Wingflash Designs' Holiday Gift Guide

It's a little late, but I haven't done any of my shopping yet.  While I was probing the outer extremities of Etsy for last-minute gift ideas, I found myself face-to-face, time after time, with some of the most awful gift ideas--nay, the most awful THINGS--I've ever seen.  And what is blogging for, if not bitching about shitty stuff of the internets?  Hence, I present to you

Wingflash Designs' 2012 Holiday Gift Guide

-or-

Exactly What Not To Give the People You Love this Christmas

Believe it or not, I found everything in this list in the Etsy holiday section.  

Item #1:
Merino Wool Classic Cut Undies - $48

A diaper woven from shredded $5 bills might be more comfortable.

Item #2:
Wooden Whistle - $9.50

...Did someone say stocking stuffer?  Let's not delve too deeply here.

Item #3:

Wooden and Crochet Beads - $15

This item's creators claim these beads are for teething infants.  I did realize how far crafty kinksters had taken things.  Stay on the lookout for large, crocheted, "pacifier/mouth plugs."

Item #4:

Modernist Menorah - $169

Because nothing says 'abstract' like something you fucked up and don't care enough to fix.

Item #5:

Holiday Vinyl Wall Decal - $13.50

A misguided attempt at suspense?

Subtle hint at fraternity Christmas party?

Intro to holiday-themed gay porn novel?

My inner 8-year-old surfacing?

You decide.

Item #6:

German Glass Glitter Garland - $35

Shabby Chic: an excuse to make something really, really half-assed and take its picture in front of a weathered white door.

Item #7:

Shotgun Shell Lighted Wreath - $30

Get in the holiday spirit!  Let's fire off 50 rounds IN ORDER TO MAKE A WREATH.

Item #8:

Man Cave Hand Painted Sign - $12.95

Because he never grew up.

Item #9:

Christmas Grinch Sign - $40

You can purchase this little nugget of irony here!

Item #10:
One Direction Nail Decals - $6

Your niece is already embarrassing to be around as it is; let's not make things worse.

Item #11:

Goat Milk Sandwich Cookie Soap - $8.90

Are you that guy who gives out toothbrushes and fruit at Halloween?  Now there's a way to disappoint during the holidays, too!

Item #12:

Giant Paperclip Bookmarks - $8.35

For those who reward months of anticipation with whopping heaps of disappointment.

Thanks for reading, if you're still reading, and remember: there are plenty of great gift ideas for the ladies on your list in the Wingflash shop!  Happy holidays, everybody.

Lunar Madness

This has been quite the magical celestial season: a super moon and near-full solar eclipse within weeks of each other.  Pair those with a recent viewing of Gus Van Sant's Melancholia, and you're left with a mixture of awe and crippling fear.  Luckily, I managed to mix both lunar events with incredible food and excellent people who kept me sane.

I spent the evening of the super moon in the Chiricahua mountains on a friend's property.  Every other year he hosts a sheep roast, inviting all his friends down to camp out for a few nights in his little desert oasis.  My band was lucky enough to be a part of the festivities.  We played on a hay trailer stage (powered by generator) as the super moon rose behind us and folks enjoyed our hosts' incredible spread: roast lamb, homemade feta and homegrown beet salad, more than enough food and wine (oh, and the CAKE.  THERE WAS CHOCOLATE CAKE).  I was too busy scarfing down my plate to get any photos of the food, but Tom spent our entire set taking photos of the band.  Here are a few of my favorites:

An aspiring future ST3 member

Super moon powering my guitar!

New fans dancing

As much as I love being out in the middle of nowhere and gorging on homegrown mutton, I craved the comforts of home.  During the eclipse a few weeks later, Tom and I hosted a poker party which necessitated the cutest little snacks:

Stuffed peppers!

Tom mixed ground beef with minced onions and garlic, some salt and cayenne pepper, then stuffed it, along with pepper jack cheese, into these little sweet peppers.

Trouble shooting: as the beef cooked down it shrank and the cheese inside provided just enough slipperiness for the meat to slide right out.  Next time we'll cut the peppers longways, canoe-style.

Tom, the eclipse, the tomato plant, and the ever-vigilant Boris.

And now, for some obligatory eclipse photos:

After four hours of Texas hold 'em all the food was gone (again, before I had the chance to snap a shot) and only a couple beers were left.  I went to bed happy (I broke even) and full, relieved that the moon hadn't pulled a Melancholia.

