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Ooooh, shiny.
Hi there.  If you've just wandered over here, you probably either saw a comment I left on somebody else's LJ, or got linked here by someone who was talking about my jewelry.  I'm the wirebender and all-purpose crazy woman in charge of Wyrding Studios and the Wyrding Studios LJ community.  If you want to get to know me, I blog about both my life and shiny objects at not just the work blog anymore, and because I have the attention span of a canary on crack sometimes, I also twitter.  I'm also on Ravelry, Facebook, and MySpace, because I'm a lemming, but Ravelry is the only one of those three that I log into more than once or twice a month.  Oh, and I take a lot of photographs, and most of them end up on Flickr.

I've kept this LJ account so I can continue to interact with my friends here, and so I can maintain the WS LJ community, but I don't presently post in it.  At some point I may return to using it for f-locked entries, but at the moment, nothing's happening here.  Watching paint dry would probably be more interesting.  Seriously.

If you need or want to reach me, you can email kythryne@wyrdingstudios.com if it's anything even remotely related to what I do for a living, or kythryne@gmail.com if you want to talk to me about something personal.  I check both accounts far more frequently than is probably healthy, so don't worry to much about which one you use.  In theory, I try to keep my work and personal lives a little separated, but it's really a lost cause.

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Because people ask, and it would be useful to have a list somewhere handy:Collapse )
Hi, LiveJournal! I'm trying to get better about this social media stuff. In all my abundant (ha!) spare time.

There will probably be a real update when I get back from my trip to NYC this weekend (if I haven't already made plans to see you, and you're around in the next few days, please nudge me!) but in the meantime, here, have some new shinies:

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Hi, LJ! Anybody still out here, or have you all moved to Twitter and Facebook like me?



My friend Brooklyn took this photo recently, and I love it because it so perfectly sums up my job: I get to hold magic in my hands every day.

I wanted to write something eloquent and beautiful about art and faith and Wyrding Studios turning ten... but then I woke up last Friday with a respiratory infection that landed me in bed for a day and a half. I've been racing to catch up ever since, and there's a symmetry to that.

I don't actually know when I "officially" launched WS back in 2005. I know my last day at my old job was October 15th, and I know I planned to do a grand opening on November 1st, but I came down with the flu and ended up just unceremoniously putting a bunch of shinies on the website sometime in early November and I never looked back.

And for the past ten years, that's been my life. Unpredictable. Full of unplanned detours. Always running a little behind, always leaving something unfinished at the end of the day. never quite getting enough sleep.

But always, always, magic.

Writing something eloquent? It's not happening tonight, and I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. So instead, I'm just going to repeat something from last year's anniversary letter, because every word is still true.

This is my love letter to all of you. Some of you have been with me from the very start, some of you found me over the years, some of you have just stumbled across me today, or last week. You’ve shared your stories with me, trusted me with your secrets so that I could make them into art for you, sent me silly things in the mail, kept me company virtually when I’ve worked far too late into the night, bought my work, told your friends about it. You’ve helped keep a small business - and the woman behind it - going for nine ten years. A quarter of my life.

Thank you.  I write something like this every year, and every year I don’t really have the words to say how much it means. This year, more than any other year before, I don’t have the words. Just… thank you. And there is gratitude, and hope. Because I’m pretty sure I’m learning to fly on my way down.

Thank you. It's been a wonderful ten years. Let's keep going.

Okay, that's enough schmoop. It's getting too dusty in here. Let's get on to the details and the deals!


  • Lots of new shinies, including some from my personal collection that I've decided to send out into the world because I never wear them.

  • Coupon code TENYEARS takes $10 off any order of $45 or more, plus you'll get a free exclusive anniversary pendant that will never be available for purchase.

  • Spend $50 or more (after discounts are applied) and you'll automatically get free domestic shipping too!


Also, meet Jackdaw, the newest (and noisiest) resident of Magpie House. She turned up on my doorstep the day before Halloween, and when I realized she was declawed, I took her in. She's not microchipped and I haven't been able to turn up her owners, so... she's living in my studio until I can afford to get her to a vet for bloodwork so I can start socializing her with my other critters. And if anyone knows how to make my printer stop printing eleventy-three copies of the Amazon return label I printed the other day, please let me know, because no amount of clearing my print queue or turning it off and back on seems to undo whatever she did to it.
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(Cross-posting from FB mostly because I know it will likely entertain thewronghands.)

I went to a sleep specialist today to discuss the fact that I basically don't sleep anymore. She took a page of notes, then looked at me in bewilderment.

Doctor: "But WHY haven't you already had a sleep study done?"

