Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelets...

Design your own custom Chakraluscious chakra bracelet with crystals that are meaningful to you. At the moment I have almost 200 6mm crystal beads to choose from with more added every month. Prices will vary with the crystals used. Please contact me for a quote based on your choice of crystals.

Contact me here to order yours, or come and see me at the Woodstock Farmers Market at the fairgrounds on Nellis Street every Saturday morning 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

Simple, pretty, well-made with quality findings and stretch cord... And every one as individual as you.

Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelet

Bali silver, lava, shungite, 3 quartz crystal, 3 garnet, 3 sunstone, 3 citrine, 3 malachite, 3 aquamarine, 3 iolite, 3 amethyst, 3 quartz crystal, shungite, lava.

Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelet

Bali silver, 3 quartz crystal, 3 amethyst, 3 iolite, 3 blue apatite, 3 nephrite jade, 3 citrine, 3 sunstone, 3 garnet, black tourmaline, shungite, lava.

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring...

Working flat out these days -- crazy hours. Managed 20 minutes on my minuscule deck yesterday in the hot sun and too cold wind to -- gasp! -- read a book and eat lunch. Then it was back to typing. I'm surrounded here by carpets of snowdrops, bluebells and purple violets.

On other fronts, I became a great-aunt a week ago... here is Etta, age 1 week. She's a cutie.

Off to Toronto again in a few days on another buying trip. Hope to see you at the market in a few hours. Check out my new skulls, chakra pendants, turquoise, lapis, peridot and citrine rings from Montreal, lapis earrings and bracelets, plus rudraksha and sandalwood beads to wear as they are or have custom made into a necklace.

The Woodstock Farmers Market, at the fairgrounds on Nellis Street, 7:00 a.m. to noon every Saturday.

Fab news...

The Gem Expo in July was a total hoot, met lots of new and returning customers and friends -- and the class I taught went really well, so much so I plan to offer two or three different classes at the November Gem Expo. Stay tuned for advance announcements on that front, and I'll give you a heads up once the classes are posted. This time, though, the classes will be capped at 5 to maybe 8 students, so don't delay in registering. If we know far enough in advance that there is sufficient demand additional classes can be scheduled.

In fact, think about giving the gift of learning to a friend as an early Christmas present. There are jewellery-making classes at the show for every skill level and interest. You'll definitely make new friends and jewellery buddies in the classes, as well.

My fab news is this summer I sold the smaller copper swirl citrine pendant and the wire-woven Sleeping Beauty turquoise nugget ring. Then yesterday I sold the larger swirl citrine pendant.

Aaaand... three weeks ago I sold the double-sided dragon-skin/crackle agate Backside of the Moon pendant.

People who know me know that I am a big fan of more is more, which means my market tables are usually crammed with stuff. Well... the past few weeks I've been experimenting with putting on the table just one or a few items in a style instead of the five, ten, dozen or more that I have... and it seems to be working. There is breathing space now between each item and sales seem to have picked up. There might be a little of the "uh, oh -- there's only one left, I'd better buy it now" scarcity strategy going on, too... maybe.

We also got new lighting in the market building a few weeks ago thanks to a grant. Makes a HUGE difference, so much so that I don't have to put up spotlights all over my table. Instead of walking from sunlight into a dim and depressing building, it's like walking from sunlight into sunlight. It's quite spectacular, actually, and all the jewellery across the table looks ten times better instead of the spotlit puddles I had before.

This summer I acquired some really great crystals and unusually-shaped tumbled and raw semi-precious stones. I'll be posting pictures when I get them made up into pendants. Meanwhile, you can always contact me here or by email for special orders, and you can find me at the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday morning, 7:00 a.m. to 12:00.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Success!

On Wednesday I wrote about trying the (new to me) "Curl and Swirl" wire-weaving style by Making It Easy With Liz that I'd read about on Pearl Blay's blog. You can read about my less-than-successful efforts here.

Meanwhile, my real job intervened and I didn't get a chance to go back and try, try, try again until a few minutes ago. Yes, minutes. Once you figure it out, and kind of have an idea of what you want to do with the particular stone you're using, this is quite a quick technique to do. Meaning, it either works or it doesn't because if you goink the wires at all then you pretty much have to start over: the beauty of the swirls lies in their smooth, sinuous, unbroken curves.

