Meet the Heat and Hands behind MANO Y METAL: November 2010

November 22, 2010

Check it: Next Show MyM is a featured vendor @

http://anysquared.com/2010_holiday/holiday10.htm

RSVP HERE!!!

Introducing the Kaleidoscope Collection!

Sneak peek of my newest collection: Resin stud earrings... the options are limitless!

I customize too-- want your child's picture? grandparent? artwork? logo? favortie quote? etc. on a pair?

Email me manoymetal@gmail.com and I will make it happen.

Options are limitless.

Mano y Metal: popped cherry,

Mano y Metal now knows what it is to be a vendor! We debuted at The Tenant Gallery 's art sale: La Neta Art Sale this weekend and it was a BLAST!

I launched my resin stud earrings line at the sale and sold 20 pairs the first day! So many friends stopped by and checked out my new venture into jewelry making.

One of my good friends put it best:

"I leave you alone for one month and this is what you do?"

She was referring to my non-stop stream of ideas to keep on creating new types of earrings... I have been non-stop... it is all I have wanted to do lately.

I think people thought it was a "hobby" I was starting--- a "little" thing I do on the side...

But look, I barely have time to do what I need to do, much less have a hobby---I do not have time for "hobbies."

If I am going to do something, dedicate time and creative energy to well, then I am doing it full force- plain and simple.

That's why she made that comment because:

Mano y Metal has been open

1month

booked 6 shows

created 5 collections

(Wired Expressions, Abstract & Contrary, Heart of a Biker, Word Puzzles & Kaleidoscope-resin)

asked to sell Mano y Metal in 3 retail spaces

and probably decreased hours of sleep by 1000 hours:)

But that is the way I knew it would be, I don't have time for hobbies, if I was going to start making jewelry it was going to be forreal--full-force.

And this weekend, being in my first art show as a vendor confirmed my mission, I loved it-- to be able to share my creation and art with others--have people walk away with Mano y Metal, walk away with a piece of my creative energy and spirit...

it's amazing and I Love you all and thank you for so much for supporting my handcrafted jewelry, the entire time I was vending I knew in my heart this is what I am supposed to be doing.

xo.

Mano y Metal

November 18, 2010

Necklaces w/ Meaning...

So here goes a my dive into metal stamping necklaces...
I started with copper--since it's been on the brain lately... and a perfect fall color.

The designs came to me while sitting in my cubicle... that familiar voice in my head that is continuously searching for more ways to be creative and in constant conflict with my other responsibilities like work, school--etc. One day I'll let that little voice dominate but for now--it is silenced until I have "time."
Anyhoo, it said:

"Put them words you stamped on them earrings (yes my voice speaks in improper English on purpose-don't judge) and put them on a necklace with a whole bunch of them discs you cut out and make it look pretty in abstract shapes that dangle--just under the collar bone."

So of course, I never have TIME but it kept nagging and so I did it, I hammered out those discs (smashing my poor index finger with the hammer (inevitably) a couple times) stamped them then stared at them wondering how to arrange them into something both aesthetically pleasing, complicated yet simple and beautiful...

The first one I made--didn't make it to have its picture taken cause' well, it was the first one and those always come out funny-looking--(like newborns) but alas, here are the two creations that followed.

I'm already scribbling all the phrases and designs I plan for more necklaces...

xo.

"I Won't be Sad."

wear your state of mind.

can be purchased/viewed: HERE

"If you Love, you have faith."

Love is a risk- so when you do it-you are taking a leap of faith; that it is worth it.

Can be viewed in detail and purchased HERE

Jack Yo Body, Not yo hands.

JACK yo BODY Music Video.

jack-jack-jack yo body

jack-jack-jack yo body.

Well, I am adding "Not your hands" to the end of that chorus cause' working with all this metal... and tools, and I just picked up resin to cook up some images for the lobes...

well, let me tell u:

MY HANDS ARE JACKED!

(if u don't know what "jack" means-- it is a slang term for "messed up")

I have cuts all over... my hands HURT, they are sore and the nails forget about it.

mY nails are JACKED!

