New website (not yet active) and official email address

I got myself a domain name today, http://marikajewelry.com/, which will be used - eventually - for an online e-commerce website. Right now it's parked until I will get to it, most probably early next year.
With it I also have now an email specifically for jewelry inquiries at marika@marikajewelry.com

Pink rhodonite set

I found the earrings I made today a bit lonely by themselves, so I granted them the wish to have some friends around. Thus the rhodonite set was born.
I really love this deep interesting pink, which turns almost into mauve at times. Unfortunately there were the only stones I bought from the Etsy seller, will have to go back and buy some more if she still has some...

Update: I've redesigned both the earrings and the bracelet as I didn't find them very comfortable when I tried them on. I think now they are perfect :)

Happy Halloween!

I don't have any scary pics ( although the quality of this one is pretty scary - this was a very difficult colour to photograph so big sorry's to you all squinting at the screen) This morning I was awoken by a BOO! from Elli arghhh I'm not good when I'm frightened awake lol - she's so excited!!

We are off shopping for school shoes today but coming back in good time as we have a Halloween party to come too - Elli is dressing up as a bat - she says she's a Princess Bat but I'm not sure they have those! No doubt she'll make herself as sparkly as possible ....

RESERVED

I'm sure most of you recognise Isabelle Anderson's beautiful beads here (If not find her at flame and glass) teamed with a load of silver I think this necklace has turned out pretty well (with added sparkle from the Alexandrite swarovski crystals) There are earrings to match but unless you can cope more bad pics I'm not sure I want to show you ..............................

OK a little one just to tempt :)

Right I have a new charm bracelet called Frosty Morning to photograph and a website to clean up before the loading of new pieces tomorrow.

Enjoy your day! RESERVED

© Gemheaven 2007

My first netted bezel

I've practiced the netting some more and as I couldn't find a neat way to make the coil secure, I tackled Delia's second tutorial, the netted bezel. I recognise that it's not something to be proud about, I need a lot of work to get it right, but I'm excited as I've actually finished it and the stone is sitting safely and secure in the netting. I see nice potential here, I will practice more, as I have some nice stones at home that I can use for it.
Here are the front and the back of the bezel.


So to reward myself for finishing off my first piece, I made this pink pair of rhodonite earrings with bali and sterling. The color of the stones is really gorgeous, I bought them from somebody on Etsy.

Wow I just realised while writing this last paragraph how lucky I am that I know to make jewelry. Other times I would reward myself with a chocolate cake or a pat on the back...now I reward myself with a piece of semiprecious jewelry *grins*.

Lyonesse

Whether you live in Wales, Scotland or Cornwall there is always connections to King Arthur, of course being Cornish you can guess where I think he was lol but the stories of Lyonesse are - ok in my eyes - pointing to the Isles of Scillies especially when you know there are signs under the water of walls and fields!!
The website The Land of King Arthur gives some idea of what I'm talking about- have a read - and then remember we also have Tintagel ;0). Any one lucky enough to visit Cornwall will understand the mystical land we live in!!

Of course I couldn't finish without Tresco !!

Enjoy!
© Gemheaven 2007

Mother of Pearl, Labradorite, and Lampwork

It's a miracle I have any new pictures to post: besides doing custom work and packing like crazy, we have been remodeling our home (new floors in 3 downstairs rooms, a new upstairs bathroom, and downstairs bathroom as well as some cosmetic changes and painting the den). The workers are finally finished and my work has just begun. All the furniture in the rooms we changed had to be moved and while the workers moved the furniture back (my whole closet had to be emptied - shelving and all!) this is a wonderful opportunity to clean, clear out old clothes and all the junk we seem to have collected over the years. Of course, we still have to get a lot of decorating done. Fun, but whew! time-consuming and tiring!
A couple of nights I stayed very late at the studio, and the result is what you see on this post today.
When I started out, I didn't mean to work with mother-of-pearl, but like so many times, these funny silver mother of pearl pieces were on the workbench where I kept looking at them until I had to pick them up and play with them. The result: earrings and a bracelet made with silver mother-of-pearl with an Aurora Borealis coating added and Swarovski crystals in Silver Shadow.
Of course, I love labradorite and work with it any chance I get, so the natural thing to do when I realized I needed to replenish the abalone jewelry stock was to mix abalone and labradorite together with sterling silver and some of my favorite lampwork beads from Robin Weber. It's a combination that I've used before, but one I don't think that I will tire of anytime soon.
The last lampwork bracelet is one of the prettiest bracelets I've ever made. Unfortunately, the picture is one of the worst that I've ever taken. I think that the soft almost opalescent pink on the beads is so subtle that it just doesn't show up well. The lampwork beads are made by Lynn Nurge of Laffingull (she's the beadmaker who makes smaller scale beads that are perfect for bracelets). I've mixed the lampwork with good gem quality peridot and sterling silver. The second strand of the bracelet is a very large linked sterling chain with the tiniest little sterling daisy charms hanging from the links (these don't show up very well either).
To my readers in the Scandinavia and Estonia, I'm sure that you're beginning to snuggle in and get cozy while to those of you in Hawaii (you know who you are), once again, I am so jealous of your climate. Meanwhile, I can see that a fire in our fireplace is in the near future.


