Happy and Blessed Memorial Day to Our Veterans Past and Present

I just wanted to write a post to those who serve, have served and have lost their lives serving this great nation of ours.  And also to their families who serve and have served right along with their loved ones.

It takes a great toll on families when their loved ones-men and women are in far away lands serving this country. So to those families I say be blessed and stay strong.  It's a hard life sometimes without those you love.

So to vets past and present and those serving right now, I say God bless you all!!!  I intend to do my duty and serve the veterans and their families in any way that I can.  I'm looking all the time for places to contribute money and time to assist any that I can.  And no matter what I do, I can never repay them for what they have done and the freedoms that that have helped all of us to have.

Today is such a dreary, rainy day.  It looks like night when it's actually afternoon.  So I decided to make some jewelry and I managed to make two necklaces.



This is one:

I found this marcasite looking peacock at one of my fav antique malls.  At first I thought it was marcasite but looked closer and it's kind of a pot metal and it was a brooch.  I removed the pin back knowing it was gonna be a focal for a necklace.

 I connected the peacock using some rainbow jasper that got recently.  I love the colors and they all coordinate so well.  I wired it all together with some silver plated wire.

Then I added a little vintage cross to the side of the peacock.

 Isn't that jasper a beautiful color.  Some of the stones are rough which I love!

 On the back you can kind of see where the peacock was made in Germany and where the pin was attached.

I used a hand made sterling hook for the clasp and used some clear glass crystals and a jasper to hang from the back.  I'm thinking this is a keeper for me.  I love that peacock.

Although last night my sister asked if it was a turkey!!!  We all had a good laugh about it.

This is the other necklace I made this weekend:

It's fitting for this special weekend.  I found this old eagle pin that is from a military uniform.  Something about eagles that just draws me.  I cut the pin backs off the eagle and put it together with some aquamarine and amethyst.  I've had the aquamarine squares a really long time.  They are a bit rugged looking but a gorgeous blue-green color.

You can tell from the picture that the two colors work very well together.

 This eagle is mid flight with spread wings and talons ready to take whatever prey it's looking for.  These birds are so majestic!!

 Here's a picture of the necklace all put together.  I just used a simple hand forged sterling hook clasp for the closure.

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I truly hope everyone has a safe, blessed Memorial Day.  And may we all use Memorial Day to pray for all of our soldiers and veterans alike.

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New Vintage Necklace Rosary Style

Hey ya'll I found a vintage brooch and rosary.  The colors are really pretty in the brooch-pink, green and purple.  I also found a beautiful colorful brooch at my fav antique shop.

I decided together they would make a wonderful necklace.
So I put them together to form this really special necklace.  It's 27 inches long including the focal brooch.  The rosary beads are a gorgeous pink and goes well with the colors in the brooch.  I added a gold crucifix and an old rosary connector.

Now my sister is saying how she really loves it and it would really look good on her neck!
But this one I have listed in my etsy shop here.

Have a blessed day everybody!

The 8th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal--It's Time!!

I am so excited to be a participant in this bead soup party.  My partner for my first ever bead soup party is Cynthia Abner of the blog createdtreasures.blogspot.com.  A big Thank You! to Cynthia.  Be sure to check out Cynthia's blog to see the soup I sent her and the creation she made with it.  I can't wait to see!!

We communicated via Facebook and it turns out she is in the medical field just like me!  What a coinky dink.

Anyway, we sent each other our bead soups and boy did she send me a soup that I would never have picked for myself.  You see, that is part of the challenge, to send folks things that challenge them and that they wouldn't necessarily pick themselves.

We all get in a rut and kind of do the same things over and over and work with the same types of beads etc.  So this party is to get us designers out of our comfort zones and into something new and challenging.  The soup that Cynthia sent is a really pretty flower focal with coordinating beads.

The rule is that you have to use the focal and the clasp that your partner sent.  Unfortunately for me, I totally lost the clasp which was a pretty butterfly toggle clasp.  I have looked and looked for it.  My excuse is that I moved during the last months and I have lost plenty of stuff.  Don't know if it is lost or if it's in a box somewhere.  So I ask forgiveness for being so thoughtless as to lose part of my soup!!

Anyway I pondered and pondered what to design.  I finally decided the flower needed to definitely be  showcased with another finding.  I used some of the coordinating beads sent by Cynthia and some of my own beads (those that I could find anyway).  I found an old jewelry piece to attach to the focal flower and then wire-wrapped coordinating beads.

I think it turned out lovely.  My mom already has her eye on it.  She said that the flower looks like it belongs on a bush or tree it's so pretty.  So guess what she will be getting along with her other Mother's Day gifts!!

I would like to thank Lori Anderson of  prettythingsblog.com for hosting this awesome event for all of us national and international designers.  This lady by  all accounts has had some health challenges but has hung in there and hosted this party.  What a trooper!!  Thanks Lori and helpers for all of your hard work.  God bless you.


And please follow this link http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2014/05/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html to enjoy the other designers bead soup designs (scroll down to find them all).  Believe me it's gonna take awhile to get through them all but I am psyched to get going and see what others have done.  Enjoy!!


Enjoy looking at the pictures of the beginning to the end of my design journey with this bead soup.  I really enjoyed it and i'm looking forward to the next one.



Pretty packaging with bead soup received:

Bead soup.  See the butterfly clasp? Can't believe I lost it!

Pictures of the finished product:

Off to see what everyone created!

