An Apple for the Teacher

Have you had a chance to chat with the fabulous Sahra who is Hot Mama's studio manager extraordinaire?
She is an amazing designer and is especially good at helping our clients with special commission pieces.

Recently, one of our favorite customers was looking for an extra-special jewelry gift for a group of teachers. After weeks of brainstorming Sahra came up with the brilliant idea of our apple for the teacher necklace. She painstakingly researched and found the sweetest little apple stamp and paired it with our vintage initials for a present that was both thoughtful and customized.

We're still hoping to receive a photo from the teachers in Beverly Hills with their necklaces on. But in the meantime I decided to make some for my son's teachers at his recent graduation ceremony. And can you believe my favorite part: one of the teachers is actually named Ms. Applebaum? Love it!

Father's Day Sneak Peek

We've been busy little bees in the Hot Mama studio since Mother's Day.
All these new Father's Day products will be released next week.
If you like what you see, get ahead of the curve and call us at the studio
to place your orders now.

Deadline for Father's Day orders is June 14th.

Sterling Rectangle Necklace & Sterling Cuff (names stamped on the inside!)

Inside of sterling cuff

The cutest cuff links -- personalized with names or monograms

For Daddies or Grandfathers


I love the sleek, modern backs on the cuff links. I am thinking about buying myself a shirt that needs cuff links just so I can wear them (after I give them to my husband for Father's Day of course)!

Sterling personalized keychains -- the key to his heart

Up From Murky Depths

I've been studying about lotus flowers this week.
And I made a necklace using a lotus stamp. I'm intrigued by the lotus because it is known for growing up from mud and murky depths and then blossoming into it's full beauty. Such a powerful metaphor for anyone going through a rough time.

This necklace is for Lino's pre-school teacher, and I am so deeply saddened that she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She will miss all the upcoming festivities of "graduation week" at school and the huge fundraiser that is happening this weekend. She is such a wonderful woman and I have enjoyed watching my son grow under her guidance for the past two years.

So I will drop this jewelry in the mail today, wish her love,
and hope that all her upcoming treatments are successful.

This Time Last Year

About this this time last year I got to attend the SNAG conference in Savannah, Georgia. If you haven't heard of SNAG, they are the awesome organization that supports and advances the professional practice of artists, designers, jewelers and metalsmiths. They also put out Metalsmith Magazine.


I first attended SNAG when I had just started taking metalsmithing classes in Denver a few years ago. Have you ever walked into a room and felt like "YEAH! This is my TRIBE!"? That's how I feel when I go to their conferences. They are full of creative, fun, and often crazy people with big ideas making amazing art. The conference this year is in Philadelphia and I am sad I can't go. So I thought I'd re-live my trip through some pictures from last year.

I invited my Dad, who is always up for a trip and such a fun travel companion. We were both missing my mom so I figured we needed a little early Spring. It was already so beautiful in Savannah while it was still snowy in Boulder. We had such a fun time and were both so glad we went.


If you go to Savannah make time for a tour of the Mercer Williams House, the SCAD store, Back in the Day Bakery and the Gryphon Tea Room, where we had a couple of meals and exquisite tea and cakes. I may take the whole family next time, but for sure I'll be attending SNAG again soon.

Brothers!

Doesn't Lino just look over the moon about his baby brother?
He is absolutely thrilled with him. I was braced for a bunch of jealous tirades, but there has been none of that. Maybe it's the five year age difference, or maybe I have just lucked out so far. But isn't it nice to be pleasantly surprised with your life every once in a while?

Early summer in the new studio

Elias is seven weeks old this week. I can scarcely believe it myself. A woman at the grocery checkout line was admiring him in all his little-ness the other day. She smiled and said "How old is your baby?" and when I told her seven weeks, tears welled up in her eyes and she said "My baby is graduating from college today!" (It was graduation day for the University of Colorado here in Boulder). Which of course made me and my hormones start tearing up a bit, too. With this second baby I can already feel it going fast.


So this hooray banner is one of the few items that I have purchased so far for the room that will belong to Elias from the lovely Caitlin and her Etsy shop. I know what you're thinking. Most people work on the nursery before the baby is born. And yes, for all my raging, unfulfilled nesting instincts it would have been nice to work on a baby's room while I was pregnant. We have instead been focused on this little building, aka my new studio and creative space.

I laugh when I look at it now, because it's almost done. It seems like no big deal for as small as it is, but Brett has given up just about every weekend the past few months to build this for me. I am still in awe. You may remember my post from January when Brett first started working on it. Now all that's left to do is drywall and move in.

Once we move my jewelry benches and everything to the studio we will have our basement as a new family hang-out space, which we sorely need. In turn, I will be able to free up the other bedroom to make a new room for Lino, and his old room will become the new space for Elias Phew! I am worn out just thinking about it. More to come soon.

The Letter of the Day

It's the usual Mother's Day mayhem in the studio, but for the first time ever I have a bit of separation from it since I am in the last dwindling days of my maternity leave. This is only possible with HUGE thanks to my studio managers Charlotte and Sahra and the interns that I hired so I can enjoy this new baby.


Having extra time allowed me today to watch my five year old son work on his show & tell project for school. The letter of the day is "Y" so he made up an alien/super-hero named "Yellow Yeller."
So awesome.



I love watching him make his art, because he always achieves the "flow" that I am looking for when I do my work. That elusive place where you are only focused on your piece, and time melts away. For my son, it is like this almost every time. He said he likes the pastels, a new medium for him, because they are "smudgy and messy."

There are other people in the house that incidentally
are not so concerned about the letter of the day.