The primary reason my first efforts weren't successful is because I didn't use two wires in parallel.

Here are my two do-overs, using the same two citrines from Wednesday. Finally the fronts look marginally better than the backs!

As a comparison, here's the picture of my first efforts:

These first two (above) maybe don't look so bad -- but they're very wobbly and look kinda wimpy. You'll also note in the video that Liz is quite specific about crossing the pairs of wires behind each other early on. This interweaving locks the entire piece together, giving you a very sturdy base on which to attach and tighten the stone.

Closeup of the the asymmetrical citrine pendant:

Closeup of the tall citrine pendant:

I will have both of these strung on Greek leather and for sale at the market tomorrow morning. I have a small selection of copper chain, as well, if you prefer. Please email me if you're interested in either (I take PayPal, Interac/email transfer, cash works, too!). I will definitely be making more of these pendants in different stones, and I am always happy to do a special request. Yo, guys? Only five weeks 'til Valentine's Day.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you at the market tomorrow!

Documenting creativity...

...and the lack thereof on my part. Since I am in a profound creative slump at the moment with only one picture to post here (due largely in part to two and a half days spent watching seasons four and five of Madmen back to back) I thought I'd send you over to check out Joanne Nelson's step-by-step documentation of creative decision-making in action while creating her mother's birthday gift, a garnet and citrine necklace. It does NOT come easily or quickly.

While you're there, stock up on some great beads! Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are both lurking just around the corner, then there will be all the spring and summer craft shows -- and in six months the smart people will be well into their Christmas 2013 production lines.

Maybe gold wire is the key to some of my own design dilemmas. Maybe turning off the teebeeeeee and the computer would be even more key, d'ya think?

This is all I managed to accomplish this Christmas:

And there they languish still this morning... If I could just figure out where I hid my earwires. Lynn is coming today to help me clean up and organise some more. She'll find 'em!

Yep, those are real emeralds underneath the pliers. When I saw these at The Bead Boutique in Kitchener, I pounced. They along with blue topaz and blue sapphire will become part of my series of birthstone earrings. Funny, it was drilled emeralds that I thought would be the stone most difficult to find. Stay tuned...

Thanks for looking!

High cut citrine & amethyst earrings & large cube Swarovski earrings

I've been typing like a mad fiend for the past two weeks. It's been so busy I couldn't get to Toronto as I had hoped, but was able to make a last-minute order to my supplier to bring in emergency supplies of Bali daisy spacers, odd stones and Swarovskis... because a customer asked me last week to make her some plain large cube crystal Swarovski earrings which she'd seen on someone who she said was casually and neutrally dressed, but these large square earrings she was wearing upped the style ante unbelievably. I happened to have some AB crystal cubes handy that I showed her, but she said it was the clear crystal that was so stunning.

This is what I came up with. I never would have thought these would work but I have to say I am impressed. The fire and spark is unbelievable. I am only barely capturing the effect in these photos.


Photo taken square on

 

Photo taken from an angle -- the way the cubes are oriented to the earwires if you're wearing them



The reason why I included the two top photos is notice how they're angled. If you set them square to the earwire, then that's all you get: what looks like a cube of glass. But if you angle them so the front corner is aligned with the front of the earwire, then you'll have maximum sparkle. I point this out because I'm an old-school draftsperson. I like verticals and horizontals and things to line up; diagonals tend to bug me.

I wish I'd ordered more packages of these, but I didn't... next time!

I've also been getting a lot of requests for anything amethyst or citrine, so I ordered a half-string each of high cut citrines and amethysts. This is the first time I've come across this designation. I think "high cut" refers to twice the price for half the number of stones... No? It doesn't? Well, expensive (to me) or not, these are equally strikingly beautiful while having distinctively different personalities. Not to mention, being able to buy half-strings of more expensive stones is a relatively painless investment to make in order to move one's jewellery into the higher end, especially in gift-giving season.

