Something blue!

Made a lovely necklace a few days ago with tiny sterling silver beads mixed with white jade and blue crazy lace agate. The pendant is a stand out, and the color is just incredible. I'm glad I picked up an extra pendant to keep for myself! I love it!

New!

A long time of thinking, several weeks of scheming, and one wonderful artisan to work with later, and I am pleased to introduce my hand sculpted letter B pendant in bronze!

Cast from one of my sculpted letters and polished to a high shine. Freshwater pearl drops with delicate gold plated bead caps, on an individually hand knotted pearl necklace.

I've wanted to do this for a long time. I'm super excited with the results. The pendant has much more weight to it than the polymer ones, but it is not uncomfortable to wear.

Tea time!

Isn't this adorable? I made a little bitty tea wallet, just big enough to protect 2 tea bags from getting too crumbled in a purse. I made myself a 6 slot one a while back to throw in my bag for work and I've been very pleased with it. I love the fabrics on this, its just so sweet.

From the outside.

Inside view, holding two of my favorite brands of tea.
Just redid my fiance's paternoster for him, and then what? Sculpting, printing business cards, maybe I'll even draw for a bit tonight. Imagine that!

Photos taken with my new Canon Rebel, which I need to learn how to use. It. is. incredible. And the camera bag I bought from Janine King Designs is quite lovely as well!

New treasury on etsy

I got a message today that my Deluxe Anne Boleyn necklace was featured in a lovely Tudor and Elizabethan themed treasury on etsy, created by user erinf115. What a pleasant surprise!

Every piece in the treasury is really lovely. In particular, I've been eyeing those gorgeous hairpins from Wychbury for a while- I'm no good with my hair. It's either down, or pulled up in a ponytail or messy knot. Which is why I haven't ordered those pretties yet.

This is the first time I've seen the stained glass tudor rose, by belladluna. Gorgeous. Awesome collection, I'm honored to be a part of it.

Expansion

I just created a new shop on an interesting site called ArtFire.

View my shop.

The hardest part of running two shops, I'm sure will be keeping myself organized. For now, I'd say my best bet is to list each item in only one shop at a time. Then I can't get mixed up, right?

I've been working on some very cool stuff. I've finally learned kumihimo (an ancient Japanese braiding technique), and am working on some viking weave pieces to sell. I made a bracelet for my fiance and he loves it. Hopefully I'll have some more ready to go soon!

Queen Elizabeth inspired...

I had an idea yesterday that I am so excited about. Of course, I'd be even more excited if my camera could capture it properly. But anyway.

I find Queen Elizabeth's locket ring very interesting. It's a lovely piece, with a mother of pearl hoops, table cut rubies and diamonds and a pearl. Gold, with an E, for Elizabeth. Even better, it opens to reveal miniatures of Elizabeth and her mother, Anne Boleyn. It is said that Elizabeth always wore it, and it was only taken off her finger upon her death, and taken to her successor, James VI of Scotland as proof of her death. I believe the ring is now housed in the National Maritime Museum in London.

I've never read this anywhere, and unfortunately, can't find very many pictures of the ring to study it from different angles, but I'm pretty confident that the blue enamel we see peeking out from under the gold and diamond E is an enameled letter R. Again, I've not found this in any research, and none of the replicas I've seen have it, this is just my own observation. And why not? So there's an ER on her ring, for Elizabeth Regina. I included the R in my piece- a clay pendant with garnet and pearl, a slightly shimmery blue R (shimmer courtesy of my Orglamix quartz eyeshadow) peeking out from under a three dimensional gold E set with swarovski crystals. It's not a replica, but it was done in the spirit of the ring. My initials are IR, so I'm considering making myself a custom one.

And just as an aside, we got a bit of snow here yesterday and I walked into the park and down to the water. I thought it was very pretty.

Love is in the air...

I've found myself with a whole lot of heart components. So, just in time for Valentine's Day...

"Burning Love," listed a while back. An awesome glass pendant on three strands of fiery seed beads.

"Funky Punky Hearts and Pearls," just listed. The photo doesn't do justice to the awesome pendant. The red and black swirls make a plaid design which I just love. Dark red pearls and onyx beads, all hand knotted.

"Hammered Spiral Heart Earrings," just listed. They may be upside down, but they still look like hearts to me. Very low price on these, because they were an experiment and I'm not going to sell something full price that I'm not 100% confident in.

"Sweet Ivory," just listed. I just love it. So pretty and feminine. The pendant is gorgeous, and the lampwork beads with the tiny roses matched perfectly.

All these (and much more of course) can be found in my shop.