MEBDesigns Jewelry

Promise of Spring

2009-01-05T06:13:00.007-05:00

When I go for my long walks through my neighborhood and the surrounding stream valley park, I keep my eyes and ears open for ideas for my jewelry. Inspiration in terms of color is easy to come by in the spring, summer, and fall months, and I tend to view the world through my painter's eye. However, it is winter when the sculptor in me is more awake to possibilities. Although lovely color can be found -- in the bark of a tree, a bright red cardinal perched on a tangle of vines, the reflection of a bright winter sky in the still water of a mostly frozen stream --I look more for the shape and texture of things that emerge when the foliage is gone. Recently, I passed a dogwood tree and paused to marvel at the tightly furled buds on the very tips of the branches. Their shapes were lovely, but I was even more entranced by the thought that, deep inside, like a wonderful secret held in a tightly closed fist, lay the promise of the blossom that would emerge when the days lengthened and sunshine once again warmed the land.

Last winter, I made a series of earrings out of sterling silver wire that I called Winter Branches (see my blog entry: http://mebdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/02/winter-branches-earrings-handcrafted.html). As labor intensive as they were, I enjoyed doing them immensely. The tree I passed on my walk inspired me to do something similar. When I came home that day, I sat down in my studio and began to draw shapes that reminded me of those dreaming buds on the tips of slender branches.

When I came up with a design that I thought would make lovely and graceful earrings, I set to work. Since this design is a little more elaborate than my Winter Branches design, I decided to use 19 gauge silver so they wouldn't feel heavy. Despite coming down with a debilitating case of tennis elbow, thanks to all the hammering, they turned out just the way I envisioned. Look for them soon in my etsy shop.

Change

2008-12-05T15:55:00.007-05:00

The idea of "change" has been big this year, especially with the election. In my own personal life, I have experienced a lot of changes over the past 27 years, living in seven different countries on four different continents, and inhabiting fifteen different houses in the course of those moves. My latest move happened last August, when our landlords -- who themselves have morphed into friends of ours -- needed to reclaim their wonderful house.

This move didn't involve many big changes: I didn't have to learn a new language; adapt to a new climate; get acquainted with exotic fruits and vegetables. In fact, we moved only a half mile or so away from our last house. The biggest change is that this is the smallest house we've lived in for years. Surprisingly, and thankfully, I am happy with this aspect of the change. Although many of our beautiful memories are still packed away in boxes and stored in our little attic or our little bomb shelter (yes indeedy, we have a bomb shelter: this house was built during the Cuban missile crisis, which shows how paranoid average Americans were back then...and how clueless about what kind of shelter would protect them from Soviet missiles!), I find a small house both cozy and comforting. And certainly a lot less work to clean!

The subject of "change" comes up a lot in conversation with my friends. We talk a lot about the importance of being open -- not resistant -- to change. Many of us can't help it: change happens around us and we have to adapt. And many of us take these changes and find in them all sorts of opportunities for learning and growing. One friend in particular has been hugely responsible for a lot of my changes, in a good sense. She was the first to convince me to sell my paintings; she followed by convincing me to open an online shop on etsy for my jewelry. Recently, she did the impossible: talked me into hauling my jewelry to her home for a sale she was hosting with numerous vendors.

It is not as if she hasn't tried in the past to get me out of my studio and my computer and into the real world. She has long experience in attending craft fairs with her magnificent purses, and has built up a large, very loyal, clientele. My one attempt to sell things we no longer needed or wanted in my household at a community garage sale ended in lots of money, but wiped me out so much that I felt like I'd come down with the flu. She had an uphill battle convincing me to get out and sell at craft fairs after that experience.

This friend, however, is not the kind to give up. She decided to host the sale in her house and sent me an invitation to participate as one of the vendors. As I was panicking internally and wondering how I was going to get out of it without offending my very dear friend, I noticed her clever "escape clause": I could deliver my jewelry to her home, set it up, then scamper off. For a percentage of the proceeds, she would take care of the credit cards, taxes, shmoozing, and all the rest: ahhhhh, perfect.

So, I agreed. But, as everyone knows who has sold at craft fairs or home sales, one has to come up with a display. I've been keeping a keen eye on display ideas, both on the internet and in craft fairs where others boldly sold their wares. I wanted something that stood out, that offered my goods to the public while also protecting them from potential thievery, that represented me and my shop. While I am a living breathing human being, I wouldn't be there to represent myself, so the idea of representing my shop became more important. But how do I represent in reality what is basically only a virtual shop, existing in boxes in my studio and photos on my online shop? Plus, I had to do it as inexpensively and flexibly as possible.

Inspired by a picture I saw on the web, I focused on some old Ikea toy crates that no longer served their original purpose. I painted them, framed them with some stock molding from Home Depot, attached under cabinet lighting, then made necklace displays, earring cards, and tags for all necklaces, sets, and bracelets. It was a lengthy and involved project, but I am very happy with the outcome. How would I describe it? Practical and versatile, with an elegant and organic feeling....just as I'd like to project my online shop! Here are pictures of my "real" shop...

You can check out the website of my fabulous friend and her marvelous purses and totes: http://www.margaretboyle.com.

Circles of Support

2008-05-27T15:40:00.004-04:00

Some time ago, I was contacted by a customer who had previously custom-ordered a little star pendant with a dangling garnet for a charm bracelet. This time, she wanted the same thing....only multiplied! She was part of an online weight loss support group, and decided to lead a weight loss challenge. The reward for participating in the challenge was to be one of my little star charms. I told her immediately that I loved the idea. I loved being part of something so positive.

I, myself, was involved at the time with my local Curves. Although walking is my preferred exercise, I found it hard to work up the motivation when it was very cold out, or when rain or snow threatened. I knew I needed to supplement my exercise in some way, and a flyer coincidentally arrived in the mail from Curves, offering a one-month exercise challenge. Perfect, I thought! And it was. Although the workout itself didn't necessarily challenge me, what I got out of it had more to do with all the interesting women I met there. It was a wonderful combination of conviviality and exercise -- a wonderful circle of support in many ways. But then, something strange happened: the owner disappeared. We all knew she had come down with pneumonia, and we heard that she had entered a hospital in another state where family members lived. But then, well, nothing.... She stopped answering emails from the staff. Her phone was shut off. There was no way to get in touch with her. No one knew if she had died....or run off to Mexico with money from her franchise. Sadly, the Curves had to close. It has reopened, and many of the same people are there, but I've become too busy with getting organized for a move, so I've sadly let that circle of support go.

Recent studies show that smoking cessation is aided tremendously by one's circle of friends and acquaintances. We all know that many people benefit from Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers. With the internet, now, even people who live far away from such traditional circles of support, can participate in online support groups, such as the one my customer was in. I ended up sending her 25 star charms for her fellow participants. It was an honor for me to play a "starring" role in such an endeavor. Viva all the circles of support, from small groups of friends, to online groups of strangers!

A Creative Mind and a Cluttered Studio

2008-03-03T17:28:00.005-05:00

Why is it that creativity and chaos often seem to go hand in hand? In my case, in my jewelry studio, chaos usually reigns supreme. As I've noted in earlier posts, this often leads to serendipitous combinations that might not occur if everything had been in its place. On the rare mornings when I enter a clean studio, I dive in and start taking out trays and beads and silver and gold and, by lunch, chaos has returned. I wouldn't have even bothered cleaning my studio last week if it were not for a very aggravating and potentially very dangerous problem.

You see, my jewelry studio has a large, west-facing window. This is usually a source of pleasure for me as we tend to keep the temperature very low in our house and my studio warms up nicely on sunny days. I sometimes feel like curling up there and purring in the sun like a lazy cat. But the sun's deleterious effects include nearly blinding me. This is particularly a problem when I am working with metal and using my torch. In bright sunlight, it is difficult to tell if a torch is lit, or if the gas is just hissing out. This is not a good thing, and this is what propelled me into a major reorganization of my studio. Why don't you just get some curtains and block out the sun, you ask? Ah, you've forgotten the pleasure I get from feeling the sun!

It took me the better part of the weekend to clean up and reorganize, and now I can proudly state that my studio is clean and much much safer. I solved the problem of the sun dissolving the flame of the torch by putting my body between the two, sort of like a human eclipse. I now have three distinct working areas, two for works in progress, and one for my metalworking. I can swivel in a chair from station to station, and work much more quickly and efficiently. Safe? Quick? Efficient? That sounds more like a government-funded study on workplace methods than a creative artist's studio, but I also find that my creativity is still going full steam ahead, that is, when my cat doesn't decide to take advantage of the clean space to take a nap in the bright sun....right on top of my work in progress. See if you can spot the cat about to settle down on top of my necklace. See also the photo of the necklace set which I just finished after managing to snag it out from under a warm and furry belly. The necklace set is now available -- without cat hairs -- in my etsy shop.

