anti animal guy and jewelry

There is so much to be done over the next couple of weeks. My "studio", basement is a MESS! But that is the least of my concerns. I must finish the few pieces I would like to use for applying to shows. Here are a few of the works, some finished some still in progress.




All of the pieces are either made out of copper or sterling silver.
I am so nervous about the whole thing. It is exciting as well. Such a change of life. I have decided not to go back to social work school next semester in order to make jewelry and art full time. Lots of changes and big life decisions! We will see how it goes.

I also need to set up my booth again, since it blew over in my back yard after waiting for my attention for a couple of days after setup. Christmas happened and I had no time to get back to it. So, I just bought this tent, and it has two bent poles. I frustrate myself. I did not like how the burlap turned out, so I will be racking my little brain to try and figure something else out. I will be applying to shows soon, and should be getting responses pretty quickly, so we will see if this was a good or bad idea soon. Keep your fingers crossed.

I am sitting here watching David Letterman while I write this blog. The animal guy is on. It drives me batty that they do that. I think animal education is important, but I don't think it is good for the animals to be dragged in front of huge, loud crowds. I am not a big fan of the animal guy.

Puppy Christmas Craze

Christmas was nuts this year, especially after getting the three puppies on Christmas Eve. They are so cute though. I never reaIized how much work three puppies are. It seems like all I do is clean up doggy urine. Sometimes at Christmas time I just want to drop off the face of the earth. I love seeing everyone, but I wish there was more meaning to it. It seems like it is more of a stress for most than an enjoyable time. My family is huge, so it is a bunch of hustle and bustle with little time to talk to any one, much less everyone.

Here are some pictures of the puppies.They are 5 weeks old. So small to be taken from their mother, but she got sick and had to be separated after they were born. She is a sweet lady though. We are not sure what these pups are, but the mama looks like a chow/golden mix (but, I'm no expert). We know they have some husky in them, because they have blue eyes. That might be the baby daddy, but he has taken off leaving the mother to do all of the work. I think they are going to be nice sized dogs. Especially Moose. We have tentative homes for 2, but don't let that stop you from trying to adopt. We will be picky about the homes they go to, but if you have some love and attention to give to a puppy forever, we would definitely like for you to take one of these cuties home.

This is brownie. Very creative, I know. But if I name them too creatively I will get attached. Give me a couple of days. Brownie is a little quirky girl. She is independent from the other puppies more, but will sit on your lap and snuggle for hours. She was the scaredy dog shy one at first, but has come out of her shell and is probably the most energetic, playful one of the three. I think she will be the smallest.


The tan and white one in the back is Moose. Moose is a loving little guy. Very playful and snuggly. He has a big personality, and will be a fun, fun dog! I love Moose. I love them all, but I really love Moose.


Here is Blacky. I think she might be the smartest of the three. She is snuggly, and has recently been toted around a lot by a little 3 year old, so I think that she may be good with kids. Isn't she adorable!


I am thankful that Christmas is over. I am going to find a way to make it more enjoyable for myself for the rest of the years, because it is just too much at this point. Trying to please everyone, meanwhile pulling my hair out from driving to all corners of Missouri. Not to mention all of the consuming. I would just prefer for the rest of my life for people to donate money to "A Place to Bark" for Christmas for me. If I ever open my own rescue, you can donate to me. I think I am really lucky, and would prefer to help others who need it more.

Saturday was a bad day

Saturday, I closed Floyd's tail in my car door. It was locked and he was screaming and I couldn't get it open. So, when I went to unlock it he bit me. Suffice to say, he got himself out before I was able to actually open the door. Ouch! He ripped his tail. At that point I didn't realize that I had a bad bite wound on my hand. When I looked at my hand I thought I was going to pass out. It's not that bad, but it freaked me out. I think he came pretty close to the bone. So, I didn't go to the doctor, but I took poor Floydy pants to the vet. He had to wear one of those cones on his head, but it wasn't big enough and I've been shaking a can of pennies at him for about 72 hours every time he goes to lick his wound. Floyd still loves me, and I don't blame him for biting me.

