I've been on a real pin kick the last few months. Here are 3 new copper pins.. 2 of them with sterling wire as an accent. The bottom pin has a blue lace agate attached to it. If you would like to see these in person, I'll be in Omaha this weekend at the CountrySide Art Show. 
Just 2 of the new pendants I have made in the last 2 weeks. Stop by and see them in person.. if you don't see them, just ask, they might not be out yet!! Here is the info on how to get to Market Day !
I made a bunch of stuff the last couple of weeks.. since it's my last weekend free until mid-July, I just did whatever came to my mind... I wanted to make pins so I made a bunch of pins. I made a really kewl wire wrapped watch which I'll get pics up soon. I made some bracelets because I was low on bracelets. I made earrings to match existing necklaces... I made up a couple of glass loads in the kiln. etc etc etc -- but the thing I made that I"m the most proud of, that really sings to me is this pin. It says Reach for the STARS! and it's all textured and stamped. I use both copper and sterling silver.. and the little hand charm is pewter in gold-toned. I love mixing metals!! Super fun to make, and if it never sells I'll put it on my jacket this winter!
Been just playing with sterling wire. I love the liquid look silver gets when it's polished to a high gleam! Hard to photograph though. Here are 2 rings and a pendant, mostly sterling silver. ( I did add a quartz crystal to the pendant!)
I made this set maybe a month ago? It's banded amethyst in the pendant, and cape amethyst in the bracelet wit sterling and pearls. The cab is wrapped in 21 and 20 GA sterling wire. I love how these types of amethyst have inclusions and banding.. it's just so yummy! Both are currently in back stock, soon to be displayed at an art show/ farmer's market near you.
The stripped pendant is one of my own fused glass creations.
I've made tons of new earrings: 
And lots more! so come down to the farmer's market and see what I've been doing all winter!
Tomorrow Morning Jerry and I are heading to Magecon in South Sioux City NE for the weekend. I love this show.. I never make much money at it, but Jerry is happy because he gets to game all weekend. I love it because I get to hang with my good friends Cathie & Sue. We set up this huge mega booth ( one side my jewelry, one side theirs) and then we bead and make jewelry all weekend inside the combined booth. 
Hey Carol, they are done... I think they turned out great! Let me know what you thing and I'll get them in the mail no later than fri.. Thurs if I can swing it!
wearable art. At this time these are only available through Central IA Artist Coop Gallery . Stop by Merle Hay Mall Sat-Sun to check them out.. along with art from over 25 other Iowa artists!
I got my work table cleaned off, and started to fuse again.. Thursday I ran a frit load.. here they are still in the mold!
Last Saturday I went to the Bead show in Omaha NE hosted by the Bead Society there. It's always one of my favorite shows.. and the last few years I've gone down with several friends and we share a hotel to stay the night. This year wasn't any different.. Went down with Anne, Julie, Jodi, and Abigail, and met up with native Nebraskan Nancy. We had a blast buying stuff, eating at a really nice Italian restaurant. Did you know that Embassy Suites has a managers reception in the evening? Free Booze! WOOT! And Abigail bought wine for the room. After supper we all beaded/made jewelry and just had a really good time sharing our goodies and conversing. 
Probably the most interesting thing I bought this year are watch parts. I'm never made anything steampunkish.. never felt like making anything like that before. But this watch part calls to me.. it wants to be something!
goldfilled wire, a very old Czech hand cut glass bead and crystals. What makes this extra special is the gold-wire is reused. Over a year ago I was making a wrapped cab pendant and misjudged the wire amount, or the wires weren't twisting right, or something... anyway, I didn't like how it looked, so I carefully took the cab out and put the gold wire bits in my used pile. 
looking for another photo and ran across yet another project I started but didn't finish.. yet. Man I really need to get back to metalsmithing! The triangle is made out of Sterling silver, don't remember what gauge, probably 16 or 18. My plan was to solder it to the copper, making some sort of kewl pendant. problem is I had 2 MANY ideas of what I wanted to do. I have 2-1/2 pages in my sketchbook based on this simple idea. Before I decided which I wanted to do.. or all, I ran into summer show season and time constants. I have a couple of other metalworking projects in various stages. Normally I would have picked them back up before now, but I've been soooo enthralled by playing with the kiln! I'll get back to them eventually.
and a close up of one of them. As you can see, they need some work before they are ready. You can see sort of raised bumps 
on the red close up? those are actually sharp points made when the frit melted and contracted. I either knock or grind those off. I usually add another layer of glass, or dichro or whatever seems to be "missing" from a piece. Then after that firing, I look again until I either feel it's "done" or I don't feel like working on it further. This is why some of my pieces are fired several times... I want it to look a certain way. If I can't achieve this, then the cab gets tossed in a pile, to work on at a later date, or maybe I turn it into a magnet. That way I'm not wasting any glass. I imagine if I get a big enough pile of rejects, I can turn them into frit the old fashion way and start over! ( old fashion method: insert glass into a pillow case. Take hammer)
This is all sterling wire and will be a necklace when I'm done. I will probably use pearls or rock crystal or both... how I want it to look keeps changing around in my head, so I'm not sure yet. It's a good start though, no?
Here is the batch of PMC I fired this weekend. I'm very pleased! I still need to clean them up alitte, and then I can make them into jewelry! For those who are not familiar with PMC, PMC is precious metal clay.. it's actually little bits ( really tiny little bits) of fine silver in a binder. You can roll it out just like play-do, let it dry and then fire it. 
This one is totally made by me.. the glass cab I used I made! I need to add a bail.
All of these are in 18GA copper wire. Technically pins like this are call fibula pins or broaches. The kewl thing about this style is that it's ancient, literally! You can find Fibula pins in ancient Greece and other countries starting in the late bronze age. (approx. 1550 BC) Fibula pins were practical as well as decorate.. they were used to fasten clothing and cloaks. 
Well OK, my friend Julie thinks she bought better goodies than I did.. so I had to take pics to prove her wrong!
I love these little devil guys!
