Jill MacKay's BLOG

Jewel School and JTV

I just booked my flight to Knoxville TN where I will be heading down to meet and work with the good people at Jewel School and   

I will be appearing on air September 4th with many a selection of my components and findings. This is very exciting and such a lovely opportunity. 

I will be selling 5 different kits! Clasp kits, pendant kits and more. 

The people I am fortunate to be dealing with are communicative, friendly, fun and have business savvy. All this to say it makes for a great experience and a wonderful gig. I owe this connection to my talented friend Margot Potter. She is a powerhouse of creativity and now a host on Jewel School. 

Margot introduced me to everyone while down in Tucson and the results of our work will soon be realized! Looking forward and love this opportunity and the others to come....

Off to the studio!

xox

Jill

I Love Teresa Meister!

Why? Besides the fact that she is a wonderful human being, exceedingly talented, not to mention fun....LOOK what happens when she combines my work and hers!

Teresa's unique use of seed beads and jump rings makes for a really beautiful look and a better ride. These pieces are so fluid. Lots of movement, very comfortable to wear, they move and lay so nice.

Close up of Teresa's necklace in which she used  my sterling silver floral connectors. Glad Teresa does seed beading I can't see size 11 beads much less smaller! Yikes!

This gorgeous bracelet shows my  Twig Triple Strand Spacer and a new magnetic Flower Top magnetic clasp. I cannot wait to see this in person!

Thank you so much Teresa. You are wonderful as is your work!

Please see more of Teresa's work at here website www.teresameister.com

xoxo

Jill

Visual Blogging

Hi All,

It seems I  have writers block. I think of blogging often but don't as often as I should. Part of this is because some of my clients are so big that I have to follow contractual obligations about even publishing names and news when and how. Though another reason is because I am more about images than words.  I am much more a visual creature than a writer. So in the interest of  sharing more often I have decided to do more visual posts. More images, fewer words, unless I am sharing something specific or newsworthy. Here we go! My view of color style and trend in jewelry. A new set ...I love Polyvore!

xoxo

Jill

5_2011 by Jill MacKay featuring butterfly stud earrings

Wor

Cool Stuff!

Yay! Thank you Beadwork Magazine for listing my Lacey Leather Cuff in the "Cool Stuff" section of the April/May 2011 issue!  This bracelet is one of the pieces I designed and licensed to the good folks at Silver Creek Leather.  There is more exciting news about this line coming soon! Not allowed to tell yet but is definitely good news! Doing the Happy Dance!

 
  

The Lacey Leather Cuff comes in saddle tan or black (with ST being the best selling of the two colors) and has a  lobster claw closure, with an adjustable chain at the end of which dangles a small charm. How charming! The bracelet looks great as shown above (plain) or you can liven it up with some of the individual screw back decorative focals (shown below). These focals screw off and on through the holes in the bracelet! Easy Peasy! They come in three different designs to chose from. The screws lay flush on the inside of the bracelet when attached and are not noticeable to the skin when worn. They are light weight and comfortable.  I love the whole idea of having more choices in how one piece of jewelry can look. We all need more choices right?! Not to mention change we are in control of!

Here are the three single decorative focals that work with the lacey leather cuff:

    

Which do you like best? By the way if anybody can come up with a better name than decorative screw back focals I'd certainly be open o suggestions!!! HELP!

Have a great week and take care out there.

xoxo

Jill

2011 Trend Blurb

Hi all!

I thought I would post a short trend blurb that I wrote for my good friend and colleague Mike Hartnett the publisher of Creative Leisure News. Reading his well written, industry insider, information filled newsletter is a must. Every one in the industry reads and subscribes to stay up to date with what's new and changing. CLN delivers the most current information for the craft industry. From time to time CLN uses me as an expert (imagine that!) and I am always flattered and in very good company. Thanks Mike! So if you haven't heard about it or read it before please take time to check it out.  PLease click here:  www.clnonline.com

My latest trend blurb for CLN with permission from the author..... (me!)

