Treasury Features!

The past week or so two items from the etsy shop have been included in treasuries! It's always a thrill to be included with other talented etsy shops.

Click on the photos below to view the treasury collections. Happy Friday!

   

Light blue wire-wrapped glass, in Shades of the Sea treasury 

Green freshwater pearl dangle earrings, in Shops from Texas treasury

Quartz & Pearls

Just a couple of days after listing those gorgeous ice flake quartz earrings, they sold! There was much happy-dancing going on. Hoping for a repeat success, I just posted these beauties in my shop:

This time the quartz beads I used are a slightly darker shade than before, and topped with some really lovely white potato pearls. The pearls have such a fantastic luster to them, and it play so well off the shine and crackle of the quartz. Potato pearls are among my favorite shapes to work with, as each pearl has such a unique quality. It was quite a process to pick through the  pearls to find just the right ones to pair up for these earrings, but so worth it. 

The addition of the pearls definitely ups the "fancy pants" aesthetic. I can easily see these being worn out for a night on the town. Perhaps a dinner date? Swanky lunch meeting?  Some days, I just want to keep everything I make for myself....

Hematite Earrings

I'm a huge fan of hematite. The color, the feel, that gorgeous polished look of silvery-black glinting off every piece. It's embarrassing that I haven't owned a single piece of hematite jewelry. Despite its resurgence in popularity, hematite was difficult to find and prohibitively expensive in my area.

Imagine my glee when I found some fantastic hematite "teeth" during a trip to Austin! They're about 1.25" long, perfect for using in necklaces and earrings alike. My wimpy earlobes can't take heavy earrings for long, so I'm always on the lookout for interesting, light weight materials. These beauties fit the bill nicely, and go so well with a variety of styles.

Looooovely. Lovely, and a little difficult to photograph. I'm still getting the hang of the whole photography thing. It's a process. Anyway, I adore the pair I made for myself so much that I had to share. The above photos are of the pair currently for sale on my etsy shop. Whislt editing this post, the earrings sold!! My first sale on etsy!! Those babies were up for less than a day, holy cow! It's exclamation city right now!!

You may have noticed, I'm a bit excitable at the moment. . . . .

Well, it seems that I'm not the only one with a fondness for hematite jewelry. I see heaps of hematite in my future. 

Ice flake quartz

Once upon a time, I came across a funky vintage store in California. It smelled like stale musk an old feet but it had some pretty nifty jewelry, so I just breathed through the mouth. Tucked in the back of a display case was a once-lovely multi-strand necklace. I say "once" because this particular necklace was crusted in muck, broken and poorly "fixed" with fishing line, and at least half of the beads were chipped, fractured, or otherwise wonky.

I do love a challenge.

I managed to talk the seller down from $50 (for a horribly dirty and  broken necklace? are you freakin' kiddin me??), and walked away with images of re-purposed jewelry swimming in my head. The friend that I was with thought I was nuts (which, I am).

Fortunately the "muck" was pretty easy to clean off-some piping hot water, soap, and a good scrub for every bead did the trick. A fair amount of the beads crumbled when handled, making the task of separating beads from  bits a drawn-out process. Fortunately, it's one easily done while watching Burn Notice.

The broken bits were tossed into some potting mix for some lovely cyclamens, and the remaining beads spent a couple of days hanging out on a cloth to fully dry. Then, they sat in a bead case for about a year, until I finally decided I wanted to do something with them.

Finally, finally, I started using these lovelies! So far there are three different variations on earrings, and this pair is the first up for sale:

I'm a huge fan of the black marbling on these. Ice flake quartz gets that nifty "ice crystal" look from being heated, then rapidly cooled. The interior of the quartz fractures, resulting in the crackled-ice effect. Awesome, no?

I had the itch to make something really simple, with a little splash of color. I love how these dangle off the earlobes, but are short and light so they're not at all in the way. Great for running errands, chasing dogs, and doing adult-like things, with a little splash. After I finished these, a friend pointed out the color is just in time for Autumn. Happy accident! I'm terrible, and do not follow fashion trends, or what "this season's color" is. I should be ashamed, I know. I'm totally not.

Swing by my etsy shop for more photos (or, just to buy a pair!).

Reigning It In

With the launch of my etsy shop, I enlisted the help of some good friends in critiquing the jewelry, descriptions, and prices. It's been incredibly helpful in the tweaking of things, and through this process it came to my attention that some of the jewelry I make is pretty "wild" for some folks.
I have to say, I totally agree. Of course, I'm the type that loves to wear jewelry that will get noticed. Otherwise, what's the point? With that said, I see the problem: wild jewelry isn't for everyone, all the time.

I needed to sit down and make some more low-key pieces that can appeal to a wider audience, bring more folks into my little shop, and then, hopefully, the right people will see my 'wild side' and fall in love. So, that's what I did today.

I came across a string of gorgeous zebra jasper beads awhile ago, from a jewelry maker getting rid of her excess supplies, and totally fell in love. The problem was, I didn't have anything in mind for them, so the beads just kind of sat around in a container. Until today. It took some puzzling (and lots of mess-ups) but I finally came out with a beautiful, simple design that I hope will appeal to someone.

                                                                 

What do you think? The beads accenting the jasper stone are snowflake obsidian, but are near-flawless black (would that make them just plain obsidian?). All strung up on silver-plated head pins, jump-rings, and silver-plated gunmetal french ear wires. 

I ended up making about four pairs before the dogs started whining for dinner, and then of course I got completely distracted with editing the photos,writing up the listing for one pair, and ya know, blogging about it. I'm still pondering whether or not to post all the pairs at once, or pepper them in between other items. 

The jasper has this amazing marbling that I just adore. I'm making a pair just for me tomorrow. Love these earrings? Pop on over to my etsy shop and grab 'em before someone else does!