Happy November!

We have just finished with the family Thanksgiving and now getting ready for Christmas. A great many things have happened in the last few years as the world transitions to life after COVID. Off and on, since 2018, I have played the role of caregiver. When one is in the role of a caregiver their personal priorities change. For me the change was putting my creative side on the back burner. What I didn’t realize at the time is that my creative side is such an important essence of who I am. I never stopped dreaming or creating things in my head and I always thought that there would be time to get back to the numerous items waiting for me to start.

My role as a caregiver has changed so that it isn’t needed as much but I had not realized how much I had changed during this transition. I am on the journey to reclaiming myself and I started this weekend by taking stock of what I have listed on my website and have drastically cut the prices to clear out my shop and make room for the items waiting to come to fusion.  I hope that you can help me clear out my past creations and that they may be able to bring a smile to another as we journey into the New Year of 2024!
​
Thank you,
Daune

Just arrived back from the USPS and it is official I had to raise the price of shipping. So for the time being the flat rate postage for items shipped will be $6.00. I really do hope that prices will go back down so that it will be feasible to continue sending out packages for convenience to my customers. I know that the Post Office does not go back down once the rates have increased but maybe other items will go back down like the gasoline prices. May each and everyone enjoy the coming months ahead and here is to happier days.

Sending good thoughts,
​Daune

Hope you all are doing well and getting ready for the holiday's ahead. Just to let everyone know that I have a few slots open for orders so if there is anything that I can do to help you or a loved one fulfill your gift list please let me know. 

​Daune

Happy September! I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures and hope they arrive soon. I am glad to say that I am back on the creative track again. I had just finished up working on my newest prototype and posted on Facebook when Rena Klingenberg from http://Jewelrymakingjournal.com suggested that I post and share the prototype picture and then after the remake, submit the finished design in the next issue of her online Jewelry Magazine. So here is my story for my Wire Wrapped Copper Angle  design.

​This original design started out as my entry into the April 2019 Nicole Hanna “Finish It Challenge”. The deadline was approaching and other obligations arose so I decided to set it aside and come back to it later.  Five months later I wanted to complete the process. Now that the pressure was off, for the competition had ended, I just let the creative juices do their thing. I have always created in my mind and what I saw was an angel so I just went with the flow of the wire. My next challenge is to recreate this prototype with a cleaner finish which is a little easier now that I know what I want to accomplish. Hope you all enjoy my initial design and I look forward to taking this to the next step.
Thank you for stopping in and hope you are having a great September. 
Daune 

I have been away from the site for a long time and I am glad to be back!

The year 2018 brought on many different life events. My husband and I rang in the new year only to find that we were bitten by the flu & pneumonia bug and ended up in the hospital for 5 days each. This was one of the hardest things I had experienced up to this time. I went in first and then my husband was admitted two days later. We were in separate wings of the hospital which began the longest time we had ever been away from each other. My brother was such a blessing during this time because he drove us and helped us check in and then stayed at the hospital during that time and kept going between both wings to make sure we were alright. We were blessed to have made it through such a difficult illness and to return home only to face a long road ahead in 2018. 

At home, we were being taken care of by my mother. She was such a wonderful nurse and on one of the mornings in February she slipped on the steps leading out of our house and broke both bones below her left knee. This lead to surgery and rehab as well as a whole new episode in our family adventure. Since my mother is a college professor with 5 active classes during this time I was given permission to wheel her from class to class and help out so that she could continue with all her normal class activities. Mother and I relocated to an extra bedroom at my brother’s home so that we could have easy access with getting her around in the wheelchair due to not being allowed to place any pressure on the healing leg. This gave me quality bonding time with my mother but it increased the time away from my husband. He eventually wrote a song about it!

Is that you upon the steps
Is your hand upon the door
Have you brought back the love
That I long for
For the hours have no name
Each one is just the same
Until I know you’ve come back to me
Once more

While mother was healing and teaching I had a few hours here and there so I would be in the art department and was allowed to assist while the glass blowing class was in progress during the two-week mini-semester at UMHB. This was such an eye-opener and I learned that I am stronger than I thought. The rods used with the amount of glass can get rather heavy and the heat is tremendous but I so LOVED working with glass. 

