Blingy Crystal Earrings & Stretch Stacker Bracelet Sets...

I had to shorten a pair of super-long dangle crystal earrings for a customer yesterday and got caught up in all the bling. Those who know me will be ROTF laughing their faces off as I'm the least blingy person anyone could ever meet. Turns out I have a secret life that nobody ever suspected -- including me.

These came out very nicely -- made richer, I think, because of the addition of the silver-plated topaz/copper rhinestone rondelles (bought on a pure whim from ACC Bead last November at the Gem Expo). I tried putting the bracelets together with both gold-plated and silver-plated clear rhinestone rondelles but they kinda just laid there and went thpppptt.

Gem Expo plug: 

TEN days to spectacular bling, beads & jewellery

THE GEM EXPO

Hyatt Regency Hotel

King Street, Toronto

March 18th, 19th & 20th 

Here are the two sets I made before running out of beads. The colours go so nicely together and, with the gold-tones of the AB finish and topaz/copper combined with the sterling silver earrings, you could wear these with just about anything. The earrings are surprisingly light-weight for their length.

Earrings: $18; Bracelet: $40
Set: $50

Again, the silver metal, gold AB finish and the topaz/copper rondelles mean these also will be good to go with just about everything.

Earrings: $15; Bracelet: $25
Set: $35

Both sets are available with earrings and bracelet sold together or separately. Please email me for availability/postage or see me at the Woodstock Farmers Market this Saturday. I'll be getting more of these shapes and colours when I'm in Toronto at the Gem Expo where you can sign up and learn how to make these yourself in my class, Totally Addicting Stretch Stacker Bracelets. If you want to special-order a different colour combo, email or see me at the market about that, as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Good Market Today & New Chakra Bracelets...

...and a new score: I found this cone-cut carnelian and glass necklace at a junque store last week. Probably paid too much for it, but I couldn't resist.

Then I was playing with other toys and I'm still wondering if this is a stoopid combination.

Finally got around to making more chakra-style items, and made these two bracelets yesterday. I'm trying to play with brighter colours, and yes, several of these beads are dyed, but the very brightest were deemed today to not really work, in particular that orange jelly bean horror. Better to tone it all down with carnelian instead... Except it's pretty. Maybe these size beads would work better as a necklace.

I've been doing a lot of restringing for Liane the Vintage Lady at the market. She buys bins of miscellaneous jewellery at auctions and has no idea what's she's got until she starts going through it -- at which point lot of the strung items disintegrate at that point. I swap interesting doodads in exchange for the restringing. Today I restrung a double strand graduated fire-polished crystal choker into a single strand because even with the extender it was chokingly tiny. Some of the vintage jewellery looks like it was for dolls, not humans. I'll try to remember to photograph it next Saturday. It came out quite nicely. Some of the beads were missing so I made a pair of drop earrings with the extra beads.

After the farmers market I went downtown to Streetfest and visited with a lapidary pal. Scored some beautiful semi-precious skulls -- and I picked some weird ones. Woweeeee... I've been looking everywhere online for decent skulls other than the dyed howlite ones and he can get me as many as I want.

Another view of the onyx skull to highlight the druzy swoop:

I reeeeally went to Streetfest to get myself a treat from Let's Eat Cake. Make that two treats: a fresh peach cheesecake square and a small tub of Rene's killer pasta salad.

Thanks for looking!

The July 2014 Gem Expo... More Pictures

I stole these pictures from The Gem Expo Facebook page and from Ruth's page. That doi-oi-oingy blue thing around my neck was supposed to be for my keys which I kept misplacing, but it was so stretchy I thought the keys would end up around my knees. It was sure a lot of fun to play with... probably why it was finally taken away from me.

Ruth's stunning wire-wrapped amethyst and pearl necklace. A quickie little wire-wrapping tutorial at the Gem Expo last summer on a slow Friday afternoon is how Ruth and I first met. Now I can't do the shows without her. The second necklace is mine and is made with particularly nice labradorite rounds and pewter beads with a carved soapstone focal.

An out-of-focus wire-wrapped chunky carnelian necklace by Ruth. This got a lot of attention and admiration throughout the show.

As a follow-up note to the suncatchers I posted a few weeks ago, I just found out that one finally sold in the last couple of days, whoo hoo! While I was in Toronto I bought more crystals to make rainbow chakra-style suncatchers. They're sitting staring at me now on my table. Meanwhile, I'm watching Suits at night and pounding away on a wire-wrapped pale pink seed bead and skull necklace commission that needs to be ready for Saturday's market. This morning I'm pricing pure copper and mixed copper/brass bangles from Katanga Province in the Congo that I acquired from Nharo! at the Gem Expo. They'll be ready to go into my showcase at the OOAK Antique Mall later today and also be available at the Saturday market. Great price, too: $15 each. I'm already getting rave reviews on how pretty they are and how comfortable they are to wear.

Thanks for looking -- and hope to see you at the November Gem Expo!

Coming up with a classic &/or signature design

I've been making jewellery now for almost six years and I think it's this weekend that will be my fifth anniversary selling at the Woodstock Farmer's Market. Without consciously directing myself (if for no other reason that I had/still have no clue what I was/am doing) I've come to some realisations about jewellery, one of which is the need to come up with one or more classic, easily replicable best-sellers, rather than constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Yes, there is a place for completly original, one-off designs, but ya gotta think bread and butter.

For me my first classic design and five years of bread and butter were and still are my pure silver Precious Metal Clay lily of the valley earrings made with either Swarovski crystals or pearls, of which I figure I've sold over 100 pair to date. That's a whole lot of teensy-tiny flowers that I've made.

There have been minor variations and tweaks along the way: I've experimented with coloured Swarovskis, which some people love and some people want nothing to do with. Mostly, people prefer crystal AB Swarovskis, but the earring versions with pearls have sold well. I've tried various combinations of Swarovski crystal shapes and sizes, and either made or used store-bought sterling earwires.

What sparked this particular blog entry today was reading my online pal Lisa's blog today about how her herringbone weave copper earrings came to be. Go check out Lisa Yang's classic design. Her Etsy shop is Nota Mona.

Shameless plug: I sell these pure silver lilies of the valley by the each or in bags of 2, 5 or 7 or larger quantities. Please email me for prices/availability. I also make and sell Solomon's Seal flowers in three sizes as finished jewellery or by the each. For a further description of how the flowers are made, go poke around on my website.

What's your classic? How did it (or they) evolve?

Thanks for looking!

PS to Joanne: Note the dog hair, just for you! I can't believe it. The hair made it through editing the photo and I didn't see it until just now.