Baubles of Blue

I got these interesting blue beads in a wholesale lot of different strands.  I bought the lot for the other strands, these were just a surprise in the bunch.  Although similar in color family and the fact that they seemed to mostly be faceted rondelles, they were all random sizes, mottled in color, irregularly shaped but somehow they all belonged together.  Their "flaws"  brought forth a feeling of antiquity and their deep cobalt blue hues made me think of Old Mexico. 

Living in San Diego, I used to take frequent weekend trips across the border to enjoy the Baja Peninsula, it's cuisine and it's culture.  Fresh fish tacos in San Felipe have forever ruined my ability to enjoy the ones here.  There is just no comparison to the walk up taco stands in Mexico, a cold Pacifico with a Mexican Lime, and camping on the beach.  The whole experience combines together, along with wandering through shops and admiring pottery, talavera tiles, hand blown seeded glasses, all vivid with color, predominately cobalt blue.  And Mexican Silver.

The color of these beads and their textures and just overall appearance made me think of all of this and I wanted to make something that spoke to my old memories.  I had these great antiqued silver bead caps, and I have been getting these nudges from someone that I need to make a bracelet, so I did.

I made a chunky bracelet with these lapis blue beads dangling off a silver chain.  I still have a collection of smaller ones I had originally intended to cluster around the base of the bigger ones, but I quite liked the look that these had on their own, and the way they cascade around my wrist, casually falling where they like.

And I even broke out my hammer, mandrel and steel block and made a toggle clasp!

Everywhere I look these days, I see HUGE earrings.  Big huge hoops, or really long dangle earrings that come just about to the shoulders.  Some seem like they might be hard to wear, but I like the idea.  I think small earring look nice, but it seems that when I actually go looking for a pair to put on, I skim right past the itty-bitties and look for something that swings.  I was looking on a blog of ways to display jewelry, but found myself looking at the jewelry instead of the displays.  Several of the long pairs of earrings inspired me to pull out the beads.  I studied the shapes of the designs I saw and came up with my own with what I had on hand.

I started off simple, and classic with gold and bright blue turquoise.  I used a pre-made hammered matte gold connector and went with my longest gold dangle kidney wires.

The next pair I also used turquoise, in a slightly more green tone.  I added a vintage rough-cut clear glass bead and a pale blue crystal the color of Peruvian Chalcedony.
Then I decided to break out my hammer and hammer out the wires to give a more organic look

Flattening the end of the wire eliminates the need for a headpin, as the wide, hammered part will block your bead from falling off.  It also has a unique look, and sets the design apart from your average beaded earrings.

And then I broke out my Fluorite, a favorite gemstone of mine.  I love the colors, that range from a deep ocean blue, to the palest of mint green.  The ones in this color range remind me of tropical waters and it just soothes the soul.  Fluorite comes in deep amethyst purple, too, and anywhere in between, but I favor the blue-greens.

I alternated the fluorite with Brazilian Aquamarine and Blue Dragon Veins Agate, with gold spacers and topped with a gold glass pearl.  With the 38mm Kidney wires these touch just past 4 1/4 inches, just about at my shoulders.  Just perfect!

Let's get Hammered!!!

Oh, I have found a new love!!  Or perhaps I have lit up an old flame.  I have always love hammered metals.  I mean REALLY love.  I like hammered decorative accents in my home like bowls, platters and lamps, and I love hammered jewelry.

I fondly remember silver hammered continuous hoops in high school.  I don't think I ever took them out and I think I wore them until they had no more love to give and they broke.  I have picked up some other hammered things over time, but nothing compared to my first hoops.

Then, I started noticing a lot of fake hammered marks in things.  Metals given a texture to look like hammering, but not actually hammered.  Hammering must be a long arduous task if someone needs to come up with ways to fake it, right?  Surely it must involve skills, a torch, red hot metal and some medieval protective gear.  And skills passed down through generations of artisans.

Or it might only require these:

She is at it again, that crafty sister of mine.  My birthday is coming up and she is helping to foster my creativity and push me out of my current comfort zone.  She gave me my birthday present a month early, while she was visiting.  A ball peen hammer, a book and an anvil.  I shamefully admit that I haven't looked at the book yet.  But last night I picked up the hammer...

