Week 16-A Bit of Bollywood

Nothing too complicated for this week but I like the bright colors. I think they give these a bit of Bollywood feel. They’re made of bronze wire, purple and red hydro quartz, and peridot briolettes. I used LOS to oxidize them.

Week 15-Bronze and Turquoise Earrings

I finally had a chance to sit down and actually make something with my supply of bronze wire. The lacy edging on these earrings was inspired by Yati Salem. The brios and dangles are turquoise and they're topped with a 4mm pearl. I haven't added a patina to these but I kind of like this wire shiny.

Week 13-Complementary Colors

Most of you probably know that complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel. The pair that I put up for Year of Jewelry are primarily andalusite but I sprinkled in some green vessuvianite and red garnets. I think of them as representing early spring when the first green shoots appear....something we're still waiting for in Michigan, although almost all of the snow is now gone. Then it occured to me that turquoise and sunstone could represent the complementary colors of blue and orange so I put together a couple of pairs and decided I really like that combination. I tend to get stuck in a rut of monochromatic so I'll think I'll pull out the color wheel more often.

Hardware Store Earrings

I stopped at Homeowner's Hell the other day for a propane tank. I started browsing around in the hardware and came home with some fun earring components. Three of these are made with steel retaining rings. They looked a little grungy at first but a trip through the tumbler cleaned them up, and I think they look kinda cool embellished with sterling silver chain and gemstones. The round brass thingies are compression sleeves. I drilled holes in them, then added pyrite to the large ones and Swarovski pearls inside the smaller ones, connecting them to the ear wires with sterling silver chain. The pyrite ones make a fun tinkling sound when they move.

I'm Loving Coral This Week

I never wear red and it's never been one of my favorite colors. But a couple of folks on the forums I belong to were destashing some red coral beads and they all of a sudden appealed to me. So I played with these beads all last weekend. With the exception of the first pair of earrings, these are all done with copper wire. I would love to pair some with silver in a necklace but I find myself being stingy with my silver wire lately. I'll have to get over that-it's not going down.

Assorted Earrings

I've been busy this week trying to get stuff listed in my Artfire shop and also trying to come up with some new earrings in the under $30.00 price range. The first pair are little ribbons of copper sheet that I textured, drilled and folded before adding a dangling pyrite briolette. I was happy with how they turned out.

The second pair are gorgeous seafoam green hydro quartz briolettes that I coiled and wrapped in fine silver.

Last are some impression jasper beads that I've had for ages in a simple wrap of fine silver with balled ends.

Tourmalinated Quartz Earrings

I was trying to think of something a little bit different to do with briolettes for earrings than the standard wrap. I wanted these quartz briolettes with black toumaline needles to be fancied up a bit. These are somewhat inspired by Erin Patton's Vintage Briolette Cap but on a smaller scale. I used 24 gauge square half hard wire, 2mm beads and tiny daisy spacers for decoration. I don't know that I will try these again- the PITA factor was high.

Week 2-Aqua and Lemon Quartz Necklace and Earrings Set

The theme for this week is Eclipse so these don't really fit the theme, or I'm not up to the stretch needed to get them to fit the theme. The song Blue Moon? Nah, never mind. These earrings are not for the faint of heart. They measure 2 3/4" long and 1 1/4" wide. They're composed of aqua hydro quartz, lemon quartz, apatite, moss aquamarine and keishi pearls. The stone in the pendant is slightly larger and the pendant is about 2 1/4" long

Earrings for Donna

Last month I had a little open house at my home and Donna, one of my best customers, picked out this necklace and wanted earrings made to go with it echoing the center motif. So after much messing around this is what I ended up with. The orange beads are mystic quartz and the blue ones are iolite with little tiny pearls. I'm going to drop them off this afternoon and hope she likes them.