Sacred River Necklace

2008-03-02T16:11:00.007-05:00

Designing a necklace can be a long and wandering process. I had a necklace lying around that I had made several years ago, in the days before I began making most necklaces adjustable. This particular necklace, I finally decided after wearing it for a year or two, was too short, so I hung it up in my studio and basically forgot about it, even though it was hanging in plain view. One day, a visitor to my studio saw it, and liked it, and asked if it were for sale. Why yes, I said, with some surprise, as I had forgotten all about it, but it was too short for me and it will be too short for you. I'll have to restring it and make it longer, I told her. So, I moved the forgotten necklace to my jewelry table...and completely forgot about it once again.

I realized one day when I couldn't ignore it anymore as it was right there, constantly getting in the way, that I was not happy with the design. I couldn't quite put my finger on the reason. All the components of the necklace were quite lovely: flat ovals and cubes of chrysocolla; beautiful faceted lapis lazuli beads and smaller heishe beads; gorgeous rounds of Peruvian opal that I had bought in Lima; and silver pumpkin beads from Burma. They were all lovely components, but they no longer excited each other. Or is it that, in the years since I had made that necklace, I had progressed in terms of my own ability to create an exciting and beautiful composition in a jewelry design?

Whatever the reason, I felt dreadful that I hadn't restrung the necklace for my visitor, so I decided to bite the bullet and sit down and work on it and see what happened. As I began playing with the beads, I realized that I had overlooked an important element: the beautiful faceted lapis beads looked like a midnight sky with golden stars twinkling down. Oho! Not silver, I thought to myself: that was one of the problems with the necklace. I was going for my gold findings, when my eye fell upon a large chrysocolla bead in my stash, and the design immediately fell into place in my mind's eye. It was perfect: it provided a focus; it tied together the green and turquoise and blue of the chrysocolla and lapis; and, what was best, it introduced a contrasting color that made the rest come to life. It even provided me with the name, which was inspired by the dark blue diagonal line which bisects the bead like a river cutting through a landscape so far away that it must be viewed from the heavens: Sacred River!

So, vision and title firmly in mind, the excitement of putting it all together kicked into high gear. Within a very short amount of time, I had the completed work. What I left out was the Burmese silver and the Peruvian opal. What I added were horn beads and hand-carved horn cones, into which the multiple strands disappeared, and copper -- lots of copper! The necklace went from uninspiring to sparkling, from forgotten to heavenly! I also made sure to add that most useful of elements -- an extender chain, which enables the wearer to adjust the length from 17-20 inches. As you can see from the photos, that makes it very versatile.

Making gifts for friends

2008-02-18T15:41:00.006-05:00

I love making jewelry for a friend's birthday. Recently, I had the occasion to make two new designs for two wonderful friends. One of them was a little problemmatic as she is not so much into the habit of putting on a necklace or bracelet, so I had to think hard to come up with the "hook", that would entice her to wear whatever necklace I gave her. The other was problematic in that she already has lots of beautiful necklaces and earrings to wear, so I wanted to make something that both suited her and really stood out.

For friend number 1 -- she of the non-jewelry habit -- I went to one of my favorite jewelry stores to ponder. I looked and looked and then spotted the perfect stone: blue kyanite. I had shopped with her enough in Costa Rica (where we originally met) to remember that she was particularly drawn to blue glazes on pottery, and this kyanite was of a particularly appealing shade of blue. I originally combined it with sterling silver beads, but it just seemed a little lacking in imagination that way. I ended up making two necklaces, one combining amber and kyanite, and the other combining the kyanite with lovely shades of lilac. After making the two, I ended up putting the amber/kyanite combination up for sale in my etsy shop, and putting the blue and lilac in a silver box for my friend.

For friend number 2, whose jewelry collection I had to compete with, I found the perfect Venetian glass beads at another local bead store: copper shading into gold with bold black stripes and a hint of beautiful green at the edges. This friend has gorgeous green eyes and brown hair with a hint of copper, so I knew these beads were a good start. I ended up weaving in multiple strands of bronze and black hex-cut Czech seed beads -- which have such a lovely sparkle -- with green seed beads and beautifully faceted and sparkling rondelles of carnelian and peridot. I made a little pair of earrings to match, using more of the carnelian and peridot.

I hope both of them wear these necklaces in good health, and the knowledge that a lot of thought and love went into the making of them!

Combining Silver and Stone

2008-02-07T14:49:00.000-05:00

I love silver. I love semi-precious stones. I love precious stones, but I can't afford them. I love combining silver and semi-precious stones in the same design. One of my favorite shapes to create from silver wire is a teardrop. I find it to be such a graceful shape, and so much fun to make. I also find that it combines beautifully with stones, whether round or oval or other.

I recently came across some beautiful strands of kyanite, which I'd never worked with before. I was surprised when I read that one of the places that kyanite is mined is Burma. When I lived in Burma, I don't recall ever encountering the stone, although it is quite possible my attention was more riveted by rubies and sapphires. Kyanite comes in several different colors, but the blue that I found is by far my favorite. It reminds me of mica, with its silvery striations, but it is the color of a favorite pair of blue jeans. I've combined it in necklaces with beads of a lavender or lilac hue, and it comes out looking like the color of a beautiful hydrangea. I've combined it with amber, and it looks like a deep blue autumn sky shimmering over a stand of golden aspen trees. But I love the simplicity of combining it with sterling silver.

I made two teardrop shapes out of 16 gauge sterling silver wire, soldered on a loop on top, and then hammered the base to create a contrast with the thinner silver wire. I hammered it for additional texture and lightly oxidized the teardrops to emphasize the texture. Handcrafted earwires and headpins joined the teardrops in my tumbler, which strengthened and polished the lot. A final polishing by hand to bring out a rich gleam in the silver, and they were ready to pair up with the kyanite. I love how they turned out.

Winter Branches Earrings -- Handcrafted Sterling Silver

2008-02-06T14:18:00.001-05:00

Several months ago, I came across a photo of a piece of fabric that instantly appealed to me. It brought to my mind an image of bare branches in the wintertime. Inspired by that image in my mind, I decided to sit down with some sterling silver wire to see what I could create. Yesterday, I finished my third pair. Each pair has taken its inspiration from that piece of fabric and the image that came to my mind. Each pair is unique. I have loved making each pair.

I take the sterling silver wire and start cutting branches, being careful to cut each branch twice, so that each earring in a pair turns out to be the same size. I hammer the ends to get a pleasing shape and then I sit down and start putting them together in such a way that they mimic the branches of a tree. Once I have them in the right place, I start soldering the branches together, stopping now and then to pickle them as I continue to solder. When all the branches are soldered and the earrings are out of the pickle pot, I start working on the details. I hammer a texture in the end of the branches, clean up any excess solder with my trusty dremel, then I add texture to the limbs with another dremel attachment.

The next step is to shape the branches carefully again, and put them in the tumbler for several hours to harden. When they are fully hardened, I pass them quickly through some liver of sulphur to oxidize them slightly, and polish them by hand to a rich gleam.

Making these earrings is incredibly time consuming. If I were to charge my full rate for the amount of time I spend on them, they would be beyond most people's budget. Truth be told, I love making them so much that I don't mind "wasting" my time in such a wonderfully creative and satisfying way. An image inspired by a photo, some silver wire, and lots of time: in the end, they are absolutely worth it to me.

Craftsman Earrings

2008-02-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

I have always loved the craftsman style. My dream would be to find a craftsman bungalow, and be able to restore it to its original glory. I love how the craftsmen of that time took simple elements -- wood, copper, glass -- and turned them into works of art without artifice.

These sterling teardrop earrings are my homage to that wonderful era. For one thing, they were entirely and lovingly made by hand. I took simple 16 gauge sterling silver wire and formed two equal teardrop shapes, which I then soldered and further shaped into an even more graceful shape. I hammered the base to give it a weight that contrasts with the more delicate wire above. I then hammered a texture into that base to heighten the contrast further. The finishing touch was a brief oxidizing bath, and a final polish which gives them a rich, antique gleam. Handmade sterling silver ear wires finish off these lovely, simple, and graceful earrings.

Sea Goddess

2008-01-11T13:49:00.000-05:00

This necklace began with a strand of pearls that I wasn't even searching for. In a sense, it found me and I was completely captivated. Whatever thoughts I might have had of working on something else completely vanished. I have never seen such a beautiful strand of coin pearls. The closest I can come to describing their color is that it is the color of sea foam at sunrise, shot through with hues of pink and gold. Beautiful aquamarine briolettes are like drops of crystalized sea water. Interspersed are small Swarovski crystal bicones, with a depth and sparkle that both catches the eye and highlights the paler hues of the pearls and aquamarines. To make this necklace really special, I hand formed, soldered, hammered, and tumbled a beautiful teardrop shape out of sterling silver wire as a pendant, whose materials encapsulate the materials used in the necklace itself. I went through the same process to make two more pendants, a little smaller, for matching earrings. All silver used in this piece, with the exception of two tiny Thai silver beads and the crimp bead covers by the wonderful, organic, spiral shaped clasp, was made by me. I can just imagine Venus, the Sea Goddess, the goddess of love and laughter, as painted above by Sandro Botticelli, rising from the bosom of the waves and wearing this necklace with pride.

