Vail Creative - Athena's Disciple & other creative pursuits

Valentine's Day is coming soon - Gifts in Pink from Handmade Philly

2011-01-08T01:02:00.007-05:00

Check out pink items from the Handmade Philly team for Valentine's Day gift ideas for the special women in your life! See below for an Etsy treasury of 16 items:

Re-opening Athena's Disciple Jewelry

2010-11-11T19:00:00.006-05:00

Almost two years after closing both my jewelry and supply shop, I have decided to re-open my jewelry store. I have some new ideas for jewelry, and I'm now Reiki certified, so I can charge all my items with Reiki. Reiki is healing energy from the universe, and Reiki practioners are attuned by Reiki Masters to be able to channel this energy into themselves, others with Reiki treatments, and into objects that others can use, such as crystals, candles, and, in my case, jewelry. Please note that Reiki is a compliment to regular medicine, not a substitute.

As for the supplies, I will not be re-opening that shop. In the end, it was a lot of work, was not all that profitable in terms of $ per hour, and I really can't say I enjoyed it like I enjoy making jewelry.

For now, I'm busy getting my inventory re-listed, and starting to play with some new polymer clay items. I'm also waiting for a new shipment that includes a butane torch and sterling silver solder, so I can do some jump-ring soldering, as well as some metal clay supplies so I can create some silver jewelry designs out of clay. Should get here Tuesday. :)

PaganTeam Yule & Christmas Sale

2008-12-08T15:45:00.005-05:00

One of the teams I'm on is having a sale - I'm participating with 20% off my entire Athena's Disciple shop and a free gift with every purchase in my Dragon Hoard shop from 11/28 to 12/25! See below for details.

Yule is coming up on December 21st and Christmas will be here shortly after on December 25th, which leaves less than a month for gift shopping! In celebration of both holidays, the Pagans of Etsy Team is offering various promotions in over 30 member shops. The sales include discounts on Christmas/Yule items, all items, giveaways, free shipping and more!

Please see this list of participating shops and available promotions.

Please see promotional items below:

Creative History

2008-12-08T15:37:00.005-05:00

Let me (re)introduce myself. I had some earlier posts that I didn't like and unpublished. Here is a new introduction and hopefully a new commitment to posting regularly in this blog. My name is Kendra Vail. I started doing crafty things when I was little and my Mom taught me how to crochet. I was quickly making scarfs and blankets that were often gifts for family members. In high school I taught myself to make candles with some equipment of my Dad's, a couple books and cheap supplies off of Ebay that I got with Christmas, birthday and allowance money.

I was also into creative writing from an early age. I've been a bookworm for pretty much all my life - I remember reading books in the hallway in elementary school as the class walked in lines together to the cafeteria or playground. It led rather naturally to a desire to create and write my own stories. I'll spare you some of my unfinished and rough works, but creative writing is something I wouldn't mind getting into more seriously at some point.

In college, I got into drawing. I started with just doodling and did buy a few drawing how-to books to help me out. I don't know that my drawing was very good, but I enjoyed doing it. I scanned in drawings from my sketchbook that I uploaded to my website back in 2001.

I continued making candles and crocheting through college and past it. My major was in something pretty unrelated - Information Systems - and professionally I was very interested in web programming, which led to a corporate career in IT. Today I am a Business Analyst for a career transition company and that is my regular 9-5 job.

About a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to learn how to make jewelry. It was a combination of interest in jewelry, a long-time hobby of collecting gemstones, and a desire to do something part time that could bring in some additional income. So I bought some books and some supplies and got started. Not too long after, I opened a shop on Etsy back in October of 2007 on the recommendation of a friend and named it Athena's Disciple. Athena is the Greek goddess of crafts, and I consider myself to be a life-long student of the many mediums of crafts that exist, and thus the name was born.

Here are some items from my shop - 99% jewelry with a small crochet section thrown in. When I first started I didn't have room in my apartment for candle supplies, but I may be able to get back into making candles soon:

One of the first things I looked for when I joined Etsy was a sense of community. This was provided through Teams, and not finding exactly what I was looking for, I started a team called the Pagans of Etsy Street Team. It has grown over the past year to over 150 members, with a blog, a social network, a group shop, and much more. It is an open-minded community of Etsy artisans and crafters that define themselves as Pagan. I am proud to be the founder and leader of such a talented and hard working group. For more information, please see our shop profile.

After a few months of my shop being open, I decided it would be a good idea to open a jewelry supply shop. Financially it made a lot of sense - I saw that supplies were, and still are, some of the most successful sellers on Etsy. It also allowed me to get less expensive supplies since I could buy in bulk, pick a few supplies out for myself, and re-sell the rest. I named my shop DragonHoard for the gemstones and fine metal that any dragon would be proud to hoard for itself. See below for some items from my supply shop:

Over the year my shops have been open, I've perfected the quality of my jewelry, my pictures, had sales and advertising and learned a lot. I started out working with silver-plated metal and gemstones and have grown to using mostly sterling silver with a variety of gemstones, artisan lampwork glass and my own handmade polymer clay beads that I started making only a month ago. I really wanted to learn how to make lampwork glass, but the flammibility part is basically against my lease, so I went with Polymer Clay instead. And last week I picked up knitting after only crocheting for years - it's taken a bit to get used to but I'm doing all right now, working through a simple black scarf.

Anyway, thats about it for now. I'm going to try and do a lot better in keeping this blog up to date.

Earth Day Sale

2008-04-21T11:17:00.008-04:00

On Tuesday, 4/22, several members of POEST are celebrating Earth Day with sales in their shops and some proceeds to charity!

My jewelry shop - Athena's Disciple - will have 25% all items with green in them! Below are four available items:

For other participating shops, please visit the Pagans of Etsy blog.

Stormy Bracelet & Earring set on Sale!

2008-03-25T11:04:00.006-04:00

This week I'm participating in the etsyBEAD theme of the week - Stormy. This is a weekly theme that the etsyBEAD street team organizes and most items in the theme are on sale. You can search Etsy.com with ebtw to see other items.

I have two items on sale until 3/29/2008 midnight ET - matching Stormy Shimmering Larvikite Sterling Silver Bracelet and Earrings. Each item is $5 off with an additional $5 off applied if you buy both together! (Total is $15 for both items or just $5 off when you buy one.)

Please click on a picture below to go the item in my store, Athena's Disciple.

The bracelet is made of nine 12mm diamond square Larvikite beads each wrapped on a 22g sterling silver wire and then joined to the other beads by 3mm sterling silver jump rings. It will be joined at the ends by an 8mm lobster clasp and 7mm jump ring. Each earring is made of one 12mm diamond square Larvikite bead, one 6mm clear quartz bead and three 4mm black onyx beads hung on a sterling silver headpin and ear hook.

Larvikite helps relieve a depressive state of mind and puts you in a more positive state of mind. Clear quartz is known as a good healing and energy amplifier. Black onyx is a protective stone. Silver has a balancing influence.