Nor'Easter

These beautiful lampwork glass beads came from an artist I met at the Tucson gem shows last February, who was there with her family and spent some time sharing her art with me. The focal bead, which measures 1 inch (22 mm) by .75 inch (17 mm), evokes a stormy ocean and has exquisite color and texture. In the bracelet above I combined it with four fancy rondelles from the same artist, along with some cultured pearls, Swarovski crystals, and sterling silver spacers. The earrings at right use two more beads from that set along with a cascade of Swarovski crystals and sterling silver findings. I love the swirls in these beads... evocative of a winter storm like the Nor'Easter currently charging up the East Coast... We get our share of stormy weather here in New Mexico, and I do sometimes miss some things about my former home back east, but the heavy winter storms... nope, don't miss them at all. I will, however, be forever grateful to the huge Nor'Easter of March 1993 that dumped over a foot and a half of snow and then ice over the Mid-Atlantic Coast, because that's what finally drove me out west, away from it all....

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? ;-)

On the Second Day of Christmas...

My two turtle doves made it into someone else's imagination! Gee, I feel almost famous.... Many thanks to Karen for featuring my earrings on her blog and for letting me know. Her art is wonderful; check it out and show her some love!

Sages

More birds: owls! I don't usually do "adorable" but these owls are kind of cool, too, and since it's "bird season" around here I thought I'd keep adding to my selection of avian jewelry. These little porcelain owls measure about 3/4 inch (18 mm); the pink ones are accented with brass and Swarovski crystal, the green ones with sterling silver.

I'm now on the hunt for cranes; late autum marks the return of the Sandhill Cranes to the nearby Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, and I'd like to commemorate that in some jewelry pieces. I've seen some sterling silver origami-style crane beads that would work beautifully... so stay tuned; I'm feeling creative again!