spring cleaningit is time to clean house and my head and get ready for spring.…each year i really take to the notion of hiber­na­tion and just like a sleepy ole bear, one day my switch is flipped to ‘on’ and all of the lit­eral and fig­u­ra­tive cob­webs need to be swept away, light needs to pour in from every avail­able source and i am fever­ish to sort, clean and create.

you see i am a col­lec­tor, not of things per se, but all the sights, sounds, con­ver­sa­tions and experiences…everything stays in my head, i retain everything…too much really, and i need to take the time to be quiet, med­i­tate, reflect on what those expe­ri­ences mean ~ what i should learn from them and then clear out what’s left.…today is one such day.

as a cre­ative, my obser­va­tional skills serve me well, but when there is an over­flow of stim­u­lus and infor­ma­tion i grind to a halt and just float in this mid­dle ground that i am not fond of…each year i think i have it beat and i won’t slow down, won’t pause or get blocked, i will sol­dier on and beat this malaise of in between…and each year hubris greets me with a wide and wicked smile and a shak­ing head.…i can­not out run my hard wiring, so i must learn to accept and embrace it.

so to give a lit­tle more room for my day­dreams, hopes and wishes i am giv­ing myself per­mis­sion to wake from my hiber­na­tion slowly and thor­oughly and keep only the most impor­tant things stored in my cre­ative tool­box of a brain and i will be gen­tle to the ves­sel that holds all of my pos­si­bil­ity in tact.…because the sun is shin­ing and today is beau­ti­ful and brand new

 

xo

dani

 

so excited to be men­tioned on this blog today and in such good company:

Valentine’s Day Count­down : Heart of Gold

Shining

 

1. Ear­rings by Pur­ple Pel­can Designs, 2. Ring by Tree Swing Stu­dio, 3. Ring by Cin­na­mon Sticks, 4. Ear­rings by Hol­ly­wear Jew­elry, 5. Ring by Love Struck Soul, 6. Enamel Hearts by Dani Keith, 7. Ring by WWC Sil­ver Jewelry

i love my site, but like all good visual medi­ums it needs a facelift from time to time and i am VERY excited to launch the new and improved {dani keith designs}.…and if that wasn’t enough to be excited about i am SUPER psy­ched to share the launch of my very first work­shop…FUSE 2013!

fuse_logo

 

i can­not express how happy and over the moon i am to work with Sehlah to pro­duce this 2 day fuse-a-palooza in AMAZEBALLS las vegas.

when i picked my word for 2013 {adven­ture} i don’t think i could have imag­ined how quickly it would manifest…so, thank you as always for shar­ing the jour­ney, stay tuned for updates and get ready to spark your creativity!

 

xo

dani

chryste lee fer­rara — nepal

each year i really love to take this time to think about my great les­son learned, best dream come true or hope to be had and wax poetic…it is a rit­ual and i love it, but this year went by so very fast i am afraid that i missed the nuance…the sweet­ness of tiny kind acts and the tri­umph over obsta­cles has eluded me…i have been all work, work, work and no reflection…NOW this year, this amaz­ing 2012 has been filled with major mile­stones, nation­ally curated shows, semi final­ist in major com­pe­ti­tions, lots of new clients, lots of new work and a very pros­per­ous busi­ness year for a bud­ding one girl jew­elry show, all great and won­der­ful and valu­able and necessary.…BUT usu­ally i have these moments of really feel­ing how great an oppor­tu­nity is and this year there was so much to get done to get through the oppor­tu­ni­ties that a lit­tle of the magic was lost…and in that real­iza­tion the real les­son is learned

my big goal for 2013 is to find adventure.…in the day to day and in the world at large…i want to grow big­ger than my own bench and spread these well earned wings i have been grow­ing for the past cou­ple of years and really seek out…some very good friends and fam­ily have and are on some amaz­ing jour­neys this year from base camp at Ever­est to the gor­geous lands of New Zealand, to the cos­mopoli­tan rugged­ness of Anchor­age and every small town in between…i love to hear of their time there and the reflec­tion that comes with a sojourn…i need that, i crave it and i think it is time to quiet my gypsy soul with some well planned adventure.…and it is in that adven­ture that nuance and daily magic will find me again.

