What I'm Working on - TheBrokenPlate

So excited to start the new year and new designs! These are the first necklaces in a series of modern circle clusters that I just started. Happy that I finally found a fun way to incorporate vintage glass buttons with my recycled china. Can't wait to make more! Happy New Year!

The Broken Plate Pendant Co. in Real Simple!

I am soooo excited to be included in the January issue of Real Simple Magazine that I am offering 10% off in my Etsy Shop with code REALSIMPLE until the end of January! You can read the whole Real Simple story on my website, if you are so inclined.

1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse

There is a new, must see book, out right now which serves as an amazing jump start if your brain is feeling a little slow in the creativity department. 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse features 1000 images of objects made from recycled material made by artists from all over the world, and includes many Etsy artists, including yours truly, TheBrokenPlate. There just so happens to be an article in the Storque this week, written by the author Garth Johnson about the book. Go check it out! What are some of your favorite objects in the book?

Baltimore with Babes: The Parkside

photo credit: Beer in Baltimore

It is Friday night, after a loooong week and all you want to do is go have a good dinner with seasonal food and a really good beer. Oh, but wait, I have a two year old and no babysitter. What’s a girl to do? Go to the Parkside! Brainchild of former Brewer’s Art employees Chris and Colleen Cashell and Vickie Johnson, the Parkside offers great food and beer and most importantly for me, there is a child’s play area. There is a fun selection of toys for the kidlets, a cool little set of stairs to climb on and even coloring supplies for your little artist. We were able to have short spurts of adult conversation while waiting for our meal and watching our little guy party like it was 1999. Best of all we experienced no eye rolls for enjoying one lousy beer with our kid. The food we have had there is not always consistently great, but the effort is there, the ingredients are fresh and the beer is good and cold. The Parkside now offers bottomless Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas during Sunday Brunch. They are located in Lauraville near the corner of Harford Road and Cold Spring Lane.

Written by: Juliet of The Broken Plate

Adornment Adored

October 3rd – November 6th, 2009
Opening reception on Saturday, October 3rd, from 6 to 8 pm.
Admission is free.

Baltimore Clayworks hosts the exhibition Adornment Adored, a showcase of body ornamentation using clay and clay-like materials. This exhibition runs October 3rd – November 6th, 2009 with an opening reception on Saturday, October 3rd, from 6 to 8 pm. Admission is free. Adornment Adored , focuses on beautiful and exquisite jewelry made with ceramic, polymer clay or PMC elements. A diverse range of styles and voices on display for you to then take home and become your own personal art gallery!

(Image – Recycled Temporama China Necklace by BEST member, The Broken Plate Pendant Co.)

Brian's Grandma's Crab Cake Recipe

Some recipes should never be changed; this crab cake recipe is one of them. I make them at least once a month and felt the need to share them with you.

Thanks to Brian’s Grandma!

You will need:

1 beaten egg
1 heaping tablespoon mayo
1 heaping tablespoon dry mustard
3 crackers crushed into crumbs
1 teaspoon Worchester sauce
½ teaspoon lemon juice
1lb. crab



1. Preheat Broiler

2. Mix all but crab

3. Pour mixture over crab meat

4. Mix together

5. Make ice cream scoop size cakes

6. Place in broiler

7. Pour melted butter on cakes as the broil

8. Enjoy!

Written by: Juliet of The Broken Plate

The Broken Plate in Maryland Life

Check out media darling Juliet of The Broken Plate in the April issue of Maryland Life!

Juliet on Rachel Ray!

Congrats, Juliet!!!! Your work looks great on her!

Twenty Things - The Broken Plate

1. I am a big chicken who is scared of flying, spiders and roller coasters among other things.
2. I love going out to eat by myself (although I never get to do it anymore.)
3. I have seen 2 famous people in the Airport, John Waters and Annie Leibowitz.
4. I was voted Most Likely to be a Millionaire in high school. (Ironically, it was probably because I sold a lot of hemp jewelry to the stoner kids.)
5. My favorite dessert is a brownie sundae with coffee ice cream and extra peanut butter from Friendly’s or a Macaroni Grill brownie.
6. I spend almost 10 years working in photo labs; the smell is nostalgic to me.
7. If I was not a crafter, I think I would study to become a chef.
8. I drove cross county once in the hopes of finding a city that I would love to move to. It only made me like Baltimore more.
9. It makes me crazy that I can never reminder which is worse, a storm watch or a storm warning.
10. I love breakfast sandwiches.
11. I HATE those giant blow-up holiday lawn ornaments and fantasize about shooting them with a bb gun.
12. I somehow think life is easier for tall people.
13. I have been stuck on number 13 for 2 weeks.
14. We decided Nolan’s name via text messages between Detroit and Baltimore .
15. I shot a Vanilla Ice concert (with my camera, of course)
16. I am allergic to my own dog and spend pretty much all of my time at home sneezing and playing with her.
17. I have a crush on Martin O’Malley.
18. I have AWFUL handwriting!
19. I love reality TV. (wince)
20. I am doing this list right now to avoid doing the things I have to do like clean the house and do my laundry. Can I make it 30 things you don’t know about me?


Would you like to be featured? Email your twenty things (keep it clean, please!) to baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com. Be sure to include your photo, name and URL.

Creative Spaces - The Broken Plate

I'm sure you have seen my stack of unbroken plates, now I get to share the rest of my glamorous work space! Above is "where the magic happens." (Sorry, I have always wanted to say that.) This is my breaking station where I smash plates and separate the pieces into different piles depending on what I can use the piece for. The green box is the flat center of a plate, blue box is the rim, red box is filled with half plates and the brown box is trash.
This is the soldering station, more magic happens here. The orange thing hanging under the paper towels is a Mr. T Soap on a Rope, he is my little mascot. "I pity the Fool who interrupts my solder!"

This space rarely looks like this, but when it does, I do some finishing and packaging here. I love my work space, but sometimes I just hate being in the basement. Sometimes, I can't help but bring everything upstairs and solder on the island in the kitchen (shh, don't tell Mr. Broken Plate.)

Good Giveaways!

Oh, how I love a good giveaway. Especially when the giveaway is something I not just could use, but want to use. And like you already know, we here at BEST have some fine prizes!

First of all, don't forget about the BEST Summer Giveaway yet! The drawing will happen on August 29th, so if you haven't signed up for our mailing list, sign up now!

In the mean time, you can enter to win this beautiful pendant from The Broken Plate!


Guess how many unbroken plates are squirreled away in Juliet's basement in the comments at her blog under the original post.

Get the little one in your life ready for November's election by winning this one of a kind Obama tee from my shop, Sweet Pepita.


Tell us about your first visit to the polls in the comment section of the original post and it could be yours!

Good luck!

Confessions In Verse

Do you have something you need to get off your chest? Can you make it sound poetic? I think you can. Check out the Broken Plate Pendant Company's Random Poetry Break Contest and you could win this Diana Fayt pendant. You may have heard about this beautiful collaboration on Craft.


So now what you have to do is fess up. Go on, now. It's totally worth it!