Sales and silver

2007-12-31T11:54:00.001-05:00

I was very gratified in the lead-up to Christmas at all the sales both on and off etsy. I had one pair of earrings -- completely hand crafted sterling -- sell as soon as I listed them in my shop. They were so much fun to make, and I love working with heavier gauges of sterling silver wire, which I order from Rio Grande. I love the shape, and the texture both.

I also struck up a warm relationship with another buyer, who was interested in my Garnet Flower pendant, which she wanted to buy for a friend's January birthday. Although one might think that internet selling is a very cold and impersonal matter, my friendship with Elizabeth certainly proves otherwise! Below at left is a photo of the pendant she bought:

She brought up one point that is, however, the bane of internet selling, and that is taking photos that do justice. I have been selling online now for nearly a year and a half, and my photos have improved immensely. Yet almost everyone who sees my jewelry says that they are so much more beautiful in person. Of course, nothing beats being able to see and touch a piece of jewelry to get a good sense of it, but I will continue to explore ways in which to give a better sense of the piece to potential customers.

One photo which, I think, does justice to my jewelry is this one:
Labradorite can be very difficult to photograph, as the beautiful blue and green and yellow flashes of light aren't always visible, and then one is left with a rather dirty-looking grey stone. The photo clearly worked, as these earrings sold a day later to a new customer in the Netherlands.

I also had success, in making, photographing, and then selling two pairs of earrings which I called Winter Branches. Since they were completely hand crafted from sterling wire, each pair has its own unique characteristics, although both are inspired by the same piece of fabric:

In the new year, I am going to continue to explore silversmithing, as there is something so gratifying about making all the silver components by hand. Who knows: if enough people buy the silver, I can then turn my attention to gold as well! Happy New Year everyone!

Holidays

2007-11-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

My son's birthday is in mid-October. From that point on, life seems to speed up, whipping past Halloween and Thanksgiving, and then heading full tilt into Christmas. This fall has been exceptionally busy, with lots of relatives visiting, and other events and parties to put on and attend.

In spite of all the activities and preparations I've been involved in, I've managed to do some painting (never enough time!) and a lot of jewelry. What I love most is working with metals, and my goal is to take another class that will take me to another level. Here are two pairs of earrings I've done recently, with all the silverwork done by hand. I learn a lot each time I sit down to work with the metal, but I'm sure I'm reinventing the wheel many times over, in that, what I learn slowly through trial and error, I could learn very quickly with a good instructor. But, perhaps I learn best that way. Whatever the case, I love to learn! And I love to create!

Too Busy to Blog

2007-10-21T17:02:00.001-04:00

It is not that I am procrastinating. Nor have I fallen off the edge of the earth. I just have been terrible busy with custom orders, singlehandedly hosting a birthday party/sleepover for my son and four of his friends, raking leaves, walking, and creating new designs for my etsy shop. Please stay tuned for more blogging....any day now!

Black Flower Earrings -- Oxidized Sterling Silver

2007-10-06T15:56:00.000-04:00

I have been itching to try out my Liver of Sulphur ever since it arrived a few weeks ago. Liver of Sulphur, which smells as bad as its name, is used to oxidize silver. To tarnish it, in other words. Why would you want to deliberately tarnish silver, I hear some of you asking. It seems oxidized silver is quite popular these days in the jewelry world and, I have to admit, it has a very interesting effect.

With some 18 gauge sterling silver wire, I hand-formed two flower petal designs. I hammered them for strength, and then soldered into the center of each a flower-shaped bead cap, followed by a flower-shaped bali bead spacer. I like the way these draw the eye into the center of the flower. I pickled them, then tumbled them until hard and polished. I was tempted to leave them that way, all bright and shiny, but decided instead to use my Liver of Sulphur. It takes a little getting used to, as either the solution or the silver has to be hot, but it finally came out to a uniform, dull black. I then took the flowers back to my studio, where I hand-polished them to a rich gleam. I'm very happy with my rare and exotic flower earrings!

Fuschia Flamengo, Ghost Deer, and Other Distractions

2007-10-04T14:55:00.000-04:00

I find these days that it is very difficult to stay indoors. The blue sky and changing colors beckon. And yet, when I am outside walking, I find my mind half in my studio, working on a design, or thinking about what I'm going to make next. I enjoy the walk, the feel of the warm sun, the sound of acorns crunching underfoot, the crash and thud of falling black walnuts and apples from the trees above, the sight of a leaf floating gently from the sky like a snowflake presaging a blizzard. And always, always, when I'm walking, I keep my eye out for a white deer which comes to nibble on a neighbor's garden some evenings. I saw this photo, which my neighbor happened to snap, and it took my breath away. The deer doesn't look real. It looks like a photographic negative or, perhaps, a ghost. How does it stay hidden in the forest, I wonder? Do other deer attack it for being different as, I was told, horses often bite others that are white?

I realized today as I was walking and pondering the last thought, that there is a connection there with the necklace I'm making. The connection has nothing to do with the colors in nature, as this necklace has much more in common with a tropical garden than a temperate forest. Rather, the connection is with the girl for whom I am designing the necklace and a white horse.

A number of years ago, when I was living in Peru, I met the girl and became very close to her mother and her family. My son was the same age, and they used to take riding lessons together. One day, the horse her sister was riding reached out to bite the white horse upon which the girl was mounted. Horrifyingly, the horse missed and, instead, bit down on the girl's thigh with such force that it lifted her up out of the saddle. Understandably, the poor girl was very reluctant to get back up on a horse again.

But, I digress: I got distracted. Back to the walk, back to the thoughts of the ghost deer, back to the thoughts of the girl and her necklace. The necklace is called Fuschia Flamengo. It is spectacular, it sparkles, it has a star's big personality....pretty much like the girl herself! Happy Birthday and enjoy your homecoming!

The Dress

2007-10-01T17:04:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned for the necklace I am designing to go with this beautiful dress, which will be worn by the lovely daughter of a dear friend, to her first high school Homecoming Dance!

Whiskey on the Rocks Necklace

2007-09-20T17:47:00.000-04:00

After fighting off viruses and staunching wounds in the first half of the week, I finally managed to sit down today in my studio (okay, well, stand up, as I have to do most of my hammering on the window sill of the nearby laundry room) and complete a necklace I've been dreaming of since I purchased a strand of gorgeous facetted whiskey quartz beads.

I haven't had much time lately to do a lot of silver work, plus I've been working with a lot more gold due to the autumn colors I've been using, but I really wanted to forge a beautiful sterling chain that would highlight the spectacular beauty of the whiskey quartz pendant. Although it goes beautifully with gold (see my previous blog entitled "Whiskey and Pearls by Firelight"), I thought the purity of silver was needed for this necklace.

Working with silver is a source of great pleasure for me. I love forming links by hand and eyeball, I love soldering, I love hammering (especially hammering!). There is something immensely satisfying in making something as solid as a chain from something as simple as wire.

I wanted the main links of the chain to mimic the shape of the pendant, or perhaps to mimic the shape of ice cubes floating in a crystal glass full of whiskey. I joined the larger links with smaller ones, which I hammered to give a texture distinct from the smoothly hammered larger links, and then twisted slightly for additional visual interest. I finished it off with a handforged s-hook clasp which enables the wearer to extend the necklace from 16-18 inches.

I am thinking of trotting out my Liver of Sulphur (I know: what a name! And an even worse smell!) and making a similar necklace with oxidized silver. I like the idea of dark grey silver next to the warm tawny gold of the whiskey quartz.

Road Rash...and Other Viruses

2007-09-19T18:26:00.000-04:00

So, my husband leaves for a trip to Latin America on Sunday afternoon. All is quiet on the home front until I hear the backdoor open and turn to see my son, covered in blood from the knees down. He caught a terrible road rash, it would seem, while playing football....in the street....while wearing shorts. Hmmmm, funny how those viruses can sneak up on you in the midst of playing. So, instead of a nice quiet dinner together, I spent the next hour discovering and bathing and bandaging his wounds. His knees took the brunt of it, but his elbow was nicely skinned as well. He was being very brave about it, while I was trying hard not to hyperventilate at all the blood and missing skin.