 

so to all of you who fol­low this lit­tle blog ~ find your adven­ture it is calling 

 

this year the LEDE stu­dio & gallery ‘Lava­liere’ show is in december.….this group of amaz­ing neck adorn­ment has quickly become a fan favorite and this year with the added bonus of hol­i­day magic, i think it will be the best yet.…so it got me think­ing, what ever shall i cre­ate? {besides the GIANT lava­liere} yup that honor has been given to me and it will be very dani!  but as to the other neck­laces that will be donned on the wall, what can i do this year that will speak to my LOVE of all things win­ter and holiday???

and then i reflected on my new favorite method, torch fired enamel and voila! home for the hol­i­days was born…come out and see my crazy, even who’vian ver­sion of cozy hol­i­day home pendants…rich with color and full of funky shape and whim­si­cal details

in 2010 i was on the verge of  ‘some­thing’ i was becoming…becoming an artist, an entre­pre­neur, a jew­eler ~ a WHOLE new me!  i took a chance and started a class {fly­ing lessons} taught by the amaz­ing and gen­er­ous kelly rae roberts.  it quickly became the sol­der to my new life plan (for non metal heads — sol­der is the join­ing agent for your metal).…and what was borne from this class was even more incred­i­ble that the con­tent and con­nec­tion with krr {if you can believe it} what grew was a com­mu­nity, a tribe of cre­atives that have, for 2 years, stuck with one another…with encour­age­ment, sup­port, guid­ance and love.

when i started to yearn for col­lab­o­ra­tion, for a show that would speak to my jour­ney i kept com­ing back to my mixed media piece that i updated dur­ing this class…i had come such a long way from the din­ing room table and the ner­vous antic­i­pa­tion of ‘will any­one like (nev­er­mind buy) my stuff’  i had in fact taken flight and grew my wings on the way down…except i didn’t fall, i have been soaring.…and then it clicked that piece and this tribe would be the cor­ner­stone of a great collection.

and so it grew, from pos­si­bil­ity to real­ity and tonight the whole wide world (or at least in the vicin­ity of the gallery) will see that i and these bril­liant, tal­ented women are

~artists

~a best kept secret

~pos­si­bil­ity and bot­tled sunshine

~above all STRONG

well a few months ago i posted how i was so trans­formed by a work­shop that i thought i would curate an art show…seemed like a per­fectly rea­son­able thing to do, right?! fast for­ward to now {sev­eral major shows, lots of com­mis­sions and a semi final­ist in a national com­pe­ti­tion later} and the BIG day is almost here…there were times of doubt, i have asked for the trust of these incred­i­ble women to show and present their work in a way that hon­ors our jour­ney together and their indi­vid­ual talents…it is not an easy under­tak­ing, but the WORK…the beau­ti­ful cre­ations well they do all the work them­selves and now it is just the last stages… on fri­day night, novem­ber 9, 2012 i and 7 other coura­geous fly­ers will have put our fly­ing lessons to the test and we are ready to ‘take flight’ on this fri­day i will stand in LEDE stu­dio & gallery not only as a fab­ri­ca­tor of art, but also as the cura­tor of a show!i can’t think of a bet­ter way to grow my wings, i think it is the ONLY way i know, after the leap and on my way down

 

xo

dani

 

each of us has a path…the jour­ney we take is so vital to cre­ative and per­sonal growth…and that is why as a maker, some­times when you are asked to ‘re-do’ some­thing that you have done {and i mean waaaaay back to the begin­ning of your story done} it is a hard thing to do.…creatively you have made leaps and bounds and while you know it will make peo­ple happy, it won’t nec­es­sar­ily make you the artist happy…so what to do?  there needs to be a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, a truce that you can come to that can accom­plish one of two outcomes…either you can say no {politely, of course} or you can rein­tro­duce your babysteps item in a very cur­rent you way

 par exam­ple: i started my jew­elry design work with a sim­ple wrapped stone pendant…this design spoke to my sense of color and love for simplicity…to this day peo­ple still ask, “do you have any of those wrapped stone pieces?”  my answer to date has been, no I am sorry they were a pre­vi­ous line, but let me show you…

but, BUT, the ques­tion still keeps com­ing, so i can no longer ignore it and it took the wise words of my sweet David to help me get to my inter­nal truce…he said that design wise you still think it is beau­ti­ful why not offer a lim­ited edi­tion in the year’s pan­tone color and num­ber them.…SERIOUSLY i thought i had the mar­ket­ing smarts in the fam.…i can han­dle a lim­ited num­ber for a lim­ited period and i can sat­isfy my amaz­ing clients all with­out com­pro­mis­ing my artis­tic self or utter­ing the word no.

