Copper Fireworks Earrings, made with solid copper wire and handmade aurora glass beads from India. I love the way these sway!
This is a set I made for my mom for Christmas, but the US postal service is phenomenally slow when shipping tiny little boxes to Canada, so it only just got there.
New necklace listing! This one is an “endless” made of cat’s eye glass beads with black seed bead spacers and three silver plated crimps to ensure durability. It’s 40” long and can be worn doubled or single.
I really like the earthy colors in the beads, they vary from a sandy tan to a deep-ocean blue, with greens, browns and lighter blues mixed in. I strung them approximately from lightest to darkest, so if it’s worn doubled it almost seems like two different necklaces.
Got my package from Lindstrom yesterday, aren’t those pliers just gorgeous? So smooth, so so smooth. I’m in love!
These arrived in the mail yesterday! So excited, and I have several ideas for them, not sure which one I’ll be going with yet though.
I’m waiting. Anxiously.
A few weeks ago, I won a quick twitter contest from @Lindstrom_USA, so I’m anxiously awaiting that. I’ve heard so many amazing things about their pliers, and I really can’t wait to give them a try myself.
Then last Monday Rings & Things emailed the winners of their “For a holiday gift I hope for _____ from Rings & Things” contest, and guess who got emailed?! So again, I’m anxiously awaiting! So many beautiful things there, and who knows? It’s a mystery box, and I do love me a good mystery.
Next I did some black Friday shopping at Michael’s, picked up some jet, some malachite, some amethyst, some turquoise (Ok, it’s imitation, shhh!), and some super sparkly yellow resin beads that have flecks of orange and red in them that remind me of encapsulated fireworks. Besides that, I got some new wire snips (I broke my 2nd pair last week, boo.), and two spools of wire. Several of these items are waiting for a box to arrive with their co-ordinating parts.
Then today I put in a cyber Monday order with Fire Mountain (that would be the box with the co-ordinating parts), including a jeweler’s saw and blades (finally, easier jump ring making!), a new flocked bead board, some lovely quartz, a handful of aventurine, some serpentine, 100 tiny silver spacers, black glass rounds, and (who’d have guessed?) some black marble teardrops. The marble looks really interesting and I can’t wait to play with it, and the rest of course! My wire snip induced calluses can’t wait for the saw, too.
I am yanking out my hair from all the anticipation. Too much, and it isn’t arriving fast enough. I think the mail lady thinks I’m stalking her, I’m standing out there the minute she arrives, practically vibrating from all the pent up excitement. Nothing gets me going quite like beads, just ask my hubby. He detests taking me to craft stores because he says it’s like watching a grown woman age backwards to 3 and then dunking her in a vat of sugar and sending her to play in a candy store. Sounds pretty accurate, really.
The most unusual part of this though is that I actually plan on doing very little jewelry making this week. I have plans to sew up some nifty little bags in which said jewelry will be shipped, as well as a set of mini-purses for the 4 and 5 year old cousins, I’d like to also finish knitting the sweater I started in August (hee, oops?), and beyond that I want to try out some new photography techniques I picked up while watching this awesome video from I Heart Art: Portland. Mostly, I just want them to arrive so I can lay it out on my bed and squeal like a preteen confronted with.. oh wow, who’s big now? Hah. Someone awesome!
Now then, ladies and gentlemen, I think I’ll go back to my hair yanking. Happy Monday, everyone!
My second attempt at hand woven chain, this one is called the Spiral Weave, and when worn it tends to roll and twist itself into a helix type spiral. I love the splash of color the aqua blue glass dangle adds to the piece.
Turtles! Super beachy-feeling earrings made from dyed mussel shell, silver plated wire, and enameled pewter turtle charms.
No pictures, because I want them to be a surprise, but I will tell you what my bargain shopping brought in this weekend. Break out those imaginations!
1) a pair of sterling lever-back earrings with sunflowers on them that will soon be getting embellished
2) some swarovski cup chain with clear crystals
3) 9 lovely faceted black glass beads, they’ve got a lot of sparkle
4) an AB finish faceted crystal drop, .5”, very nice.
5) a faceted crystal round in a lovely bezel with loops on both ends
6) some super cute wood beads; 9mm round, 6mm round, 5mm round and 7x5mm flat ovals
7) a handful of swarovski bicones in peridot and black
8) some faux green aventurine (acrylic, but very well made) triangles
9) a pair of lovely brass hearts, not sure if they’ll become earrings or necklaces
10) a pile of mussel shell coin drops in pink, yellow, blue and green
11) some gorgeous (and large) ceramic ovals in turquoise with chocolate and gold accents (love these, but they’re -huge- 2” long and 1” wide, will take some planning)
12) some faceted bicone ceramic beads in periwinkle with chocolate and gold accents
Besides all that, I also rounded up some nice brass spacers, chain, clasps, etc, as well as some other odds and ends. Looks like the next set is going to be very earthy.
Also exciting, I found out that there will be a gem and mineral show December 11th and 12th in DeRidder, LA, which is about an hour away. I’m hoping I’ll get to go (not as a vendor, just as a shopper), but being so close to Christmas, who knows.
I’ve been seeing a lot of hand woven chains floating around lately, and decided to give making my own a try, here’s the results of my first attempt.
This is a full Persian weave using two different jump ring sizes (mostly because I ran out of the smaller ones, oops). I added the swirly blue bead to give it a small dash of color, not that it needs it.
I think it came out quite well for a first try.
New listing in the shop! This is an awesome 24” hemp macrame necklace with a 2” green & gold glass leaf pendant and red & copper accents. I’m actually pretty fond of this one.
I would love to get into doing things like that. So gorgeous! I don’t know that I would ever have the time to finish a single piece between family time and jewelry time though.Hand engraved sterling silver sheet
The first necklace, the endless aventurine, is available for sale in my artfire store. It’s 31” long and has no clasp so you don’t have to worry about it coming undone and getting lost.
The 2nd necklace was a commission piece for a friend of my husbands, and it measures in at 21” long. I’d forgotten how much fun macrame can be, and I think I may do up more.
Another new piece listed for sale! Silver plate Y necklace with frosted light blue glass beads, 17” long with a 2.5” drop.
