Soaring Hearts

Birds and hearts... my favorite combination. These beautifully detailed solid brass swallows have been given an antique patina and bear tiny glass hearts on their flight home for the night. The earrings measure just over an inch and a half total; the solid brass earwires are similarly antiqued. I also found these brass swallows in a turquoise-blue patina (at left), with a finish coat atop the patina to seal it. These earrings will be in my Etsy shop by tonight, along with some other sweet little brass birds with various patina finishes. I haven't yet learned the fine art of patina, except for my occasional experiments with Liver of Sulfur to blacken silver; it's another one of those "someday I'll have the time to..." things, I suppose. Now that I'm on a month-long break from school, I'm not only making jewelry at a frenzied pace but am also about to finally dive back into my mosaic work. I have six unfinished projects (more than I've finished, in fact) and about 479 ideas for new ones, maybe 10 of which will see the light of day in the next few months. I do finally have a good workspace for mosaics... as long as I don't invite anyone over for dinner (or they don't mind eating in the living room).... But really, which is more important, creating or eating? ;-)