My website has been slightly updated...if you click on the logo in the upper left hand corner it will take you to photos of my recent work. There will be more to come as soon as the puncture wounds on my hand heal.

I will be receiving at least three puppies this week that need a good home. If anyone is interested or knows anyone who might be interested I will post photos as soon as I get them.

Sewing together burlap...hmmm. As I mentioned earlier, I bought this twine, then I bought a needle that doesn't fit the twine and even taped together they will not fit through the burlap. So, I unraveled the twine. It's a lot of twine, so that took a while. It still doesn't fit. So, I went and bought eyelets. I still have to unravel all of the twine in order for it to fit through the eyelets. Welcome to my world. Again, I need to plan a little better, but I am going to have the rockinest booth ever!

If you have read previous blogs, I told a little joke about my fingers bleeding from making too much jewelry. Not a joke, apparently. It hurts to hold sharp metal objects for long periods of time, while grinding, and grinding, so, when you've grinded through your skin, you don't necessarily realize that you've hurt yourself because it already hurt really bad before that, thus the bleeding.

I will be applying to my first juried shows very soon. I sure do hope that I get into some of them, since I am no longer employed and do not have any other direction but to make jewelry. The designs occupy all of my extra brain space. They feed off of one another floating around in my head. It is super hard to withhold from executing ideas when I have other things that need to be done.

Other things...I have two dogs, Frankie--the good dog (chow chow, german shepherd mix) and Floyd--the horribly goofy and defiant schnauzer/lab mix. Floyd is a nuisance. He chews on walls, purposefully knocks things off tables with his big fat snout, has chewed approximately 16 pairs of underwear and 4 socks, plus 3 nice shirts and 1 not so nice shirt, also 2 bras in the six months that I've had him. He is turning into a rather expensive little creature. He also thinks my cat is a squirrel, except one he has trapped in his house, so she is for his own play/possible eating. Cerveza, the cat HATES Floyd. And I think before Floyd Cerveza was a pretty easy going, like all creatures type of cat. No mas, her trust has been broken by the Floyd forever. These are the Days of my Animals.

Besos! (as my friend Laura would say)

I almost have all of the necessary components for my booth. I have had a hard time finding very much info on putting a booth together for art fairs, especially jewelry, so, I thought I would share my experiences. I was going to use fabric to cover the inside of the walls of my booth. Has anyone ever priced fabric? My goodness it is expensive. So I'm going for a rustic look to match my jewelry, and I have these old burlap coffee bags, (boxes of them, don't ask why), in my basement. Ive decided to try to sew these bags together with twine. I didn't like the natural color of twine, so I thought I'd die it dark brown on my stove. What a mess! I don't know how many people asked me yesterday if I died my hands brown on purpose. Maybe I could have been a little more careful. I think that is the story of my life. To be more careful. Think before I move, so I don't run into furniture and such, don't stick your hands in a big vat of brown die, don't throw hot tweezers on your gas lines. No, I did not blow up my house, yet. That is the lesson for today regarding booth set up. Move slowly, so as not to bruise, blow up or make your hands look permanently dirty.

Also, I emailed the CEO of the RED campaign about making some jewelry for their campaign. He has not emailed back yet, so if anyone knows him, pop him a line and tell him that Amie King wants to help their cause with jewelry. Thanks in advance!

My first post! Am I Eking...this is my title because I've decided to sell myself, I mean my art online and I'm super afraid that people will not be able to find me or my website because of the way my parents spelled my name (after Pure Prairie League song). So, my grandma of 30 years I think has finally caught on to the spelling, but I'm sure many of my potential clients will not catch on so quickly. I'm going to try really hard to keep up with my blog. It is a little strange at this point to put it all out there. I think it will get easier with time.

I have finally decided to bite the big one, sell my business in order to pursue making art full time. wooh! I wake up in hot sweats at night over the whole thing, but I know that it is the right thing for me. I will soon be crunching out as many pieces as my little hands can manage without too much bleeding, so keep posted.

Oh! And I also want to save the world...hence the social work school. I am going to dedicate some of my jewelry to causes of worth. A portion of the proceeds will go to the cause of choice. I'd love to hear ideas on this.