Oh happy day!  Could it really be that easy?  Now this is just practice on some gold craft wire

 And here I created a hammered paddle headpin for the stones

 and hammered random findings and I have ZERO experience, but imagine what I can do with some dead soft sterling!!  And after reading the book, of course!!  I see a lot of hammering in my future. 

Oh, and despite the title of this post, I do not recommend hammering while hammered, or you may smash a finger or two.

A Little Sunshine

Summer is in full swing, and seems to want to prove it by giving us lots of sunshine and a nice heatwave.  I love the few really hot days we get here at the beach each summer.  They help remind me how almost perfect the temperature is the rest of the year.  Lately, we are getting sunshine in big doses and it has me thinking of yellow. 

I got out my beads several days ago, knowing I wanted to use yellow, but I had no idea what I wanted to make.  I grouped different beads together and then put them away, then got out more and just couldn't make up my mind.  It happens like that a lot.  Or I will have so many ideas for the beads I have that I need to think on it a while so I make the right choice.

I liked this combination of Yellow Jade rondelles, man-made tree resin Amber, and these vintage layered gold nugget beads in the end, but didn't know what to do with them.  I stared at them for a while....

I had a little inspiration for a long necklace, but somehow as I worked, what evolved was nothing remotely like my vision.  It's funny how your hands take over sometimes and what you create seems to be of their doing and not your own.  I took my kids to a birthday party this morning and donned a girly cotton sundress.  I was thinking about what style of necklace I felt like wearing today...a little retro maybe...but not too much.  I came home and made this during nap time. 

So it didn't turn into a long necklace, more of a chunky statement necklace.  But I liked the outcome.  I hope you do, too. 

Who doesn't love Turquoise?

Is there such thing as too much turquoise?

I don't think so either.  Okay, maybe I went a little crazy, but I have been all about the turquoise lately.  From big, chunky statement necklaces

To pendant necklaces

To earrings of all kinds

Turquoise fits all styles, is always in fashion and incorporates beautifully with other gemstones.  This is my work in progress today.  I still haven't decided if I want to finish off the necklace with chain or continue the stones all the way around, but I love the way the colors have come together.

Mint green chalcedony, amazonite, freshwater pearls, fluorite and other gems in blue and green colors of the sea...so tranquil and soothing.  I really love how the earrings are turning out.  These should be up for sale in my Etsy store by tomorrow, unless I decide to keep them!  Or maybe I will just make more for myself...

A Fascination with Ocean Jasper

Until I began making jewelry, I had never heard of Ocean Jasper - never seen it, never seen anyone wearing it, did not know it existed.  I don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.  All I know is that somewhere along my bead buying frenzy in the beginning of my jewelry making obsession, I picked some up.  And I looked into it...I imagine my pupils must have begun to spiral like in cartoons when someone is hypnotized.

In case you don't know, Ocean Jasper is an amazing stone.  Mined off the northern coast of Madagascar, it is comprised of layers of different naturally occurring colors, speckled with bulls-eye orbs in contrasting colors, with druzy veins and cavities of geode crystals.  Some of the orbs have rings coming off them that seem to take on the shapes of flower petals, while others just lay alone in stark contrast to its background.  Some is translucent, some opaque, and some both.  Each one is so different.

And the colors...Peach, pink, mauve, aqua, green, mustard, red, white, steel blue, gray....it goes on forever

Some are very bold, and others are very subdued, all are unique

But what to do with it?  The stones pictured are only a few of my current stash.  I have looked at the jewelry that others have made from Ocean Jasper and find myself a bit disappointed.  It is so often framed in silver in odd shapes and assembled in such a way that it looks outdated, if that is possible.

I think that it should be focal.  Front and center.  I love it lightly wire wrapped and hung on a delicate chain.  It looks great layered with other necklaces or worn alone.  Pictures do not do it justice.  The intricacies and depth just cannot be captured.  You will have to see some for yourself.

It all started with a trip to Hawaii...

My first trip to Hawaii was when my husband and I were engaged.  He had been before, years prior, and it was the only placed he longed to vacation again.  I had been to Grand Cayman once, and so I also shared a love of an island getaway, and living in San Diego, we both love the ocean. 