2011 Predictions: Jewelry

Big, bold, and personalized, one-of-a-kind creations.

by Jill Mackay (January 17, 2011)

(Note: Jill has designed a wide variety of jewelry supplies for various manufacturers and distributors. Her latest line can be seen at the CHA show in the booth -- #439 – of a new exhibitor, Silver Creek Leather.)

Big color-block styles in active-wear fashion trends call for the bold use of jewelry with lots of bright colors. With color block designs, bold hues appear side by side, intensifying the eye-catching effect of each individual color. The mixing and merging of colors can occur in the garment or accessory. The look is easy to achieve with a juxtaposition of accessories in bold shapes and bright solid hues.

Pieces made to wear (and define) active lifestyles are full of movement and encourage the use of leather, which is durable and being jazzed up with all sorts of metal and beaded decoration. Long bracelets that wrap multiple times around the wrist and forearm suggest stacked bangles look, which continues to be popular. The combination of pure decoration and sentiment suggests anything goes in mixed-media jewelry making. The combination of many different metals in one piece with beads and chain is a strong look. Stamped metals along with a widening choice of stamping tools and textured hammers are big as metal smithing continues to gain more and more active practitioners.

Long, multi-strand necklaces with lots of fringe appeal and layers step up in popularity. Accessories that relate to one another (as in your jewelry and your shoes and or purse) shows style, intellect and creativity. Eco-sustainable materials and sources continue to gather steam. Speaking of steam: those of you out there who found out about Steampunk late and are still trying to make it a happening trend -- forget about it! It’s been done and it’s done, over, kaput, period.

Technology continues to grow at lightning speed offering us varieties of ways to connect and share techniques, find materials, and locate places to shop. MASS MINGLING is the happening, world-changing mega-trend. There's now an all-encompassing information layer on top of real-world daily life, that (especially when mobile and location-based), turns "connecting" into 24/7 and "on the go," further blurring the boundaries between online and offline. Follow designers and bead companies, and receive updated blogs, video lessons, and latest coupons real time. Group buying and opinions matter and now you can get all of it in an instant. 

There should be an app for staying on top of all the new ways to do things; though there’s nothing like walking a trade show for keeping your figure on the pulse of a category or an industry.

###

More soon!

xoxo

Jill

Nearly Tucson Time!

It's nearly time to make the annual trek to the AZ desert for the  Tucson Gem  Show. Due to the generosity of my talented friend Paula Radke (who generously gave me one of her two booth spaces) I was able to and decide to join in the fun at fairly late date. Thank you Paula! I have a great spot exhibiting in the grand ballroom at the TBTB show at the Double Tree side by side with Paula. It should prove to be great fun. How do I know? She is my neighbor at the Bead and Button show each summer and the Beadalon folks are a couple of booths away on our isle.  So many wonderful people in our industry! I am truly blessed in this regard.

This year we got smart and rented a house on the edge of town. It is a beautiful adobe home that is less expensive than a decent hotel and has a kitchen so we can save on food because we can cook!

Check out the Tucson digs:

 

I will be exhibiting my favorite silver plated pieces, my sterling silver line and a good portion of my newest line which is a leather line that I created and licensed to Silver Creek Leather. Now in full production available for sale I am anxious to receive feedback about the line. I showed some of it at Bead & Button but will have more items in Tucson.

Sneak peek:

Screw back changeable focals and bracelets, very cool!

                                          Leather pendants ready for dangles

 
   End caps and leather braid for bracelets.

Beadable leather chandeliers and MORE!!!

Have to get back it..off to the studio. Here's hoping you have a great week!

See you in Tucson!

xoxo

Jill 

 

  

 

WHICH SHOW?!

I just made a very tough decision recently.

The two largest trade shows for the two industries I work in (The CHA Winter Show in LA and the Tucson Gem Show in AZ) decided to have their shows at the exact same time.

I fretted and plotted for the longest time on what to do and how to pull off making both shows. I was making myself crazy in the process (granted I was somewhat crazy prior to this decision making process its true!!) in order to spare the few braincells I have left I decided to be sensible and go with the show I know I will be able to do the most business by attending... which of course would be...The Tucson Gem Show. The 57th annual Gem show has 43 shows within a show. The whole dang city is a show! Click on the great link below to see great list of the many shows, dates and locations.

