Saturday, October 21, 2006

TOO MANY BRACELETS!!! Pulsera, Brăţară, Bracelete, Armbånd, Karperec....

I run the risk of looking like a photo blog this week, but I was looking at some of the pictures of bracelets I'm adding to my Cluny Grey Jewelry website this week as well as my Ebay store and realized I had quite an eclectic group here. First, a bracelet made with muscovite - a stone I love because it sparkles. Next, a bracelet made of some better quality prehnite that I happened to find; what's interesting about this prehnite bracelet is that the wonderful lampwork beads by Robin really are more green and while they have a tinge of pink to them that is almost all that shows up when I photograph them. This is a wonderful bracelet!
Blue lace agate is always pretty, but when mixed with blue chalcedony, lampwork, and glory be! white opal Swarovski crystals! it is really special! This is a combination that I think that I'll be using again. The earrings do seem to glow, not just in the sunlight.
I'm starting to mix more Swarovski crystals with gemstones - something that I never used to do - or only rarely did, but I've decided that I really like the look. Great lampwork beads here; tanzanite Swarovski is just to die for, and these great amethyst faceted nuggets I got in Spain are wow!
Labradorite (picture taken in the sunlight) will probably always be one of my favorites. I wear labradorite earrings all the time because I like the surprising flash of blue coming through my long hair. And labradorite looks great with boro lampwork, too. Oddly enough, those little smooth square beads that look almost brown aren't; they are some of the flashiest labradorite I have, but I can never get all the labradorite to flash at once in one picture. But that's one of the great things about wearing labradorite - no matter which way you turn, there's always some stone flashing its chatoyancy.
I made the labradorite bracelet below with some of Robin's great beads that won't show up the green (pale) that they really are. I took labradorite that was more of a grey colour than the dark green that we generally expect labradorite to be - but grey labradorite with plenty of flash! I'm rather happy with the result.


A couple of these bracelets are up for auction on Ebay this week (or will be starting tomorrow and/or Wednesday; they'll start at half the price or even less that they will sell for normally so do your Christmas shopping early!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

A Little of Everything! Litt av alt, Vähäinen määrä -lta Kaikki, Un Poco de Todo

This week I've done a bit of everything as the spirit (or my muse?) moves me. I still have some of that wonderful ruby crazy lace agate that I combined with lampwork beads and Swarovski crystals for a bracelet that is bright and cheerful. This time of the year I can use bright and cheerful!
Rainbow moonstone is still a favorite of mine to work with and lately I've gotten some very good quality rainbow moonstone with quite a bit of flash. The 3 strand bracelet here began because I had to paly with the rainbow moonstone, then I wanted to do something with the curved sterling silver Karen Hill Tribes beads (hard to see here, but the circle charms are hanging from them. I was very happy with the bracelet when I finished it, and I did put it on Ebay: see user id chloemarie99 or do a search for Cluny Grey.
I'm becoming more interested in tourmaline. It is a rather high priced gemstone (for good tourmaline anyway) and hard to find in the sizes and shapes I would like to work with. This 2 strand bracelet makes use of nuggets, coins, and some pink chips. A lampwork bead picks up the pink in the tourmaline.
To see these and other bracelets and more jewelry from the Cluny Grey Jewelry collection, go to Cluny Grey Jewelry.

If you haven't voted yet in the Ka-Gold Jewelry design contest, go by and see all the entries - or enter yourself!