So, Monday morning, which is typically a difficult morning with the three of us sleepily bumping into each other and tripping on cats, was made even more interesting by the subtraction of one adult to deal with breakfast, etc, and with the additional need to remove sterile pads (ouch! Don't do it so fast, Mom!) slooooooowly, cleanse wounds, reassure child that the antiseptic states in clear red letters on the bottle that it is a "no-sting" formula while he is whimpering in pain, replace sterile pads, try to find an area where there is actual skin onto which I can put tape, then wrapping it all in Ace bandages to prevent the sterile pads from falling off during the day at school.

He made it through the day with Ace bandages intact, but arrived home with another virus: a cold. Tuesday morning, the ritual was repeated, sans help from far-away hubby, and, looking from the pulpy knees to the dripping nose, I decided to keep him home. Wednesday morning, his knees had swelled up like balloons, but I said he should go to school anyway (after all, high school counts, I told him). He slowly limped toward the door, saying it hurt to put weight on one leg, came back to blow his nose, looking so miserable that I relented and kept him home again. Took him to the doctor as well, as my husband and I didn't believe him when he came in that same back door, almost a year ago now, and said he thought he broke his leg....playing football....in the dark....on Friday the 13th....which happened to be his 13th birthday. Lucky for us that, this time, the doctor thought the swelling was just due to the extensive bruising and subsequent swelling, exacerbated, perhaps, by the cold virus which causes joints to ache.

Long story short: I've been working on a necklace I love, featuring a handforged sterling silver chain and another one of those gorgeous facetted whiskey quartz nuggets, but... well, viruses have intervened and I haven't had a chance to finish it. Maybe I should develop a taste for whiskey after all: I heard it has marvelous antiseptic properties!

Whiskey and Pearls by Firelight

2007-09-16T17:43:00.000-04:00

Long ago, when I was first married, I bought my husband a burgundy velvet smoking jacket at a thrift store. It was so elegant (I thought then; I wonder what I'd think now?), and I had visions of us in front of a fire in a cozy, book-filled library, crystal glasses full of whiskey in hand and some beautiful music in the background. The jacket is long gone (I wonder what happened to it?), we have a cozy book-filled room, but it is a dining room rather than a library, and there is no fireplace there. Plus, I never developed a taste for whiskey.

Yet, the other day when I went to my second favorite bead store, I saw some gorgeous facetted whiskey quartz nuggets. They were big, they were beautiful, they were very expensive. I fell in love. As luck had it (or fate?), I had to go to the mall where this bead store is located again this weekend, to provide fashion advice for my husband as he bought some shoes and pants he needed for a trip to Latin America. Well, the pants needed to be hemmed, the shoes were expensive....so I had time on my hands and a husband feeling guilty for spending so much money on shoes. I said I wanted to go to the bead store while we waited for the tailor to finish and, lo and behold, that strand of whiskey quartz stones was still there, beckoning. Did you buy it, you ask? Of course I did! I know that two wrongs don't make a balanced household budget, but he felt guilty: I knew he would be relieved that he wasn't the only one spending too much money. The way I see it is that, by buying that glorious strand, I alleviated his feelings of guilt. Now, isn't that a perfect wifely thing to do?

So, they are now mine! All mine! I carefully examined them, found the most perfect of all these perfect stones, and set to work. The whiskey quartz is so gorgeous that I decided to pull out all the stops: nothing less than crystal and pearls. I found some beautiful, facetted potato pearls whose lustre encompasses the gorgeous warm, tawny color of the whiskey quartz. I had a stash of Swarovski bicones of a perfect, neutral, light topaz color that provided just the right sparkle, like firelight reflecting off a cut-crystal glass. I finished it off with a handmade clasp with a spiral shape that echoed the spiral lines on some additional pearls I added, and a chain that makes this necklace adjustable from 16-20 inches (42-52 cm). In this necklace, I recreated that long ago vision of an elegant evening with crystal and whiskey and pearls in front of a fire. Now, how perfect is that?

Golden Days and Dreams of Amber

2007-09-14T17:09:00.000-04:00

A short drive from where I live in Northern Virginia, is a parkland situated along the banks of the Potomac River. A trail winds along the edge of the river, enticing one to take a lovely long walk. A few miles downriver are the thundering Great Falls, which stopped Captain John Smith in his journey up the Potomac centuries ago. In this park, the river itself is wide and shallow and slow, dotted here and there with rocks and rills and a few deep pools in which gaggles of geese and rafts of ducks eat and play in the clear water. What was to have been a short stroll, turned into a nearly three hour walk because I couldn't bear to turn back. Strolling along the shaded path, with no sounds other than birds in the surrounding forest and waterfowl in the river, with the Potomac sparkling in the sun, was heaven. The weather was perfect; the park was perfect: I fell in love.

I also fell in love with a strand of large Baltic amber beads which I found in a nearby shop recently. These beads look like drops of warm sun that encapsulate the golden and reddish colors of fall. I lived in Poland many years ago, and I have regretted ever since that I didn't buy trunkfulls of amber then. I do remember walking along the Baltic sea and finding delicate drops of amber on the sand. Amber is wondrous: It is so ancient that the trees that gave off the resin that became amber no longer exist. The resin formed 25 to 50 million years ago and enfolds within itself the world that existed at the time. Homer speaks of amber as a gift fit for royalty in the Odyssey, and an amber room was indeed given to Peter the Great of Russia by the Prussians. It is said to bring luck to its bearer, whether royal or not. And this amber strand was big, it was golden and full of red and yellow inclusions as if it is reflecting a fall day millions of years ago. I couldn't wait to make a necklace with it.

I began with a beautiful, large center bead. That bead is surrounded by tiny Czech glass seed beads, and two facetted Czech crystal rondelles of a hue the color of yellow-green leaves in autumn. From that gorgeous center bead, graduated sizes of more amber beads continue, separated by small Czech glass rondelles and cathedral beads -- also showing the gradual onset of autumn in their sparkling green and yellow depths. To reduce the weight and the cost of the necklace, I added beads of amber and citrine glass whose golden color perfectly mimics the beautiful amber. Finished off with an adjustable 14-karat gold-filled chain and a handmade 14-karat gold-filled clasp, the lucky person who ends up with this necklace will indeed feel like royalty. Look for it in my etsy shop soon.

The First Signs of Autumn

2007-09-07T14:29:00.000-04:00

It is easy sometimes, when walking in my neighborhood, to forget that I live in a suburb of a major metropolitan area. A short stroll away lies a stream valley park where, as often as not, I see or hear some form of wildlife. It might be a cluster of deer, startled into statues by my coming. Occasionally, I'll spy the tawny red coat and spindly legs of a fox. Rarer still, but not uncommon, is when I catch sight of a beaver, either sliding down the riverbank with some tasty tangle of leaves in his mouth, or gliding through the water towards his dam. Always, I am surrounded by birdsong, the chatter and scramble of squirrels, sometimes the cry of a hawk as he sails overhead, and the mesmerizing song of the cicadas.

I lived overseas for many years in countries where there were only two seasons: the hot season and the cool season; or the rainy season and the dry season. Coming back to witness again the four seasons of a temperate climate has been thrilling for me. As I walk now, despite the persistent summer heat and humidity, I see leaves fluttering down onto the path. The trees themselves are just beginning to show hints of gold or red or brown. The combination of colors in a temperate forest in the autumn is always both soothing and exhilarating to me, exciting my artist's eye and promising more changes to come.

I love designing jewelry that showcases those changes. I just finished a necklace called Smoke and Sparkle, which has hints of the beginning of autumn. Starting with a lovely smoky quartz nugget, which looks as if it has been caressed over time by wind and water, I surrounded it with the sparkling facets of smoky quartz briolettes. Nestled in between these, I added chips of peridot and small Czech facetted cathedral beads, with lovely transparent green barrels tipped with gold like the leaves in autumn. I love how the green sparkles amongst the brownish grey quartz like sunlight on the leaves in a forest. The necklace has a wonderful combination of textures and colors, that are both subtle and eye-catching. It is now available in my etsy shop, along with additional photos.

High School and Sicily

2007-08-31T17:03:00.000-04:00

This morning, my husband and I attended a long orientation at our son's new high school. My baby is about to enter 9th grade at the tender age of 13! A whole new era of puberty and independence and lots of homework and girlfriends is about to open for our family, and I must say that sometimes I find it hard not to hyperventilate!

At the orientation, I sat next to the sister of a dear friend of mine from Costa Rica. When we moved to Virginia from CR, it was great to have a contact, a warm human being, to whom I could turn with all my questions. It was even better that her son was in the same school and grade as mine.

As we sat and waited for the orientation to get underway, talk turned to what they were up to. Well, she said, they were planning a trip through Sicily. Have you ever been to Sicily, she asked? Hah! Have I ever been to Sicily: we lived there for four wonderful years! She and her family have a woefully short time there, but I've been on the computer for the past hour, sending suggestions of places, hotels, and food to her. I haven't immersed myself this deep in thinking about Sicily in a long time, and I must say it makes my heart ache a bit. We left pieces of our hearts in so many countries, with so many wonderful people we met there.

