After spending 3 hours at Apple and AT&T I now have a new iPhone. The first interesting thing I learned today is that Apple has installed a little moisture sensor in the headphone jacks of their products that is able to tell if you were doing dishes and spilled a bowl full of water on yourself - half of it somehow going into your pocket and managing to make its way into the headphone jack of your iPhone. The second interesting thing I learned is that, for some odd reason, this scenario is not covered under the warranty.

At this point I actually have to buy a new phone. So I figure I’ll get the new 3G that’s $199 and be done with it. This is when Apple informs me that the $199 price only applies to new AT&T customers or to people eligible for an upgrade - which I’m too new to be. My special price for the phone is $399. Awesome. So after much arguing and telling them how stupid that logic is, it hits me - Apple doesn’t care if I cancel service, they just make money off hardware. 

I walk into AT&T and explain the situation to them. Now that I have a real salesperson in front of me I’m able to magically become eligible for a phone upgrade. So now I’ve got the new 3G… And the moral of the story is Apple are crafty bastards and it’s pretty tough to trick them.

So here’s the ring I’ve been working on for the last couple weeks. I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s sterling silver with a garnet for the stone. The piece on the side is a material called faux bone. I’m pretty much in love with that stuff right now. And here’s a piece I made last night using some of the leftover silver I had rolled for the ring…

Advances in technology have revolutionized the way that society digests the mass of its knowledge and entertainment. Many people are far more apt to sit down in front of a television or to switch on a computer than they are to pick up a book. The increasing preference of these electronic mediums over the written word seems to be leading us down the path to becoming an aliterate society, one that can read but chooses not to. Despite the ever growing popularity and potential of electronic media, the accompanying rise in aliteracy does more harm than good.

Read the rest of this entry »

The newest edition of Zo! Style Technician is up over at Coilhouse and this time around she’s wearing a couple of my pieces. Go check out the article for full details, but here’s a shot of Zoe with my rivet ring and the matching rivet cuff on!

So there’s an event coming up that everyone should know about. It’s the Radical Jewelry Makeover being fronted by Ethical Metalsmiths. Basically, there is a call for donations of your old unused, unwanted, junk or whatever jewelry. These pieces are going to be worked on by tons of artists and turned into something new and awesome. Here’s a blurb from their website:

Radical Jewelry Makeover is many things. It is a traveling community mining and recycling project and a creative art and education project, teaching makers how to produce contemporary, innovative jewelry from recycled sources and proudly placing responsible jewelry in the hands of the consumers. The overall project is meant to raise awareness of the connection between mining and metalsmithing as well as showcase innovative making.

So if anyone has anything sitting around, check out the website for donation locations. This is for a good cause, really. And it’s green - so all of you trend bandwagon jumping on media hippies can feel good about yourselves when you drive your SUVs to drop the jewelry off!

So I got to mess around with my roommate’s camera last night. I’m blown away by how much better the pictures are than what I was doing with a regular point and shoot camera. Mind you, I’m no pictureologist, but I think they’re pretty good. The age old equation of expensive equals way better holds true once again. Needless to say, I’m going to have to steal her camera away from her again for more pictures in the future. Or just spend thousands and get one for myself…

So I’m working on getting better product shots of my jewelry taken. By the end of the month I’d like to have all new photos of everything up to coincide with the shots that I’m getting back from Kat Bret of Zoe modeling most of my stuff. Basically just trying to get everything together and similar. Establishing branding maybe? Who knows, but it’s making me feel better.

I’ve also ordered a sheet of faux bone that I’m going to mess around a bit with. The potential of it sounds awesome, but we’ll see how it works out. I’ll be back in class in a couple of weeks. Hopefully that will kick me in the ass as far as getting some new designs out goes.

The show on Saturday was good. It was pretty slow but that’s what I was hoping for as far as my first show goes. I really needed it as a kick in the ass to get a good amount of my current designs in stock and get the things I needed for sales displays. There were some pretty great vendors there too. I kept going back to the Dangerous Worlds booth and ogling their terrariums until I forked over the money I made off sales at the show and got one for myself. After the show we had some Thai food and wine while listening to a blues band in a little park - as you do when you’re in wine country.

I’m looking forward to doing more shows now that I’ve got this first one under my belt!

I’m spending this week getting everything prepared for the Running with Scissors indie arts and crafts show in Petaluma. Lots of jewelry making and figuring out my table set up since it will be my first show. Zoe was up hanging out recently so we also did a photo shoot of some of my pieces with Kat Bret. I can’t wait to see how they turned out - which reminds me that I need to overhaul the contraptions studio website too. Lots of things keeping me busy and it’s going to all get crunchier as soon as this next semester starts what with the promotion at my day job, keeping contraptions studio rolling and taking three classes. Taking bets now on how long it takes before I burn out and go completely crazy.

If you’re in the Bay area, come out to Running with Scissors this weekend. It should be gorgeous in Petaluma and it’s only a $1 to get in. One complete American dollar. And those things aren’t even worth that much any more. You can afford it.

So I had an appointment with a personal trainer yesterday.  Those that know me will should already know what a ridiculous situation this is.  But it was free with the gym membership, so I figured it should be good for a laugh… I was wrong. There was very little laughing. So after going over the assessment of what shape I’m in, the answer to which was determined as bad since his questions about what I do that requires physical activity were met with blank stares. Supposedly a diet of tacos, pizza and beer is not optimal as well. I disagree. So he gets me on the floor to work out and I almost died. A million push ups, lunges, crunches, squats, blah blah blah later I was on the verge of collapsing. I guess a personal trainer is the exact opposite as a doctor. When I’m struggling to stand up and my body is shaking, my doctor would tell me to lay down and rest. The personal trainer on the other hand, yelled that I wasn’t giving it my all.

But I survived regardless. And at the end of the session he asks if I want to meet up again next week. It’s one thing when getting my ass kicked is free, but to pay this guy for it! No.