Brandied Cherries

Those of you who know me well know how much I love whiskey.  And what better whiskey drink than a custom, homemade Manhattan?  And what better to garnish your Manhattan than cherries you brandied yourself?  Since I'm branching out and writing about more than just jewelry on this little blog, I figured I'd share this relatively simple process.  The only hard part is having the patience to wait 4-6 weeks before they're ready!

Start with 1-2 pounds of your cherries of choice.  Mine were California Bing cherries, the first batch I've seen in stores this season.  Wash and de-stem.

Now comes the long (and tedious) process of pitting the cherries.  Some mixologists recommend leaving the pits in, as they add complexity to the flavor of the final product.  I prefer a pitless cocktail.  Find something fun to listen to (I chose Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, which is roughly an hour long--longer than I needed, but I'd never heard it before), a comfy spot with space for 3 bowls: one for pitted cherries, one for pits, and one for cherries waiting to be gutted.

Pitting cherries is a skill you can learn relatively quickly.  You can buy yourself a fancy cherry pitter, or you can do what I do: take a large paper clip (washed thoroughly, of course) and insert a straightened end into the stem hole until it reaches the pit.  Then circle the pit with the wire, loosening it from the flesh inside the cherry.

Once the pit is loose enough inside the fruit, you can more or less pop it out.  You might mangle a few cherries before you get this down, but have patience: it'll pay off in the long run.

Once your cherries are pitted, set them aside and get out your saucepan.  Add 3/4 cup each of water and sugar and the juice from half a lemon.  As that warms up, add your spices.  I used a traditional mulling mixture:

2 Allspice

4 pods Cardamom

1 stick Cinnamon

a couple pinches of nutmeg (use fresh grated if you can)

2 cloves

Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for about ten minutes, until it's just reduced enough to appear syrupy; then turn the heat off.

Stir in one cup of brandy and your cherries.  Let the mixture sit until it cools.

Spoon the cherries into jars.  I reused some old pickle and olive jars (swirl lemon juice around inside the jars to rid them of any pickley-smelling residue).  Pour the remaining fluid over the cherries, and cover tightly.

Be sure to label the jars with the date.  You shouldn't eat cherries that have been around too long (I've read that "too long" is anywhere from 6 weeks to 1 year), but mine never hang around long enough to worry.  If you're experimenting with different spice combinations, you might also list your ingredients on the label.  Now, be patient: of course you can try these now or in a couple days, but they're best when they've been stored in the refrigerator for 4-6 weeks.

Brandied cherries are perfect in a Manhattan, but are also delicious on ice cream or pie.  Tom suggests drying them and making boozy trail mix (disclaimer: I've never dried brandied cherries, nor do I know whether it's possible; could be the makings for a future post!) or coating them in chocolate.  Enjoy; stay tuned and I'll let you know how this batch turns out.

Sewing Lesson #1: $6 Curtains

I do more than make jewelry.  I guess that's why I've taken this little break from blogging: I was just too busy with all kinds of other stuff.  I like to adhere to craftiness in all its forms.  I love sewing, and I've seen a number of posts from Facebook friends who have machines but don't know what to do with them.  So when I decided to make some curtains for my bedroom this morning, I thought I'd share the process with everyone.  Curtains can be about the simplest sewing project possible, and relatively quick to make.  I finished mine in under two hours.

Here's the window desperately in need of covering:

It's right at the head of the bed, facing east, so the sun streams in the window in the morning.  I like being woken up by the sunlight, but I wanted curtains to minimize the direct sun and resulting heat.  Something breezy and cheerful and light.  

A twin-sized vintage sheet!  Perfect.  The measurements turned out to work just right.  In order to have the right amount of drape to the curtains, I wanted them to be a few inches longer than the bottom of the window, and twice as wide (to make a nice gather at the top).  If you're making your own curtains, make sure you take into account where your curtain rod sits (is it above the window or within the window box?) and the hems you'll have to use to finish the edges of the curtains.

Once you've chosen your fabric, get out your iron and eliminate all those creases and wrinkles.  Ironing happens to be my least favorite step in the sewing process.  It's boring, so make sure you listen to something good while you're doing it.  I got down to Feist's new album, Metals.  If you hate ironing more than I do and choose to skip this step, you run the risk of screwing up the next step.

Cut the fabric to size, again making sure to add between 2 and 6 extra inches in each direction, depending on how wide you want your hems to be and how big your curtain rod is.  I like using sheets for this kind of thing because they're already a big rectangle.  I just folded mine in half and cut down the middle (because I wanted two identical curtains).  I was lucky that it was so easy this time: cutting to size is my second least favorite step.