Tucson Gem Show listing

Back to me...I would greatly appreciate it if CHA would never do this again so to accommodate my schedule! (kidding...well okay not really).  I am so blessed to have so many old and wonderful friends in the Craft Industry I cannot tell you. The thought of not seeing everyone this year is somewhat saddening. Though this is a business decision, not a social one. It just so happens that the craft industry is full the best kind of creative people so it actually does become a social event, connecting and reconnecting with those you've become close to over the years.  Seriously, the craft industry is comprised of the nicest people. I love the Craft Industry. This will be the first CHA Winter Show I will have missed in years.

So instead of LA I will be in Tucson with a whole set of other wonderful creative people. (I am so lucky) I decided to show at To Bead True Blue (TBTB) thanks to a generous offer from my dear friend Paula Radke who will be allowing me to share her space (she has a double booth). Thank you Paula!

The To Bead True Blue Show will run from January 30th through February 4th. Of course we'll be hanging around a few extra days to run around to see  our other favorite shows and keep appointments and have meetings.
 

Tucson in the depth of winter is always a pleasure. Hopefully this year when I get home my car will not be completely buried under 6 feet of snow like it was last year! Wow!

 

Heck I'm still in shock that it's Novemeber... and who invented daylight savings time anyways?!

xoxo

Jill

 

Ancient Inspiration!

My dear friend and neighbor Peter has an amazing collection of specialty books. Today I called him and asked if I could come over and find one on ancient symbols. He sent me home with 4 amazing books and then used Google Books to show me the one we looked for and could not find!

Do you know about Google books? Go to www.google.com then click the little drop down menu next to "more" (top left) and click on books. Apparently they are on a giant book scanning mission of great proportions! Not sure what this will do for book sales but there's something good and bad about everything.

The book I am enjoying looking at and reading the most for ancient inspiration is

TREASURES of EARLY IRISH ART 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.

Front Cover

Back Cover

I love all the spirals and flourishes!

Here's a  hook & Eye clasp from the my latest Tonal Duet line.

Lots of flourishes here too!

I recommend going to the library and or google books and checking out the earliest of jewelry makers and their designs for tons of inspiration. Google Books has many, many out of print books that are very rare and difficult to find already scanned in. You can read them for free. It's actually a rather amazing undertaking by google.

More soon time to go swimming!

xoxo

Jill

Jill MacKay Content Store Launches on SCRAPBLOG.COM !

Who'd of every thought that you could make jewelry digital and use it online for scrap-booking?! Well the clever and wonderful people at www.scrapblog.com did!  I am so lucky to be one of the designers that get to have a store that provides digital content for the community there. Everyone at Scrapblog worked so hard to make this happen and for a long time. They spend a lot of behind the scene hours making Scrapblog easy to use! A major THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard on my behalf. They also spent a lot of time making my work look good and scanning in hundreds of pre-1920's postcards from my father's antique paper collection. So look in the pages further back in the store for those.

Take a peek!

The first few pages are some of my jewelry components made into stickers and some of my illustration shapes filled with text from antique (way past vintage) women's magazines. So there are contemporary shapes filled with contrasting history. I love the shapes! You can also take my shapes and fill them with any other background in my store or anyone else's for that matter.

Get a few pages, print a book, print a card or just send the digital page to a loved one or friend. It is VERY cool and beyond clever while easy to navigate! Love it! So happy!

Here's the official press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Colleen Reilly, VP Marketing

Scrapblog, Inc.

110 Sutter Street, Suite 700

San Francisco, CA 94104

Phone: 415.956.0358

Email: press@scrapblog.com

www.scrapblog.com

Jill MacKay™ Launches Digital Content in Partnership with Scrapblog.com

 

San Francisco, CA, August 6, 2010 --- Award-winning jewelry designer, author, and craft personality Jill MacKay is the latest to launch a digital content store on Scrapblog.com. The new storefront, Jill MacKay, offers multimedia scrapbookers and paper-crafters the ability to use MacKay’s timeless jewelry pieces for the first time in digital format. “It’s opened a whole new world for my jewelry components,” says MacKay. “When I see them as part of a beautifully prepared scrapbook, it’s very special to have them used in this manner. I feel very privileged to be a part of honoring family, friends, and memories in this new way.”