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Hols are here!!!

Half term is here so I will do my best to post on here regulary - if my lovely daughter allows it - I love it when she is off school - no clock watching and no packed lumches, no after school activities ahhhh relaxation!!! Well you'd think wouldn't you lol - my daughter likes to go out and about the whole week - plus I have a party on Friday so busy busy!!

This bracelet with beads from Josephine Wadman - aren't they gorgeous like little pockets of garden!! I named her after Heligan Gardens or "Ligan" as the locals call it. A beautiful garden near where I live that had been lost since the First World War - have a look at the website and let me know what you think.
© Gemheaven 2007

The need to grow

As I've become rather proficient in doing basic wraped pendants and typical earrings, I feel I need to do something else, something more. I need to learn more. Else I'll be always your neighbour 25 Euros pendant gal, lol. And that will definitely not help my dream of becoming a jewelry designer. And famous at that! (a bit of tongue in cheek here with a degree of seriousness attached to it).
So I've decided to tackle something more difficult, something I've never tried before. I have two tutorials on netting (and I don't mean here beading netting, which I love so much and know so well), one from Eni Oken and one from Delia, second which I purchased just days ago and I wanted to give them a try. Combining techniques from both tutorials, I've started on my journey of learning something completely new to me.
Here are my first (ok my second and third, as the first was not something anyone would want to see) two attempts with a gorgeous rhodonite stone and some 0.5 mm coated copper wire. Rather unsuccessful first attempts I might say, but I actually found myself enjoying the process.
One of my main problems here was how to add the bail. The bead holes are at the top side and Delia's tutorial doesn't solve it. When I tried her way, the stone fell out of the netting straight away. Eni's solution is gorgeous, but I wanted to focus on the netting rather than coiling around the stone. So it took me a few tried until I found a sort of solution, which I need to work on more, so it is stable, secure and nice looking too.

Princess set

I saw today a project on one of the beading sites and I gave it a go. This was the result and I quite like it. Spring opalite, with a dash of hematite and sterling silver. The bracelet looks so dainty and delicate on my wrist that I decided to name the combo Princes set, for the princess in all of us.







As I had the opalite beads here next to me, I felt like making a second pair of earrings, just for the fun of it, so here they are. Opalite with bali silver spacers and rest is all sterling.
These beads are so interesting, because they are translucent but also shimmering somehow, they take nicely the color of what is near or under them.
Hm, now that I'm looking at all pieces at the same time, both earrings go extremely well with the bracelet :)

Swirls and Curls

Yep the weather is now a typical English autumn , misty drizzle and cold - arghhh I hate this weather - my hair naturally is wavy - not a nice ringletty curl but what I class as a clump wavy bit every so often and this sort of weather aggravates my hair no end. Every morning I straighten my hair (and yes I use protectors lol) and if I stepped outside now it would just undo all the hard work!! Funny that I straighten it now for years I had a spiral perm to create the ringletty curls I so desired!!

The above bracelet has the fabulous Isabelle Anderson's beads and Karen Hill Tribe silver - crystals in Silk help create this eyecatching but soft looking bracelet.

And now I have to attempt to photograph some new pieces I have created - this murky light is not liked by my camera at all!! Also my saw arrived - I have to say Goulds Jewellers were fabulous - second to none customer service I would recommend there service highly - so if in need of some tools try these lovely people :)

© Gemheaven 2007

Change on the cards!

We've been so lucky with the weather but today its truly broken lol - misty drizzle and cold for the walk up to school yuk! The above charm bracelet was actually inspired by the beautiful early evening skies we've had here recently - the beautiful tapestry of colour has been amazing - sometimes nature has a way of waking us up to its beauty!

The blues, pinks and purples in the sky apparently - according to my daughter were painted there just for us (Our favourite colours - you see!!) have you been seeing the same skies???

This charm bracelet is slightly different to my others in the fact I created the chain using a simple 2x2 - not only does it give a very chunky feel I also believe the gemstones, fw pearls, crystals and Caroline's fabulous beads a better sitting position! I absolutely adore this charm bracelet and will be having a very hard time letting this one go I think!

© Gemheaven 2007

Desert flower SOLD

I bought this gorgeous shell here in Nicosia and I was wracking my brains what to do with it. It's just too beautiful to overwrap it with silver, so I decided to add just a touch of it here and there. The final output reminds me of the desert in the heat, and a delicate single flower standing up against all odds. Hence I named the pendant Desert Flower.

And sold it this morning to a colleague at work, she loved it, took it off my neck :)