A Quick Wave and a Promise of more soon….

I thought I’d better wave Hello and sweep out the cobwebs before everyone thinks I’ve abandoned my blog for good, lol!  I’ll be back to regular blogging soon – I’m starting to feel like writing again, and I’m also feeling the urge to get going on some new jewelry designs – yes, long overdue!  

I’m looking forward to resuming  the Sunday Morning Coffee and Etsy posts, too – I’ve got quite a stash of lovely treasures to feature stored away in my blogging folder. 

I just found this lovely dragonfly bowl today in a great Etsy shop called  DeBaun Fine Ceramics.  What gorgeous colors – I’m inspired to do a new stacking ring set in these yummy blues and greens now.

I’ve spent most of the spring and summer working hard in the studio on wholesale and custom work in addition to regular orders, and am still struggling with a better plan to get pieces finished and out the door sooner.  I really love doing everything by hand, even the polishing, but I’m starting to see the need for a tumbler, at least for stacking rings and bangles.   Maybe….we’ll see.   There’s just something so satisfying about hand polishing for me. 

One of my favorite custom pieces was this lapis ring embellished with a great pair of lions.  This one was hard to part with – I may have to make myself something similar.  I’ve got more of these nifty little lions (as well as a bunch of other stunning little 3-D silver goodies) that I’m looking forward to using in some new pieces when I get a chance.

So, that’s it for now, but I’ll see you soon – promise!

Just a bit of practice....

I took a class in the process of reticulation in November. Reticulation is a fun (and a tad lengthy) process that creates a very cool wrinkled texture on the surface of silver. This piece of sterling was one of the "experimental" pieces. I am not the most patient of souls, and I was anxious to put the torch to this piece instead of doing a few more cycles to make the fine silver skin a little thicker. I was also curious to see how a thinner skin of fine silver would affect the process. This very gentle dapple is the result. I kind of like it, even though it is not nearly as dramatic as the other pieces. I set a little oval of lapis into it to play up the shape of the ripples. I have many plans for the other pieces, too... stay tuned!