I love January....and Sundays...

January is always full of promise for a new year, and Sundays allow the time to daydream and plan.  So, I'm just now finishing up my tea, and considering making another cup.  Wonderful breakfast invention I'm calling the "California Sunshine Scrambled Tofu Bowl" has been enjoyed by all, and there might have been cake.  Because dessert, we love dessert.  We are allowed dessert if we eat healthy veggies and protein first.  And, I did sub in half whole wheat flour.  And no frosting - doesn't need it.  ha ha...

Quickie photo of said bowl of healthy goodness, and the recipe:  

Tofu Bowl - California Sunshine with Orange Tahini Sauce

Serves 2

4 oz sliced mushrooms

1/2 medium red onion diced

1 large jalapeno, diced

1 box silken extra firm tofu

1 teaspoon spicy Mrs. Dash

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

4 cups fresh baby spinach

1 avocado, sliced

2 T toasted sunflower seeds

1 orange peeled and segmented

Sauce:

3 T tahini

1 heaping teaspoon white miso

1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

juice of 1 lemon

zest from one orange

juice of one orange (at least 1/4 cup)

pinch salt

Make sauce:  wisk everything in a small bowl, adust texture with water or additional orange juice.  Should be pourable, but not thin.

Preheat pan, add 1T extra virgin olive oil, or 2T water if you don't use oil.  When hot, add mushrooms, diced onion and jalapeno, and saute about 4 minutes.  Add water to prevent sticking when needed (just a little at a time).

Add tofu, break up into pieces in the size you prefer.  (I make mine into scrambled egg-like texture).  Sprinkle over spices, and saute another 2 to 3 minutes, adding water to prevent sticking.

Add spinach, and stir until wilted

Put into large flat bowls.  Add sliced avocado and orange segments, top with sauce and toasted sesame seeds.  Enjoy!

With the sun peeking out between the clouds, my mind is turning to bright new jewelry ideas perfect for a Sunday afternoon.  Speaking of new jewelry ideas...  This large dragonfly ring is one I made for my mom a couple of years back, and always intended to put in the shop, along with matching pendant, earrings, and whatever else I can think up.  I love the combination of the opal with the silver and brass.  It reminds me of the iridescence of a dragonfly's wings in the sun.  

The ring is now in the shop, and a matching pendant is waiting to be photographed and listed.  I'm thinking about earring designs.  I've needed a new dragonfly earring design for a while.  Hopefully one will happen today.  We shall see.  I've been known to get distracted by all pretty stones lying on my bench and making something totally unrelated to the plan.  Ha.  Until next time the blogging spirit moves me....bye for now.   

 

Hello Again!

 This is a quick blog post while I have a cup of tea with lavender to note that I have not permanently abandoned my blog.  My poor blog has taken a back seat to my increasing business (yes, I might be a workaholic) and to Facebook, Twitter, and now, especially Pinterest.  I love Pinterest!  Finally a place to store tons of recipes that doesn’t take up real space, ha ha…

Anyway, I have been very busy this last year, both on Etsy, and with my own new website and online shop.  I built the site using Shopify last November, and I really love it.  (I highly recommend Shopify if you need an ecommerce solution!)  It has kept me crazy busy since the holidays last year, and I have stopped gardening, cooking, and almost everything else.  I’m now taking a deep breath, and trying to get a bit of life balance going, where I can get back to creating new recipes and pulling my garden back together.

The garden has been doing fine without me, though.  I’ve learned that yes, I did plant way too many perennials too close together when I started out.  A few too many trees, too.  I kind of have a forest on my hands now. The birds love it, though – the cardinals raised two sets of babies this spring!  And lots of lovely English ivy (which came from nowhere, I did not plant it!)  preventing the weeds from from growing – yay!  I’m keeping it under control with the lawnmower, so it’s not taking over.  It’s  raining now, or I’d run and take a photo of  the great patch in my front flower bed.

I have also made quite a few artisan rings this year with my ever-growing stash of stones.  I even kept my favorite one for myself – I actually have a “signature” piece of my own to wear now!   I used one of my favorite deep blue labradorites, and and Ethiopian opal.  I’m loving the Ethiopian opals, which I think are just as lovely as the Australian ones.   I’m working on new opal pieces for the shop, and one of  the first  is the Enchanted Garden ring.  I think the opal looks really great with brass (or gold would be even better).


So that’s all for now, a lick and a promise before I get busy on orders down in the studio.  Who knows – I may cook something and post the recipe, or even *gasp* go out in the garden and take some photos one of these days.