Me: "I haven't had a chance. I've been a little busy trying not to die."

Doctor: *does doubletake, hastily re-reads chart* "Oh."

Me: "The last time I saw a specialist about a relatively minor issue they found a brain tumor. Please try not to find any brain tumors."

Doctor: "...I will do my best not to find any tumors of any sort."

I think I'll keep this one.

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It's been a while since I've attended a con, so a couple of quick but very important reminders.
1. COMPROMISED IMMUNE SYSTEM, DO NOT HUG. I am a newly-single self-employed parent; I very literally can. not. afford. to get sick right now.
2. I have PTSD and am considerably more muscular than I look. Sneaking up behind me tends to end badly for everyone. Don't do it.

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I am absolutely bowled over by the response to my request for signal boosting yesterday. (Original post here.) At one point I actually had to turn my phone off because notifications were coming in faster than I could clear them.

I spent a little bit of time re-organizing the store this morning, which is, wow, almost sold out. O.o (Also, a few things just went into the clearance section!) I’ll be getting your orders for in-stock items out today, followed shortly by intent pendants, subscriptions andcommissions, and then I’ll be spending some serious time at the workbench making new shinies to restock the store.

I have no words for how grateful I am to everyone who forwarded/reposted my plea for help, or bought things, or both. I really do love what I do, and it means the world to me to have so much support pouring in at such a rough time in my life. Thank you.

If you can’t afford to order anything right now but you’d like some business cards to give to people in person (they’re actually very snazzy bookmarks, suitable for keeping your place in your favorite book AND giving you shiny things to look at!) just email your mailing address tokythryne@wyrdingstudios.com and I’ll send as many as I can fit in a regular envelope for a first-class stamp. (US only, sorry.)

If something is already sold but you love it and want something similar, I am taking commissions; turnaround time is now roughly 3-4 weeks, although I will be doing an Instant Gratification session next week for quick/inexpensive requests.

I also want to give a shout-out and enormous smooch to my friend Becky of Two Timing Tart, who set up a $10 coupon code for me to give to anyone who ordered $50 or more yesterday. If you didn’t already get an email from me with the code, just nudge me and I’ll send it to you - her scented wax is the only stuff I’ll use in my house because it smells gorgeous and doesn’t set off my migraines, and I highly recommend all of it.

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Dear Internet: I need a huge favor.


Wyrding Studios needs a massive signal boost, effective immediately.


Last month, my spouse unilaterally broke up with me after nearly 14 years of marriage. I am not going to discuss why here, or in any other public forum. For now, we are continuing to live together as co-parents and housemates, but that may have to change.


Some of you already know how I feel about my beloved house, art studio, and gardens. I have worked very hard to make my home safe space and sanctuary for myself and other artists. I am not going anywhere unless I have absolutely no other choice.


For nearly ten years, Wyrding Studios has been my sole source of income, in part because I live with multiple chronic illnesses that severely limit my ability to work outside the home. Even if I found a job that could accommodate my physical issues, it would pay considerably less and likely force me to permanently close WS.


I am asking for your help so that does not happen.


Wyrding Studios has always been a business driven primarily by repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations. I am so profoundly grateful to everyone who has come back year after year to buy more of my jewelry as my work evolved and changed, to everyone who has told their friends and family about my website, to everyone who has asked me to collaborate on projects or design custom pieces for special occasions.


Miles starts school full-time in the fall. I plan to spend the summer bringing WS back to financial self-sufficiency. I have a number of new projects and product lines planned for the next few months. I am working on improving my turnaround and response times, and just generally making as much of the best art that I possibly can, because, in the words of my mentor and colleague Elise Matthesen, art is a great goodness.


Here’s what you can do to help.


Start by signal boosting this post far and wide. Tell your friends, families, and co-workersabout my jewelry. Post links to items in the store to social media - Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, whatever you use.


Tell them they can use coupon code SIGNALBOOST to take 10% off any order of $30 or more through August 30th. You can use it too if you want, any time you order between now and then. It's good on anything except subscriptions.


Most importantly, just tell people I'm here. Tell people I've been here for a long time, and I'm not going anywhere for a long time, and that I would love to make jewelry for them. Because that's true. I want to keep making art, even out of this darkness.

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And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together
You stopped and pointed and you said, "That's a crocus"
And I said, "What's a crocus?", And you said, "It's a flower"
I tried to remember, but I said, "what's a flower?"
And you said, "I still love you."
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If any of you still remember Morgan Nightbear from my NYC years, or if you knew him through fandom - I learned last week that he died suddenly at the end of March.

We had not spoken in a long time, but he was a kind man and I once loved him very much.

May his memory be a blessing.
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