Blog entry

Handmade Jewelry Gift Ideas by Shadow Dog Designs

The Christmas shopping season will soon be here (if you haven’t already begun your list making and your shopping!).  I’ve been working hard to list new pairs of earrings and necklaces in my Shadow Dog Designs handmade jewelry shop and wanted to share the new creations with you.  Each piece is a perfect gift for the discerning woman who enjoys wearing truly unique artisan handmade jewelry. With the exception of two of the Christmas earrings at the end of the post, all of the jewelry designs are one of a kind pieces.  Just think - you or a loved one will be the only person in the universe wearing that particular piece when purchased!

Artisan Handmade Jewelry by Shadow Dog Designs

Since the autumn arts festival season is in full swing, I have been thinking a lot about handmade items, especially since I mostly make one of a kind jewelry.  People always ask me, “How do you come up with the design.” I reply something like this, “To tell the truth, I’m not sure. Most of the time it just happens.” Or, “The Muses were good to me.”  I’m sure a LOT of artists give some semblance of those answer since the “creative idea” is often elusive. But the answers definitely don’t take into account all the years and years of working to perfect your art through taking classes, people giving their opinions, selling (or not) at shows and by trial and error . . . and more trial and error . . . and more trial and error.  Then, suddenly, it just happens.

I found this poster at WalchaHandmade that pretty much sums up the process:  

New Artisan Handmade Jewelry at Shadow Dog Designs

I love this quote by J. Donald Walters:

When you buy something handmade by a person, there is something special there, and you do feel it.  The consciousness with which the thing is made is often more important than the thing itself.

A Spooky Halloween / Samhain! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

Halloween will soon be here, a time for pumpkin carvings, dressing in costumes, trick or treating and parties  Halloween has been around for over 200 years - how did it evolve?  To answer those questions (and refresh my memory), I decided to share a short history of Halloween, dealing more with its ancient traditions.

Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts lived about 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France and celebrated their new year on November 1.  This day marked the end of summer and the harvest.  It also marked the beginning of the dark, cold winter, the time of year that was most associated with death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, Samhain was celebrated when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.