The amethysts are a deep purple, facetted into a kind of soft rectangle-y-squarish/cube-ish shape, the stones are clear and you can see the colour ebbing and flowing, deepening and intensifying in places -- I hope this is an indication that these are not heat-treated or dyed amethysts. The colour is gorgeous, deep and velvety purple.

The citrines have been cut with random angular faceting, so I've had to go through the string to try and match up the pairs -- again, though, with beautiful colour. When you rotate them in the light, they flash iridescence along the internal planes. I've never ever seen anything like this. Please, someone tell me these are real and not treated or dyed!

The same lighting, but taken at a different angle from the following two photos

As always, these are for sale, but email me first for price and availability; postage and shipping extra.

Thanks for looking!

Bead Corner & 12 Semi-Precious & Bali Silver Earrings for Christmas

A little progress on cleaning up around here -- several boxes have been filled to go off to the consignment store, and several more to the thrift store... and a bag thrown out. I got the second baker's shelf cleared off and moved to the front room. It's now almost full -- but I present it here in its pristine state...

Yet again, the large table in this room and the kitchen table were almost completely cleared off, and yet again just four days later they are both a foot deep in stuff. We don't want to look at that. Trust me.

On a more positive and/or productive front, I did get one dozen assorted semi-precious and Bali silver earrings made and boxed up... whereupon I promptly ran out of the most important component to these earrings -- the Bali daisy spacers. I hope I can get to Toronto this week, otherwise it will be another mail order... which actually might not be a bad idea. Then I'd have them by Wednesday, Thursday for sure -- and I wouldn't have to get out of my pyjamas. What on earth did we do before the Internet?

Chalcedony, Freshwater Pearl, Citrine, Citrine, Garnet
Enhanced Peruvian Opal, Lepidolite, White Jadeite, Black Tourmaline, Tiger Eye

Enhanced Peruvian Opal, Lepidolite, White Jadeite

Citrine, Citrine, Garnet

Tomorrow is December 1st. Yikes. Four more market days until Christmas. Thanks again to Joanne at Nelson Jewelry & Gemstones for her wonderful beads. Most of these came from her selection. She's got an eBay store now, too. Check it out. 

Thanks for looking!

The Jewel in My Crown & A Chakra Necklace...

My jewel, aka Max, in our moveable garden...

Been busy today, finally got around to making this chakra necklace that I've been meaning to do for a while. It's based on a free design from Mama's Minerals, an online store based in New Mexico.

Chakra Necklace:

From the centre, the beads are garnet (also the focal), carnelian, citrine, peridot, turquoise, iolite, amethyst and moonstone, with a sterling silver lobster clasp, "Tibetan silver" beads, 21 inches long. I can add a sterling extender chain or doeskin ties to lengthen this, $5.

$70 (plus $5 for extender) plus $5 shipping and handling. Please email me for availability, or for a different configuration of beads. I have many beautiful focal stones that would look great in the centre.

I have many more stones of all sizes and qualities, particularly if you are interested in something tailored more to your needs or related, for example, to your zodiac sign. Mama's Minerals has an interesting chart showing some of the many different stones associated with each chakra. I spent a couple of days last year going through all my books to compile an Excel spreadsheet cross-referencing stones with zodiac signs. Email me for a copy.

Thanks for looking!

Chakra & Turquoise & Amethyst Stretchy Bracelets

Something I've been working on -- a way to quickly experiment with colour and texture and which is also entertaining in a mindless sort of way. I've said before that colour is not my forte.

Chakra or Rainbow Stretchy Bracelet:

Cherry quartz, citrine, peridot, blue apatite and amethyst chips, elastic, about 6-1/2 inches

Amethyst & Chinese Turquoise Chip Bracelet:

Amethyst, Chinese turquoise chips, pewter beads, elastic, about 6-1/2"

Two Bracelets:

The chips are larger and that makes for heavier bracelets than others I've looked at. 

I believe I will be off to Toronto on Friday and I will be getting more colours from Bamiyan, ditto more stringing wire which I'm just about out of, and Arton has some new base metal and/or pewter beads that I got a couple of weeks and reeeeeally like, so I will stock up on those... if they still have them. I recently bought some very cool pewter saucer beads from somewhere and do you think I can remember the company? Phhht.

Thanks for looking!