Lariat Necklaces

I like to wear lariat necklaces myself, so it's a bit odd that I don't make them that often or make that many. I got started on these simply because I happened to catch a glimpse of one of the new Swarovski crystal rings as I was looking for some other beads. The ring was in one of my favorite colours - Copper - so I couldn't resist seeing what I could do with it. I decided not to do that much. I used 14 karat goldfilled chain and wire and attached the Swarovski crystal ring to one end, and a large copper bicone to the other with a few little bead accents. I put a Swarovski butterfly in copper to one side of the ring - and I'm in love with this lariat necklace.
Another of my favorite Swarovski colours is blue Montana and since to me it seems to be much more the colour of a real sapphire than Swarovski's actual sapphire colour, I used the Montana crystals to make a lariat that would also work as a birthstone necklace for September. This necklace is outstanding because of the wonderful Karen Hill Tribes chain with little links holding together huge hammered rounds and large flower shaped sterling. This is a rather long lariat necklace; one thing I like about it is that you can wear the back of it facing front during the day when you're at the office, then when you're ready to go out, you just turn it around and you have tons of sparkle! The large Swarovski crystals fit through the hoop, but I also added an almost indiscernible little ring clasp for those who may wear it out dancing.
Finally, a green aventurine lariat necklace made of aventurine disks, faceted olives, and carved flower beads. Here the loop that the other side goes through is made of the faceted olives, and because of the size of the loop, the other side can be looped through more than once to shorten the remainder.
All of these lariat necklaces can be found on the Lariat Necklaces page of the Cluny Grey website.

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Seeing Smoky? It's a Good Thing!

Yesterday when I was driving home from the studio at about 6:15 my extremely accurate car thermometer said that the temperature was 101 degrees Fahrenheit. This is jewelry-making weather because the only thing that makes sense is to stay inside under an air-conditioner. It's even too hot to lie around in the pool since the water there is as hot as any bathwater!
Dreaming of water, however, I made the first aquamarine bracelet with some great new aquamarine nuggets that I just got in from Thailand. They are a lovely mostly opaque shade of blue with very little green to them. In one of those rare cased of serendipity, I'd just received some lampwork beads from bead artist Lynn Nurge in the same colour, but with a bit of an opal look to them (but not iridiscent). I love Lynn Nurge's beads for bracelets since she handmakes tiny little beads that are as perfect as anything handcrafted can be.

I've also been working with smoky (smokey) quartz this week since the colour brown is big this Fall, and I've gotten in some great cuts of smoky quartz. I still have a tendency to want to call it smoky topaz since that it the way that people I knew referred to it when I was growing up, but what I'm using is quartz.

Smoky quartz is a very sparkling stone when faceted because it is usually transparent and it really almost sparkles like Swarovski does. It is a surprisingly versatile gemstone which blends well with other gemstones and is at home with many different colours in one's wardrobe. I especially like to wear it with lighter colours, white, cream, pale blue, pale peach and pink.
The necklace that you see here is almost all faceted topaz stones with the addition of some great lampwork beads (from a favourite artist of mine) in the colours of brown cream and silver. I especially like the large briolettes such as the one in the pendant here.
The bracelet below has matching lampwork beads which are by Tennessee lampworker Teresa Turner.
Found on the Smoky Quartz Jewelry page.
Finally, I read a review that I didn't know had been done about my blog yesterday, and while the jewelry received good reviews and the writing, the reviewer said that the black background of my blog didn't work, that it drove her crazy as did the green print (I guess she just read one entry since I do change colours). I'm taking her advice and using white print this time, but I'm wondering: how many of you find that you don't like the black background? Should I change to another, lighter colour? I'll publish your comments although because of the inordinately large amount of spam I get I do look at them first, and if the black background is bad, I'll change it!
Thanks - and everyone stay cool!

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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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