Year of Jewelry- Week 17- Embrace Nature

I used salmon colored glass leaves to make the focal for this necklace, and it does embrace nature! I love the earthy tones of the ceramic and glass beads. I love this combination! I love this melon colored ceramic paired with silver and the deep, rich turquoise color mixed with the salmon color of the glass... simply spectacular colors together!
 I used the silver beads to separate the round ceramic beads and to add a bit of neutral to the piece,because if I had used the blue, it would have ended up looking pretty heavy... and with the glass leaves, I wanted this layer of the necklace to look light...the second layer is made with a Right Angle Weave (RAW) with a silver round bead in the center for a bit of sparkle without being too shiny... the third row is 11/0 seed bead in the deep turquoise color fading into silver 11/0 seeds, done in a peyote stitch with a glass leaf in the center.
The necklace is finished with a silver plated clasp.
To me, this is piece embraces nature in the most sincere form of impressionism.

and these roses are from my garden... Embracing Nature in it's finest!

week 16-Year of Jewelry- Made of Thick Wire

This week's project is something made from thick wire... this is my answer to it.

This piece is of a purple amethyst/agate stone with steel wire around, and 28g brass wire wrapped pendant. The chain is an aluminium wire like the kind you find in the floral section of the craft store. I had bought some to use in floral arrangements a few years ago, I like to use it for that purpose, but I have had fun using it in other projects as well. I have a couple of bracelets that I have made using it, and then a few necklaces like this one... I kinda like it. Using this type of wire can be kind of tricky. If you use pliers, they must be either coated in protectant or use pliers that have the plastic covers to make sure you don't mar the finish.  When you snip the wire, you use Flush Cutting wire cutters. They give a better, smoother cut, but you still need to use sand paper to file down the ends. Normally, when you curl wire, you would sand or file down one side of the end of the wire, giving you a nice, gentle slope to start the curl... it just looks better, more finished and is a smooth transition from the end of the wire into the curl... but when the center of the wire is silvertoned and the outer color is different, it isn't practical to do that, the center color will show...
So, I blunted the ends and curled carefully and this is what I came up with.

Year of Jewelry- Week 15- The Story of Me

Jewelry, jewelry, jewelry… the story of my life.
I have made jewelry for a long time. When I was a kid, I loved beadwork, but I wasn’t really good at it. I tried, but I think that my eyesight had a lot to do with my lack of skill, that I was just not that even with stitches, I got a bit discouraged.

When I was a kid, I worked with a friend in a concession stand at rodeos and at pow wows and I loved the beadwork that was sold back then.  It was cheap to buy necklaces and bracelets, especially silver  and turquoise and most glass beads were very cheap.

One day, during a intertribal pow wow, I bought a beaded necklace… and my mother, aunts, and grandmother all griped at me…

Why would you buy something that you can make? Why would you pay someone else to do something that is your heritage and your God given talent?

Why would you not make it or ask someone in your family to make it?

So… I didn’t buy another piece of beadwork for many, many years. I still cringe when I find a piece that is made by a designer that I would like to buy… why? I still hear my grandmother and see her shaking her head…

I learned to make pieces, on and off loom, to crochet with beads, to embroider them onto fabric and leather... I don’t have many pieces of my early jewelry left. I threw some away, gave away some… and well, some are in pieces in a box somewhere, I have no idea which one… and when  I run across it, I think, wow, I should fix that and wear it.

But…

I had one necklace that I loved. I wore it all the time when I was a kid. It was a very thin copper wire, I don’t know what gauge it was but probably a 32 g copper wire with seed beads. Nothing special, but I loved it... I made it when I was maybe 12? And the beads were really lovely, and honestly, you can’t buy those kid of seeds anymore. They were rich colors, hand made and very precious to me.  I wore it and wore it… and I made earrings to match it, and I wore those until my ears were green… literally…'
 I put them  away when I had my daughter, but I got it back out eventually, when I didn't have little ones around to catch it and potentially break it.. and I wore it with a bit of nostalgia.

My daughter loved the necklace so  I ended up giving it to her when she was grown, and she wore it for a while, but broke it… and I think lost it… I almost wanted to cry... Not because it got broken, that happens a lot, not that she lost it... not really, but that it was something that reminded me of a simpler time, a simpler me. Kind of those days before I wanted more, those days when we as a country were a bit more innocent, and well, I guess that I kind of miss my childhood. That necklace reminded me of what it was to be a kid.

So, I made her another one but out of larger gauge brass and larger beads, I don't know if she likes it or not, it isn't quite the same as the old one, only the sentimental value of that one was more…
This is a piece that is similar to the one I made for my daughter. I  added an etched brass Celtic knot. My family is part Scottish....sooo....

It is probably the best piece that describes me, It is simple, sturdy, and not too garish.

The pendant, is not attached for a reason. I put a steel jumpring on it, to use in another project...  I did eventually get the jumpring off and it is now attached with a brass jumpring!!

 brass 24g wire, brass tubing beads, glass beads

 By the way, this is the anniversary of my dearest and one of my oldest friends birth. She and I met when we were about 4 years old... sadly, she was killed in an auto accident not long after my daughter was born. So sad to live such a short time. My buddy, Brenda.

Year of Jewelry- Week 14- Birthstone of the Month-Sparkly Like a Diamond

Year of Jewelry – Week 14- Birthstone of the Month-Sparkly like a Diamond

Well, I don’t have loose diamonds to use in jewelry that I make… I do have some pretty sparkly cubic zirconia and that is about as sparkly as I get. I do have some pretty shiny beads as well, I like using them to bring out the colors in the metal or beads that make up the project. Nothing like a little sparkle to catch the eye!
I especially like using cz because they sparkle when you wear them and they cost a mere fraction of what a diamond  costs…so you can use more!

I have been working on a lot of jewelry this year,mostly for my booth, a bit repetitious but very rewarding as well.  This is something that I make a lot of,  sparkly like a diamond! 
Stamped brass ring with formed copper flower with a silver and cubic zirconia  center.