It finally came the time when mother was able to slowly start putting pressure on her healing leg and to learn to walk again.  She is such an inspiration and I love her so much! She is our rock and it was rather difficult for me to see her in such a vulnerable state, but she is so driven that I knew she could overcome this obstacle. 

Meanwhile, I had put my life on hold. I had been away from my husband, my home and life as I had known it, and this made me feel very lost. I didn't have a smartphone during this time to keep up with my newly started jewelry business, so I just let everything go and place it on the back burner.  

On returning to my life I had an email stating that the time limit for my alternative teaching certificate was coming to an end so I dove right in and completed the online course. I had seen all the hard work my mother had gone through to get back on her feet so that she could continue teaching as an inspiration and that maybe this break from the creative side of my life was a message that I needed to complete my course and become a teacher, so that I could help others tap into their creative side and find the pleasure that I had found in the art.  

I was blessed with my an opportunity to go to work as an art teacher in a local high school that had a teacher depart during the first few weeks of class. The students had been with a substitute for six weeks in which they were able to do what they wanted. It was a very hard challenge because the students were accustomed to being able to play cards, be on their phones or whatever they wanted. This atmosphere was a challenge and the lack of supplies was really hard for a first-time teacher but I kept trying the best that I could with this challenge. I learned a great deal about myself in this process. I was able to connect with most of the students and started to make headway when I became ill with pneumonia again and kept trying to work. I put a great deal of stress on myself with trying to be all things to everyone and it was just a little too much and it affected my health. The school nurse kept advising that I had to leave and go to the emergency room to be checked out due to my blood pressure and after four different trips to doctors I was advised that if I didn't resign I would have a stroke or a heart attack. 

After many prayers and discussions with my family, I resigned on January 15th, 2019. I kept thinking of different ways that if I had done this or done that, that I might still be teaching. I was advised by my mentor with Texas Teachers that by resigning due to health I wouldn't lose the time that I had completed; it would just be placed on hold and when I was ready, and better, to apply for another teaching position and we would at that time move forward in the completion of my certificate.  This information was very helpful and I didn't have to feel so bad about how my body was reacting to all the stress. The one thing that I hope my short time as an art teacher accomplished is that my time there helped transition the students from doing nothing to being receptive in the learning environment for the next teacher.  

So here we go, after a month of rest and trying to come to terms with 2018, I am ready to move forward and return to what makes me happy and that is creating and working with my hands.  I find it very relaxing and cathartic to be creating something that I can hold and an object that can bring pleasure to others.
​
So here is to 2019, and the adventure that is ahead of us all!  

​Daune 

This year has just flown by!!

Checking in here on the last day of the year to say that I hope all are keeping warm. While I sit at my desk with the heater pointed at my feet I am reminiscing about all that happened this year. I started out wanting to spend more time being creative and I can honestly say that it has been a great year for this process. 

Looking back over the progress from the pictures that I had taken  at the beginning of this adventure in wire it has improved leaps and bounds. I am still working on the designs of my alphabet letters and will be releasing more tutorials in 2018.  We are moving the main workshop into town so I will have a dedicated space to take the pictures and document the correct way to create the alphabet.  I will also be working on other tutorials including the requested tutorial for my custom cross and my award winning Tree Of Life.  I know that some are asking themselves why would I purchase a tutorial when I can figure out how to make it myself.  Well the answer to that question is that when you purchase the tutorial for the design it then gives you the right to reproduce the said design and sell them.  It is just the ethical thing to do when reproducing someone else's design.  

I am looking forward to this journey that I have undertaken and I hope that the path you are following is just as enjoyable!!

Here's to a Blessed and Healthy new year ahead! 
Happy creating
​Daune Price-Hannah

This has been quite the undertaking... building a website.  A great deal of learning in the process, so please bear with me as I set out on this journey.  I am so very grateful for my family and the pets for their patience with me in this process as well as Nicole Hanna for her guidance and encouragement.  Her advice in her blog has given me a road map which truly made this possible.  The love of a good husband and my mother who have been so supportive and giving wonderful feedback kept me striving to complete this part of my goal, to have a place to display and sell my jewelry.  Now that this part is underway it is back to creating the tutorials for teaching my creations of the alphabet in wire... one letter at a time.  Please join me in my travels.