and so it begins, the birth of my lim­ited edition…an annual release of 15 wrapped semi pre­cious stone pen­dants, num­bered and avail­able for the hol­i­day season.…when their gone, their gone {first oppor­tu­nity to pur­chase will be 10/27/12}

wel­come tango tangerine 

i have come to under­stand that each year i take a break…i don’t mean to nor do i sched­ule, i just seem to shut down creatively…each year i try to see where it stems from and in truth i have never come to a com­plete answer.….as a usu­ally happy and pro­duc­tive cre­ative i am in per­pet­ual motion, think­ing, doing, cre­at­ing — moving…what i believe i have learned this time around is this is my time of much needed still.…in the still­ness we can recharge, reflect and regroup. it is an impor­tant ritual.

what also comes with this, usu­ally are tears…sometimes i am not sure from where they flow, but i always feel cleansed after they are done…so much of a day is con­sumed with oblig­a­tion and appear­ance, what we lack are express­ing our rights, like the right to cry…not as a sign of weak­ness or bro­ke­ness, but when we need to cleanse the inner cob webs that can jam up the cre­ative machine…today is one such day of right & rit­ual and i have uncorked the dam and embrace the still that will follow.

At this moment, what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your business?

Collaboration…I have reached a cer­tain rhythm in my pro­duc­tion and I have achieved my expan­sion goals, what I need to do now is curate and col­lab­o­rate with my fel­low cre­atives.  I believe that when you can bring tal­ent and vision together it fuels your per­sonal cre­ativ­ity.  There is a power and energy that is cre­ated when peo­ple col­lab­o­rate and the net­work and ben­e­fits of that effect are felt long after the event itself.

Name of Busi­ness: Paula Joer­ling Studio

Blog: www.paulajoerling.com

Face­book: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paula-Joerling-Studio/218183375864

Etsy Hand Made: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaulaJoerlingStudio

Etsy Vin­tage: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaulaJoerlingVintage

Years in Busi­ness: I have been a free­lance artist in one form or another for 30 years. I have been a free­lance illus­tra­tor for about 8 years.

 

A lit­tle info: I am a free­lance illus­tra­tor liv­ing in Atlanta Geor­gia. My designs are pri­mar­ily used for the gift and table­top indus­try. Typ­i­cally, I work in water­color and col­lage and enjoy incor­po­rat­ing fab­ric, stitched paper and found objects in my art.

At this moment, what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your business?

I have decided to offer my own line of cards and paper goods and, hope­fully show at the 2013 Sta­tionery Show. So I need to shift pro­duc­tiv­ity into high gear.

Cur­rent Projects: Currently I am work­ing on a series of col­lage pieces that will make their way to my etsy hand­made shop.

Phyl­lis Dobbs

Blog — http://www.phyllisdobbs.info/

Web­site — http://www.phyllisdobbs.com/

Face­book — http://www.facebook.com/pages/Phyllis-Dobbs-Art-Design/171513056197540

Zaz­zle — http://www.zazzle.com/phyllisdobbs?rt=238522936928369533

Zaz­zle for Busi­nesses — http://www.zazzle.com/businesswithflair?rt=238522936928369533

 

Busi­ness Name — Phyl­lis Dobbs Art & Design

Started busi­ness as — Lucky Duck Designs

Years in busi­ness — I started my busi­ness 28 years ago.

 Brief Bio -

As an artist, I cre­ate art for licens­ing on prod­ucts in the tex­tile, gift and home goods indus­try. In tex­tiles, I have designed fab­ric col­lec­tions for 7 years. I also focus on design­ing quilt and sewing pat­terns and have writ­ten a new built book “Asym­met­ri­cal Quilts”. 