Born from a Meteor, and Flashier than a Diamond - that’s Moissanite

 

I love custom requests from my customers because they quite often lead me in a direction I might not have gone otherwise.  I”m pretty firm on  using only ethically mined natural stones without additional treatments and dyes in my jewelry.  Because of that, I pay very little attention to anything created in a lab, and had never heard of Moissanite until my customer requested it.  It does occur in nature, but so rarely, and in such small amounts that it has never been available for jewelry in its natural form. 

Moissanite was first discovered by Henri Moissan when he was looking at rock samples he had collected from Meteor Crater in Diablo, Arizona back in 1893.  He thought they were diamonds at first, but a few years later, he identified the crystals as silicon carbide.  (Years later, the mineral was renamed Moissanite in honor of Henri’s discovery).

The mineral was controversial for a long time, and many believed it was carborundum contamination from abrasive tools, and until the 1950’s it had never been found anywhere other than a meteorite.  In the late 50’s it was found as inclusions in kimberlite.  Moissanite is very rare, and has now been identified as inclusions in diamonds, kimberlite and lamproite in addition to meteorites.

In 1998, the company Charles and Colvard created a proprietary process to create moissanite in a lab, and it now regarded as an excellent diamond substitute, with optical properties and light refraction that actually exceed those of diamond.   I can vouch for this, it is truly a stunning stone with incredible sparkle!  This Moissanite video from Charles and Colvard shows a bit of the history and what it looks like.

I’m working on several pieces using moissanite that will  coordinate with the Iceflower ring.   Definitely some little silver flower stud earrings to start with, then some more urban linear designs, I think.  Anyway, just excited about a sparkly stone that’s a little more affordable than diamonds, and nowhere near as boring as that old standby cubic zirconia.  My main focus will always be ethically mined natural stones, but sometimes different is good!  (By the way, my photos here definitely do not do justice to the actual sparkle of these, just so you know.)

Garlic and Lemons and Bumblebee Jasper

I love lemon and garlic together, especially when it’s hot outside. Garbanzo beans are good with lemon and garlic, too. Hmm…actually that’s why hummus is so good – lemon juice, garlic and garbanzo beans….but I digress. (hummus also requires expensive Tahini, which is outside my budget at the moment). This is about the inexpensive but very yummy pasta salad I made yesterday. I’m trying to increase the amount of veggies in my diet, and maybe lose some weight, too. And save money to boot - eating on the cheap is pretty much a necessary skill for a self-employed artist. This little salad is simple and quick and a very satisfying summer supper.

Lemon Broccoli Pasta Salad

(makes extra salad dressing, too)

1 cup olive oil

3 large cloves garlic, put through a press

juice and zest from 2 large lemons

1 can garbanzo beans

1 box penne pasta (I use DeBoles rice pasta – gluten free)

2 nice size broccoli crowns, stems chopped and flowerets broken into small pieces (about 2 cups)

1/4 cup of toasted sesame seeds

1. Whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, zest, and olive oil and set aside.

2. Cook pasta according to directions. Put broccoli in the water with the pasta about 3 minutes before it is ready to come off the heat. Drain broccoli and pasta and put in large bowl.

3. Open and rinse can of garbanzo beans, toss with broccoli and pasta. Pour lemon-garlic dressing over pasta to taste. There will be a nice amount of dressing left for your salads, too. Add salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, and enjoy.

For a more hearty version, add: feta cheese, kalamata olives and grilled tuna. Yum!!

Now, about that bumblebee jasper – what a lovely stone! Bright true yellow is not something very often seen in jasper, but this stone has beautiful yellow running through it like ribbon candy. It comes from the fumarole fields of the Mount Papandayan volcano in West Java, Indonesia. This particular cab is going to be a ring very soon. Think I’m going to name it “Sun Soul”. I’ve got a lovely little faceted yellow sapphire that might the perfect accent stone for the setting. We shall see, anyway. That’s all for now, time to head down to the bench!

Sunday Morning Coffee and Etsy 08/29/10

The weather is beginning to cool ever so slightly, and the anticipation of Fall is definitely in the air for me.  Fall has always been my favorite season.  Even though it’s been longer than I care to admit since my school days, I still get that ‘back to school’ feeling of a fresh start that  brings on  a  surge of creative energy.

So, freshly inspired by the cool breeze and the upcoming season, I actually made something new for the shop this week!  The design idea for this ring, which I have named Ice Whisper,  has been in my head ever since I made my Galadriel’s Dream cuff a couple of years ago.  I’ve always planned to take the concept into a whole series of pieces.  I particularly enjoy forging the organic '”torn” look  -  it gives me a chance to play with my wonderful Fretz hammers.      This ring is definitely my new favorite, and there will be more with colored stones – especially the gorgeous

apricot sapphires that my stone supplier just got in.  This color looks good enough to eat!!  