Looking like mechanic hands...

oh and the metal sucks up all the natural oils your hands carry so my hands are SO DRY.

it is so ironic that the jewelry designer should create beautiful, delicate, feminine jewelry and have ugly, dry, masculine 'I-work-in-a-car-shop'

JACKED UP hands!

grrr.

yesterday I created all day, and between the resin, letter stamping, hammering wire, pulling apart metal oh and the beloved HAMMER SLIPPING OFF TARGET AND SMASHING YOUR FINGER over and over...

I am almost ready to give up making jewelry or hire someone to execute cause' the oil,metal and dirt that settle into my nails, skin and give me small cuts are making me sad.

I need a manicure.

smiles come from selling :)

Boom- sha-ka-laka.

SOLD!

I'm a Jerk.

I'm a jerk.

I know it, been told it, don't care about it.

I am what I am.

I'm a jerk without even meaning to be, it's just the way I am...

Like when my mom would say she thought she divorced my father but I was just like him so she had "him" there everyday (through me)...

Well, it's like that-- innate characteristics I guess..

i got the jerk qualities embedded in my ways.

I'll go ahead and blame it on my dad cause' my mom is not a jerk- she's sensitive (which drives me nuts and brings out the jerk in me--that is him--sheesh-com-pli-ca-ted.)

Anyway, point is:

I embrace it.

It's ok, it makes people back off and leave me alone...

So here you go:

'I'm a Jerk" series

for the Word Puzzle Collection of letter stamps...

I'm celebrating UN-censorship and warning label format to create jewelry that speaks for you- and celebrates the blunt,bold ways of a jerk.

These can be for you or for a loved one you know is a jerk.

holla.

Introducing: Word Puzzles... letter stamped jewelry...

I have always had a fascination with the power of words...

how they can influence, suggest, validate and create meanings and provoke...

So I researched and ordered my tools...

It was interesting considering before picking up jewelry making I'd care less for tools and buy screw drivers and hammers from the dollar store--cheap tools "who cares" tools...

but with this, I researched and researched, I watched YouTube videos and scouted prices-- and alas, tools started arriving at my moms job..(I have everything shipped there since I am hardly home)

and each tool made me happier cause' I was closer to merging words with jewelry in a form I had never considered before my leap into Mano y Metal..

Steel letter stamps in 3 sizes, metal sheets, steel punchers--etc. The lost goes on and wha-la-- my first step into creating WORD PUZZLES for the lobes..

November 14, 2010

Mano y Metal is GETTIN' AROUND...

Hey! So Mano y Metal has been busy applying to be a vendor in several art shows/sales coming up and is busy creating inventory to deliver...

We begin with:

Pilsen:
La Neta Art Sale!
Date:

SATURDAY Nov 20th, 2010.
Location:

1104 W. 18th St. Chicago, Il. 60608
Time:

12pm-8pm

Facebook Event invite! RSVP here!

The Tenant Gallery FB page, become a FAN!

Make sure to stop by if you can and get your hands on one of a kind MYM creations!

Will be releasing two new collection as well!

xoxo.

MYM.

Copper.on.the.Lobes.

Copper.on.the.brain.

Copper is perfect for this weather and the season, with tan and brown boots everywhere--having copper earrings dangle from the lobes is a perfect accent to the outfit. 

copper.on.the.brain.

I will be posting more copper earrings that I have been busy creating...

some wired and hammered, others with new materials too... that play with words on metal...

copper.on.the.lobes.

xo. Mym.  

New adds to the 'Wired Expressions' Collection!

November 7, 2010

Okay what was it about these swirly earrings?

Okay what was it about these small swirly earrings that as soon as I posted them 3 people contacted me to buy them instantly.

Funnier was it was one of my first earrings I made when I first started working with wires and I took forever to post them and as soon as I do, bam, three sales.

Which left me thinking that I should have posted them long time ago!

I have to re-create these and explore versions of these in the future if they are a winner and a charmer.

Also, I have to post everything and let myself be surprised by what is a hit and what isn't.

It's all a learning process and I am enjoying the ride.

SOLD!