Hearts on fire

I was busy the whole day today making this beautiful chainmail necklace. I had the idea in my mind for a while now and I was waiting for the weekend to put it into practice.

Handmade fire lampwork bead by an Etsy artist, and the rest is sterling silver in the byzantine chainmail weave with four gorgeous sterling silver hearts. The necklace is about 45 cm. The rings have been one by one hand-coiled, cut with the saw and then tumbled for a few hours in my Lortone tumbler to add strength and extra shine.
Free shipping as usual all over the world.

68 Euros

Back to My Bracelets!!

Serendipity strikes once again! A set of lampwork beads, oddly coloured with tones of brown, beige, olive and purple, carelessly placed on a desk next to some new strands of beads, and voila, a combination I may not have otherwise come up with. This matching bracelet and necklace (earrings will be posted soon) contains ametrine, moss opal, amethyst, and tiger-eye beads as well as those pretty, but oddly coloured lampwork beads. This necklace is very versatile (yes, despite the purple) because it looks great with neutrals such as khaki, black, browns, camels, and tans. I'm not selling them as a set, but I did make them together using all the same elements in each piece.


I've been making some bracelets this week (well, among other things); the unique bracelet above is one of my favorite combinations with the last of some of my favorite lampwork beads by Robin Weber. Fire agate and aqua Peruvian chalcedony may not sound like the perfect match, but with these lampwork beads - I'm in love! This is only the second time I've used this combination, but I think it's going to become one of my classics. Below is another classic: the labradorite bracelet with two strands - two strands so that there is always some blue flash showing! I choose my labradorite pieces carefully when I make a piece of labradorite jewelry so that each piece has "flash" and the stronger, the better. But even so, labradorite flashes with movement (the reason it's so great for dangling earrings and bracelets).
Below is a rainbow moonstone bracelet - also double-stranded for the same reasons as the labradorite bracelet. This one also has great lampwork beads in white and clear with a slight iridescent quality. I'll be making more moonstone jewelry since the modern birthstone for June is the moonstone (the traditional birthstone is the pearl).


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Creative weekend

I decided to spend this weekend catching up with my main interest, without heavy interruptions, so I signed out of chats and forums (except the main two, PLF and EIS, I regularly visit - on PLF being a mod so need to check in there regularly, and EIS representing my latest rock tumbling addition :D), and just spent time making jewelry. After yesterday's chainmail necklace, I got busy today and made the rhodonite pendant and the lampwork chainmail bracelet. I will post later on more pics of them separately as well.

I also went last night to the Cyprus International fair with a friend and colleague of mine, we had some really nice and fun time there. I found one stall there exhibiting jewelry busts and all sorts of boxes, so I got their address, and today, as it happened that their shop had an exhibition at their own premises as well, I popped in and bought a few necklace stands and some silver chains. Boy the stands were awfully expensive, 86 Euros for two larger busts!! I'd honestly say it's a rip-off. However as I was already there and I really wanted some good and bigger stands than I already have, what could I say. And talk about wholesale prices...that's Cyprus for you :(

Starlight

I wanted to make another necklace from the chainmail book by Dylon White, so last night I took out the Koil Kutter and made a few more silver rings. Then tumbled them and sorted them from the steel shot just before going to sleep.
I made this today, based on the European 4 in 1.
This piece is a necklace lenght, 44 cm with black Czech beads dangling from some triangles.
A cute little heart clasp ends this beautiful necklace.

I love this chainmail book. I know it has gotten a few bad reviews, but for me, it's just what I need to take my chainmail knowledge to new lengths.

I'm in love...name's Rocks :D

I got a serious addiction here. Thank the gods I'm not alone with it and I can always join the rock tumblers anonymous group!

Can't wait every day to come home from work to check up on the tumbling rocks. Yesterday celebrating 7 days since I started tumbling, I took them out to take pictures (and fondled them as well *rolleyes*). I was a bit sad because my grit still hasn't arrived from the US, and it's about time to recharge the coarse grit. However, today the lightbulb suddenly went on! I remembered that with both my previous tumblers I got a pack of some rocks and a pack of each type of grits! And yeah, after some heavy searching in my overcrowded room with jewelry thingies, books and now...rocks...second pack of grits found!

Which means, take out all the stones again, wash them (and fondle them!), wash out a bit the barrels at this stage (no need to wash too deeply as the same type of grit goes in anyway), then put back the rocks, one by one, looking at them longingly (hey, I did say I was in love :p), putting the grit (thank gods was enough for both barrels), fill it up with water, and due to the erosion of the rocks, there was place to put two new ones in each barrel. I was happy-dancing like a kid. Am I crazy? Hubby says 'yeah but it's harmless'. Well, such hubby to have everyone!
And now the two barrels are happily tumbling with fresh charge for another week until *hopefully* I can take out some rounded rocks to put aside for stage 2.
I'm crazily in love...in love...love..

In the tumbler - after one week

So today is exactly one week that I started my two barrels of rocks for tumbling.
Took some of them out to take a picture and added a few more rocks as well to the pot, as the rocks really decreased in size :O
I see some really nice tiger eyes and red jaspers in the first pic and rose quartzes in the second one, can't wait to see the final result.
I will leave them for 1-2 more weeks before putting them in stage 2.
If there's ANYTHING that teaches you patience, rock tumbling wins the prize!

In the Merry Month of May

I love May, and not just because it's my birthday month. May is the month when Spring turns into Summer (at least here in Arkansas), the privet blooms and our backyard becomes perfumed like a night in Brazil, and my mood improves wonderfully (perhaps because my fibromyalgia does). I have been so busy with shipping and paperwork, not to mention trying to get my office/studio reorganized that I haven't had much time for making jewelry. Of course, I haven't had that drive lately that causes me to stay at the studio so late that I see the policemen change shifts in front of city hall across the way. I've been having ideas, but the ideas are such that I require hours of time to play with colour schemes, gemstones and manipulate wire without interruptions of any kind.
However, I did do the apatite bracelet above, 2 strands of sea-coloured apatite with lampwork beads by Lynn Nurge, while dreaming of crashing into waves with a kayak.The bracelet above is unusual for me - a combination of brown and blue is not one I am known for. But the fantastic beads were my starting point, and I loved them so much I had to go with the two colours. So of course I chose pietersite for the brown: wonderful browns with great subtle patterns and sometimes glints of gold and blue. The Swarovski crystals keep the bracelet from becoming too earthy.

I adore lapis! The lapis earrings that you see here are made with some of my favorite pieces of lapis. The ones above feature good blue lapis with great ripples of sparkling gold pyrite-very nicely sparkling pyrite in chunky faceted nuggets. The earrings below feature some fantastic faceted diamond squares and rondelles of gorgeous blue that hang from sterling posts with spirals around a lapis cabachon.
Here's hoping for some time, totally free time, so that I can play, because play so often results in wonderful things!
Tell me, are the flowers blooming in Finland yet?

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