The Forests of the Night

2007-08-30T15:06:00.000-04:00

I made a beautiful necklace today featuring a variety of shapes and sizes of Tiger's Eye. I love the mysterious, elusive quality of the bands of gold and brown that shift and shimmer like the eye of a tiger caught by firelight. As is often the case when I work with this stone, the wonderful poem by William Blake plays through my mind like a refrain.

TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

In a interesting coincidence, while I was working on the necklace, I was listening to a program on a local npr station on the emergence of uncontacted tribes. I say "coincidence" because here I was thinking about the forests of the night, which led me to think about my time in Costa Rica and, while I was thinking about that, the discussion of uncontacted tribes came up.

Whenever we used to drive around Costa Rica, my mind would drift off into the beautiful forested landscapes stretching as far as the eye could see, with no sign of human existence. How can that be, I would ask myself? How can there be all this beautiful land and no indigenous people to live on it? My mind began to dream up tribes that hadn't been contacted by man. Now I know that such people don't exist in Costa Rica, so I decided to invent them on canvas. I painted a series which I called "Lost Tribesmen". Imagining their existence, what resources from the world around them they would wear, made my time in Costa Rica much richer.

The whole issue of previously uncontacted tribes is much less romantic than my imagining such people into existence. To learn more about the plight of these people, check out these links:
http://www.survival-international.org/home
http://nrdc.org/

Home

2007-08-29T14:39:00.000-04:00

Something a friend said the other day made me reflect on the idea of "home". This friend had just moved here from another country with her husband, found an apartment and was busy unpacking and trying to fit her past life into her new space. As new as she was, with boxes still unpacked, furniture still unbought, she said in an email that she and her husband got "home" about midnight one night. Even being in a new city, which she had previously only visited upon occasion, with no other family in the country, she called her new apartment "home".

I think a lot about the whole notion of home, and what it means to different people. What makes a place "home"? When do you feel "at home"? Is home truly where the heart is? I grew up in one place: Denver, Colorado. I didn't leave, other than for vacations, until I went away to college. Since graduating, I have lived in thirteen different homes. Those thirteen homes were in seven different countries. My son, who is now thirteen, lived in eight different homes, in five different countries, before he became a teenager.

Very often, in my peregrinations, I have felt very alien, out-of-place, whatever the opposite of "feeling at home" is. And then one day I realize that, when I wasn't paying attention, this strange new world -- whether it was Warsaw, Palermo, Rangoon, Havana, Lima, or San Jose -- had somehow become home. That transition from feeling like a stranger in a strange land to someone who belongs can come from showing a visiting friend or relative around and realizing you know what you're talking about and where you're going. It can come from finding a pediatrician, a dentist, a car mechanic, a new group of friends...from forging a support structure in an increasingly familiar environment.

Feeling at home, well, at home, is easier. I unpack boxes -- often knowing from the smell as I open them what country the contents are from -- uncovering all the treasures and memories from my previous "homes", then create a new home by combining all those treasures in new ways, on new walls, in different rooms, constructing a new life. I have become very adept at this process, particularly if I have seen photos of my new house in advance; I daydream a lot and figure out where a lot of our things belong, and then it is just a matter of unpacking them and putting them in "their place". I own no home but, in a very short time, can turn an empty, rented house into a place where my family has lived, perhaps, for generations.

Pearls Pearls Pearls

2007-08-28T13:34:00.000-04:00

I love pearls. Diamonds may be some girl's best friend, but not mine. Where diamonds are flashy, pearls are more subtle. Their beauty comes from their shape and their iridescence, which can reflect a world of hues. I love the plethora of pearl shapes and colors. I love how they feel in the fingers, whether they are smooth and perfect and round, or bumpy and organic, or long and lean. I love using them when designing necklaces.

My latest necklace took as its inspiration a beautiful leopardskin shell. Shells and pearls certainly have an affinity, and I wanted to bring that out by using pearls which echo the iridescent hues of the shell. The two main colors of the shell are highlighted by lovely, top-drilled teardrop pearls in champagne and bronze. The shell's iridescence captures pink and green hues, which are also echoed in the pearls. Tiny seed beads with a golden glow, together with small champagne and bronze pearls, and lovely Czech crystal and glass beads, whose facetted surface twinkles and catches the eye with every movement, separate and emphasize the larger teardrop pearls. To finish off this necklace, I have added a 14-karat goldfilled chain, and a hand-formed and hammered 14-karat gold-filled clasp, which allows the wearer to adjust the necklace to match the neckline of a variety of outfits.

This necklace has been sold since I wrote this blog entry.

Caribbean Captured

2007-08-23T14:25:00.000-04:00

The last time I went to my local Afghan bead merchant, I was mesmerized by some aqua chalcedony beads that had been clearly facetted by hand. Each was unique in size and shape, but each held me spellbound with the color. When I held them in my hands, I felt as if I were holding opalized drops of warm sea water.

I lived for a time in Cuba, and a longer time in Costa Rica. In both countries, the Caribbean sea was a source of great pleasure for me and my family. The beach beckoned us frequently and, whenever we could, we would pack the car and head to the shore, the Buena Vista Social Club and other Cuban cds accompanying us the whole way. Knowing that, at the end of a long drive, lay a palm-fringed beach of white sand and crystalline waters, made our hearts soar along with the music.

When I saw these aqua chalcedony beads, I was immediately transported back in my mind to the wonderful hours I spent floating in those warm waters, with nothing more pressing to do than to contemplate the colors of sand, sea, and sky. I have taken these droplets of pleasure and combined them with the earthy and smoky hues of glistening bronze pearls and facetted smoky quartz beads. Interspersed among them are Czech glass beads that look as though sediment formed around aqua water, encapsulating that color for eternity. It is finished off with a handmade s-hook clasp and chain, both 14-karat gold-filled.

The necklace is now available in my etsy shop.

Foible-full computers

2007-08-22T16:22:00.000-04:00

I made a gorgeous necklace today, weaving together the aqua of some beautifully facetted chalcedony with some bronze pearls and lovely smoky quartz. It has been ruminating in my mind now for over a month, lying on my worktable in its incipient stage, and I finally devoted enough time to complete the design. I love it. I took lots of photos of this wonderful design with my faithful digital camera, then sat down to upload them to my usual computer. No go. No idea why not. So I went to another computer. Sat down, downloaded them just fine, then realized that the photo editing program is on the first computer and there is no way I can now transfer them.....or is there? I refuse to surrender to my computer!

*trots off to see if she can email them to herself*

Stay tuned!

Pearls and Perils

2007-08-21T14:17:00.000-04:00

I did return from vacation as planned, but was felled by a terrible summer cold that wiped me out for a couple of weeks. Happily, the wonderful memories of my vacation remained with me to cheer me up as I recovered. Additionally, I bought a number of strands of gorgeous pearls of various sizes, shapes, and hues, which I fondled and played with and daydreamed about even when I didn't have the strength to produce any finished products.

One recent afternoon, I was idling picking through some loose beads I had in my inventory, and the light caught a beautiful bronzite oval. The golden inclusions and rich brown hues brought to my mind the colors of a lioness. Before I knew it, my mind had created an entire necklace starring that bronzite oval and some wonderful golden teardrop pearls. I knew what I wanted it to look like, and it was just a matter of fiddling a bit with the more peripheral stones which, although not the stars themselves, play a very important supporting role.

I loved the bronze colors of a variety of facetted Czech crystal beads I happened to have, which catch the light with every movement like the glint of a lioness' eyes. Additionally, their deep hues highlight the lighter gold of the pearls, and echo the chocolate brown of the bronzite. With the addition of two beautiful smoky quartz facetted rounds, the necklace was nearly complete.

As I like to provide options for friends and customers who wear my jewelry, I wanted to make this necklace adjustable. I bought a length of 14-karat goldfilled chain, with delicate, hammered links, and made a 14-karat goldfilled s-hook clasp to finish off the necklace. Additional images of this lovely necklace are in my etsy shop.

On Vacation

2007-07-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

I am going to Colorado and New Mexico and will be back and blogging around August 6. Please check back then.

Custom Orders

2007-07-08T18:14:00.000-04:00

I love custom orders. I love making something special for a specific person (see my mother-in-law post). Happily, I've been busy the last few days with some custom orders AND special designs for special people. If that isn't enough good news, I actually cleaned my studio as well!