Speaking of gorgeous stones – I’ve had the Glimmering Gems Etsy shop in my favorites for quite a while, now.  I follow them on Twitter, too, so I always know when they get something new in.  Their shop carries truly inspiring and unusual rocks and gems from the mines of Uruguay and Brazil.   I discovered this breathtaking Amethyst Agate Geode Sphere the last time I was browsing through their shop.  What a  stunning specimen!!  It measures 86mm (about 3 inches in diameter).  I would so love to have this in my collection!  I’ve always been partial to amethyst in any form, and the wheels are turning in my mind on a way to use their beautiful stones in one of my designs.  This gorgeous stalactite slice is on its way to me as we speak.  I’m inspired already, and can’t wait to put hammer to metal for a setting that will hopefully do justice to it!

 

Something else that I always get excited about is Steampunk and Victorian inspired jewelry.  I found the most incredible shop this week  -  Aranwen’s Jewelry, created by Vicky from Athens, Greece.  There are so many beautiful designs in her shop, I didn’t know what to look at first!    I’ve always loved unique watches, though, so her cuff watches are something that I am definitely drooling over.  My favorite is the stunning  Silver Wings design – I’m in love with it!  Might have something to do with the cute little amethyst rhinestones will coordinate nicely with the colors in that yummy stone that is on its way in the mail.

Another cuff watch in her shop that I absolutely love is the beautiful brass Baroque Goddess design.  A more petite design, this one has a lovely romantic feel to it that is hard to resist.   Vicky creates each one of her pieces herself from a unique array of gorgeous components, and her talent for creating unique beauty is apparent in every piece in her shop. 

Well, coffee is done, and I’d better get the day started, so I’ll wish everyone a great week!  Talk to you soon……..

Settling into the Season…

I love everything about Fall.  Smelling wood smoke and feeling the crisp crunch of leaves under foot.  The sweet anticipation of the holidays (before the panic sets in), the softness of a warm sweater, and the lovely cozy feeling of waking up under my favorite down comforter. I don't usually like stones in the yellow/brown family, but the two gorgeous star sunstones I have are a definite exception.  I set one of them into a simple ring, and it positively oozes with that lovely cozy fall feeling.  Of course, the photo props  helpfully left on my garden bench for me by a busy squirrel help, too.    I

 

And if it’s November, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.  I’m already browsing through Thanksgiving recipes.    Working at home has brought back my love of creating food that is both good to eat and pretty to look at. I just received my annual beef order from my best friend who raises cattle.  I can’t remember the last time I cooked ‘store-bought’ beef, or had produce from the grocery store.  Our local farmer’s market is still open, so I had a lovely pile of beautiful sweet red peppers this week, the last of the season, along with a bunch of tasty fresh baby spinach and kale.  In addition to my pancake experiments, I’ve also been inventing various meatloaf recipes with the bounty from the farmer’s market.  This week’s version was especially tasty, so I thought I would share.  Now, the reason I make meatloaf  is to get a day’s worth of nutrition into a nice portable little item that can be frozen and/or sliced up for sandwiches, so don’t laugh at my weird list of ingredients!

Confetti Meatloaf

1 lb lean ground beef

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup chopped onions

1 large red pepper, chopped

a nice pile of finely chopped spinach and kale (probably 1-2 cups)

1 clove of garlic, put through a garlic press

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup milk or water

1 egg

Stir everything up until well mixed and it kind of holds together.  Turn into a 9 inch loaf pan, and cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour.   I served mine with butternut squash and green beans. 

So, what have I been working on besides meatloaf?  I’ve been making some new designs in copper, and these earrings, titled ‘Dot on a Wall’ (not the most inspired name, I admit) turned out to be my favorite.  They are a simple abstract  design, with a bark-like texture from my favorite Fretz hammer – definitely going to be adding them to the Abstractions Market at 1000 Markets.    I’m thinking of doing similar designs in both brass and silver, too.  These are a great size to wear, not too big and not too small.  I’m also working on a winter series, and the first pendant is already posted in my Etsy shop.  It’s a cute little golden snowflake on a background of reticulated silver and a lovely little blue topaz for an accent stone.  My favorite new pendant  is this one, which I really love, named Permafrost.  This is a luminous  moonstone the color of pale green moss on a dangle of subtly reticulated silver.  I’m just loving the combination of the frosty reticulated silver with the pale green.  I am trying to do time-consuming processes like reticulating sheet silver in between other jobs so I have enough to play with when the inspiration hits me.  I never tire of the unique textures and feelings that can be achieved with reticulation!

