New necklace

I just posted a brand new item at the shop, the Bethany necklace. Turquoise nugget, smoky quartz, and one of my hand-forged sterling silver circles. I think this is a great piece for summer, especially with the earthy color combination. Also, something exciting. My mother-in-law was out and about this weekend wearing her Astrid necklace, and a stranger complimented her on it. My MIL then promptly gave her one of my cards (actually the old version that Alissa happened to have on her). How's that for marketing!

The sun will come out...

Not this weekend, that's for sure! The weather didn't cooperate with me at all the past two days (except for that one hour we were out running errands), so I didn't get to photograph my new stuff. Luckily enough, I took this picture last weekend so I was able to list a new item at the shop today - the matching Bronwen bracelet. Buy her now and be my instant BFF!

And finally, the one surefire way to tell that you are old: when you get so excited by the idea of buying a new vacuum cleaner, and get even more excited about bringing it home, putting it together, and trying it out.

Wow. I need to get out more.

Earrings for the new year

My first new product for 2009, the Bronwen earrings! I first heard of this name when a good friend of mine from writing camp way back in the day told me that her roommate in college was named thus. She was Welsh. Except now I can't remember if it's spelled Bronwen or Bronwyn. Hmm...either way, check out the Bronwen earrings at the shop!

Wire rings

It's been a long while since I learned how to make wire rings. I haven't attempted to make any since learning how because I couldn't get a hold of the proper equipment. But, they had mandrels for sale at the gem show this past weekend so I finally tried my hand at the rings again.

As you can see, I still need lots and lots and lots of practice. This one is rather messy. I used practice wire for this; however, recently experimenting with different gauges of sterling and gold-filled has gone a whole lot better for me. I'll post pictures of those efforts next time.

The turquoise ring isn't too too bad, I like how it has a sort of bezel look. I think this shape of stone is good for wire rings.



It may be a little while before you see wire rings offered at my shop, but I have a lot of beautiful gemstones and beads ready and waiting to be used!

Coral and turquoise earrings

Red coral branches topped off with blue turquoise nuggets, named "Nora" after my very funny and cool Aunt Nora. These earrings are very bold and colorful, dangling approximately 1 1/2 inches from handmade earwires.

Nora is now available at the shop!

SUMMER OF JEWELRY

This summer I'm taking a silver jewelry metalsmithing class for five weeks. Each class is five hours long and it's apparently a pretty intense experience. I'm so ready to get started - I haven't been able to contain my excitement! I'm looking forward to learning a whole new set of technical skills. As a bonus, the art school is right by the river in a very charming part of town so getting to hang out for part of the summer there will be a real treat.

AMERICARES CHALLENGE

So putting my money where my mouth is, I've just posted a new announcement at my shop. From now until the end of June, $3 of every sale will be donated to AmeriCares' disaster assistance funds for Myanmar and China, the total amount split between the two funds. My shop will also match 100% of the total amount raised.

Thanks in advance for your generosity!

New shop item: turquoise bracelet

This new bracelet is "Marnie," made of pretty blue turquoise and a silver toggle clasp. She's named after my writer friend from college, who was originally a pair of turquoise earrings but I changed that name to "Meridith" to match the accompanying necklace (named after another college friend who, and I'm not making this up, had Michelle Pfeiffer sitting in her office the other day. I was jealous).

So Marnie gets a new namesake. More details and pictures are available at the shop!

On the train today I was sitting next to a mom and her toddler daughter. I overheard the mom ask the kid, "What did you eat today?" And the kid replied at the top of her lungs, "Ass! Ass! ASSSSSS!"

I thought to myself, "That couldn't have been very appetizing."

It turned out she was trying to say "eggs."

Toddlers are funny.

P.S. on comments

My sister suggested that instead of moderating comments to avoid spam, I should use the word verification feature instead. This does seem like a much better idea, so as Captain Picard says, "Make it so."

New shop item: turquoise earrings

These are the "Marnie" earrings, a matching piece to the "Meridith" necklace. Their namesakes are also my college pals.

