Gemstones and Hearts!

Valentine's Day is creeping up on us, and I'm still listing jewelry pieces with hearts. I have gemstone hearts I should use, but I've lately been involved with the lampwork hearts that you see here. My favorite necklace with a heart is probably the one (close-up is above) I made with lampwork beads from Lynn Nurge, genuine rubies, and goldfilled beads and charms. The rubies are a generous size, nice and chunky, and the goldfilled components match the flecks of gold in these dichroic beads. Instead of graduating rubies until they were smaller and smaller, or keeping them all large (and thus making a very expensive necklace), I decided to make the ruby part of the necklace like a "collar" and join it to large-linked goldfilled chain.This ruby necklace will be a great Valentine's Day present for someone.
I bought several of these silvery pink Venetian hearts because I was so taken by the colour, the light pink laced with such a clear silvery shimmer. I liked the heart so much that I decided to keep it the star by hanging it from pink suede and adding only a touch of silver and a little faceted amethyst rondelle to the bottom. This lampwork pendant necklace can be found on the same page as the lampwork pendant necklace seen below, another heart pendant, this time from Annie Divelbiss. It, too, is laced with silver; the colours are different tones of blue-purple, and it hangs from a pretty imprinted sterling silver chain from the Karen Hill Tribes of Thailand. I've left most of the chain so that the buyer can wear it about 27 inches or have it shortened to wear as a choker.

Today we had the first snow of the year - or I should say the season, since we had no snow either in December or November. It was a wet, sleety snow, just enough to make driving difficult for drivers who aren't used to driving on slick roads and give shivers to the rest of us. How wonderful it would be to have about 6 inches of soft, powdery snow to look beautiful for a day or so, then melt away. How can it be winter without any snow?



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Ohhhh Wild!

The weather not my jewellery today! Bet you all wondered though. So who has sun, wind, rain, or even snow?? We are forecasted snow but as that happens every blue moon (which I'm sure its not) I'd be very surprised but I promise pics if we do. Elli has a inset day (teachers training day) tomorrow so it would be fab if we did have some. I'm planning cake making and other delights if not - we were planning on going off with Mamma and Gump (My parents) but with the weather being threatened we're not.

I assume my inspiration for these pieces came from the beautiful day we had at the beach on Sunday as well. Kara from Innocent Charms Chats says this one reminds her of the sky and the sea so its probably from Sunday. But my friend Caroline of Crafted Gems also posted a picture from her weekend where she went to the coast - her picture is the opposite of mine - maybe because she lives up in Scotland her picture is cold and wild with the sea crashing on the harbour. Wonderful I love it and of course I nagged her to let me post it here too

Isn't it fantastic!!!

Valentine's Day is around the corner

It's already that time of the year again, nearing Valentines Day. This is such a beautiful holiday, where people in love can reinforce their commitment and feelings to each other. This day everything evolves around love, red, strong sentiments, hearts, all these being symbols recognised by everyone in the world.

Some beautiful artisan handmade jewelry dedicated to Valentines can be found in my Dawanda shop. A beautiful Valentines' heart wrapped in sterling silver, superbly hanging on a silver chain for the more sophisticated.
Or what about for the even younger among us, with a new love just now blooming? This gorgeous carnelian red heart wrapped in silver, on a faux leather cord will be just right for your partner: not too expensive, but not cheap either. It shows no strong commitment to scare away your newly found partner, but at the same time displays sensitivity and emanates the feeling that you are interested.
Or if you don't care much about hearts, but want to offer something unique and full of mystery and intrigue, check out the silver pendant displayed here.
And coming back to hearts, here is a beautiful jasper heart, wrapped in sterling silver on a silver chain.

And I have an offer for you until Valentine's day: if you mention in your purchase note that you've seen this post which has redirected you to my shop, I will send your item airmail express, for a super fast delivery, at no additional cost.

Beach Inspired!

After the day we had at the beach (see post below) you couldn't expect anything less then beach inspired jewellery! Luckily I'd just taken delivery of some fabulous shells that Isabelle Anderson had made me ready for my Sea Gem section on my website which I like to fill with not only sea glass but beach themed bracelets, necklaces and earrings. Sadly in the winter months the urge to create is not so strong - probably something to do with its too cold and wet for the beach!!

I love seaglass as you all know and owuld love to be able to do more with it - unfortunately at the moment my silver skills aren't up to the standard of bezels and things but one lady who is just fantastic with sea glass is Barb Macy - her sea glass jewellery (and all her jewellery) is fab and her blog makes a great read especially if you are a jewellery designer.