In addition to her jewelry elements, the Jill MacKay store will also feature hundreds of vintage images (pre-1920s) that MacKay received from her father. These exquisite and colorful postcards and product labels were part of his antique paper collection for more than 50 years. “My father is just amazed that these beautiful images could be captured and utilized in such a way by so many,” says MacKay.

Both paper and digital crafters can use Scrapblog’s easy-to-navigate, Web-based software to design digital layouts, complete scrapbooks, calendars, and greeting cards using Jill MacKay content. “Scrapblog makes digital scrapbooking so easy, it’s enticing,” says MacKay. “The creative tools are so simple and save so much time and mess that there are no more excuses for anyone not to be inspired to create something unique and beautiful.” Finished projects can then be shared online with family members, friends, and the Scrapblog.com community on Scrapblog.com, via email, or through social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. They can also be printed professionally or via high-resolution downloads on the user’s home printer.

“We are delighted to feature Jill MacKay’s unique jewelry and vintage designs on Scrapblog,” says Jill Braff, President and CEO of Scrapblog. “MacKay’s content is a wonderful addition to our catalog, and we’re confident that our users will love it as much as we do.”

Jill MacKay’s digital jewelry designs and vintage content was just recently launched on Scrapblog.  To view the Jill MacKay store, simply visit this link: http://www.scrapblog.com/builder/launch.aspx?path=/marketplace/store/47/

 

Thanks for letting me share!

xoxo

Jill

 

Pearl Blessings

Amazing beauty can come from dealing with something hard...literally. Take the PEARL for instance. The only treasured gem created within the body of a living organism. Created by some say a grand of sand but most often it is actually a parasite that invades the shell and makes it way to the soft tissue of the Mollusk. In response the Mollusk secrets a crystalline substance called  nacre and over time builds up layers and layers forming the pearl.

 

This weekend I got my parents who live with me (or more matter-of-factly are dying with me) admitted to in-home hospice. They have been here since November of last year now.  Sometimes I wonder if my heart will be producing a pearl. I have helped others into the next world (insert belief here) But it is very different when it is your parents. Remaining joyful and loving in the face of the inch by inch departure is a job that comes with a consistent heartache because of the love and attachment you have with and for them.

I've been thinking a lot about pearls lately. So beautiful an analogy they are to my present experience. The pearls my heart makes come in the form of wisdom and blessings. I am grateful for having this time in order to work through many past and childhood dilemmas (shall we say...I like that word better than "issues"!) and have chosen to take this time to learn to love my parents more deeply.  A hard, soft, wonderful, awful, terrible, grace-filled, loving, wonderful, sad time.

So I have  decided to work with pearls, add pearls to my work. Somehow makes sense to me right now in a poetic, beautiful sort of way...and I will take that kind of gracefulness where ever I can find it during these end days. It is a sort of comfort in its own way for me. And every time I see the pearls once my parents have passed I will think of my mother's smile as she lay and look up at me; and hear my father say out loud that he loves me. These are my pearls, my pearl blessings.

 

In nature real pearls are very rare. It is commonly believed that  one in every ten thousand mollusks produces a gem quality pearl. Recently I came across a pearl farm in Tahiti (that I would LOVE to visit) and have been inquiring about price and read up on production. As I am suddenly drawn to round perfect pearls while during the rest of my career I have preferred Baroque. Interesting how our tastes change and why.

 

Why questions are often difficult questions that do not have answers; so I seldom ask "why" questions these days.  I believe it is safe to suffice that I am learning (deeply) that life is messy in a very perfect way.

Gotta go re-drill some pearls so they have larger holes so I can string them on leather!

Until next  time....

xoxo

Jill