Two More Stretch Bracelets...

Last night, I fixed a couple of bracelets that were bugging me and made these two new ones.

Silver-plated feather and pewter birds and flower bead, copper jump rings and small black glass pony beads,

Pewter cross and flower beads, copper jump rings and small black and blue picasso pony beads.

Prices are as shown, shipping extra depending on where you live and your need for speed. I take PayPal and Square and, in Canada, bank eTransfer. Email me for availability, to request a different size or to order something unique for you.


They're really starting to add up, aren't they?

Thanks for looking!

Father's Day Gift: Ammonite & Golden Obsidian Leather Choker...

Made this at the market on Saturday. Ammonite and golden obsidian, brass heishi and copper rings on an adjustable Greek leather cord:

I carry lots of great jewellery for guys. This would make a wonderful Father's Day or grad gift. Please email me for availability and shipping charges, or better yet, come and see my jewellery and all the other great vendors at the Woodstock Farmer's Market every Saturday morning from 7:00 a.m. to noon, on Nellis Street at the fairgrounds.

See you there!

Hematite & Mixed Metals...

Do you ever get those very specific requests where, no matter how you fiddle and restring and try different beads, there is absolutely no way the colours are going to work?

That was my dilemma today at the market. I'd been asked to mix hematite with "green glass" beads. The beads I had should have worked but no way this bracelet was going to come together. Gave up on that, thinking, ehhh, she's probably not even going to come back.

Instead, I dug out some brass birds I've been wanting to play with and, oh, boy, now we're cooking. Added some copper jump rings and even better.

Hematite, brass birds, copper jump rings as spacers and a big-holed pewter bead to hide the knot on Stretch Magic.

I think what really works is the contrast between the glossy black hematite and the matte vintage goldy-brass of the birds. That little flash of copper makes the birds pop.

Then my customer showed up. Uh oh. I showed her the glass beads I had been playing with and she liked them well enough, but when I showed her the bracelet... She loved it!! It was a bit too big for her, so I made another one while she did her shopping. Et voila, she's a happy camper.

If you're interested in ordering this particular bracelet, it's $35, shipping and handling is extra. Please email me for availability, or to order something made just for you.

Thanks for looking!

Carved Wooden Skull Bracelets...

I finally found some decent elastic that doesn't immediately stretch way out and get floppy -- the brand name is Stretch Magic and I got mine at Lacy Tools in Toronto -- and after a number of false attempts very early Saturday morning remembered how to tie a knot that holds. There's a good video here on how to tie a surgeon's knot using Stretch Magic. The surgeon's knot is a very handy knot to know about for any type of cord. I noticed also that I can't pull the first half knot too tightly, otherwise the beads get jammed up. As always, there's finding that sweet spot where the beads sit just right and the bracelet has just enough structure. 

Hand-carved wooden skull beads with assorted copper spacers, jump rings and coils from Africa, carved bone dice and/or matte black seed beads:

Thanks for looking!

Kingman Turquoise w/Copper Dangles & "Wild Blueberry" Seed Bead Choker...

I love this combination, but then I am colour-challenged in a big way. I still can't quite edit in the purpleness of the purple, but this is reeeeeeeeally purple... "Wild Blueberry" is the name of these seed beads which I got a while back from Spirit Bear Beads. I got the copper dangle eye pins also a while back from Magpie Gemstones. Unfortunately, they're not carrying them any longer. They sure were/are cool, and yeah, I shoulda got more when I had the chance.

Kingman turquoise chips strung on pure copper eye pins with dangles, Wild Blueberry glass seed beads, copper jump rings and clasp, about 19" in length, the centre dangle drops another inch; $29 plus shipping & handling. Please email me for availability or if you'd like me to make you a custom version... like, you know, maybe in another colour... :-).

Thanks for looking!

Assorted chokers & more skull components -- and earrings!

The farmer's market was slow again today so I had plenty of time -- at least four mostly uninterrupted hours! -- to make things. Mainly, any interruptions consisted of going to Peter's Bakery for samples of apple strudel (I also bought one, my fave go-to dessert these days), and to the Butcher's Blend when the sausage samples were laid out. At one point, Uncle Dad showed up with samples of pizza and I dare anyone to say no to fresh-cut vegetables and cheese on a thin crust... phhht... not me!

I'm probably like most of you out there, I buy far too many beads, never use most of them, and end up forever falling back onto my own particular favourite beads and shapes. Me, I love the look of all silver and/or mixed metal compositions. In this case, I added one 4mm bright copper jump ring between the Tibetan style large beads (my absolute favourite shape) and the stainless steel plated beads.

I also love the endless possibilities using Tibetan/Tibetan carved agate beads.

And here are more of those skulls I started working with last weekend. I ordered 200 of them from Arton this week and at the rate I'm motorvating through them, they won't last very long. I'm making components for another choker, as well as to offer for sale, and I will be making more with the top loop turned, so that I can jump-ring them together into a chain.

I made a pair of "lady skull" earrings with the addition of a copper daisy spacer.

And then it was all of a sudden time to go home, from whence I will not budge for the next four days while I type my fingers further up to the next knuckle, or so it feels. I wonder how many billion keystrokes I have made when I finally hang up my keyboard and pull the plug on this infernal, timesucking device...

Thanks for looking!

Japanese chain maille bracelet & ring... creative procrastination at its finest

It's hot hot hot. I have typing out the yin yang still to do and I am blind with eyestrain. Off to the eye doc tomorrow morning, and that little problem should be resolved with new lenses in, oh, three weeks or so.

Good news: today I shipped my very first sale of turquoise beads off my long-neglected website. Thank you, Kaye! I have to start taking more pictures and posting new items. The prices are old -- I bought this turquoise three and four years ago -- and I checked a few places online. Wow, has it gone up. I did order myself some Fox Mine turquoise -- really looking forward to seeing that -- along with a pile of other cool stuff including some black tourmaline beads for a commission. That will be combined with some raw black tourmaline. My customer for this says black tourmaline conveys some serious power. Stay tuned for pix.

Japanese chain maille ring and bracelet. Would this be called 3 in 3? I forget. I'm sure someone will correct me. I had bought these copper rings mainly because they are so purty and shiny, and I was procrastinating, stacking them up and watching them flippety flop over, rather than sitting tight and square like more usual chain maille designs and thought they'd make a nice Japanese style chain maille ring, comfortable to wear due to generalised floppiness.

I have a customer in mind for this, hence the 9.75 size: note the tiny jump rings I used in the top photo (at about 7:45) to reduce the size to pretty much exactly 9.75 on the ring mandrel.

Then I thought a necklace or choker would be a cool idea, and a mindless (I'm so easily entertained) hour or so later... I realised I was going to run out of rings long before I got to 20 or 22 inches, so I stopped at an 8-inch bracelet. I'd forgotten how silky soft metals can be.

I'm working on a new "leaf" style of hammered clasp, plus it's a little more guyish than the usual curvy, twirly designs I do, and I'm hoping that the centre bit will prevent the jump ring from working its way loose all the time like it tends to do in the standard curvy style of hammered clasp. This still isn't quite what I picture in my mind -- I'd prefer sharper bends rather than soft curves -- but I'm working on that.

Thanks for looking!