Recycled glass necklaces

Lots of lovely new wire-wrapped pendants are finally going up for sale! I'll be listing small groupings of them everyday, and I'm excited (and a bit nervous) to see what kind of interest is generated. 

If you're interested, the back-story of the pendants can be found here. I hope to eventually buy my very own tumbler so I can create a wider variety of pendants. Especially since the "recycling" center here is super picky about the type of glass they accept. I have a stash of empty wine bottles that I would love to tumble up! Plus, smashing glass bottles is fantastic therapy...

So, on to the only reason you're here. Photos!

I love that this came out tooth-shaped!

Some of the glass comes with interesting "fracture" lines that darken during tumbling. 

There are so many shape, size, and color variations!

The peach glass reminds me of french lingerie. I have no idea why.

Green! There are so few green pieces...

Love that light blue/aqua coloring going on here.

My heart is torn between the green and royal blue pendants.

They're just so....

Awesome.

So, yes, that is what has been keeping me out of trouble lately! The pendants are all wrapped with nickel-plated wire, and will come with vegan suede in a choice of length & color, finished off with ribbon crimps and a lobster clasp. As is, the custom necklaces are $17.50 each. I am also offering the option of having the glass re-wrapped in sterling silver wire, for an additional fee. I know there are folks out there allergic to nickel, or who just might want a different look to the wire. 

Swing by the shop to check out the options!

I'd like to take a break from the regular jewelry posts, and introduce you to some of the staff. Aside from the resident jewelry making monkey (me), that is.

First, there's Marvin. He usually leads the evening wrap-ups, but today he popped in early for the morning staff meeting. Marvin helps mellow us out after a stressful day, and reminds me that I really need to get back to swimming on a regular basis.

Say "Hi," Marvin. 

Then, of course, there's the admin & support team. While they don't deal with much directly, they are crucial to the continued success, and my sanity.

Clockwise, from left, we have the office sweetheart Kira with fluffy-butt support, Maggie our bossy office manager and all around goof ball, and Duke the scrappy foot warmer (a crucial role, especially in winter!). Without their persistent whimpers for attention (Duke), sloppy I-just-drank-a-gallon-of-water-and-want-to-smooch-you kisses (Kira), and mile-long tongue(Maggie), I would be way crazier than I already am. If only I could get them to help out with photo editing....

So there you have it. The calming, fuzzy force that keeps me sane!

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....

More fun with recycled glass

Finally getting around to editing some more photos of all that lovely recycled "beach" glass I wrapped! After this pile of photos, I still have quite a few pieces that haven't been photographed yet-yay projects! Here are a few of my favorites from the latest session: 

Peach

Emerald 

Light blue

I'm diggin' the speckling with this light blue glass!

     

                  Faux  suede cord options. Everyone loves choices! 

So far, the peach pendant is the only newly added piece up for sale. Editing is hard work, and thar be double chocolate chip cookies to nom. Enjoy!

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!).

And I'm back!

Right after my last post, I ran into computer trouble (again) and had to shut the whole thing down immediately (again) and send it back for repair. Again. Can you sense my annoyance? This is the third time since April that I've had to send my brand new laptop in for repair. For the same problem. Unfortunately the "back up" desktop computer died a dew months ago and we haven't had the funds to fix that beast yet, so I haven't been able to do much online lately. 

Fortunately, my smart phone has internet access, though it's ability to log on & function with many sites (like this one) is seriously limited. I as able to keep an eye on my shop and answer emails, but that was about the limit of my interwebz capability. 

Now that my lovely laptop has been returned we're back in business! I made over 30 pairs of earrings while the computer was out, and have a lot of photos to take, editing to do, and items to post. So, keep an eye out for updates on all the exciting new goodies I have in stock, and don't forget to swing by the estsy store this weekend to see what's new! Glad to be back, folks :)