Flex Shaft is a Wonder For me

I am so loving that I finally bought this flex shaft.  I'm sure peeps are tired of hearing about it but now I don't know what I would do without it.

I'm running around putting holes in everything just to drill.

So I made another necklace and some more earrings.  I never would have thought I'd be making earrings frequently because as I said previously I'm just not good at designing them.  But of course now that I have bought into the found object mantra I'm hooked!

So here's the necklace I made today.  I made it using this piece of something that I found the other day in an antique place as the focal.  It's a glass heart with some type of silver metal around it.  It's perfect to use as a focal cause it's pretty and unique.  The back of the heart focal has a crack in it which at first I thought  was a bad thing.  But now that I have used it, it just adds to the charm and interest of the heart because it makes you look twice to investigate what it is.

You can clearly see the crack in this picture :

Doesn't it look like it might be some type of inscription or something?  But it's not.
I used some s/p silver wire to wire the whole thing together and black and clear crystal beads.

The back is finished with smaller crystals and a religious medal.  As you can see I put a hole in the bottom of the medal then decided not to add anything to it.  I might still add something.  I don't know.
I made the back dangle pretty long so I might leave it along. I am obsessed with making the back as pretty as the front these days.  That clasp is from an etsy seller that I have found who sells them at a good price.  I don't think they are vintage by they certainly look like they are.

These are the earrings which I made using some vintage enameled flower findings with a rhinestone in the middle.  These findings are so pretty in person.  I attached them using steel wire, some frosted grey beads and steel earwires.  These suckers are pretty long at 3 inches but my niece is eyeing them and has hinted what a great Mother's Day gift they would make.

Here's a close up of the findings.  I just love them.

Can you all tell that I am trying my best to improve my pictures by using props?  How am I doing? 

 I don't have many props yet but I'm working on it.  I have been scanning the other blogs that I follow and admire to figure out what they use and how they use them.  I'm still using my iphone for pics as I haven't decided what type of camera to buy.  Any suggestions?  

Found a Really Cool Jewelry Supplier on Etsy

I was perusing Etsy a couple of weeks ago looking for found objects and unique findings to make jewelry and I found a really cool shop that has some really unique stuff.

I received the package from her last week but didn't have time to really look through it.  Well, yesterday I looked and found some awesome findings and decided to make some earrings.

 I don't make a lot of earrings because I can't seem to find the creativity to design them.  Mine are usually your standard ones that anyone can make.

I'm so excited about these mainly because the findings are so unique and beautiful.  I am now on a mission to find more!

Here are the earrings:

Aren't those flower findings gorgeous? I paired them with some shimmery blue/green crystal beads and sterling ear wires.  I almost want to keep them because I don't find anymore in her store.

I got to use my flex shaft for the first time and made two holes at the top of the findings.  It was an absolute dream to use.  I was afraid at first cause I don't use power tools but my husband told me to wear my safety glasses and go for it.  So I did.

I am so happy I finally got up the nerve and jumped in.  Thank you Deryn Mentock for the inspiration and the instruction on using a flex shaft and being safe!

What have you done afraid lately and it worked out??

New Necklace!

I made another necklace today.  It was a really busy day but I found the time.  Now that i'm going back to a "day job" I just feel this urgency to make stuff before I forget what I learned in the jewelry class I took.  I'm sure I won't forget because it has totally turned my jewelry making in a new direction which is a good thing and I'm excited about it.

I could kick myself for not taking a class before now.  If any of you are thinking about it don't hesitate.  It can completely turn your hobby/business around in a new direction.

 For me I learned some new techniques and improved on some of the techniques I already had.  It was a God send for me.

So i'm totally into found objects now and I found one that I immediately fell in love with.  It's a big silver starfish.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I bought it but knew I'd use it eventually.  I decided to use it today and I made a gorgeous statement necklace with it.  It is the star of the show.

 I think the starfish is beautiful because it's so detailed.  It's made out of silver metal with incredible detailing.  If you've seen a starfish up close it's very similar only it's silver.  This piece is vintage but I don't know how old it is.

 I made it with some crystal beads in a deep blue and some abalone shell beads i've had awhile.  Thought the shells and the starfish go together so well as representations of the ocean.

The abalone beads have some wonderful colors--blue, green, pink.  I love them.

I made a hand forged sterling silver hook clasp for the closure.  I even balled the end of the hook.  A result of the class.  I'm no longer afraid of the torch!!!

If anyone knows of some really good instructors who give online classes tell me about it.  I'm itching to learn more!

Happy weekend everyone.

Look What I Made This Week

I have been concentrating on finally getting a job this week so I have not had as much time as I have had to make jewelry.  But I finally finished an asymetrical necklace that I was doing for the Alchemy of Objects class I was taking (sad face it's over).

I'm so proud of it because it was hell to get it right seeing that it's asymetrical.  Take a look and tell me what you think:

I've decided that it's mine!  My husband said it's one of the prettiest necklaces i've ever made.  I agree with him.  It's made of carnelian, peach glass beads and brass chain.  For the back I made a simple
hook.

Those focal beads I got from a seller on Etsy.  Lately i've bought a lot from Etsy sellers.  I'm just now realizing just what unique stuff you can get on Etsy.   The other glass beads I had forever.  I'm not a big fan of orange and it's variations but for whatever reason I really love the colors in this necklace.

I have a really pretty coral sundress that will go perfectly with this necklace.  Can you see the beautiful rhinestones in those beads?  They are really sparkly.

Until next time!