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Hi this is Carley here I decided to start blogging for the start-a-blog  challenge. Here’s a little bit about me and my story, I was born in Milwaukee, WI around 28 years ago. I have always had a passion for art, but was afraid to pursue it. After graduating from UWM in December of 2010 with a degree in linguistics I decided to go back to school for art in order to pursue my passion, I did not want to settle and get a job without ever trying. So in Fall of 2011 I enrolled back in UWM for art. I went back to gain skills, not for the degree, and after mastering the basics I came to realize that what I want is to be an artist, not an art student. And so I dropped out in the spring of 2014 and am building up a body of work right now. I have been into writing poetry and fiber art lately. Here is a picture of my latest piece:

. Thank you for reading my post. Let me know what you think of my work in the comments section below

Hello this is Carley Knight, artist. This website is currently under construction, but feel free to look around and give me some feedback on what you see.

You can check out my stuff for sale at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/carleyknightjewelry

Like my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/carleyknightart

Follow me on twitter: @carleyknightart

I’m also on instagram: instagram.com/carleyknightart

and Pinterest: pinterest.com/carleyknightart

I’m going back to school tomorrow, I’m really excited about that, but I’m worried about losing the progress I have made in my jewelry business. I am taking a class called the multiple in jewelry and metals and I am also taking the intro to fibers course and an art history course.

I am going to try and manage my time better and plan into my days time to work on the business and times for school work. I have been making jewelry everyday lately, here are a few new pieces I have made, let me know what you think of them. I am planing on doing a photoshoot soon for things to list on etsy.

After taking the intro to Jewelry and Metal-smithing class (in which I got an A) I have learned a lot. one thing that I learned was that it is important to add a patina onto anything copper that I make. I wanted to add a patina to my old copper pieces, but I also wanted an affordable, eco-friendly way to do it. I googled how to patina copper jewelry and I found this website. I learned that there was a way to patina copper using a hardboiled egg, and I wanted to try it out. I thought I would take pictures documenting the process to see how it works. I had made these copper disc earrings a while ago, and never added a patina to them. I thought it might help people to learn about the process here, and here it is:

Before:

After 1 hour(there was not much change):

After 2 Hours: (not much more change)

9 hours late (I decided to stop checking in every hour):

I think they turned out really well, what do you think? I think the more time the better, when I do it next I will leave them in overnight, I think. Well let me know what you think, I will be taking better pics and posting them on etsy soon.

I’m going to keep this post short, because I don’t have much to say right now. As school is winding down I have more time to devote to my business, so I’ve decided to restart my blog. I have really improved my jewelry making skills from taking the jewelry making class. I have some pics of projects I’ve

A lot has happened lately and I just wanted to let my followers know that I am back to selling my jewelry (I never really went away). I don’t know what exactly to post here, but I want to start blogging again, and I figured the best way to start is to just start. I re-designed my logo recently here it. I designed it myself, using the skills I learned in the design class I took. I feel that it better reflects me and what I do so let me know what you think! I am looking forward to getting back to blogging. My next post will be much longer, but I just wanted to get this one out of the way.

I have a big announcement, in case you don’t follow my facebook page I am going to be having a booth at my school, UWM’s Valentine’s Day craft fair at the student union, from Monday February  11 to Thursday the 14th. I will be there from 10am – 5pm almost everyday. I am really excited in case you haven’t guessed by now, so I am working hard to prepare, I want to create a lot more pieces of jewelry for the show, take inventory, and figure out my display, all in under 3 days.

In order to prepare for the craft fair I have been making necklaces for my pendants that I made, but it was taking a lot of time to hand-make all of them, so yesterday I had a revelation, why not just buy some chain? The chain costs more, but it takes a lot less time to make each individual necklace. So went to my local bead store, Planet Bead and bought 25 ft worth of silver chain, and I managed to finish all but one necklace (I ran out of the chain) here are some of them on a display thingy I bought:

Like I said before, I am really excited for this opportunity to sell my jewelry and spread the word about my business to the masses, so if anyone reading this is in the Milwaukee area next week, come and stop by my booth and say hi, I look forward to meeting you.

School starts tomorrow! I can’t wait. Here is my school schedule, it is a very weird schedule, Mondays and Wednesdays will be wide open, but on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays i will be really busy. I don’t think I will be able to post on my blog everyday, but I will try and post every Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. I don’t know how much attention I can pay to my business this semester, because I am going to be full time.

Yesterday I got a cold and was in bed the whole day. I was productive because I was on the internet though using social media and promoting my business all day. I hope I will be all better by tomorrow, when classes start. I’m still a little under the weather right now, but am feeling better than yesterday. I got a haircut on Friday, here’s a pic:

I really like my new haircut what do you think?

My bails came in the mail yesterday! let me back up a little bit. Last summer we went to Door County, WI, and when we were there we went to the Hands on Art Studio and I made a bunch of fused glass tiles, shown here:

I have been wanting to make them into pendants for a long time, but I couldn’t think of the name for what you put on the back for a long time, then it came to me: A Bail! and with that I was able to order them online, on ebay. I got a 50 piece set, it took almost three weeks to come, and they finally came yesterday! So all I needed was to put the bails on the tiles, and for that I used E-6000, a great glue:

and here they are drying:

I let them dry for one day, and here they are, all finished:

I am really happy with the results, and I am going to put them on my etsy store I think I am just going to put the pendants for sale without putting them on necklaces. What do you think about my pendants? Also here’s one last picture of my “helper” Pepe:

Well I hope you like them, please let me know what you think!

I have made my final decision, and I have decided to keep my current name “CraftsbyKnight” there was a lot of thinking that went into this decision, and I wanted to let everyone know not to expect a name change in the future. I like my current name and it allows for growth in the future, which is the reason I chose it.

On a side note, school starts on Tuesday and I am really excited! I am going to take four classes this semester. The classes I am taking are: Intro to Jewelry making and metal-smiting, Intro to Photography, design survey, and a really neat class about profesional portfolio development, which should help me to improve my portfolio for the spring and help me to get an internship next fall.

I am also going to try and focus more on my business site, craftsbyknight.etsy.com. I am worried that I won’t have time to do everything I want to do, but it doesn’t hurt to try. I am going to set a schedule for myself for the week, that should help to keep me on track. Anyway I look forward to hearing from everyone that reads my blog, Carley.