Winter Blues

It's March already and it's supposed to be -3 degrees tonight. Just when you're so sick of winter you don't think you can stand another day, Mother Nature gives you something to admire. This is the frost on my kitchen window. Such beautiful design can only occur in nature.

Week 9-Etched Copper Cuff

I have no clue if this is on theme as I didn't take the time to do research on this week's theme of Grecian culture. I spent last weekend making bunches of etched pieces trying out Press N Peel blue as a resist. It's a PITA to remove afterward but the amount of detail that can be achieved makes it worth it. This particular cuff is a bold 1 1/2" wide and features a cute little rabbit in a garden. More pictures on my Artfire shop. You can also see some similar work in my Etsy shop

Week 8, Beads and More Beads

A few weeks ago I made a bracelet to wear to a wedding. I didn't like it so I took it apart afterward and was left with about a gazillion little wrapped gemstones to do something with. So this remake was inspired by Natalia Bondarenko and I like it better. The big green beads are tourmalinated quartz with one oval labradorite thrown in. The labradorite has lots of green flash which I couldn't capture in the picture. The bead soup on the ring includes pearl, labradorite, green onyx, green amethyst, hessonite, phrenite and peridot. This one will probably end up in my Artfire shop.

Week 7-Corpse Bride

I haven't seen the movie Corpse Bride but I did look at the trailer online and I thought the stormy colors in this pendant definately fit the theme. The stone is blue pearl, also known as larvakite. It has an icy blue chatoyancy similar to labradorite. The setting was a moderately successful experiment in how to set the stone with a netted or viking knit bezel on both the front and back. I put the beads on the frame not only for adornment but to help me get my stitches even. It worked for the most part but I still ended up with two stitches on the right side too close together. The little beads and coiled scallops were inspired by Perri's bead caps. If I had to do it over again, I would have left off a row of Viking knit so it didn't cover up so much of the stone.

Week 6-Not on Theme

The theme this week was the art of Kandinsky and I didn't make anything that was even remotely on theme. I've been in the mood to play with my stash of tiny beads lately. I'm posting these only because it's a sunny 60 degrees here today and the colors in these earrings remind me of the hyacinths and daffodils we have to look forward to. Mystic quartz briolettes, with tanzanite, pink spinel, and yellow sapphite rondelles.

YOJ Week 5-Embroidered Cuff

The theme for week 5 was the Bronze Age. When I did some research on jewelry of the bronze age, I found that they were pretty accomplished jewelers and used techniques such as filigree, granulation, repoussee, and lost wax casting. Since I can't do any of that stuff, I just went back to wire. The basis for this cuff is from a tutorial by Julie Sigmund of jewliebeads. Then I was further inspired by Perri's Week 4 piece to up the ante on the embellishments. I found out that it's harder to do than it looks without distorting the weave underneath. The cuff is made of copper and the coiling is 30 gauge silver. I used a large labrodorite bead in the center and tiny apatite and peridot beads for the embellishment.

The Heimlich Maneuver

We pretty much all know how to do the Heimlich Maneuver on people but did you know you should learn to do it for your dog? I would have lost my little Mickey this afternoon if I hadn't learned to do this prior to needing it. I was sitting at the table wiring tiny beads when I heard something fall nearby. I turned around and found Mickey laying on the floor, panicking, unable to breathe at all, turning blue, and evidently choking on something. After being unable to feel anything in his throat, I did the Heimlich on him several times and he was able to start breathing again. For once, I was glad I played hookie from Curves. Don't wait! Learn to do this simple move here.