Rough, cool, ethereal kyanite on leather

This weekend I succumbed to the urge to work with the green kyanite that I had gotten in December. I was inspired by my own kyanite necklace in my collection. This is the first of several necklaces in this style that I will be showcasing in Etsy. I will make others in blue kyanite and other gemstones. But I have to say that this green kyanite is spot on with what I am feeling right now.

Peacock Pearls

I bought a pair of peacock pearl earrings from Angi Caldwell at her last trunk show. I know - I need another pair of earrings like a hole in the head, but I liked the design and they were very well priced. So finally during Spring Break, I had the time to make a necklace that would go with the earrings. I dipped into my stash of pearls and had some that coordinated perfectly with the fabulous large teardrop earrings.

The first thing that I did was that I oxidized the sterling wire and nuggets that I would be using, and also oxidized the silver on the earrings. This needed to be done first for this project because liver of sulfur can sometimes pit pearls.

While I initially designed the project with the idea it would simply riff on the classic strand of pearls, as I progressed through the project, I realized that would be too boring. So I selected an abalone dagger for the focal point. I have used this component in other designs. Overall, I am very attracted to the look and feel of these pieces.

The necklace is 17 1/2" long, which allows it to hang just below the hollow of my throat. After constructing the necklace, I polished it out and the soft gray metallic glow really complements the dark tones of the pearls.

Perfectly pearly!

Garnet Garbage

In January I completed a necklace that had been sitting on my bench for longer than I want to admit. At least the middle bar piece. I wanted to do a rough look that almost was "twiggy". I shaped then hammered a piece of sixteen gauge sterling wire. Then I wrapped it with 24 gauge dead soft sterling, creating nine loops on the underside of the bar to attach whatever was going to go there. At that point I had not decided. In fact the bar probably sat around for a year before I decided that I had the time and inspiration to work with the piece.


I finally ended up using "garbage garnets" for the bib of the necklace. I say this because if these garnets were celebrities, they would be on the D list. They are rough and misshapen. Just the way I like them. They look like they could have just been taken from the ground, polished a bit, and drilled. I definitely was going for a rough, asymmetrical, organic look.


To finish the piece, I attached heavy gauge sterling chain and created a clasp that echoed the focal point of the necklace. The piece was oxidized and lightly polished out to give it the dark look.

Garnet garbage hangs right below the hollow of my throat.

People are always asking me if I make rings

And in the past my answer has been "no". I have done some very simple styles with a few twists of wire and some inexpensive stones. But up until this point, I have not made anything that I would seriously consider offering to someone else.

So this is an adaptation of the Ornate Ring tutorial from Eni Oken. This is a practice piece in preparation for the final piece for someone who ordered it sight unseen when they were ordering other commission pieces.



Since I have done very few rings, I needed to make a piece and wear it so that I would get a feel for the construction process and how the ring wears. Rings are trickier than other things to construct for at least two reasons. The first is that rings are very size specific. So getting the wire to the correct size can be a little challenging. Then rings have to be able to withstand quite a bit of impact and general abuse, since they are moving about with the hand. So they have to be made with a fair amount of structural integrity.

This ring is basically constructed in three phases. First the part that encircles the finger and the base upon which the stone sits is bent into shape. Then coiled pieces which help to hold the stone in place are constructed and wired to the base. Finally the sides of the ring are created by wrapping thin gauge wire around the spirals, interspersed with the sterling studded detail.



The stone in this piece is a Norwegian Moonstone. I antiqued the piece to highlight the detail, complement the darkness of the stone, plus I feel that this style lends itself to an antiqued look.

Since I have worn this piece, I now know that the final product that I will be making soon will have to have a total of four curled wire pieces, one at each corner. This ring was constructed with two. The problem with this design is that the longer sides where the thin wire is longer moves around too much. This makes me concerned that the wire could weaken and break over time with wear. So I will modify the design for that.

All in all, this is a nice dramatic occasional wear sort of ring.

Long, detailed, and fabulous

During the Artoberfest Art Fair a couple of weeks ago, I made a new acquisition to my jewelry collection. This is just one of the gorgeous Angela Caldwell pieces that I own.


I just picked up the necklace yesterday. I had admired this necklace several weeks ago at another Arts District function. I love the components of this piece: the beautiful pendant which showcases Angi's latest PMC work with gold stud cold connections and hammered details:


I am also pretty crazy about the really nice faceted rutilated quartz gemstones that attach the sterling chain pieces along with the silver bar triplets interspersed in the design:


I had picked it up, tried it on, and put it back down because while I loved the details of the piece, it just didn't lay in the right spot for me. The pendant hit right between my cleavage. At Artoberfest the piece was there again, and I went through the same process. I thought about it and finally asked Angi if she would be able to add length to the necklace. I thought that this piece would look great in a super long length. So she added eight inches for me, which makes the necklace 32 1/2" long. It will also look wonderful doubled, as she left the toggle clasp in the final version.

You can view other more pieces by this artist at http://www.angelacaldwelldesigns.com/

Rocks that I picked up in Williams AZ

I picked these rocks up in Williams, Arizona, on Route 66. In the top left corner are desert rose pieces; three small and one large. Then on the right side are petrified wood pieces. The blue piece in the middle is raw kyanite. To the left of it is a quartz crystal.

Part 2 of a Beach Glass Commission

This is part of the same commission as the previous piece. It is shown on the same necklace cord. That is part of the beauty of that design, is that the pendants are interchangeable.


I varied the technique on the netted bezel design and added sterling beads to the top row.


This is a picture of the back frame of the piece.


Detail picture of the side wire netting that encircles the piece.