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!

More tradeshows

I just listed the matching Margery necklace in the shop.

Earlier today I braved another tradeshow. I only went because I needed to re-stock some supplies, so I was happy to see that the vendor I usually get my aqua chalcedony brios from was back. I bought a few strands from him, which means I can again offer my bestseller, the Leslie earrings.

I also bought some liver of sulfur, so expect some antique-y looking pieces to appear in the shop soon, as well as Batterns flux and more pickling solution for my metalsmithing. I find that the paste flux I'm using now isn't as good as the Batterns, so hopefully this will make soldering go a little easier. Other than those and just a few more beads (apatite, more chrysoprase, turquoise, and quartz), there wasn't really that much new or exciting in the way of beads and gemstones, so I didn't leave with my usual haul.

And of course, this being the weekend before Christmas (still hard to believe!) all the other places I visited today were total madhouses.

Amazonite earrings

To tie in my ballet kick with my jewelry designs, I named these new amazonite and gold earrings Odette, after the good swan princess from Swan Lake. I'm still deciding whether to name another piece Odile, after the evil princess - we will see.

These earrings are really dainty and delicate-looking, measuring a total of a little under two inches. Now available at the shop!

Works in progress

Working on designs for my friend Camille's custom order for her bridesmaids. Her colors are in the gold and brown families, since her wedding is going to be an autumn one.


A prototype of the bridesmaid earring. The one for the maid-of-honor will be more intricate. These are made of smoky quartz brios and vermeil chain.

New in the shop

I have a few new things finished, starting with these tourmaline earrings. She's "Eve," named after the awesome girl robot in "WALL-E."

Eve is now up at the shop!

Wishing all my American friends a happy 4th!

Matching bi-color quartz necklace

Here is the matching "Eugenie" necklace.

I had the hardest time with these photographs. I couldn't capture the sparkle of the quartz adequately - it kept coming in very dark.

Hopefully these are better.

Check out the Eugenie necklace at the shop!

Aqua earrings

Faceted aqua quartz rondelles with hammered vermeil squares and earwires. This one is "Carrie," named after Carrie Bradshaw and in honor of the new SATC movie!

Carrie is now up at the shop!

Important public service announcement: whatever you do, refrain from seeing the new Indiana Jones. Unfortunately, that was two and a half hours of my life that I'll never get back.

Bi-color quartz drops

These bi-color quartz step cut drops are gorgeous - the step cuts reflect the light beautifully and make the stones very sparkly. It's hard to capture in photographs - this was my best attempt, but even this doesn't do the stones justice. I just hope it sort of comes through when looking at the rest of the pictures in the shop.

These stones are so regal and gorgeous that I couldn't help but name them after royalty - specifically, Empress Eugenie of France, Napoleon III's wife. "Eugenie" is paired with white rice pearls and decorative vermeil circles, hanging from handmade and hammered gold-filled earwires.

Eugenie is now available - check out her other pictures!

Also, I am offering another Astrid necklace!

And check out the matching Leslie necklace that I finished. This was a custom order. The circle link really dressed up the piece and gave it a jazzier look.

Blue crystal earrings

These are "Angela," after a derivative of my grandmother's name. Her real name is actually more complicated and unusual. She features a pair of beautiful blue dyed crystal beads dangling from vermeil earwires, with a matching necklace to be debuted tomorrow.

More pictures and details of Angela are available at the shop!

FEATURED!

So Angie from The Downtown Boutique has another blog called Rio Oso Designs, and today she told me that she started a new feature on there called "Thursday Thumbnails" - and that she picked my shop to be one of those featured today! I am the second post on the April 3 blog entry, so please check out her blog!

A huge thanks, Angie!

Smoky quartz earrings

So I really wanted to name something after my cousin Ryan, who is Highmaintenancemom's little bro, but I couldn't come up with a good girl's derivative of his name. I decided to call this piece "Camryn" after his girlfriend instead. This one's for you, too, Ryan!

She is made of these gorgeous smoky quartz faceted briolettes, hand wrapped in gold-filled wire. I then added gold-filled jump rings to dress her up and put the whole lot on vermeil earwires.

More pictures and details of Camryn are available at the shop! (Also notice the debut of the French poetry book from Mr Hazel in these pictures.)

And in the good news front, Margaret, Bella and another pair of Ahila have all sold! Thanks, Lisa!

Yesterday also saw the arrival of the dress form that I had ordered. I've been looking for one of these for a while now for displaying and photographing my necklaces because I realized it's hard to gauge the length and the overall look just by using those busts. But with the dress forms, they are in proportion to a real person so you can see where the necklaces will hang in relation to the neck and bust. My sister also was the one to tell me that they are called "dress forms" and not mannequins (which are different things), so I knew what to search for.

The one I bought is gorgeous, has a wooden base and neck, and can be extended up to 6'. It also has a really huge pair of boobs. The one I originally wanted to get didn't have nearly as big a pair, but Mr Hazel thought this one was better because it has, according to him, "more of a form." Yes, we all know what he meant by that!

Also, I think this makes for nice decoration. Gives a room that chic, "Paris atelier" sort of a look.


I've retaken shots of some of the necklaces and will continue doing so until all of the existing necklaces have this picture. Here are some I've put up already:



I kind of feel like I ought to put some clothes on her.

New shop item: more pink earrings

These earrings are "Bella," named after one of my favorite aunts who actually has a much longer and more complicated name, but I thought Bella was a pretty appropriate derivative. She is similar to the Elizabeth earrings, only the glass briolettes are translucent instead of opaque and I used gold-filled wire and vermeil earwires instead of sterling. I thought this picture, where the earrings reflect the words off the pages of the book, was pretty cool.

More details and pictures of Bella are available at the shop!

I've been keenly following the events in Pyongyang from the last day or two, with the historic arrival of the New York Philharmonic. This article made me teary. As a universal language that embraces all cultures, music really is a powerful tool that brings two disparate countries and cultures together. I would really love to watch this concert, especially because part of the repertoire is Dvorak's 9th Symphony (the famous "New World" Symphony), one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.

I still remember sitting in my room as a kid, listening to the magical, soaring, haunting largo movement over and over again. I hope the North Koreans love it equally well.

New shop item: sky blue earrings

Ooh, I love how these turned out. It's very rare that I work in gold, but these stones definitely called for some fancy gold components. And blue and gold remind me of Versailles.

These earrings are the "Stephanie," named after another good friend of mine. She is made of sky blue quartz briolettes, gold-filled wire, and gold vermeil earwires.

More details and pictures of Stephanie are available at the shop!

My sister also requested "Sophie" with a chain instead of the blue ribbon, so I'm happy to say the revamped Sophie is now available on reserve.

Mr Hazel took me to a fancy new steakhouse downtown for dinner last night. I ordered raw oysters for my appetizer (I love me some oysters) and requested some vinegar to go with it. I expected them to bring out a bottle of plain old vinegar like they do at Red Lobster (yes, I admit, in addition to the high brow, we also do low), but instead they brought out this fancy aged vinegar dressed in chopped garlic. It was to die for. Oh, and the steak wasn't too bad, either. For dessert, I had the crepe souffle, and a grapefruit martini for my cocktail.

Yum.