Campitos & Kingman Turquoise...

Made more bracelets today using up odds and ends of beads, playing with colours, but trying not to think too much and see what happens. Three cheers for www.picmonkey.com's photo-sharpening feature but I still can't quite get the colour right. Literally these colours should be a degree or two warmer, but I can't seem to make it happen.

Large Campitos nuggets interspersed with Kingman splinter chips, sponge coral rondelles flanking a Southwestern-style pewter cross bead.
8" in length; $79.00

Fat Kingman turquoise nuggety chips and more of those gorgeous crab fire agate rounds from Nelson Gemstones flanking a "flying" pewter bird. These Kingman nuggets here and in yesterday's bracelets are all from a string of slightly paler and bluer turquoise than the others that I've been using.
8" in length; $39.00

One side enhanced lapis lazuli rounds and the other pale green so-called new jade (possibly dyed serpentinite?) softly-rounded wheels flanking a "flying" pewter bird.
7-3/4" in length; $43.00

Enhanced lapis lazuli rounds, pewter flower beads and tiny brass spacers flank a glass skull bead.
7-3/4" in length; $45.00

Closeup of the glass skull.

A closer closeup of the glass skull.

Email me for availability or to commission a custom piece -- or even if you see some beads you'd like. I design these so that I can lengthen them a bit without too much trouble; as well, there's always the option of restringing a particular design and adding a bead or two -- or taking something out.

Thanks for looking!

Five New Bracelets...

The day's production...

Five new bracelets (the plain Kingman turquoise and flying bird one in the middle I'd made several weeks ago and used it to riff on)...

Kingman turquoise nuggets, tiny pewter beads and crab fire agate -- aren't these the perfect colour!? I got 'em from Nelson Gemstones, my go-to for rounds -- all flanking a Southwestern-style pewter cross. I need to remake this using more of the crab fire agate.
8" in length; $39.00

Amethyst rounds, Peruvian amazonite rondelles, Tibetan crystal beads and pewter beads flank a faceted, high-cut amethyst bead.
7-3/4" in length; $49.00

Hand-cut Tibetan quartz crystals interspersed with pewter beads.
8-1/2" in length; $37.00

Enhanced lapis lazuli rounds and a pewter bird bead "flying" on faceted zinc spacers.
7-3/4" in length; $44.00

Kingman turquoise nuggets, hand-cut Tibetan quartz crystal and a pewter bird "flying" on zinc spacers.
8-1/8" in length; $42.00

All of these bracelets are for sale. Please feel free to email me if you're interested any of these or in a custom bracelet -- or necklace -- made especially for you. These can easily be made a bit larger by the addition of jump rings, or they can be restrung and extra beads added.

Thanks for looking!

Impression Jasper Necklace

A slow start today, but a start nonetheless... sunny today, too, after days of cold rain. The deck hidden below the ferns beckons... cappuccino and new library book are singing their siren song.

Does anyone get as confused by the names of stones as I do? I'm currently working on a necklace and it seems like the same bead, depending on who you buy from, has a different name -- aqua terra jasper, impression jasper, imperial jasper. Besides being a gorgeous blue colour conjuring visions of tiny islets lost in impossibly blue seas, they look the same to me.


Impression/aqua terra/imperial jasper slabs & beads, crab fire agate beads, Tibetan-style zinc beads,
awaiting a pewter clasp... photographed on top of one of my many bins of zinc/pewter/silver beads. Love these!



Making necklaces this morning with a view

Rounds from the large and varied selection available at Nelson Gemstones. Can't remember where I got the slabs from.

Thanks for looking!