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

Year of Jewelry- Week 8- Ram, Lamb, Ewe

Year of Jewelry- Week 8- Ram, Lamb, Ewe

Um, yeah...

I don't do lambs, but i love them, so cute and cuddly. My brother, the rancher used to raise cattle, but also sheep... I know, usually people that have cattle abhor people that have sheep... I guess it goes back to the grazing and over grazing back in the old days. Now, they are pretty compatible? I don't know, but his father-in-law was already in the business, and my brother kind of eased into it. There's nothing like the smell of a baby lamb... but I don't do lambs...

OK, I just didn’t get this weeks Year of Jewelry entry. I don’t necessarily like sheep.  OK , I admit I do like lambs, and I do get excited over wool… especially when it is sheering season and there is an abundance of raw wool in the area… it is nice to even glean the wool from fences, brush, and what is caught in the stalls when they are sheering… but… just sheep doesn’t get me excited to even think of jewelry…

So, it would be wool or, well, nothing.

This is one of those challenges that I don’t really get excited about! I suppose I should, but when I do wool, it is a sweater, a sock, or well… sometimes a felted purse. Aha! A felted piece?

Yes, I can do that.  I can do felted work, I had some black felted wool, and I happen to have some pretty wool that I dyed myself, to use in something way different I also used some shapes that I bought, felted them to the background,added some beads, sequins and a woven beaded 'chain' and …

Well, here you go, TADAAAAA!

Year of Jewelry- Week 7-For My Love

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day!

What a wonderful  “Holiday”!  That is if you have a significant other to share it with… and if you don’t, it can be rather depressing!!

My husband was rather cynical about Valentine’s… he wore black for many years and wouldn’t even talk about it other than to say, Bah, humbug…

When we met, one of the first things he told me was that he hated Valentine’s Day. He said it was because he thought that he would never have another woman in his life and he was tired of hearing guys saying they were buying things for their wives, girlfriends, lovers… and he hated a certain local jewelry store telling men that they were crap if they didn’t buy this or that….

Funny, I told him I hated Valentine’s Day as well, he looked at me puzzled and said, “Why?”…

Well, my birthday is the day before Valentine’s Day and for all those years, I got a valentine/birthday/pink/hearts/combination kind of birthday, and when I was a kid, I guess it was ok, but when I grew up, guys kind of lumped it all together, and my ex had given me presents like… an iron, a lawnmower motor… and  well… not such great birthday gifts, but terrible, terrible Valentine’s Day gifts.That as well as the fact that I always had to work on my birthday AND Valentine's Day, overtime... every year, and I never got to go anywhere... ever... because it was always so late by the time I got off, nothing was still open, or I was too tired to go anywhere...

We had a good laugh. He told me… “Next Valentine’s Day is going to be great!”

I was in love.

So…this is something that I made to kind of remind me that I am happy about Valentine’s Day, even though my husband has passed away and we had way too few holidays together, I still think of him, and think about how much he really liked the day from that first one together… and even though this isn’t something expensive… and it isn’t something big… it has a lot of heart behind it, and that… is what Valentine’s day is all about.