At this moment what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your business?

I would like to incor­po­rate more teach­ing of classes as well as devel­op­ing classes. 

Robin Nor­gren

Name of busi­ness: Robin Nor­gren Studios

Social media links:

 

Web­site: http://www.robinnorgrenstudios.blogspot.com

Twit­ter: http://www.twitter.com/robinlnorgren

Face­book:  http://www.facebook.com/wellofcreations.myetsyshop

 

Years in busi­ness: 4 years

 

Brief Bio:

I strive to live life to the fullest.  No mat­ter what.  I have grown into myself through my love for Jesus and HIS LOVE FOR ME. Art, moth­er­hood, busi­ness, cre­ativ­ity and yoga are the cher­ished vehi­cles for this deepening.   Life can be FULL, JUICY, MEANINGFUL, PURPOSE FILLED, LOVELY.  I want to help you come to your fullest life.  I cre­ate work­books, ecourses and work­shops that chron­i­cle my change and growth and offer you ways to find out what YOUR FULLEST life will be. 

At this moment, what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your business?

The first thought that popped into my head is a quote by Nel­son Mandela:

Your play­ing small does not serve the world. There is noth­ing enlight­ened about shrink­ing so that other peo­ple won’t feel inse­cure around you. We were born to man­i­fest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone.”

I admit it: I play small.  I am unsure of what I am doing at times because there is no estab­lished road on how I will add value to the world. And I live in a cir­cle where fear runs ram­pant in oth­er­wise incred­i­bly intel­li­gent and tal­ented people.  So when I strike out on a new idea, I am met with mostly silence which you would think would be easy to push past but in fact is actu­ally more tax­ing on the psyche.  Silence offers noth­ing: approval or disapproval.  Unless of course you KNOW that silence from cer­tain peo­ple means DISAPPROVAL.

This is the year that I will build a tribe of like minded peo­ple in close prox­im­ity who can wit­ness me and cheer me on.  I don’t need many; just 2 or 3.  In that envi­ron­ment where my tribe is also strug­gling to push past fear and move into the harder things — the more value filled and world impact­ing things — there will be a safety to hear the NO when it needs to be said.  At the same time the cheers will be heart­felt and gen­uine as each one watches the other change, grow, fail, redi­rect and ulti­mately suc­ceed in ways that go far beyond run­ning a suc­cess­ful busi­ness: a ful­filled and valu­able part of society.

 

Robin Nor­gren is cur­rently com­plet­ing her life coach­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and would LOVE to offer you a FREE 15 minute mini ses­sion – sign up for her mail­ing list here: http://www.robinnorgrenstudios.blogspot.com/p/life-coaching.html

 

for more Robin and the other lovely ladies click here!

 

Shari Sher­man

Name of Busi­ness:  Hula Dog Designs by Shari Sherman

Social Media Links:

Blog:  http://dashboardhula.blogspot.com/

Face­book Fan Page:  https://www.facebook.com/HulaDogDesigns

Twit­ter:  https://twitter.com/#!/HulaDogDesigns

Pin­ter­est:  http://pinterest.com/sharisherman/

ETSY:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/HulaDogDesigns

 

Years in Business:  Hula Dog Designs by Shari Sher­man, was started in 2010.  Prior to that, I cre­ated art as Island Girl Stu­dio, LLC since 2004. 

Brief Bio: 

I make Happy Art for Happy People!  I love that thrill of get­ting an idea and mak­ing it come to life.  I love bright col­ors (espe­cially turquoise!), strong sim­ple lines, and adding words of inspi­ra­tion to my art.  I like mixed-media because it is lim­it­less, but paint­ing will always be my first love.  My sub­ject mat­ter fre­quently includes dogs, books, and any­thing related to the ocean/beach, because that is what I LOVE.  Peo­ple often smile when they see my art, and I feel like I am doing my part in mak­ing the world a hap­pier place!

 

At this moment, what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your busi­ness? 