My custom orders included making something for a friend of a customer, based on a necklace called Rhumba Rhythms which this customer bought a while back from my Etsy shop. She says that, every time she wears it, she gets a lot of compliments from friends and strangers, men and women. She wanted something similar, with one strand, for a friend who loves red and wears lots of black. Happily, I had enough beads to start with, and produced the single strand necklace above, which I have named Tango, for the rhythm created by the black, red, and gold beads, as well as the passionate feelings evoked by those three colors together.

My special design for a specific person included making a birthday present for my lovely niece, a wee sprite of a girl who is on the cusp on teenagehood. Now, I've known Emily all her life, was in Singapore for her birth, but only see her once a year, more or less. As everyone knows who knows children, a child can change a lot in a year. Especially when that child is on the cusp of turning that magic teenage number. My sister told me that her current favorite color was in the turquoise/blue range. I sat down with the beads I had, but I needed focal beads to play a starring role. A quick trip to a nearby bead store netted me some gorgeous turquoise beads, with retro-swirly pink and white accents. Ooooh, perfect (I hoped) sophisticated turquoise with a little punch of pink. Below, is her necklace, which she will receive in August on her thirteenth birthday. Happy Birthday, my lovely niece!

In the midst of all these orders, I was thrilled to wake up on Sunday morning and see an order for my Mother Nature necklace from a new customer in Australia! One thing I love about Etsy and my blog is the world-wide connection. And I have a clean studio!!! Can life get any better?

Sunlit Sea

2007-07-01T16:48:00.000-04:00

One year ago yesterday, I sold a necklace called Sunlit Sea. Today, in an odd but happy coincidence, I was commissioned to do something similar. Happily, I still had enough of the beads playing the starring role, as well as a good supply of supporting cast members. The colors on the glass beads that I used remind me of the sun shining on the waves, with hints of the cool depths underneath.

Sadly, this will be the first summer in many years when I won't have the opportunity to see the sun shining on real waves. I lived with my family for several years in Costa Rica, where we would brave the terrible roads as often as possible to go to our favorite beach on the Caribbean side. We saw that beach many different times of year when it had many different moods. The best memory I have was one October when we went there to celebrate our son's birthday. The sea was completely calm, soothingly warm, and one could float to one's heart's content, staring up at the blue sky, or turning one's head to the side to see the long line of the palm-lined coast. The worst memory was being there shortly after the terrible tsunami in Asia. This time, a terrible storm knocked out electricity and washed out the road back home. As my son said in a quavering voice, in the pitch dark of the hotel room, with the sound of the waves roaring loud in the utter stillness: "The air is a little too thick with adventure!"

Last summer, we had the privilege and pleasure of spending an idyllic vacation with wonderful friends on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. Before the tide would go out and leave miles of sand exposed, the water would calm down and, again, one could float, lifted and caressed and gently rocked by the waves. The bonnet-headed sharks swimming around gave just the right note of danger.

So, this year, my sea memories will have to be created by the colors of the beads and stones in my studio. I have some gorgeous chalcedony the color of a warm, shallow sea that I hope to turn to next. All of you who have access to a beautiful beach, I wish you gentle waves and warm breezes!

Turquoise Celebration Necklace

2007-06-30T15:45:00.000-04:00

The other day at the Afghan shop in nearby Annandale, Virginia, I couldn't resist buying some gorgeous turquoise rondelles. Turquoise has a strong appeal for me, in part due to its color, and in part to its significance to the Native Americans of the southwest where I spent a lot of time growing up. It was the beautiful color and the substantial size of these turquoise rondelles that really caught my eye. Months before, I bought some deep red coral drums from this same merchant, and I've only been able to use them in one or two necklaces; their bold color and shape require something that will really stand up to them. So, perhaps, I thought, purchasing the turquoise, this will be the perfect marriage, and couldn't wait to take them home to consummate the relationship!

Today, at last, I was able to sit down and introduce the two. They hit it off immediately! Wondrously, I had four sterling silver rondelles left from a stash I had bought in Peru, and they fit in like a dream, weaving in and out of the turquoise, which is flanked by two smooth coral beads, and centered by one perfectly carved one.

The rest of the necklace consists of lighter materials to offset the substantial heft of the turquoise and coral. Smaller turquoise drums, and antique red heart glass beads provided the perfect finish, marching from the large coral around to a beautiful and substantial sterling silver clasp, which had been waiting for just such a union.

The result is bold, clean, and eye-catching. It looks like a party waiting to happen!

Fascinating, facetted onyx

2007-06-29T16:28:00.000-04:00

Even the name is exotic: onyx. It is a stone that has been mentioned since biblical times, and has long fascinated me. As with other onyx, black color is often enhanced through heating. Unlike other onyx, one can also deepen the color by combining sugar and an acid. Who figured that out and how? Were they examining it one day over a glass of sweetened tamarind water and it fell in, the bands magically disappearing as the color deepened?

The beautiful many-facetted onyx ovals that I bought the other day on my Afghan adventure have been whispering to me, enticing me to highlight their beauty in a piece of jewelry. I love their deep black mystery, and really wanted to make something special. Today, I sat down with them at my ever-messy work table and, as I always do, just started to play, putting them with this bead or that bead. They immediately showed an affinity with my other facetted onyx beads: the different shapes and sizes and types of facets added a nice contrast. To really make the facetted onyx stand out, I added in some lovely simple sterling silver beads I bought in Peru several years ago. I have had a hard time parting with the last of those Peruvian beads, but the smooth silver surface is such a perfect foil for the complex facets and deep black of the onyx.

I feared the necklace would be too heavy if I continued with the larger beads, so I started adding in smooth round onyx beads and smaller black horn drums. Finally, to finish it off, I used the beautiful, textured hilltribe silver beads I bought from the Afghan merchant. An adjustable sterling silver chain, a handmade sterling silver clasp, and a tiny sparkling Swarovski crystal bicone complete the look.

Dramatic in its contrasts, I think my design does justice to these lovely beads. And I love that its components came together from all over the world in this necklace.

Creative Outlets

2007-06-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

I am a firm believer in having a creative outlet. Whenever any of my friends talks about pursuing an artistic hobby or taking a crafting class, I am their biggest cheerleader. I refuse to believe it when people say they can't draw; I think they just have to be taught how to "see" things better.

I am very lucky in that I have three creative outlets: painting; sculpting; and jewelry design. For me, painting came first. It comes first in my soul, I think. I walk into someone's studio and smell the oils and turps and feel like I am imbibing ambrosia. But I haven't really painted in nearly two years, since I moved back to the States from Costa Rica. The reasons for that, I suppose, would fill a whole other blog.

Jewelry design came next. Other than a jewelry course in high school, and gathering beads from country to country, I didn't really begin seriously until I lived in Peru and took another course. That set me off on the journey I am still on, a journey which provides a necessary creative outlet and some income.

And then there is sculpting. I played around with clay in a ceramics workshop many years ago while living in Sicily, then thought no more about it for probably 15 years or so, when I moved to Costa Rica. There, I convinced a group of friends to join me in a series of workshops at a local studio, where the plan was to cycle through a number of media and techniques taught by local artists. Sculpture came first. I never went on to anything else. I fell totally in love with the medium.

Sculpting suits my personality. I love to start with a vision in my head, turn on some appropriate music, then take a hunk of clay, and let my imagination and the music bring something to life. I almost did a workshop with a very wonderful, well-known Costa Rican sculptor, until I discovered he required that all projects begin with numerous drawings. Now, I have nothing against drawing, but that is antithetical to how I created in clay. I didn't want to be limited by something concrete on paper, but rather to let my ideas flow with the music into my hands and into the clay.

The woman above began as a sleeping mother enfolding her baby. Since I was such a rank beginner at sculpting, I didn't realize that the way I made the figure would create complex casting difficulties. No problem, I thought. I'll just wake the woman up and have her holding her child that way. But, as the music and my ideas flowed, the child I guess grew up and left home, and she morphed into a woman with an empty hand. I don't know why that happened, but I make sure that every week I place in her hand a different shell from the Caribbean or an interesting bead from my vast collection for her to ponder.

I miss sculpting.

Tribal Loot

2007-06-27T15:00:00.001-04:00

Every now and again, one needs a little adventure and a little exotic sustenance to keep the creative juices flowing. I have a friend who was intrigued by my tale of a local Afghan merchant, whose shop is overflowing with beautiful and enticing things. Happily, his shop is also located in a nexus of Asian restaurants, and my friend is as game as I to try some new, inexpensive Asian food. I invited another friend, to whom I had taught beading, to come along. The three of us set out on a hot, steamy day to begin our adventure.

It had been a while since I'd been at the Tribal Rugs and Jewelry shop in Annandale, Virginia. But, rather than the having-packed-the-tents-and-fled scenario that I feared finding, I found that the shop had overflowed its banks and spilled into several more rooms in the little antiques mall that houses it. The experience begins at the entrance, where there are displayed numerous ready-made necklaces, with huge coral and silver beads, delicate mother-of-pearl, and all manner of jewels designed to draw one in.

