Necklace, Bracelet and Earring Sets

Well, hello there.  I have not blogged in a couple of weeks.  As most of you know, I am an attorney that wants to be a jewelry designer and the last two weeks have kept me rather busy in the legal arena.  I have spent a great deal of the last couple of weeks preparing for those court hearings, but resolved a couple of cases so that is a good thing.

Anyway, as a jewelry designer, I have a very good client that has been a wonderful repeat customer.  She loved the designs I was working on using Julie Burgard's lampwork discs.  I love these discs, they are so much fun to work with.  They remind me of Indian blankets with their rings of color.  Julie is Outwest on etsy.

Anyway, Iwant to share with you two sets that I have just completed for Lynn.  The bracelet in the first set, Tucson, is made using beads made by Lynda Cogbill, another one of my favorite lampwork artists.  I blogged previously about the bracelet.  The necklace uses Julie's discs, and she used the same glass to make these discs as Lynda used to make the bracelet beads.  It is completed with turquoise blue glass Czech coin beads with picasso edges, and cream and brown mother of pearl rounds and glass teardrop beads.

In the second set, Santa Fe Lynn wanted to combine the macrame leather braiding with the lampwork discs.  Julie made all of the lampwork beads used in the bracelet, earrings and the disc in the necklace.  Lynda made the glass beads on the sides of the necklace.  

I am very pleased with the way both sets turned out.  I am working on another set similar to the Tucson set to list in my shop.  Of course, with most handmade things, there will be some slight differences.

Last, but not least, I made these earrings the first part of March but just finished oxidizing and polishing yesterday.  The first pair uses Chrysophase teardrop gemstones and the second pair uses more of Julie's disc beads - this time in lapis blue and lme green paired with lapis lazuli gemstone arrow beads.

Whew, its good to be back here.

Macrame Bracelets.....

These bracelets are something I've been wanting to make for awhile.  They are a great way to use the disc beads that Julie of Outwest makes in lampwork and the disc beads that Marti and so many other ceramic artists are making now.  I recently ordered a lot of Greek leather in different sizes and a few nice colors.  I hope you like them.

Those lampwork discs are gorgeous and this is my all time favorite Marti Conrad bead.

Marti made these adorable pink textured flower disc beads.  My friend from Jatterwunky made the lampwork bead.

 Organic brass button clasp and those ends can also be cut short, but I like to have dangles.

This is an antique mother of pearl shank button. 

Something to look at while I go get a haircut......

I'm off to get a haircut today - been trying to get that done for two weeks - finally reached that point this morning where if I don't get it cut today, I am going to cut it myself tomorrow, and that would not be a good thing....

In the meantime, just took this set out of the tumbler.  I used lampwork discs by Julie of Outwest on etsy and I used Yellow Jade and Labradorite along with just a few faceted glass picasso beads in the new earthy colors.

In case you are new to jewelry, these are earrings.

And, this is a necklace.  They match.

Earrings and Bracelet - Southwest Flavor

I have recently started buying lampwork art from a couple of etsy suppliers and I love their work.  The first is Outwest.  She makes beads that really capture the flavor of the west.  The second is Lynda Cogbill.  Her beads are broader in style, but I was drawn to this set of southwest beads.

The turquoise is from another etsy seller that I recently discovered.  Her products are great, her selection is managable, and her service is perfect.  Most of all, she is friendly.  Take a look at  Rosemary's shop sometime you have a moment.

I rarely use an entire set of lampwork in one piece because really good lampwork by a really good artist can make a piece very pricey, but this set was an exception.  It would have been like splitting up ninetuplets (or whatever you would call a litter of 9).  I simply separated with faceted pyrite, added some wavy copper spacers and stuck on a clasp.  That wonderful little heart turquoise magnesite bead also came from Rosemary's shop.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Dream Catcher Earrings - Outwest Lampwork

I recently received an order of lampwork disc beads from Outwest.  I have been playing around with them and last night made these earrings that I am calling Dream Catchers.  I was inspired by an ornament design that I saw this holiday season and once they were finished, they looked like Dream Catchers to me.  When I showed the finished earrings to my husband, he grimmaced and asked why I had the "hair" on them.  He was no more impressed when I explained to him that it is not "hair" it is "fiber" or if you are a literalist, the package identifies it as "fun fur."   Not that I consider his opinion to be the definitive decision on what I make or don't make, it has got me thinking.  So I am going to put it to you guys.  So, ....."hair or no hair?".....that is the question.  Please comment on your preference.

On a personal note, we saw two movies yesterday.  We can go months and months and there is nothing playing that we want to see, but right now, there are FIVE.  We saw Breaking Dawn, Part 1 and Mission Impossible.  They were both very good.  I still want to see We bought a Zoo, War Horse and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

 The theater we always go to has recently remodeled.  They now have recliners and they also now have self-serve drinks with 104 flavors.  I told the manager that I really liked the remodeling, but I thought they needed more flavors.  Also a funny thing happened yesterday when we were being seated for Breaking Dawn.  The theater was full and by the time we made our choice of what flavor of soda we wanted, there was only a sprinkling of single empty seats throughout the theater.  On the end of one row, there was an empty seat, a woman, a man, and an empty seat.  I asked the woman if they could scoot down one seat allowing us to use the two empty seats together.  She said "No" - not just once, but twice.  So my husband sat beside her husband on the 4th seat in the row and I sat by her on the end.  We began passing our popcorn and drink back and forth -- more than was necessary.  It only took a few minutes and soon she caved, the woman stood up and "told" me to scoot down.  I first thanked her for her kind offer, but declined telling her that we were comfortable with the way it was, she then said "please".  I could tell she was about to have a breakdown.  I have never in my life experienced such rudeness at the theater, but ended up having a really fun time with the situation.  We talked to management about it and they told us they couldn't make them move if they didn't want to, so we just handled it in our own "mature" way.  By the way, we were always sure to apologize to them verbally each time we passed.  We are nothing if not polite.  Fortunately, the movie hadn't yet started.  Are we bad or what?

Marti Conrad Is Having A Sale - Time To Stock Up On Her Beautiful Components

As everyone that is a regular visitor to my blog knows, Marti Conrad is one of my favorite component artists.  She primarily sculpts from stoneware and I have commented more than once on the skill with which she finishes her pieces.  As a jewelry designer that regularly uses handmade stoneware, porcelain or other clay components in their work knows, the consistency of the holes and professional finishing makes all the difference in the quality and beauty of a finished piece of jewelry.

Marti just announced a 20% sale in her shop that is scheduled to run through January 5, 2012.  You can get to her shop by clicking HERE to take advantage of this sale.  I can tell you, she doesn't have sales all that often so don't delay.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

I have listed two new items in my etsy store today.  Hope you enjoy looking at them.

The bracelet is another focal by Ingrid Mueller.  I love this one.  The horses look like ghosts emerging from the brown glaze.  I coupled it with paint brush jasper beads, rollo chain, and a silver saddle charm.

And I recently made a purchase from Outwest.  These lampwork disc beads are matte mustard, purple and blue.  I dangled them from purple leather lace and a variety of amethy, lapis lazuli, yellow jade, pink howlite, sesame jasper gemstones dangling from a piece of rollo chain.