Shell Game

I'm totally into shell beads lately--silver, slate blue, cinnamon, creamy white, tropical blues and greens:

Sold

Cinnamon and Cream

Slate Blue Skies

Fan Club

Butterfly Wings

A Little New Stuff

Hello everybody! I took a little break from jewelry (the Muse was apparently doing other things!) but I'm slowly working my way back into it. I thought I'd start with some earrings--baby steps! I thought I would use my small supply of enamel elements as inspiration:

Here is a pair with some lime-hued sand dollars from Anne Gardanne:

Raspberry Lemonade

The little glass beads right above the sand dollars are lampwork spacers in "jonquil" by Michelle at The Spacer Bead Shop on Etsy (she took a break for a few years, so glad she's back! Crazy-huge assortment of colors and sizes). The little berry-colored beads are itty bitty pearls. I used a mixture of copper and argentium silver (a low tarnish type of sterling) here--the earwires are argentium silver.

This pair is built around a couple of enameled keyhole elements in pretty powder blue and mauve, also by Anne Gardanne:

Blue Jeans and Rosy Cheeks

I used copper and silver again, leaving the rosy coloration on the headpins from the torch. (If I pickle them in salt and vinegar after torching them, it takes off the black, but not the pink--yay!). The other beads are lampwork (above the keyholes), moukaite jasper, and etched glass seed beads.

Here is my other set of sand dollars, in sky blue and rusty red, again with copper and silver, lampwork glass spacers in baby blue, and pretty Indonesian glass beads in shades of deep red.

Blue Sky Sand Dollars

The little silver beadcaps are the ones I make with my hand punch from silver sheet.

Lastly, this pair is lampwork glass and Czech "Picasso" glass flowers, with just argentium silver. I liked the different glass beads together so much I couldn't resist, and I've never used these little flower beads before!

Farewell to Summer

I guess I was feeling nostalgic for summer...It's pretty cold here in the Rockies!

OK, that's all for now, I wish you a peaceful evening!

Southwest Heart Necklaces Are Back!

I have finally bowed to public pressure and have created another batch of my "Southwest Heart" pendants. (For a while after my first batch, I never wanted to see them again but I guess I got that out of my system. Plus I'm a little less tired now that my work load at the day job has evened out some, so I have some energy for creating.) I tweaked the design just a bit, but overall it is essentially the same:

Southwest Hearts 2018

I varied them slightly to keep myself entertained.

I have also created a small selection of coordinating bracelets:

As well as earrings:

If Southwest is your bag, stop by and check it out!

The Blues. And the Greens.

I've got The Blues. And apparently The Greens, too. See what I mean?

I wanted to make some bracelets, because I haven't in a while, and I wanted to use copper. I love blues and greens with copper so I started looking in my blue and green bins and holy cow! I have a lot of green beads. When did I get those? WHERE did I get those? Alas, I stopped keeping track a long time ago, and figuring out where they all came from would be rather a chore. I do generally know WHAT they are however--the beads in this bracelet are lapis lazuli, blue agate, azurite, blue impression jasper, turquoise, and probably green howlite. (I'm guessing they came mostly from Happy Mango Beads, Lima Beads, and maybe an Etsy shop or two.)

And because one of each thingy is never enough (this one has the same beads, except with some bronzite and a chrysocolla thrown in, royal blue cording instead of brown, and a smattering of tiny lampwork donuts):

And lastly this one (I wasn't quite sick of blue and green yet so I made just one more):

I will be listing these in my shop in the next few days--probably one at a time, so that it's less confusion (they are slightly different sizes).

Buttons

What is it with me and anything shaped like a coin? (Except for actual coins?) Buttons activate some kind of primal gluttony in me for small, disc-shaped items. And then this happens:

And this:

Gray Skies

And even this:

Mother of Pearl

And then I just bought some more...I guess a button addiction is more economically sustainable than, say, a Faberge egg addiction.

Wonder Woman, the Lone Star state, and Aidan Quinn

What do Wonder Woman, the Lone Star state, and Aidan Quinn have in common?

I think of them when I look at these earrings!

I Fought the Law, and the Law Won

I love these chubby little Mykonos stars from Stinky Dog Beads, and was thinking for a long time about how to create a pair of earrings with them. I thought I would pop them into a ring, and do up a whole mixed metal thing. While I was working on them, I couldn't help thinking of Texas, Wonder Woman (which I watched religiously as a youngster), and badges (Grandma and I used to watch Marshal Dillon clean up Dodge City, and how many times have I watched Practical Magic now?)

via GIPHY

Have a splendid week, readers!

Waste Not, Want Not

Fiesta
(sold)

I have been looking and looking for some plain, slim, tubular beadcaps/endcaps--could I find any anywhere? Of course not! Then I stumbled across these spent .22 caliber bullet casings for sale at Design From Dixie on Etsy and I thought "Eureka!" They gather these up--and other calibers--at shooting ranges, check to make sure the primer is spent, and make them available for purchase for craft projects in their Etsy shop. (The brass is lovely, especially after banging it up with my hammer!). I'm not into shooting guns, but I will happily use these babies to make jewelry! I got some in stainless steel too. They're really a snap to drill, and if you have any questions about that, the shop owners are great and super helpful. They also have a website about how to use bullet casings in craft projects. I used them above with moukaite ovals and roundels, and brass wire.

Industrial

For these I stuck with a two-tone pallette of silver and brass--golden pyrite ovals, fine and Argentium silver wires, brass shell casings and brass wire. (Can't decide what I love more--the brass casings or the pyrite....) These are currently available in my Etsy shop.

OK, that's all I got! (Can't wait to use a pair of the steel ones.)