Down but not out

Sorry... I've been out of the jewelry making bit of my life. I ran to PA to get my husbands car and the day after I got back I ended up in the hospital for two days.... Tomorrow I get my surgery and should be up and running before ya know it!

Unusually Pretty

 

Knowing me, there are few days that I get all dolled up. These two pieces were completed yesterday and as I took pictures of them I noticed how usually pretty they are. The bracelet started when someone from Etsy asked for a Haute Bride type bracelet with the crystal brooch in the middle and 5 strands of pearls bursting from it. Well, I did what she asked for but then I didn't like it... thought the 5 strand of solid pearls looked boring. SO, I added my own pattern to it and I think it looks like music notes on five lines of music.

The other necklace was inspired from the winter tulips that Franny gave us... they were starting to die, as all fresh flowers do... I was watching the petals lean back and then drop off and thought the rasberry/white mix of colors looked really pretty. So, I took the pictures with some of the fallen petals.

Oldest Necklace EVER

 



If you knew me in High School/College I had this necklace... Depending on WHEN you knew me it was either tied behind my neck, fastened with a safety pin or just literally falling off and in pieces...
I LOVED this necklace that I bought from the stand in front of the lemonade stand that worked at in the Park City mall. So much that I finally bought it after staring at it forever and just recently RECREATED it. I still had the pieces so thanks to the internet I found the knotting technique. An hour later and two different thicknesses of hemp rope I had my necklace back... YAY! It's amazing the things I'll do for something I enjoy. Anywho, thought I'd share!

Project

 

So, someone on Etsy was looking for a 5 strand pearl bracelet with a crystal brooch in the middle. I started this project just to see if I could do it... As you can tell I'm not done AT ALL! In fact I have the bracelet held around my wrist with sticky tack... But I like the look... I used coin pearls and some smaller odd shaped ones... It' still a work in progress but I'll update it when it's completed :)

Tutu Thursday

 

Here is a tutu I made today to show someone on Etsy. It's a duo tone with my favorite dark pink/purple and sewn to a purple ribbon... I sprayed it with sparklies but the camera isn't capturing that :( But I think I'll take this one out and around town tonight :)

Franny Franny Franny

 

I am very lucky to be surrounded by such creative people in my life and Franny is a new addition. Justin, my husband's mom Franny is an artist. She travels around to the schools in Toronto/Ontario and teaches. I love being involved in her projects! Once she saw my work that she had commissioned me to do she hinted that she would love some "interesting brooches that the kids will see and ask what they are made of" for her Christmas gift... well, I decided to do one for each day of the week. Here is a photo of four. "The Daffodil" was my attempt to try another flower brooch different from the others that have more petals. "Three Fish Coral" was one that I really got excited about. The closer you look the more you notice..."Purple Starfish" is made out of computer pieces and freshwater pearls... not something you'd usually see together! BUT I have to say my favorite is the one I call "Blank Canvas"...Franny inspires me to try new things and so when I was putting this one together I tried all sorts of new techniques and items. I'm guessing no one will ever be able to tell what it's really made of :) All the bits and pieces come from special places, which I wrote down and gave to Franny when she opened these on Christmas. We should all try to be like Franny, blank canvases ready to learn and grow no matter how much we think we already know!

Smashing a Digital Camera!

 

I never thought I'd smash a digital camera since my whole use of them has always been by "walking on eggshells" trying to be extra careful not to damage them... BUT Franny asked me to make a brooch for her good friend a photographer, so I took an "old" digital camera places it on my stainless steel kitchen island and whacked it until I got the pieces I wanted :) I ended up making her the "Bee brooch" as I call it. The photo under the glass bead is of my grandmother as a child sitting with her parents. I also used an exposed film strip. My favorite part though is the bee... Like a bee to a flower a photographer is a to a picture, this bee is made out of the lens of the camera... smaller and thicker than I thought it would be... it sticks out about an inch from the flower on a red spring bobbing and floating waiting to get a good shot!

So, after I had harvested the lens it seemed an awful waist to just throw out the rest... so I made two additional brooches for Franny. The "Green Screen", made of the LCD screen and memory chip, and the "Dial Flower" that has the settings dial as the center of the flower.

So, my advice to anyone about to make something, don't be afraid to break that thought in your mind that tells you not to break "expensive" stuff... you just might end up with some beautiful pieces of art.