I am not a big souvenir person.  Especially not when it comes to mass produced trinkets with the name of your vacation locale plastered across them in obnoxious colors, like my mother would buy anywhere she went that wasn't home.  But I do like to have something fantastic-only-to-me to bring home and remember my adventures by.  On my trip to Grand Cayman I stashed a few pieces of brain coral that littered the beaches along the Queen's Highway.  That and a sprouted coconut I found on the beach, determined to make it grow.  The customs guy laughed at me for taking "rocks" and a coconut.  The tree died, of course, but I still remember it fondly.  In Hawaii I wanted to find something special, and I did.  Or so I thought. 

We were on the island of Maui and decided to devote an afternoon to exploring Lahaina.  I didn't know what to expect, but I did not expect the quaint little village to be stuffed full of store after store of the exact types of souvenirs that I wanted no part of, flanked by a few very expensive art galleries and a couple of stores I might find in the mall here in San Diego.  I was disappointed to say the least but we ducked into a crevice along the way to find a greasy plate of Kalbi (Korean short ribs) for my husband at a walk up restaurant.  While waiting I checked out a couple of jewelry kiosks and myself fascinated by the woman who was selling at one of them.  It was all very simple, inexpensive jewelry and as I looked over the items and put them back on the hooks, she offered to change the length of this, or the color of the clasp on that and the more items she was willing to customize for me, the more I wanted to buy.    I have always loved handmade jewelry, I just had no idea that I could make it myself.

I found a few other local jewelry artists and on our subsequent trips to Maui, I would seek them all out and pick up a few items.  I thought I had found a goldmine of inexpensive handmade jewelry.  I would gush about it all to my sister, and buy gifts for her and my mother for upcoming birthdays. 

Last year, my sister decided it was time to take her kids to Maui.  We planned the trip together and I showed her all of my wonderful local secrets, including the jewelry.  Although she seemed a little interested, she was not that impressed with the prices.  I couldn't understand why, until she told me how simple it would be to make them myself and at a fraction of the cost.

Easy for her to say.  My sister is amazing.  She began sewing clothes for her dolls when she was about six, had booths at our county craft shows in middle school, was president of the home economics club in high school!  This is a woman who not only made her own wedding dress, but also all of her bridesmaid's dresses and the jewelry we all wore!  Seamstress, crafter, jewelry artist, scrapbooker, super-mom, Etsy shop owner (Tin Tiara Trims)...well you get the picture.  SHE could make all of this.  I couldn't.  Not that I am without my artistic talent, but this was out of my realm.  Especially now, with two toddlers and no free time.  I didn't entertain that thought for more than a fleeting moment.

A few months later, a package arrived for my birthday.  It was from my sister.  Inside was a book on basic beading, some tools and an organizer filled with little metal parts and beads.  Oh my!  She had put a lot of thought into that.  I was going to have to at least try it, to be able to tell her that I did.  This was not the first time she tried to help foster my creativity.  Many years ago she bought me a sewing machine.  I had grand visions of making my own draperies and duvet covers.  I mended a few things, not well I might add, but it has sat mostly untouched for the better part of the last ten years.  She bought me watercolor paints, and I still plan to use them someday....  There have been other things over the years, but for some reason this was different.

One night after the kids were asleep, I decided to open the book and read.  It still looked complicated and all of the materials and terms were foreign to me.  But I pulled out the tools, followed the directions for making wire loops and in no time I had created a pair of earrings.  Me!  They were no works of art, really just a bead on a headpin on a hook, but it hadn't been hard and the reward was quick and gratifying.  She was right.  I could make anything I wanted to.  Then I could take it apart and make something else!  And I decided I needed more beads.  And more findings.  And some wire.....

And so began my obsession.

My sister was just here in San Diego visiting me with her two fantastic girls.  For the first time in a long time we were able to sit down together and share our creativity and a similar passion that didn't involve the kitchen (she loves to bake, I like to cook - together we make way too much food!).  It was great and I already miss them terribly.  So I made a necklace inspired by what I thought she would love, with colors of the ocean from fluorite, apatite, ivory pearls, antique silver trade beads, and a translucent moss agate pendant that she gave to me.  And she did love it.