Friday, May 30, 2008

Back to My Bracelets!!

Serendipity strikes once again! A set of lampwork beads, oddly coloured with tones of brown, beige, olive and purple, carelessly placed on a desk next to some new strands of beads, and voila, a combination I may not have otherwise come up with. This matching bracelet and necklace (earrings will be posted soon) contains ametrine, moss opal, amethyst, and tiger-eye beads as well as those pretty, but oddly coloured lampwork beads. This necklace is very versatile (yes, despite the purple) because it looks great with neutrals such as khaki, black, browns, camels, and tans. I'm not selling them as a set, but I did make them together using all the same elements in each piece.


I've been making some bracelets this week (well, among other things); the unique bracelet above is one of my favorite combinations with the last of some of my favorite lampwork beads by Robin Weber. Fire agate and aqua Peruvian chalcedony may not sound like the perfect match, but with these lampwork beads - I'm in love! This is only the second time I've used this combination, but I think it's going to become one of my classics. Below is another classic: the labradorite bracelet with two strands - two strands so that there is always some blue flash showing! I choose my labradorite pieces carefully when I make a piece of labradorite jewelry so that each piece has "flash" and the stronger, the better. But even so, labradorite flashes with movement (the reason it's so great for dangling earrings and bracelets).
Below is a rainbow moonstone bracelet - also double-stranded for the same reasons as the labradorite bracelet. This one also has great lampwork beads in white and clear with a slight iridescent quality. I'll be making more moonstone jewelry since the modern birthstone for June is the moonstone (the traditional birthstone is the pearl).


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

In the Merry Month of May


I love May, and not just because it's my birthday month. May is the month when Spring turns into Summer (at least here in Arkansas), the privet blooms and our backyard becomes perfumed like a night in Brazil, and my mood improves wonderfully (perhaps because my fibromyalgia does). I have been so busy with shipping and paperwork, not to mention trying to get my office/studio reorganized that I haven't had much time for making jewelry. Of course, I haven't had that drive lately that causes me to stay at the studio so late that I see the policemen change shifts in front of city hall across the way. I've been having ideas, but the ideas are such that I require hours of time to play with colour schemes, gemstones and manipulate wire without interruptions of any kind.
However, I did do the apatite bracelet above, 2 strands of sea-coloured apatite with lampwork beads by Lynn Nurge, while dreaming of crashing into waves with a kayak.The bracelet above is unusual for me - a combination of brown and blue is not one I am known for. But the fantastic beads were my starting point, and I loved them so much I had to go with the two colours. So of course I chose pietersite for the brown: wonderful browns with great subtle patterns and sometimes glints of gold and blue. The Swarovski crystals keep the bracelet from becoming too earthy.

I adore lapis! The lapis earrings that you see here are made with some of my favorite pieces of lapis. The ones above feature good blue lapis with great ripples of sparkling gold pyrite-very nicely sparkling pyrite in chunky faceted nuggets. The earrings below feature some fantastic faceted diamond squares and rondelles of gorgeous blue that hang from sterling posts with spirals around a lapis cabachon.
Here's hoping for some time, totally free time, so that I can play, because play so often results in wonderful things!
Tell me, are the flowers blooming in Finland yet?