Hem the sides and bottom (make sure you look at the pattern of your fabric before you decide which end will be the bottom--it's easy to rush and find out that you have a bunch of cowboys riding upside-down when you're done!).  I like a hem that's about as wide as my thumbnail.  Fold it over the thickness you want, then fold it over itself again to cover up the rough edge you just cut.  When you're done sewing the hems, iron to make them nice and crisp (Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot).

Figure out how deep your top hem needs to be in order to accommodate your curtain rod.  Mine was pretty small, but bigger at the outer edges, so my top hem wound up being almost 2 inches wide.  When you're done, iron that sucker (The Low Anthem; Oh My God, Charlie Darwin).

Tah-dah!  One of the easiest and quickest sewing projects, and a simple way to spruce up any room on an itty-bitty budget.  Maybe next I'll figure out a way to disguise that A/C unit!

The sheet cost $0.98 at a local thrift shop, and the tension rod was around $5 at Target.  Make sure you measure your window width before you leave the house to buy curtain rods.  It's no fun to get to the store and have to turn around just to make sure your guess is right.

Thanks for reading; hope this inspires you to make some floaty summer curtains for yourself!

Oh, No! Here Comes Gem Show!

Anyone who has spent any time in Tucson inevitably hears about the Tucson Gem Show: the massive party that descends upon our town every February, drops millions of dollars into the Tucson economy, and then leaves.  Well, the Tucson gem show is actually made up of dozens of small gem, mineral, jewelry and artifact trade shows all happening in the same place at the same time.

And it is my savior.

Without the Tucson gem shows, I would never have come across items that are now featured in some of my best-selling pieces.  Every year, I get my workspace ready for an influx of new STUFF, whatever it might be.  Which means making sure I've used at least some of the stuff I bought the previous year.  Which means I'm posting a LOT of new stuff on Etsy.

Last week while cleaning, I found, in a little drawer, a handful of shark teeth plated (gasp!) in SILVER.  How had I overlooked these little treasures for so long?  I wear mostly gold these days, but people are constantly asking for pieces in silver.  So, quick as I could, I threw together some of the prettiest little necklaces.  Check 'em out, and stay tuned, as I'll have more coming in the next week leading up to the Tucson shows.  And then I will disappear until Valentine's Day!

Shark Attack Ruby and Sterling Necklace

Shark Attack Green Amethyst and Sterling Necklace

Shark Attack Garnet and Sterling Necklace

On accessorizing.

Repeat after me: a bra is not an accessory.

Maybe it's the fact that time just plunged me into the realm of the 30-something (without my permission--how rude!) or maybe I'm a closet prude, but I'm horrified by the sluttiness of recent trends.  The people behind the velvet fashion rope, who decide what color will be popular this season and how many inches above the knee your skirts should fall, want you to stop wearing your clothing.  My favorite magazine, Lucky (shout out to fellow Oberlin grad Kim France, who founded the shopping and style bible), has even linked itself to the underwear-as-outfit-centerpiece fad:

Please tell me it's not whale tail month

I'm horrified before I open the cover.  In its defense, Lucky must, as its mission states, deliver up-to-date information on what's hot and where to get it.  I can only hope that they realize that this story was a terrible mistake (on par with Gob ditching Marta the first time) and republish it in their December Shit-We-Said-This-Year-That-We-Would-Take-Back-If-We-Could editorial.  Really, Lucky?  Underwear as clothing?  I expect more class from you.

Why is this a fad?  I get the appeal of the slip as a dress a la Courtney Love, as self-aware, irreverent, rocker chick chic; but only when paired with Doc Martins and a leather jacket.  This is different.  This is "how to dress for happy hour drinks with the girls."

No.  Do not do that.

And what awesome guidance do our fashion gurus at Lucky Mag bestow upon us to help us feel less...in our underwear in public?

Oh.  So...to not look slutty, wear sheer over REGULAR CLOTHING.

They use the word 'naked!'  Thanks, Lucky, for making me rethink my subscription extension.  

Opaque wearers of the world, unite!  We wear clothes for two reasons: temperature regulation and old fashioned Puritan shame.  Now I'm not a proponent of shame to its highest degree (breastfeeding in public is awesome) but for your own sake, unless you're on a Jil Sander runway, please keep your undies to yourself.  If you can afford a $215 Rebecca Taylor metallic mesh top and the $77 Zinke bralette (see above) to cover your boobies under it, you most certainly can buy yourself a tank top (camisole?) to wear in between the two.

There's a huge handbag industry out there.  And what about belts?  I love belts.  And boots!  How about some jewelry?  This stuff is sheer, and goes OVER your clothes!

seaweed quartz necklace

mountain meadow necklace

Fields of Green Earrings

Nothing shameful about this stuff.