Studio Saturday with Erin Prais-Hintz

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

Congratulations Lela Bouse-McCracken! You won a golden branches disk bead set from Heather Powers at Humblebeads.  Email Heather your address and she will send that right out to you.

Let's deck the halls with Erin Prais-Hintz at the Tesori Trovati Jewelry Studio.

As soon as one holiday is over I can move onto the next season. I only decorate for Halloween in October. I wait until the fourth of July to put up my flag. I never listen to Christmas tunes before Thanksgiving. I love all holidays for their rich traditions and customs, but I love Christmas most of all. All the hoopla in the stores months in advance of the actual season makes my eyes twitch uncontrollably and my ears feel like they are bleeding. In fact, since they started running those crazy lady in the red jogging suit and heels commercials for a certain red retail store, I haven't even set foot in that place. And it is my favorite place to shop (and truthfully, the only place to shop in my town!). It was just too much and I was completely turned off.

It is very hard for me to think well in advance of a season or a holiday of designs that I might like to put out. I am more of an 'in the moment' sort of artist. Of course, I have to think ahead when there are publication deadlines, but that is really hard for me to do. 

This year I actually started thinking about Christmas designs in October.

Shocking! 

I started thinking about what sort of holiday pendants I wanted to create. I had this great idea for about a dozen pendants to correspond to a Christmas holiday classic tune. I even found some designs I thought would work. I had some custom stamps made for me. They didn't work. I bought some other ones. Nada. I am not giving up on that thought. It just might be something I can focus on next year.

I was sitting at the Gallery Q in downtown Stevens Point, WI where I exhibit my work and I was talking to some of the artists. The place is jam packed with holiday gifts of art in all shapes, sizes and price points. But I noticed an alarming lack of ornaments. In fact, not a single one. 

I love to decorate for the holidays. We put a forest of trees on our front porch that glow with a thousand white lights. The mantle has my collection of Possible Dreams Santas. This year we even took out the very large (each character is about 10" tall!) Nativity scene that my sweet sister-in-law Mary made for us as a wedding present 19 years ago. And of course there are the handmade-by-me stockings hung by the fireplace (the gas one with no entrance for Santa!) with care (and 3M hooks ;-). 

 Every year that I have been married and probably a few before that, I have made ornaments for everyone in the family. There were years when every friend I had far and wide would receive a new one for their tree. When I started making jewelry I sort of gave up on the ornament tradition because they were getting bling for them instead of their tree.

But while sitting at the gallery I had an ephiphany. Why not make ornaments from the 'simple truths' line?

{Smack forehead here.}

They thought it was a wonderful idea so I went home the week of Thanksgiving and got crazy with my clay creations. Even though it was barely Thanksgiving and it killed me to have to do it, I came up with about 25 ornaments and then found the cutest little rustic metal ornament tree to display them on (I actually talked a store owner into letting me buy her display from her!).

I started with Nutcrackers. 

Nutcrackers

I have fond memories of the Nutcracker as a child. I still love the music. My dad put on the record of the music every Christmas.I love the ballet and the costumes and the story. I would love to go and see it this weekend with my daughter, Tiny Dancer, if I can steal her away on Sunday afternoon. I made three different Nutcrackers with three different messages and embellished them with glass leaves and berries.

Next came the Holiday Botanicals. 

Holiday Botanicals: Holly, Poinsettia, Mistletoe, Pine

I had some bezel settings that were larger than I was used to using. And these stamped images fit them perfectly. But I thought they were sort of plain by themselves. So I got some glittery ribbon and a whole box full of picks and I set about creating embellishments that went with each: holly, poinsettia, mistletoe and pine. I got my Martha Stewart on, and I still have the glitter in my hair to prove it!

But my holiday decorations are not complete without snow.

Snowflake & Snowman

I like snowmen and snowflakes most of all because they last beyond the Christmas rush and are accessible to anyone. Even though I dread winter, I love the look of it. Quiet and sparkly. For the snowflake, I came up with a design that reminded me of a winter sky at sunset. The colors are soft and seem to melt into the horizon. And the cool part is that they can have a message on the back. I like to put the year and the recipient's name, but it could be a snippet of poetry or just "let it snow." I made some Swarovski crystal "Blingcicles" too. 

And of course, my little made to order snowman, while a perfect pendant, would make a great ornament as well!

Each of these works as an ornament but can be worn as a pendant as well, like a double gift! I plan to make them for family members this year to get back to the tradition.

Would you like to win a 'simple truths' ornament of your very own?  

You can win YOUR CHOICE of ornament (Nutcracker, Holiday Botanical, Snowflake or Snowman - none of these will be embellished so you can add your own creativity or save it to wear as a pendant for the holidays). Just answer one of the following:

1. Tell me which one ornament you would like to win

2. Do you think ahead for holiday designs, or are you more of an in-the-moment artist like me?

3. What designs for the holidays are you creating?