That’s all for now.  Time to let the dog out and get supper going…..see you soon!

My summer ‘blog vacation’ is officially over!

And yes, this is finally a piece for my “Stones of the American West” collection.  One of my main goals this summer was to increase my production speed so I can keep up with orders and work for my galleries, but still have time to create new things.   Ha ha, and my goal for the Fall is to keep up with orders, make new things, and still have time to blog and twitter…….and we won’t even mention the benign neglect that my poor garden has to put up with!

Speaking of galleries and shops – I now have work in the lovely Spirit of the Hand gallery located in Dandridge, Tennessee, just outside of Gatlinburg.  I’ve shopped there for years, one of my very favorite places for Christmas gifts and fabulous pottery.  I’m so excited to have my work featured there!

I’ve also been busy this summer with quite a bit of custom work, which I am finding that I really love!  My customers are truly a source of wonderful inspiration for new pieces to add to my shop!  I’m making myself a pair of these Dragonfly Dreams  earrings that I made for Doris to go with her Dragonfly Treasure ring (originally inspired by another customer request!)  Doris loves iolite, and both her ring and earrings have gorgeous iolite stones.

 Another request from this summer with an iolite stone was this sweet pendant that I did for Robin.  This one will soon be available in my shop, too.  I’ll be calling it “Live, Dream, Soar”, a saying that I’ll be incorporating into several new pieces that I’m working on.  

 

 

I’ve also been playing around a bit with fold forming this summer.  I really love this technique, and will be filling out an entire line in the next few weeks.  I wish silver prices would go back down so I can do some pieces in silver, but sheesh, I hate to buy a bunch of sheet at today’s prices – it’s almost $17.00 per ounce!   Here is a sneak peek at my next cuff-to-be.  This is just a small piece that I was playing with, and unfortunately, not long enough for a cuff.  It’s not soldered or anything yet, I’ve just got the embellishments set loosely on the piece.  Not sure what I’ll be going with in the end.  I might end up making a brooch and some earrings out of this piece.  It’s made with 16g copper, requiring HUGE fire to get it hot enough to solder, but I love how the thicker metal makes such detailed ruffles and textures.  (had to get out the BIG hammer, too, lol)   This fold forming technique is the ‘line fold’ which has been hammered flat after it was opened.  It’s amazing what can be created with fold forming, such fun to play! 

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back soon with great Etsy and 1000 Markets finds, as well as more about what I’m working on, and of course, gardening and cooking tidbits.  See you all later!

 

Technorati Tags: Maury Mtn. Agate,artisan ring,sterling silver ring,amethyst,dragonfly earrings,iolite,copper,fold forming

New Work and Today's Bouquet

I've been concentrating on finishing some new work for the Glamour and Glow boutique up in Horseheads New York. This little boutique is so lovely, I wish I was close enough to visit! Some of my favorite jewelry designers have work there, including Emily Gray, whose work I've drooled over since I first saw it!

Her gorgeous Clementine earrings are a perfect match for the flowers currently blooming in my garden! I think today's bouquet is my favorite so far this year. I love the combination of the pinky orange in the Sunset variety of coneflowers combined with the vibrant Paprika yarrow, the classic purple coneflowers and the hint of sweet blush pink in the calla lilies.

My garden is definitely a source of inspiration for my work. One of the pieces I sent was this little daisy pendant with a black star diopside center. I love making these, and this design will be in the shop very soon.

Another new design is the fold-formed silver leaf that will become the first piece of several that I'll be putting in my shop. This one has a lapis stone highlighting it - I love the crisp look of lapis and silver. I'm working on a pair of earrings in this design, so simple, but still interesting and fun to make. I love fold forming, and can't believe I haven't gotten around to doing more of it until now. I'm finally setting my one of a kind stones, too.


I started a 'Stones of the American West' series last summer, and have never replaced the pieces that sold so I 'm working on those now too. Hope to finish an amethyst in Maury Mtn. agate ring shortly with this great little stone.

Something else I'm working on is new earring designs for the shop. I've got a new hoop design going with a forged ruffle. I'm going to adapt this pendant design into earrings. I've really been in the pendant mode lately, and I need to get some more earrings going. The problem is making two ruffled hoops that match, not so easy! Actually, making earrings is not my favorite thing to do because I never want to make the second one - I want to move and and make something else!