YAY!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
How's It Done?
So, I mixed a few colors of polymer clay to resemble the natural
tones of a live mushroom, and rolled the clay around a wire, topped with
a clay mushroom cap carefully shaped with a manicure-tool, and with the
point of a pin, applied clay polka dots to the cap. Likewise, I
created mini succulent plants with the green tones of the clay, rolling
out and slicing tendrils and pressing them together to form a miniature
aloe/agave.
I began with a variety of miniature glass vessels. In went the
elements of our full-size terraria; colorful sands and bits of fragrant
reindeer moss. I wanted to add something extra-cool; living mushrooms
can’t really be cultivated in a terrarium (or at least, to my knowledge)
though I’d love to give it a go, but I thought of a way to incorporate
adorable little mushrooms into the necklace version, by creating them
out of polymer clay.
I love terrariums; the idea of an entire ecosystem existing under
glass, green things growing and thriving, bits of nature you can keep
close-by on a table or desk. We make contemporary terrariums at
Hieropice, but only sell them at shows, due to the risk of damage during
shipping. I wanted to make a version of our terrariums available to
customers who can’t make it to shows in New England; a small, portable
version of them that could be worn.
Someone inquired recently about our Lost World Mini Terrarium Necklaces,
and how they are made. The short answer is, very carefully! Joking
aside, they’re the product of a lot of intricate work, and I appreciate
the question. For artists who handmake work for sale, the process is
often ignored in favor of the appearance of the finished product. If
you’ve ever hand-made anything, you know that the process, the work,
materials, skill, and effort that went into it is 80% of the finished
product’s significance. And those of us who hand-make for a living
really love it when someone appreciates the work we do! So here’s a bit
on the process of making these pieces.I trimmed the wires and the pieces went into the oven, and afterwards, I strategically placed them in the vessels with a narrow pair of tweezers. Adding additional Spanish moss or sand, and sealing with waterproof adhesive and a decorative stopper finishes them off, and they’re hung on meticulously-selected chain. Each one is unique, incorporating some elements and not others, created with color, contrast, and balance in mind. That’s the process, in a nut-shell, and thanks to the fan who inquired!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Purple Power
Some time ago, I asked my friends, what color jewelry could you use more of in your jewelry box? Almost all of the responses were "purple!" And rightly so, because purple's a great color. So I've made a terrarium necklace that's all about it, and just listed it today, on Etsy! Check it out, here.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Orange Blossom Terrarium Necklace!
Introducing a new necklace, featuring an orange blossom and sprigs of moss.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Blanched and Bleached
I've waxed poetic about Fall, because it's just my favorite, and I love everything about it. I want to pretend Winter will never come, though the dropping temperatures here in Massachusetts beg to differ.
We have strong associations between the color white and the Winter season, perhaps because of the snow and ice and absence of the colorful flowers of Spring or bright leaves of Autumn. There are all these (supposed) fashion rules about colors and their corresponding seasons, wear vivid colors in Spring, muted colors in Winter. Green, orange, yellow are supposedly Spring/Summer colors, while navy blue, grey, and black are for Winter. Meh! I think we need color most in Winter, when it's hard to find, when our moods could really use a boost. But nonetheless, our associations are what they are.I love color. And usually, Hieropice's wares are super-saturated, I strive to cover every tone in the rainbow with at least one piece in my inventory. But I wanted to create something "wintry," a break from the usual, colorful Hieropice look. So came about the Winter White Terrarium Necklace, now available at Hieropice on Etsy.
I have to say, I'm kind of in love with it. It's such a departure for me, but it makes me feel calm and serene. A swath of white sand, a tiny white stone, a branch of pale lichen and a tiny blush flower. It looks like the place you'd go to take a break from the world, to be silent and contemplative. One day, perhaps I'll build a life-size garden resembling this necklace, I can see that being striking and intriguing; a landscape of all white.
Hope you enjoy the necklace, and the remainder of Fall!
;)
Dara
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Lovely Surprise
Aloha!
JP Rocks and Rolls was fun, and I got to meet a number of my fellow Etsy-ans in real life/in-person, as the digital and corporeal worlds collided. Yay for communing with fellow artists!
I had a moment today (a good one), as I discovered Hieropice had been featured in Madalynne's lovely blog, here. Madalynne loves terrariums/terraria as much as I do, it seems, and wrote a piece celebrating the best of them! Check it out!
Have a good one, all.
Dara
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Post Arts on the Arcade, a Treasury, & Cancer Research
Arts on the Arcade was a lot of fun today. I came home to find Hieropice's fundraising/awareness necklace, that I designed to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, was featured in this social-justice-themed treasury by Theresa from TAKJewelryDesigns. It's wonderful to have support in getting the word out there about Hieropice's fundraising efforts; so many of us have had a loved one diagnosed with cancer, it's a disease that warrants all of the research possible. We hope the proceeds from the sale of our Terrarium Necklace for Charity aids in the important work that the Komen Foundation does!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Pig in a...Glass?
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Finally!
Like a lot of people, I have personal experience with breast cancer; my grandmother battled it for most of her life. It's a life-changing diagnosis, and the current treatments (mastectomy, radiation, chemotherapy, etc.) can be devastating, and often only temporarily effective. We are definitely in need of better treatments that will improve patients' quality of life and keep them healthy long-term, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation is doing important research toward that end.
So, I created a new Mini Terrarium Necklace, in the signature pink of the cancer awareness movement, to help Jaime raise funds for the Komen 3-Day. 30% of all proceeds from the sale of this necklace will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. I hope you'll support their efforts, and Jaime's, and buy it! The break-throughs they may make could change our lives one day.With lurve,
Dara
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