Butterfly bracelet

I have a newly-listed goody at the shop, the Harlow bracelet. Made of ivory bone butterfly and pale green chrysoprase nuggets - check her out!

Also, one of my favorite artists, Betsy Carr of Foundling, was featured on Etsy. I love her work and try to check out her blog often. Her shop is chock full of jewelry and accessories with a decidedly vintage flavor - I've bought a pair of her red poppy bobby pins in the past and they are absolutely adorable.

Hope you are all staying warm on this chilly winter's day!

New ring

Well, this is a pretty momentous day because not only am I finally selling a ring for the first time, but I actually managed to tear myself away from reading the manuscript of Midnight Sun for a bit to head down to my workbench, fire up the torch, and make not one, but two rings ready for sale. I figured I've neglected the shop long enough while worshiping at the altar of Edward Cullen.


Here is the first one, named Alice (heh heh - you probably won't be terribly surprised to find out that she is named after one of the characters from Twilight). Featuring a nicely sized lemon chrysoprase cabochon - 10mm, to be exact - in a bezel setting, sitting atop the hand-forged band made of 12g sterling silver wire.

The chrysoprase is a really pretty color, a pale yellow-green. She is available in size 6, but if you'd like this in a different size, I can custom make it for you for an additional 2 weeks.

Bezel ring

Today was the last day of metalsmithing class, and I completed my bezel ring! I had serious doubts about whether I would be able to, but the old elbow grease came through.

I have to admit - this was hard work. At one point I got into a tight spot and my teacher had to help me get out of it. As you can see, it's not completely perfect (the bezel cup is soldered on a little crookedly), but I think it's pretty decent for a first try.

Talk about blood (literally), sweat (literally), and tears (figuratively).

Class progress report

This is what I did in class today. I finished that blasted ring. Yay! Well, sort of. I still need to put the final touches on it (buffing, etc). But for the most part the structure, which was giving me so much trouble the last time, is pretty much done.


Then I started on stone setting. Here is the start of my bezel cup to put that pretty green chrysoprase cabochon in. Predictably, I had problems, not the least of which was shredding my fingers into a bloody mess three times with the jeweler's saw, giving myself a nasty scrape on my shoulder courtesy of the bench pin, and almost setting my hair on fire with the torch.

As my friend Marnie likes to say: good times.

Earrings, a bracelet, and a book

First up, the earrings that are a custom order for Meridith, which feature sapphire blue faceted briolettes in the style of the Victoria. I named these "Lauren" in honor of the recipient. I hope she likes them!


Next up is a chrysoprase bracelet, named "Melanie" after an aunt (I am slowly making my way through the names of my mom and her sisters: Bella, Mila, Kathleen, now Melanie, and then Lorna will be the last in the series).


I love these aunts - my mom and her sisters are, to me, the epitome of all that is competent, fierce, brave, commanding, kind, and capable, all perfect examples of what motherhood and womanhood should be. My sister, my cousins and I all stand in fear and awe of these wonderful women. So I'm proud to name my designs after all of them!

And last up, Mr Hazel's mystery Valentine's gift finally arrived in the mail. Remember when I was unsuccessfully searching for a French novel to use for my photographs? My search is done! Because his gift is a book of French love poems:

Quelle merveilleuse!

New shop item: chrysoprase bracelet

A new bracelet added to the shop! This one is "Pamela," named after one of my cousins. She features a focal stone of chrysoprase and two white round pearls, on an 8" sterling silver link chain that I got from the gem show. I love this chain - it's very light and delicate and so pretty.

I have the day off today and I had all these plans to be productive, but I ended up napping on the couch with Moxie cuddled next to me while "Price Is Right" was on TV. I'm still not used to seeing Drew Carey's mug in front of that giant wheel, screaming about showcases and presiding over Plinko.

I'm now off to think about some lunch...happy Friday everyone!

Featured countdown necklace of the day: Crysophrase and silver

Ten days left! I am so excited!


I had a long photo shoot with all the finished pieces because some of the earlier pictures I took didn't come out right. After experimenting a whole lot, I found that the optimal place to photograph these is on my kitchen table - we have French doors directly next to it that is a great source of afternoon light. Plus, the color of the walls is a nice backdrop.

So today I took a bunch of pictures that I want to use on Etsy, but halfway through, the sun decided to say goodbye. I had to cut things short and try again another day.



Today's featured necklace is a new one, and it photographed fairly well. It is made of my favorite stone, crysophrase, with a single pearl hanging off a silver linked chain. This chain is such a great find - I really love this shade of silver.

And here is a close up of the toggle clasp.

Something funky this way comes

Okay, so I got totally inspired to try something different...what do you think? A focal bead of crysophrase (approximately 1.5" x 1"), with two nugget pearls and a bone butterfly halfway up the 36" silver chain...enclosed by a silver toggle clasp. This is a very long necklace and can be placed over the head without the need to unclasp it (unless the wearer has a head circumference larger than 36", in which case you probably have bigger problems to worry about.)

I kid, I kid.

I'm still not sure how I feel about having the crysophrase there - if I leave just the butterfly and the pearls, this necklace would look rather 1920-ish, maybe worn with a flapper dress . A look that I dig.

But I also love that splash of green there, sort of an unexpected surprise of color. I think it makes a lively, bold statement.

Hmmm...

Chrysoprase

Here you can see the full picture of the wire-wrapped Burmese chrysoprase choker I talked about in my first post. The choker is approximately 18" in length, on sterling silver wire.

I love the green of these stones!

I am also currently working on several new pieces, so stay tuned for those.

Green stones

At a buying trip to one of the bead shows I attended last year, I managed to acquire a lot of incredibly beautiful and interesting gemstones and beads. My jackpot buy of the day, however, was a stone called chrysoprase. I was drawn to its various shades of green - sometimes a light, mint color interspersed with a darker sea foam green:

And sometimes a deep jungle green lightening to a jade:

It was love at first sight with these gemstones, and I immediately began dreaming about the necklaces I will create.

This is the finished piece out of the third strand. It is made of Burmese chrysoprase, chained together on sterling silver wire with some of the larger stones wire-wrapped to make a dynamic choker.