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.

Week 13- Year of Jewelry Project- Something I've Never Tried Before

Week 13, lucky number 13.
This is a project that I made using beads and cabochon given to me by my beading partner, Alicia Marinache. She sent me an assortment of beads that were so lovely, I've been using them for projects here and there... and this one is no exception.
The cabochon is a piece of glass with stripes of  turquoise and amethyst and I have to say, it was kind of tricky to use in a project like this. The face is slumped over and it is kind of difficult for me to catch the front inside the beaded bezel. Though, if I had used all one size beads, it probably would have been easier.
After the front was captured, I flipped it and finished off the back, which was a breeze!
I made the necklace in Cellini stitch, which I am not accomplished at... but it came out pretty nice I thought.
Anyway, I enjoyed making this piece which is doubling for one of the projects of my Swap n Hop that we participated in.

Year of Jewelry- Week 12-Spring is in the Air

Ahhhhh, breath deep the wondrous air! That’s Spring! That is the wonderful, fresh, clean, sneeze, sneeze, ahchoo..pollen laden air!

Heck, I don’t even mind the pollen this year! We didn’t have a hard Winter, but I took it hard. Sickness and heartbreak all through the Winter months was enough to give me the blues, so… This is something that is soooo welcome to me!

This piece was inspired by the purple leaves that I received from my bead partner from a Swap and Hop, Alicia. She sent them as well as the little pointy polymer clay flowers and I knew immediately what I wanted to make…

This is a bead embroidered bib style necklace. I used glass, polymer clay, metal, and stone in the piece, especially the ‘chain’ part of the necklace. I loved some of the beads that I received from my partner, the amethyst Czech glass beads and used them in the chain, as well as the pretty silver floral clasp that I bought a while back. I actually bought a whole package of them and keep using them sparingly. I know they aren’t special really, but… darn it, I love those things! I’d use them on every necklace, bracelet and if I could figure it out, earrings as well!

So here is the necklace.

Year of Jewelry- Week 11- Hinged

Sigh...

No, I didn’t make hinged.

This is my entry this week.

It is a sword made in copper, cut by me, shaped and fire painted.

No, I didn’t make the chain, but it is a guy thing… so it needed to be thick. Not that I can’t make thick chain, but I didn’t.

Here it is, the Sword of a Hobbit…

Big smile there… get it.. it’s small… hobbit… sigh. 

 The total size of the sword, pommel to tip is 1 1/2 ". 

Texas Independence

This is a bracelet that I made for my son's Texas History teacher. She is retiring this year, which is such a loss for the kids. She happens to be my son's favorite teacher, and she is a good one!
I made this bracelet with resin, paper, silver, copper, and brass, glass beads and silver hollow beads. .I tried my hand at engraving the Alamo, but didn't do a great job. To do it over again, I would etch the metal first then cut it out, but I was in a hurry... the story of my life!
I had fun making this, and his teacher loved it. She really liked that I put not only the Texas flag, but also the "Six Flags" of texas as well as the Texas Battle.

Year of Jewelry- Week 9- Masquerade!

This could be a running joke with me, what are you going to masquerade this week as an entry in the Year of Jewelry?

I am entering these in no order what so ever… since I got so far behind, I thought I’d just take a picture of everything that I have done over the past few weeks and stick it into the correct place in the list… and… voila! I’d be caught up… I honestly do work at it, maybe not by what the weekly theme is, but I do make something for it every week… ok, maybe it isn’t specifically ‘for’ the yoj, but it is definitely on my mind when I am making some piece of jewelry that it should be for the challenge. There were times that I actually did a piece that did qualify as one of the themes… and that it coincided with the time that was the theme….

No, This bracelet isn’t exactly what the theme is.. but… the thought is there.

And…. It is a spoon that is masquerading as a bracelet… HEY!!!!!!!!!!

I did a theme!!!!!!!

Here is my Masquerade!

This is a stainless steel spoon that I annealed and sawed a pattern into, I love flowers and thought that it would be appropriate that it is nearly Spring… and in Western Texas… it is already Springtime. The birds are nesting, the grass is green, it has been up into the upper 80s and even got up to 90 already… it is with that in mind that I made this bracelet