The quantity of ready-made necklaces had expanded enormously since my last visit. Many of them are "tribal" necklaces from the mountains of Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, and India, featuring large, beautifully fashioned silver beads. Others are more modern, with facetted briolettes gleaming in the cases. There are huge silver bracelets and breastplates and items of jewelry for which one can't quite imagine the appropriate body part. In between are beautiful antique vases and robes and wall hangings. The center of the main room is piled high with carpets from Afghanistan and Iran, providing a plush surface on which to recline should one feel overwhelmed by the bounty on the walls of the room.

And then there was what I had come for: display case after display case of beads. An entire case of coral, another of sponge coral. There was onyx in every shape and size imaginable, chalcedony in more colors than nature had dreamed of, piles of freshwater pearls, turquoise, agate, jaspar, labradorite, buckets of hilltribe silver, acres of pewter and vermeil findings... And, in the "inner sanctum", lies the real treaure: beautifully facetted tourmaline, rubies, emeralds, jade, lemon quartz, all shining and gleaming and leaving one feeling wistful. The photo above is the "loot" I happily left with, featuring chalcedony the color of a warm, shallow sea, beautifully facetted onyx ovals, gorgeous turquoise rondelles, and two kinds of hilltribe silver spacer beads. I couldn't wait to get them home to my studio!

To recover from this surfeit of beauty, we drove a half mile to a Korean restaurant and indulged our appetites for spicy and tasty and filling foods. Seafood pancake, kimchi, barbecued pork belly, vegetables, soy sprouts, bean starch.... We left in a downpour, replete in all senses.

If you find yourself in the wilds of Annandale (if you pronounce it the way my Latino acquaintances do, it sounds quite exotic!), Tribal Rugs and Jewelry is located at 7120 Little River Turnpike. If you have a hankering for good Korean food, the Gom Ba Woo restaurant is a mere half mile away.

Earth and Sky Necklace

2007-06-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

A friend sent me the other day a link to a video that features faces of women painted throughout the ages, each face morphing into the next (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs). It is beautifully and lovingly done, each face almost caressing the one that replaces it. It made me think back on my studies of art history at Wellesley, where I saw those same faces parade through my books and on the screens of darkened auditoriums. But it also brought to my mind something that made me laugh, and that is how, with the best of intentions, what one sets out to make sometimes morphs into something completely different.

The necklace I made today was a perfect example of how that happens. I have these beautifully facetted little smoky quartz briolettes (even the name is lovely!) that I have been wanting for a long time to use in a necklace. I decided I would put them together with some lovely golden brown potato pearls. I added in a large smoky quartz nugget as a centerpiece. Hmmmm.... Needs something..... I know: I'll add in some turquoise nuggets which echoed the shape of the smoky quartz briolettes. I also brought in some facetted smoky quartz rondelles and some turquoise drums which echoed their shape. Oh, those drums looked lovely with the pearls and crystal and glass beads in between! But, hmmmm....I don't really think the smoky quartz briolettes belong in this necklace anymore. So, what started me on this designing adventure ended up back in the box, to await their debut another time.

I love how the necklace turned out. I love all the different textures and colors and shapes. I love how the facetted beads twinkle and draw the eye. The color of the earth and the color of the sky, joined together in a myriad of materials. What fun this is to work on a necklace which ends up dictating its own outcome! To see more photos, check out my etsy shop or my flickr.

Rock Crystal Columns

2007-06-25T14:23:00.000-04:00

Several years ago when I was living in Peru, I happened upon a cache of beautiful, transparent rock crystal columns. Each one was enticingly different. Until now, only I wore these crystal beads in a couple of necklaces I made for myself. I have been very reluctant to part with the few I had left as I know I won't be able to find them again easily. But they are so much fun to work with, and I wanted to experiment with a necklace that both emphasized and contrasted their smooth shape and transparent essence.

I took some sterling wire and handformed some links that echoed the shapes of the crystal. I made some small jumprings to connect these links, and realized how much I liked the contrast of circular and columnar, so I made some larger circular links as well. I found some sterling silver pumpkin beads in two different sizes, and then started playing with it all. I decided the crystal beads needed something to emphasize them more, as their transparency gives them a tendency to dissolve from view. I happened to have some simple bead caps and, for some real contrast in texture, I added some granulated sterling silver spacer beads, which incorporate the columnar shape of the rock crystal, as well as the round links and beads. All that was left was to weave it all together in the most visually pleasing way possible.

Silken Sea Necklace

2007-06-21T15:14:00.000-04:00

For me, designing a necklace is like working with the pieces of a puzzle that you yourself create. I bought some gorgeous large peacock coin pearls with a fabulous lustre a few months ago, and they have been in the back of my mind since then. I knew I had to make a spectacular necklace to highlight their gorgeous qualities.

Since I had a lot of errands to do today and didn't really have time to get into a lot of metalwork, I pulled the peacock pearls out and began to play with the puzzle. Besides these large, gorgeous, smooth ones, I had some medium sized peacock coin pearls as well. I decided I wanted to use some of those, in part to lower the overall cost of the necklace and, in part because I liked the contrast their crinkly surface provided with the larger coins.

My necklaces tend to have seed beads of some sort between the main beads, because I like the fact that they are therefore visually separated and therefore each is highlighted more. I, happily, had some small amethyst beads, as well as some glass seed beads that I knew would be perfect. Same for the lovely, delicate, translucent amethyst coin beads I had. But the necklace lacked something: a piece of the puzzle was missing....

If you read yesterday's post, you know by now that I'm not one who keeps a really neat studio. In this case, that was a lucky thing, as my eye fell on a strand of aquamarine rondelles lying nearby. If I had put that strand away, I might not have seized on it as the perfect thing. I grabbed for it and -- yes: the missing piece! I loved how the pool of watery bluish-green highlighted and complemented the intense color of the peacock pearls. The aquamarine looks like it is a drop of water from a warm and shallow sea, and the peacock pearls have the deep, reflective colors of an ocean in the moonlight.

The rest of the necklace was easy to put together once the main puzzle pieces were in place. All that lacked was the name.... I chose Silken Sea Necklace because the large peacock pearls remind me of a beautiful silken taffeta shot through with wondrous hues, and the aquamarine inspired the "Sea." So, all done, photographed, listed on etsy AND I even got a lot of errands done as well!

Forest and Sea Necklace

2007-06-20T13:36:00.000-04:00

I freely admit it: I am not a neat jeweler. My studio tends to get pretty wild with boxes of beads of various colors, mailing supplies, wire, tools, photography equipment, etc. Every now and then I have to take some time and clean it up. After several days of silversmithing, I decided that the time had come. As I was putting things in their proper place, I unearthed a beautiful spiral hilltribe silver bead that I had also used in my Pearl Swirl necklace (which can be viewed in my etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5995187). Aha! I said to myself, as visions of a new necklace started dancing in my head!

As in my Pearl Swirl necklace, I decided to use some of my champagne pearls because their swirly shape is so reminiscent of the spiral bead. But rather than throw in a lot of other pearls, I decided to raid my box of wooden beads. I immediately fixated on the large, torqued spiral ones, which I felt would help offset the size of the spiral bead. Then, for interest in terms of color and texture and shape, I started weaving in other wooden beads: square, round, and triangular. Then, to separate the silver bead from the wood (as wood has a tendency to cause silver to tarnish more quickly), I used two beautifully polished horn beads on either side of the silver. Rather in the manner of silk knots between pearls, which swerves to highlight each shape as well as to protect each pearl, I employed a variety of czech glass seed beads.

Last but not least, I used a handmade sterling silver clasp and a 4 inch sterling silver chain, whose links reminded me of the torqued spiral of the large wooden beads. I realized recently that I really prefer adjustable necklaces, so I can vary them according to the neckline of the shirt I'm wearing, so I've started offering most necklaces that way. This necklace, therefore, can be transformed from a 16 inch choker length, to a 20 inch necklace. The photos below show how the necklace hangs at those two lengths.

Is my studio clean now? Of course not, because, as soon as I stumbled upon the spiral silver bead, out came the boxes, the clasps, the chains, etc. Do I care? No, because out of chaos, came this beautiful necklace!

Celestial Sphere Earrings

2007-06-19T16:51:00.000-04:00

Circles are popular these days. Earrings with circles are really popular. Earrings with sterling silver circles are really truly popular. So how to make yours stand out, I asked myself. Never one to spend much advance time plotting how to corner the market on sterling silver circle earrings, I just picked up some wire and began.

First, I made two large circles of 20 gauge sterling silver wire. I formed them with a pole I had that seemed about right for truly popular earring size, then soldered them. Next, I took a sharpie pen, which was lying close to hand, and seemed just the thing for the second circle, formed two more circles -- this time out of 18 gauge wire, and soldered them. Finally, after a quick reconnoiter of nearby rooms, I found a flagpole from a toy flag in my son's room, and made two more circles out of heavier 16 gauge wire, then soldered them.

