New tutorial-Victorian Key Pendant

I swore I would never make this again but never say never because I finally got motivated to do the tutorial for this. It took about 40 hours of labor for this baby to be birthed. It ended up being 33 pages long with 96 high resolution pictures. This is similar to one I posted earlier but I've changed the shaft and simplified the construction just a tad-although it's still an advanced project. This one measures 2 1/4" long by 1 1/4" wide. It requires some patience to complete but the result will be a romantic pendant worthy of becoming an heirloom. You can see it in my Artfire shop

Week 21-Copper Flower Necklace

Uh oh, late again. This is something from my odds and ends box that I decided to do something with. It was shaped from 14 gauge copper wire, soldered together and hammered. The lilacs are in bloom here so I decorated the center with little CZ, amethyst and sterling silver 2mm beads, and added a chain. I made a flattened spiral and wired that on the back to cover up the wires and make it look neater. Of course, it was given an LOS bath.

Memorial Day Weekend

As I have for most of the last 42 years, I spent the weekend in my home town attending the Alma Highland Festival. Although I didn't get to see much of it because this was my first year having a booth at the art fair. My 86-year-old dad marched in the parade with other veterans. I think he was the only WWII vet there. I'm very proud of him as well as all of the other men and women who have served on our behalf in the armed forces.




I was able to catch the closing ceremonies and the masses bands on Sunday. If you've never seen 400 pipers and drummers marching and playing together, it's a truly spectacular sight. I found a Youtube video here

Week 20-Chain Accents

I'm late this week and I needed to get something posted on YOJ before I took off for a show this weekend. These were made from some soldered frames that I had in my spare parts box and I've always wanted to try wrapping the edge with small rolo chain. I've observed that the artists who use this technique attach the chain with about a gazillion wraps of tiny 30 gauge wire. I didn't want to do that and you might suspect that laziness was the reason. Although you wouldn't be totally wrong, the real reason is that I'm trying to keep the price of my jewelry affordable. I think I would have liked them better if I had spent the extra hours to entirely wrap the frame. But my observation at the shows that I've done so far this year is that people are still buying as much jewelry but their price points are lower, and I'm making attempts to adapt to the state of the economy in Michigan. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :D

Week 19-Apatite Earrings

I have four shows coming up in the next few weeks so I've made a number of things this week but haven't gotten the pics taken yet. Plus I'm STILL trying to use up little wrapped stones from pieces that I've taken apart. So these are my homage to Courtney of Passementerie jewelry-similar style, much cheaper stones. :D The large drops are apatite. The small rondelles are apatite, blue topaz and green mystic quartz. The earwires are handmade from 21 gauge full hard sterling.

Week 18-Skeleton Key Jewelry

This bracelet and necklace are made from part of a collection of old skeleton keys that belonged to my grandfather. The metal is coppper with a little sterling thrown in for interest. But what I'm really excited about is that I learned to create an embossed watermark in Paint.Net. That took longer than actually making the jewelry. :D