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

Lovin' my Labradorite

I've blogged about this before, but I just can't help help myself! I've loved labradorite since the first day I saw it. (yes, my addiction to labradorite and moonstone is almost as bad as the pottery addiction) I was in our local bead shop, Jane's Fiber and Beads, and had picked up a funny little gray bead I didn't recognize. They said it was labradorite, and that sometimes the stone had flashes of blue in it. This one didn't, but oh how I wanted to see one that did. The search was on!

I found some gorgeous little round beads and made myself a bracelet. Shortly after I found some bigger beads and made myself another bracelet. I still wear these two bracelets, and I'm happy to say that I can actually bring myself to sell some of my labradorite stash now. (It's hard, but I force myself, ha ha).



I've had this fabulous gem-quality strand since last fall's wholesale gem show, and am finally ready to start letting them go. I made earrings and a pendant yesterday with some of these stones, and posted them in my Etsy shop.



I'm thinking about a bracelet that would use most of the rest of the stones - of course, I'd want to keep that (I'm sooo bad), so maybe I'll just stick to the pendants and earrings.

Something I hadn't seen before - deep blue labradorite - caught my eye at the January gemshow, and this little pendant was made from one of the faceted teardrop I bought. I think these would look great with pearls, too, so I'm going to go up and check out what's in my beading studio. I've been so distracted with metalwork lately that I haven't been making any bead pieces at all. I need to get back to some of that, as I really do love it. Ha, and it's a whole lot warmer and nicer up there than in the basement, that's for sure!

I have some beautiful flashy cabochons that are perfect for rings, too, and am currently working on a big ring with the largest of the ovals I have.



I think I'm going to accent it with a garnet - I love the way garnets and rubies look with labradorite. Hope to finish this one today while I'm working on a custom ring order. (That's you, Jen!)




Then I'll be starting on a design for the 3 small ovals that I have. I'll be posting that one with the extra cabochons for custom sized orders. Since I've got three of these cabs, I am making one for me, too. Well, it's definitely time to get off the computer and down to the studio now - talk to you later!