Right NOW, the one idea that I need to start imple­ment­ing is the idea that I CAN embrace and mas­ter the art of TIME MANAGEMENT. For the longest time, this has been a stick­ing point for me. So much so that it really had become incor­po­rated into my STORY. I can’t tell you how many times I would be up late the night before a show, print­ing, pack­ing, mak­ing tags, and doing what­ever other lit­tle jobs that could have been done ear­lier. Or how many projects I missed out on because I let the dead­line loom nearer and nearer…all the while telling myself I work much bet­ter under pres­sure. Ha!

I am ready to turn the page and write a new chap­ter about plan­ning ahead and keep­ing track of what I really want to be INVOLVED in (not just skim­ming by). It really is about mak­ing the com­mit­ment to AWARENESS about my busi­ness. (Tip: I have a lit­tle timer set RIGHT NOW, to help me stay on track while writ­ing this…I really, really DO!)

For more infor­ma­tion on what projects Shari is work­ing on, like Hula Dog Designs on Face­book or check out her blog, Dash­board Hula.

and for more lovely ladies in this project just click here!

Name of busi­ness: Stephanie Gui­mond — Artist, vision­ary, avid left-brainer

Social media links:
blog: http://www.creativelivingexperiment.com/
Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/strawbalestudio
Face­book: https://www.facebook.com/StephanieGuimond.Artist.Visionary.LeftBrainer
Twit­ter: https://twitter.com/#!/s_guimond
Artist pro­file: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTUIcky8uOU

Years in busi­ness: less than 1

Bio:
I’m Stephanie Gui­mond, artist, vision­ary and avid left-brainer. I paint, I dream big and I love spreadsheets.

In 2008 I picked up a paint brush for the first time since kinder­garten and haven’t put it down since. My art, like myself, varies in style and per­son­al­ity from the vin­tage girly to the unex­plain­able abstract. The most com­mon theme is vis­i­bly the fem­i­nine, but I’m always exploring…

Work­ing with mate­ri­als like acrylics, paper, pas­tels and ink, I’m drawn to an intu­itive and fluid approach to paint­ing where images appear organ­i­cally before being pol­ished into a fin­ished prod­uct. Because of this intu­itive nature, pieces are heav­ily influ­enced by what I’m liv­ing the week, the day or the moment they are cre­ated. They reflect a per­sonal story that in an odd way infuses them with a uni­ver­sal quality.

I share my home with hubby and Cassie, our Golden Retriever. I left my 9–5 job last fall to try some­thing dif­fer­ent, and spend most of my days work­ing in my guest bed­room turned office/studio cre­at­ing art and other paid work that sup­ports the life I want to cre­ate overall.

I am grate­ful for the opportunity.

cur­rent projects: a new Web­site, grow­ing my busi­ness with a new left-brain offer­ing called Get Clear, Get Mov­ing (com­ing soon!)learn­ing to bal­ance it all in my own way

At this moment, what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your business?

I am going to cheat and men­tion two ideas, but they’re very closely related, I promise!

IDEA #1
I’ve already started exe­cut­ing this idea, it’s a mat­ter of mov­ing it for­ward. I’ve recently worked with (very brave!) beta clients offer­ing Get Clear, Get Mov­ing plan­ning & goal set­ting con­sul­ta­tion pack­ages. There are sev­eral for­mats avail­able to me in shar­ing this con­tent and these offer­ings, each one with its rel­a­tive pric­ing and poten­tial income. A key next step in my busi­ness is to fig­ure out which for­mat to launch first and do it.

IDEA #2
I want to pub­lish a foun­da­tional infor­ma­tion prod­uct that would become an entry way into my brand and busi­ness (con­sul­ta­tion ser­vices in this case, not art). The inten­tion of this prod­uct is to offer a solu­tion to a prob­lem while “teach­ing” poten­tial clients about my core phi­los­o­phy and what they need to know before going fur­ther with me. I gleaned the con­cept from Tara Gen­tile. Her foun­da­tional prod­uct is The Art of Earn­ing which deals with her money phi­los­o­phy (that mak­ing money should be beau­ti­ful) and helps new read­ers work through money issues before work­ing fur­ther with her, there­fore attract­ing peo­ple into more advanced pro­grams who are already aligned with her views.

 

for more info on stephanie and the other fab ladies just click here!