Marnie is a pair of puffy oval turquoise earrings wrapped on sterling silver earwires, and is now available at the shop.

The fierce ice storm we had here last night has finally gone. In the midst of it, I spent about 10 minutes along with several other people scraping the thick layer of ice off our cars on the roof of the parking garage. And then driving home at 2 mph. And then trying not to break my neck walking across the ice to my front door.

I hate winter.

New shop item: turquoise necklace

This necklace, "Meridith", is a reworked piece from a while back (it wasn't originally a fan favorite, so I decided to simplify by making it into a straightforward choker). Hope it works better this time around! The stones are really gorgeous - the green is so vivid and fresh.

You can check out "Meridith" at the shop if you click on her picture on the left-hand bar.

Turning to some TV talk, does anyone else watch the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles? Mr Hazel and I love it. I think the best part, at least for me, is that the Terminator - the one originally played by Arnold's character - is a woman! Or, more accurately, a slender slip of a girl who looks like she's anywhere between 17 to 25 years old. And She.Kicks.Ass. Literally and figuratively.

I also love Sarah Connor's character, who's a mix between a sexy biker chick and a warrior queen. She and the Girl Terminator are the central characters, more so than John Connor, and I love how they're the ones who are protecting John and not the other way around. They're smart, strong, fiercely capable women who can take care of their own shit and kick the bad guys' collective asses, all while wearing low-slung jeans and leather jackets and looking damn good doing it.

The best line of tonight's episode (Sarah to her son): "If you want to be a hero, you'd better learn how to drive stick!"

Priceless.

Lastly, I wanted to send huuuuuge congratulations to my friend Stephanie, who just became a new mom over the weekend! Best wishes to the new family.

Featured countdown stone of the day: Turquoise

From now until the opening of the Hazel Designs shop on January 1st, I will be incorporating some posts that feature different stones, new necklaces for preview, and jewelrymaking techniques and tips.

Today's featured stone is turquoise, which is one of my favorites both to work on and to wear. It looks especially fresh and summery when worn as a necklace or a pair of earrings with a white tank top, jeans, and flip flops.

I love this stone mostly because of its color, often a mix of sky blue and sea-foam green, with varying shades in between. In my scouting expeditions, I have run into turquoise of all kinds of shapes and sizes, each stone having different and unique characteristics.

The possibilities for design are limitless.

Turquoise is an ancient stone - its first known existence date back to 3000 BC in Egypt. Yet, it is also undeniably a modern stone. It is said to have powerful protective qualities, protecting the wearer against such things as depression and accidents.

Above are the different types of turquoise stones that I have in stock. Watch for these incorporated into future designs!


CONGRATULATIONS

...goes to Mr Hazel, who has recently finished business school and is now an official, full-fledged MBA!

Turquoise and citrine

Do you remember those earrings I made a while back, made up of the turquoise stones that I've been saving for something special and fun? Well, the pendant I originally had in mind to pair them with didn't quite work out, so I had to go back to the drawing board.

I decided to try something a little different, and here is the result. The main bead is a lemon yellow citrine, coupled with a handmade sterling silver wire "sculpture". My jewelry teacher once taught me a technique where you hammer a wire sculpture much like this, flattening the wire. The results give a very polished, finished look to the sculpture. However, I don't have a chaser hammer or a bench block in my arsenal yet (those are totally next on my shopping list), so I used a regular old hammer and it didn't really work very well. Also, this is 22-gauge sterling silver wire, and the hammering technique works better if you use a different type of wire.

Still, I think it looks really fresh and different, and the wire sculpture turned out well even without the hammering technique.

What do you think?

Turquoise earrings

I'm multitasking by 1) working on a new piece consisting of corals and a bone pendant, and 2) mulling over a design idea involving citrines and a blue cameo pendant (just thinking about it makes me salivate!).

In the meantime, I whipped up this pair of turquoise earrings for myself, to wear to work tomorrow. I've been saving these stones for something special (I particularly love the robin's egg blue color), but I couldn't resist taking two for myself. Hee.