So did you all notice??? - no oxidisation today!!!

Back

I'm finally back from holidays. Two great weeks together with my family, even saw my grandparents whom I haven't seen in the last 14 years. Sadly even two weeks are too short...

I took my Koil Kutter and a few silver coils with me, as my father has a dremel and I wanted to learn with his guidance how to cut coils (he is very good with everything technical, he's actually a sort of genious in his field, but about that at another time). To our big and sad surprise, the KK was not working with any of the 2 dremels and one Proxon that my dad had, even though one of them was exactly what Dave said it is working with (the exact model). After carefully measuring, dad told me that the saw, key and everything else is in inches, not in mm, so I got pretty upset that I spent around $100 for nothing. Dad didn't get discouraged and spent most of the day fixing my KK to work with European dremels. He had all the equipment at hand and made it for me, so now I can screw on the KK to my dremel and cut coils without a problem. Without my dad I couldn't have been able to even use the darn thing and most probably would have had to send it back to Dave or something.
Besides this major annoyance, all was well, and finally I could cut my coils much faster than with the jeweler's saw, which is great!

While on holidays, I managed to make a few pendants as I started to already feel withdrawal symptoms without making jewelry. Good that I took some of my tools and silver with me. Here is the result below.

I think I can fly!

WE spent the afternoon at the beach - it was beautiful, the sun really warm and the sky blue as summer! I love this pic I got of my daughter jumping at the waves - please note she isn't silly and stand out of the sea so not to get wet when landing!!

You almost need sunglasses for this picture don't you - low sun on sparkling water!

I love this pic, Elli and E comparing feet sizes!!

OK so back to the jewellery I have been creating and oxidising again!! Don't worry I promise more shiney sparkly pieces tomorrow!! I just couldn't resist showing you what a wonderful day at the beach complete with little pasties - well we are Cornish!!

Against the Grain is an oxidised bangle with fw pearl and Rose Quartz - the darkness of the silver really brings the stones out, don't you think??

© Gemheaven 2008

More for Valentine's Day

I'm still trying to get my depleted website full once again, but it's not easy when you're a one-woman design team. Custom orders do keep me busy and away from the computer (that's why I'm always writing at night, at home, since my studio is downtown.). If I could make jewelry and work on my custom orders at home, I'd never get anything listed on the site. This week, sickness has also intervened , keeping me in bed for 3 days and away from the studio and the computer. My dear kitties , who are only a bit over a year old , totally exuberant, full of life and energy, spent most of those 3 days in bed with me, one sleeping beside me, one on my feet or legs. Of course, now they have energy to spare and all they want to do is play.Some of the new bracelets that will be on the website soon (or at least by the end of this weekend) are on the post today. The first is a rose quartz bracelet with pretty lampwork beads by Riveroaks Acres; it is big and chunky thanks to the rose quartz nuggets and the sterling bead with the heart on it. The next bracelet is unusual - a heart bracelet - perfect for Valentine's - but instead of pink or blue or red, the beads and heart are a combination of amber, black and metallics, both gold and silver in an odd combination that I really like. I mixed some black agate with banding with it, but the beads (by Lynn Nurge) are really the bracelet. It is goldfilled from each small bead to the toggle clasp. It will be on the Lampwork Bracelets page.
The sapphire bracelet below is made of more of Lynn's beads, borosilicate this time, and faceted sapphire rondelles. Loads of sterling silver are on this one.The amethyst earrings hang from some of my favorite posts with a cabochon amethyst bezel-set in them. The dangle part of the earring is made of carved amethyst lilies (love these lilies, love carved beads!). I like the posts myself because years of wearing heavy earrings have stretched my ear piercings. With the nice metal and plastic disk back, these posts hold the earrings in place without stretching your earlobes.

The Tuscon Gem Show is coming up in less than a month and I'm very excited about all the new gemstones I'll be getting. Every year there is something new and special to play with. I can't wait!
Note to my readers in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway - we here in Arkansas feel that we are suffering because the thermometer hit 20 Fahrenheit. No snow yet, but the wind is bitter. I wonder how we would fare in Lapland?

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jewellery accessories jewelry fashion shopping beads handmade beaded jewelry beading helmi gioielli smykker takı juvelen The Jewelry Blog jewelry trends accessories handmade jewelry handcrafted jewelry beads handmade beaded jewelry sapphires sapphire jewelry sapphire bracelet