YOJ: Week 25th & 26th

I'm behind, so it's time to get caught up. The amethyst cab in this pendant is very special, my friend Anne's Dad cut and polished it. She gave it to me last year, and it's taken til now to wrap it. This is a pattern from Step by Step Jewelry, by Liza Niven Kelly. This first picture is pre- LOS, I usually prefer bright silver, but in this case it looks very nice with the patina. My 2nd item is a very simple pendant in snowflake obsidian. Sometimes simple is best.

YOJ: Week 24th Winter Queen's Crown II

I have to be honest, this year's themes for YOJ just are not catching fire in my head. It's me, not the subjects. There are several things going on in my life, things I can't really explain but it's effecting everything about me, including my art. It's been a major effort to make any jewelry, let alone try to hone in on a particular theme. Normally art is my therapy, it makes ALL things better, like your mom kissing your boo-boos as a child. I'm not saying my art is only a band-aid for my mental wounds. Rather it acted like a balm, healing me in the moment and making me healthier, stronger for the next time. I miss that feeling. I guess I just spent a paragraph to say I don't feel very creative right now. I will just keep forcing myself to make things, and hope that I'll recapture that feeling. I need that Feeling back!!

Anyway, I looked through past projects to see if there was a theme I wanted to revisit.... and I found my first series of Winter Queen's Crown. ( http://mkpbeadart.blogspot.com/2007/04/week-17-happy-fish.html#links )I felt at the time I wanted to explore this further. I think this bracelet turned out even better than the first one did. I think 1 year of practice and new skills shows. The hinging on this is much better and smoother than the first bracelet. Matching earrings of course. I felt better after I made this, it's the first thing in a month that felt right. I want to create a whole series of this: Winter, Fall, Spring, Summer. Time is an issue as always, and my wounded heart.

YOJ: week 23: copper and sterling experiments continued and other goodies

I'm not really on topic again this week. Again I've been playing with mixing copper and sterling for interesting effects. This Time I've used copper wire in 18 GA and sterling wire in 22GA, twisting them together. I really like the effect, especially when paired with gorgeous silver mist jasper. The pictures really don't do justice on the stones... they have an almost tiger-eye effect in some places. My guess that's why it's called silver mist....

I've been playing with doing more Cabs with the "wire sculpture " style of Reuther Preston and others. Here are some examples, the cameo is actually a vintage plastic piece. The purple square is vintage glass, and the stone is I believe lapis.. but not sure.

This next piece is about color. I have this great big chunk of "cherry quartz" which is a fancy name for dyed.. anyway, the cut is pretty, and I really wanted to mix it up color wise. So some turquoise and vintage glass helps spice it up. The purple stones are fluorite. Last of all is a heart pendant. I really like this, and I guess my customers agree it's already sold! I think I used18GA or 16GA sterling silver wire, shaped and hammered to my heart's content ( yeah, I meant that pun) and and wire wrapped a pearl on the bottom and a bail on top. I need to make more of these!

YOJ: Week 22 First Date

I've been playing with copper and sterling together. I really like the look of mixing these 2 metals together.

These earrings are named first date". Ok, it wasn't really the first date, it was the first formal date with my now Husband Jerry.. just about 15 years ago infact. I had a wedding to go to, and I had been dating Jerry for approximately 5 weeks.. so I asked him to be my date at this wedding. I had this absolutely gorgeous dress .. all in dark navy lace. One of my favorite pictures of us together is one taken at the wedding, me in my dress and he in his suit. Anyway, I was totally gonzo nuts over this man, and the fact he was willing to go to this wedding with me, it meant I had him in the bag! No way is a guy gonna go to a big fancy frilly wedding unless it's his family or he really digs you!! LOL I kept this dress for years... but a few years ago cleaning out a closet I discovered the dress had gotten wet and damaged in storage, and ruined.. but I clip off abit of undamaged lace from it for remembrance sake. Fast forward to now, when I buy a rolling mill as the newest toy-- er, tool in my studio. I dug out the lace and used it to pattern the copper, then I shaped and polished it. The sterling swirling around the copper represents the happiness of that day. I'm not totally satisfied with how I connected the swirl to the earring, but making these made me smile. And I spent a very pleasant day remembering when Jerry and I were new at this relationship thing. For the record: in July we will be married for 14 years.