Show and Tell - The Aspiring Metalsmiths Monthly Blogroll Project

As I mentioned the other day, I am a member of a wonderful team of jewelry and metals artists called The Aspiring Metalsmiths. This is a great group of metal artists of varying skill levels and years of experience in the craft of handmade jewelry and metals art. The group gets together daily on the Etsy forums to share ideas and inspiration with one another in all aspects of jewelry design and small business marketing. In addition to the daily doses of camaraderie in the Etsy forums, the team shares a blog and flickr pool on which we share pictures of our recent designs and hold monthly design challenges etc. Recently the team decided to begin a monthly blogging project. The way it works is, team members will blog on the 10th of every month on a predetermined topic. At the end of each post the author will include a list of links to team members who have chosen to participate in that months topic so readers can get a variety of unique points of view from a group of like minded individuals. This being the very first installment of the Blogroll Project, the chosen topic is sort of a meet and great with the challenge being to show our workspace. So ready or not, here we go.

I know some of the chatter in the forum the past couple of days has been about teamies cleaning their work-spaces in preparation for this blog challenge. Well be forewarned, I am totally keeping it real and to borrow a phrase from my teammate Clarity, you're getting to see my chaotic workspace in all of its "ghetto-fabulous" glory. LOL  But seriously, this is what the work room looks like currently because 1) I have been extremely busy trying to get ready for a show during the last few weeks and 2) I have been having a flare with my MCTD so every bit of energy that I have had over the last month has gone into actually making new items and working on preparing listings for my etsy shop. So without further ado....
 
I'm really quite lucky because I have an entire spare room that I have been able to dedicate to my work area. Within the room I have set up three basic stations/areas. The first station is my design layout and etching area

The second area is my beading table with all of my many beads and baubles, my hammers, pliers, and other miscellaneous items that always seem to land there.

The third station is where I play with Fire! If you look in the lower left corner you'll see my handy plumbers torch. If you look really close you'll see my two small butane micro torches setting on the table on the right. In the back corner is a bunch of long neglected glass rods for making glass beads.(Note to self: Make some beads already!!! LOL)

Well that's basically it. The only thing missing is the computer station with my desktop computer and my bookcase which is full of magazines and books on jewelry making. So now you've had a glimpse into my chaotic little corner of the universe. I know from the looks of it it's probably hard to believe I ever get anything done at all but I promise it's organized chaos honestly it is.

Now take a few minutes to take a look around the studio spaces of some of my esteemed teammates. Just don't rub it in if theirs is all nice and tidy. LOL

• All Wired Up Jewelry Designs - http://allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
• Brandy, The Frogs Pond - http://thefrogspond.wordpress.com/
• Carole Axium - http://www.caroleaxiumdesigns.com/journal/
• Clarity, Scrollwork Designs - http://www.thesquarepegnation.blogspot.com
• Esmeralda, SilverBlueberry - http://jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.com/
• Golden Water Creations - http://www.goldenwatercreations.blogspot.com
• Jessica Lopour - http://www.abellablue.com/blog
• Joy - http://joypeckjoy.blogspot.com/
• Nancy Creations - http://nancysjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
• Stacy (Form and Funktion) - http://formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com/
• Steph Stargell Designs - http://stephstargell.com
• Sylvia Anderson - http://www.SylviaAnderson.blogspot.com
• Lisa, SandyToesJewelry -   http://sandytoesjewelry.blogspot.com