Holiday Gifts

I hope everyone had a great holiday, whichever one you happen to celebrate. For the last couple of years, I've done a Christmas gift exchange with Deb and Sue, my two best friends from the Creative Wire Jewelry forum. I always look forward to opening those small packages on Christmas morning because I know it's going to be something special. Now that the holidays are over, I can finally post what I was working on for them. Sue's necklace and earrings use whiskey quartz gemstones. I forgot to get a picture of the necklace for Deb but hers was the same only with a turquoise briolette. Since she lives in Albuquerque (I can now spell that by heart!) I know she's a fan of turquoise. Today I'll try and get some pictures of what they made and get them posted.

Earrings for Kim

At the trunk show I did the other night, a gentleman and his daughter wanted me to make something for his other daughter, Kim. Her house was recently broken into and all of her jewelry was stolen so they wanted something special. The only direction I was given was to make them silver with pink in the middle, and feminine. I emailed a picture but I haven't heard back so I don't know if this is what they had in mind or not. When I look at them I keep wishing the bottom element was a tad smaller. What do you think?

Fold Formed Copper Leaf Earrings

Thursday was our last week of metalsmithing class for the year. I try to do things there that I can't do at home due to lack of equipment. One thing I lack is a good vice. Well, it's not like I don't have vices, just not one that will hold metal. :D So I did the folding and hammering on these earrings at class. At home I was able to cut them out and stamp the edges to give them a ripple effect. I really like the way these turned out and I might have to ask Santa Claus for a vice.

Week 37-Some Etching

I did some copper etching last week. The earrings were inspired by Cindy Wimmer's necklace in the last Step By Step Wire. They're not for the faint of heart measuring about 2 7/8" long. The skyline bangle is 1 1/2" wide and was done with a stamp and Staz-on ink which I then went over with a Sharpie. The waves bangle is 1" wide and also used a stamp for the design.

Week 29-Copper and Sunstone Scroll Earrings

It seems I've been in a bit of a slump the last couple of weeks and all I've accomplished is one pair of earrings. The metal is copper and the really sparkly sunstone briolettes are another one of my finds from the G&LW Show. I'm going to start describing these as "scroll", unless someone can come up with a better description, because of Google. If you want your products included in Google's Product Search, you have to learn which words they'll reject. One of the words they won't accept is "vine" along with just about any of the words used to describe different colors of quartz, such as "champagne", "whiskey", "cognac" and "beer". "Free" is another no-no word. So if you want to offer free shipping, or free gift wrap, be sure and refer to it as "complimentary". :D

Week 25-Sunstone, Garnet and Citrine Earrings

A bit Emily Gray inspired, these earrings have sunstone, citrine and garnet briolettes as well as sunstone and mandarin garnet rondelles. And lots of coils!

Week 15-Surprise-More Earrings

Since I'm already overrun with earrings, I naturally decided to make more. My friend, Deborah Gray-Wurz, procured some gorgeous pyrite briolettes for me and I used them in the first pair of earrings. I also added gems in shades of purple and violet including tanzanite, amethyst and iolite.

The second pair is olive jade with cascades of green vessuvianite, blue aquamarine and some some keishi pearls thrown into the mix.

Week 11-Earrings and More Earrings

I was on another earring making binge during Week 11. I have more earrings than I can display on three racks but I love making them anyway. These are just a few of the ones I completed that were somewhat inspired by the Art Nouveau period with all it's flowing curvy lines. Others I haven't even gotten photographed. The smoky quartz earrings were inspired by Natural Jewels on Etsy.

Free Tutorial-Woven Wire Earrings

Woven Wire Earrings Tutorial
This is a short tutorial I put together for a class I taught through the Flint Schools. I figured out how to upload it to Docstoc.com and make it available to anyone who is interested. I hope you have fun with it. I have two others I will try to get up soon.

Week 46-Vine Earrings

These are some soldered shapes that I pulled out of my spare parts box. I embellished them with fine silver vines and added a small amethyst briolette and a larger mystic quartz briolette as a dangle. The mystic quartz has a purple reflection in the right light.