Laura is a mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sional, graphic designer, writer and lover of all things cre­ative liv­ing her best life in Charleston, SC.  On most days, you will find Laura shar­ing her art­ful adven­tures at LauraCatherine.co, as well as help­ful online tuto­ri­als, app reviews and design bits of good­ness on her MarketingWithLaura.com blog.  

Blog­ging about online mar­ket­ing has pro­vided Laura an out­let to share much of what she has learned through her years in the online tourism and tele­vi­sion markets.  Her online mar­ket­ing jour­ney began in 2005, when she was inter­net mar­ket­ing direc­tor for her local tourism bureau — when social media was emerg­ing. She also worked in inter­net sales/marketing for a top NBC sta­tion in South Car­olina, whose web­site drew more than 500,000 vis­i­tors a month.  

In 2010, Laura signed up for Kelly Rae Roberts “Fly­ing Lessons” e-course.  She immersed her­self into artis­tic pur­suits away from the com­puter and shares her progress with her read­ers at LauraCatherine.co.

Laura enjoys art jour­nal­ing, paint­ing, tweet­ing, mak­ing jew­elry, trav­el­ing and (of course) blogging. She has been known to hold a craft tweet-up and loves hand­made items.

At this moment, what one idea do you need to start exe­cut­ing for your business?

So dif­fi­cult to choose just one idea! It’s a tie between my need to start charg­ing what I’m worth and my desire to cre­ate more personal/artful time for myself to recharge. 

Mak­ing time for art­ful adven­tures every day is some­thing I’ve started the sum­mer out with more intentionally…whether that means tak­ing a walk through the gar­den, snap­ping insta­gram pho­tos for inspi­ra­tion, play­ing in my art jour­nal, or putting a brush to canvas. 

I had dreams of an art stu­dio space and they recently came to life, so I have more room to spread out my sup­plies and have fun.  I’ve been paint­ing on big­ger can­vases with new techniques.  Time over at Kelly’s stu­dio play­ing in paint and mixed media have also been a part of my sum­mer so far. Kelly and I met through Fly­ing Lessons, and hav­ing an artsy friend in the area has been such a blessing. 

Charg­ing what I’m worth can be a tough one, but being more selec­tive about the projects I take on and quot­ing a more real­is­tic num­ber in terms of time invest­ment has helped me to make great progress in this area as well. When I feel tempted to under­charge, I think about my fam­ily and the fact that I am short­chang­ing all of us, not just myself.  

Funny thing is, the more time I take for myself in terms of art and jour­nal­ing; the more con­fi­dent I am in business.  Knowing one’s worth is always the first step!

for more info on laura and the other fab ladies and their answer click on over here!

*photo credit Gump’s Tak­ing Flight

 

recently i had the good for­tune to attend a work­shop with ken bova, an incred­i­ble artist and professor..while there were MANY take­aways, two in par­tic­u­lar took hold of me in an unshak­able have to act on right now kind of way…the first was the impor­tance of cul­ti­vat­ing com­mu­nity and the sec­ond was action, more specif­i­cally work pro­duces work so get going…for me these two items dove­tailed in a way that became crys­tal clear i needed to curate a national art show {noth­ing like jump­ing into the deep end, right?!} so as the notion mar­i­nated i reached out to my favorite group of cre­ative dream­ers and schemers, my fly­ing lessons class­mates, and posed the question…um whose in? and with a resound­ing YES a show is born:

tak­ing flight: a curated col­lec­tion of amaz­ing creatives

so now the work of pro­duc­ing work begins and the tiny seed of thought is bloom­ing brightly…so keep your eyes peeled and get ready for a show that will knock your socks off…a beau­ti­ful nar­ra­tive of com­mu­nity, cre­ativ­ity and love with the com­mon theme of grow­ing our wings mid flight and soar­ing high!

whether it’s the great weather, the kick­off to show sea­son, or the cre­ative kick in the tush i got from an amaz­ing work­shop this week­end; i am clean­ing up my site, updat­ing con­tent and can­not wait to par­tic­i­pate in the 10 10 10 project & blog hop com­ing very soon!  so if you have a chance poke around check out the changes and let me know what you think…xo dani