Taking Stock.....

During the last year of working on my Dad's estate, my poor ETSY shop has pretty much maintained itself.  I was only able to make a few new things for it, but really, for me that was a good thing.  I have always felt that my shop had too much inventory.  In my early jewelry-making days, I was very prolific.   Sales continued at about the same pace whether I was making new pieces or not during the last year and now the shop is a much more manageable size - for me.


However, there still remains a few pieces that I have had to make decisions about.  Some I have just simply taken apart and returned the components to my inventory.  There are others that I liked but felt they needed to be redesigned.  Here is an example of the later.

 When I was practicing law more than I am now, I spent more time in the courtroom than I do now, and jewelry like this was quite popular among the lady lawyers.  We wore a lot of black and the flash of red and silver was beautiful with our professional dress.


I believe that for every piece of jewelry, there is a person that will see it, love it, and have to have it.I always thought this was a beautiful necklace and bracelet set.  It was made of black onyx diamonds, black onyx black rounds, faceted red coral (genuine), and sterling silver chain and toggle clasp.

 

With a matching bracelet.


But, after almost three years, it was still in the shop.

So, I decided to take a stab at redesign.

 This is much more reflective of my current style of modern tribal bohemian (whatever in the world that is!) using most of the same materials but in a very different way.

I have a gorgeous collection of gemstones, but have gotten away from them the last couple of years in favor of more natural materials like bone, shell, clay, etc.

I want to thank my friend Kristin Oppold for the inspiration in her gorgeous use of gemstones to make me revisit my gemstone collection.

When I did, I found this fabulous double-drilled flat piece of agate.  It went beautifully with the black onyx diamonds.

Drawing on my "medicine pouch" flaps that I've been using lately (but in leather) I remembered a piece of copper with a rosey pink patina that I'd not used yet.

Of course, I needed some apache agate with its lovely pinks to pull it all together, add some black mother of pearl talon beads, terra cotta clay in a dusty pink, and red striped bone beads and voila!


The clay beads are made in the same way that the ancient Chimu peoples of Peru, South America, circa 900 A.D. made the clay for which they are so famous.


I found that crusty weathered piece of shell on the shore of the Indian Creek here in Kansas City about five years ago while taking my dog, Gracie Mae, to her favorite swimming hole.  I drilled the hole myself just to use it on this necklace.  It just seemed to be where it belonged.

The newly designed necklace is for sale in my ETSY Shop Here.  I invite you to take a look at additional photographs there.

So, what do you think?  Now, I don't think there is any good or bad jewelry, (within reason), but just different opinions on what people like.  Do you like BEFORE or AFTER best?