Lampwork in All Its Moods

I love lampwork beads although calling some of the lampwork I've seen merely "beads" seems an understatement. Take the lampwork beads in the bracelet above. An amber-opal (my term) colour takes the form of a gorgeous flower bead and little "ruffled" nugget beads. Beads such as these are a joy to work with! These are by Lynn Nurge, a Texas beadmaker (hmmm...wonder what there is about Texas that makes for such great lampwork artists?). I accented the lampwork with Copper Crystal large Swarovski crystal beads and sterling silver. The bracelet reminds me of the wrist corsages that young girls wear (used to wear?) to the prom.
The next lampwork bracelet is made with some very, very nice etched lampwork beads in black and silvery-gray. With sterling silver and Silver Shadow Swarovski crystals (large Cosmic crystal and rounds about 10mm), it has a decidedly cool feel to it (good because once again the temperature was over 100 F today - a trip to the post office left me dry and drained!).
******To my readers in Finland, Estonia, and Norway - are you making jewelry or are you out enjoying what must be very pleasant weather where you are? And to my Canadian friends, I can just imagine what Vancouver must be like right now - how lovely! And to my readers in Manitoba (around Churchill, the Polar Bear capital), surely you are basking in warm (not hot) sunshine and cool breezes.
Until next time....
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Fire and Water

Amazonite is a pretty stone (not just found around the Amazon but also in Russia and the United States). When it is a solid soft blue-green as it is in the bracelets above, it is truly beautiful although I like it when it has interesting inclusions as well. The top bracelet I mixed with peridot and with a rose quartz tulip bead to match one of James Derrick Reeves' pretty lampwork beads. The second bracelet again features Reeves' beads this time complemented by faceted black onyx. The colours of Reeves' lampwork beads and his patterns are really amazing.

Below I started working with some fire agate I 'd gotten in the last few weeks. The bangle bracelet below has a large oval with my favourite mixtures of translucency, cream, red, and orange. The rondelles are also fire agate. The carnelian necklace has fire agate ovals alternated with chunky faceted carnelian nuggets. A 14 karat gold filled chain holds a carnelian turtle, carnelian fish, vermeil disk, and fire agate smooth teardrop.






Finally, a wonderful aquamarine bracelet with a great swirling dichroic bead by Paula Radke at its center. The aquamarine stones on this bracelet are especially pretty, both smooth and faceted. Some sterling and a dichroic bead are all that's needed.

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Rubies: Divinely Decadent

Rubies are one of my favourite gemstones. Rubies conjure visions of long-ago India, beautiful dark-haired women in colourful saris trimmed lavishly in gold, their ears and arms heavy with golden jewelry made of rubies and other precious gemstones...corpulent Eastern kings who leer at dancing girls, rubies and diamonds flashing on every finger...exotic courtesans who live only to be beautiful and to please...
But rubies are also a modern favourite; the ruby is the July birthstone and one of the three precious gemstones other than diamonds (the other two are emerald and sapphire). I love to work with rubies although I am limited somewhat by price. However, the natural rubies that you see on this page were all fairly inexpensive, as rubies go. Although I do have some gem-quality rubies on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website, I decided to feature these natural rubies today.

The top photo is a close-up of a ruby bracelet made of the natural rubies, sterling silver, and one wonderful borosilicate lampwork bead by Frozenfyre. You can see the full bracelet in the picture below. Above is a simple draped chain and ruby necklace of sterling silver with the natural rubies holding everything together.

The last bracelet is a handcrafted chain from the Karen Hill Tribes doubled with a toggle clasp and ruby charms. A very simple bracelet that can be worn everyday, these natural rubies are also a dark maroon/burgundy colour that can go with many different clothing colours.
Happy Birthday to you July babies!


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