Then, everything went in the pickle solution, while I pondered how I was going to join them all together. Hanging them all from an earwire, even if it was handmade, seemed a bit obvious and certainly wasn't going to help in my bid to corner the really most truly popular sterling silver circle earring market. So, I began playing around with some 16 gauge wire, which I hammered flat. I liked how its long, rectangular shape looked, and thought it would provide a nice contrast with the circle theme I had going. But I felt it needed a jumpring to which it could tether the circles I had made. So I made two jumprings using a pencil.

So, out of the pickle, and under my hammer. Hammering is really one of the most fun parts of silversmithing, and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Unless you are a carpenter, how often can you just bang away at something and transform it into something, well, a little different. When you are hammering circles, though, or anything else for that matter, you just have to be careful not to bang them out of shape. These were very well-behaved little circles, clearly eager to be part of this great takeover of the world of circular earrings.

Then, I laid the circles down, bent the flattened, heavy gauge wire (with some difficulty, I admit, and even a teeny tiny bit of breakage) so that it linked the circles while keeping them flat and in their order of largest to smallest. I soldered the joint of the flattened wire, pickled everything again, then put the earrings and the earwires in the tumbler for a good long time. Once they were all bright and shiny, I carefully filed the smallest and largest circles to create some difference in texture.

While they may not win the title of really, truly, most incredibly popular sterling silver circle earrings on the planet, I'm very proud of them and, when I have time, I'm going to make a pair for myself. But probably a little bit different:... I'll oxidize the middle circle, and maybe the tether for contrast, and then.....well, the possibilities are endless!

Tender little *&%$ blossoms

2007-06-18T17:06:00.000-04:00

Silver melts. I knew that, in theory, and it had even happened to me once or twice. But today, it seemed to be melting with very little provocation. Or heat. Must've been gremlins, or the heat index, since it clearly couldn't have been MY fault!

Much like the flower I formed the other day, I took up some wire this morning and formed beautiful, delicate little five-petalled blossoms. Once I got a pair with a similar size and shape, I carefully soldered them closed. So far so good.

Then I pickled them, hammered them, and got ready to solder on a bead cap I had. Instead of the solder melting, the petal melted onto the bead cap and created an unsightly mess. Hmmmm... and grrrr....

Second try: formed another, went through the same process, started to solder....and this time the bead cap melted. Okay, okay, clearly I have to try a different tactic.

So, formed yet another *&%$# little blossom, soldered, pickled, hammered and, before it knew what was happening, I soldered a nice little spacer bead right in the center, right where it was supposed to go. Aha, she thought to herself in triumph: one down, one to go! Somehow, this next earring went off without a hitch, probably having witnessed the whole procedure and deciding it was in its best interests to behave.

All that was left was making some earwires and headpins for the glass beads that I thought went nicely, pickled those, tumbled them along with the blossoms, and then carefully wired the glass beads onto the blossom. The end result was lovely, even though the process felt grim at times! And, as with all experiments, I learned a lot! I would have provided pictures of the little metal carcasses, but they were really pitiful, plus I forgot, so you'll have to settle for the finished product!

My Father

2007-06-17T08:11:00.000-04:00

My father is one of the most wonderful men I have ever known. This is his story. He was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1926 to a working class family. He lost his mother when he was a toddler, after she gave birth to his little sister. His father died from tuberculosis not long after. He and his little sister were raised by his grandmother, in a converted chicken coop on the property of relatives. His grandmother was a hard woman not averse to taking a *switch* from the peach tree outside to give these *no 'count young'uns* a good thrashing.

This harsh environment forged a young man with a good brain, a big heart, and great strength of character. The first in his family to go to college, there he fell in love with the beautiful, dark-eyed classics professor, who would later become his wife and my mother. From college he went on to Yale Law School, an unimaginable accomplishment given his background.

He went on to work as a lawyer in Denver, but never forgot those who were less fortunate. Walking to work, he would encounter someone begging for money to *buy food*. Knowing what the money would probably go for, but seeing the need for nourishment, my father would instead take the time to buy some food for the unfortunate individual. He also turned his talents and good will to help the community at large, by serving on the school board, by volunteering his time and efforts for organizations aimed at ensuring our nation lived up to its promise to all citizens.

Several years ago, his dark-eyed bride was diagnosed with Alzheimers'. His wife/my mother is very frail now, thoughts of Homer long vanished, incontinent at times, and often not recognizing the man she wed over 50 years ago. He is her sole caregiver since my sister and I live far away. He tends to her with enormous patience, keeping the photo of her as a beautiful young woman at hand to keep in mind always his love and commitment during these tremendously difficult times. Although my sister and I aren't there, he is surrounded by friends and neighbors who cherish his friendship, admire his fortitude, and enjoy his company.

My wonderful father: devoted husband, cherished friend, talented orator, generous spirit, committed, strong, funny, remarkable. I love you, dad, and feel tremendously fortunate to be your daughter!

Dancing Stars

2007-06-16T14:30:00.000-04:00

These earrings were a lot of fun to make. I took 20 gauge sterling silver wire and formed each star by hand, varying the sizes a bit for interest, using my flatnose pliers. Once formed, I soldered them, then hammered them carefully to ensure their strength and light reflective quality. I then measured three pieces of sterling silver wire, formed the ends with round nose pliers, inserted the stars in one end, and soldered both ends closed. Everything went in the pickle while I formed the earwires, also using 20 gauge wire. Once the pickle finished doing its magic, everything went round and round in the tumbler for a good long time. The result is fun and fanciful, and I just listed them in my etsy shop.

Reading back over this, I hope I made it sound easy, but all the time it took to do everything by hand really added up. This is not the line of work for you if you don't enjoy it. I love the handwork!

Fairy Flower Pendant

2007-06-14T17:04:00.000-04:00

Today was a productive day in my studio, despite the fact that I am bruised and aching all over from my fall the other day. I worked from the moment I finished my coffee and the paper, until time to start dinner.

Although I am still working on some star-inspired designs, I managed to finish today something that I had started several days ago. I had hand-formed a flower shape, on which I superimposed another, small hand-formed flower shape. Those had to be hammered for strength and interest, and soldered, then pickled before I could go onto the next step.

What I tried next was an experiment, but I think it added the right touch to the emerging flower pendant. I took a silver bead cap that I have had for ages, and soldered that to the now double flower shape. The bead cap, with its granulated decorations, provided a nice contrast to the more simple petals created of sterling silver wire. I also added a handmade bail so that the flower pendant could be strung on a chain.

After soldering that and pickling the result, the next step for my flower was a long journey round and round in my tumbler. The tumbler's main purpose is to shine the silver, but it also helps to strengthen it. Once out of the tumbler, I wired on a beautiful glass bead I had with a lovely iridescent green/blue hue. I hung the pendant on an Italian sterling silver chain I had and took photos of my first pendant: voila!

Also, with Etsy's current problems, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to list it in my shop.

Stars and Stripes

2007-06-13T14:55:00.001-04:00

Living overseas for as long as I did gave me a unique appreciation for the American flag, particularly given where I spent the past 25 years. When I lived in Warsaw, Poland, it was in the dark times of the Iron Curtain, and during a particularly difficult time in U.S./Polish relations. Every now and then, my husband and I would get into our bright red Volkswagen Golf, and head to West Berlin, where we could revel in all the blessings of capitalism, buying food supplies, eating at Italian or Japanese restaurants, seeing bright lights and well-stocked shops... To get there, however, we had to drive across Poland, on a two-lane highway, that was also the major local thoroughfare and, at times, village street. One had to compete with horses and carts, mothers and babies, old men, chickens, etc. for the road. During the winter when it was icy, the drive was particularly dangerous.

Crossing the border from Poland to East Germany was particularly unnerving. We spoke Polish, and the Polish guards seemed a bit lacksadaisical about their job. The East German guards, however, were another matter. They spoke no English or Polish, and we no German. They barked instead of speaking, and looked us, our car, and our documents over with great suspicion and thoroughness. We always breathed a sigh of relief after getting past those guards.

One time, due to highway construction, we had to take a long detour and eventually found ourselves quite lost in the middle of East Germany. Our documents only allowed us to transit the country, not sightsee or "spy" as I'm sure they would assume. As day passed into dusk, I felt that our red Volkswagen had turned into a neon target, with a big USA sticker on the back in case there were any doubt. Wherever we turned the car, we would come upon large signs reading in German, French, English, and Russian: "Entrance forbidden to members of foreign military liaison missions." Now, we weren't with any military liaison mission, foreign or otherwise, but we had the feeling there would be shooting first, followed, if necessary, by questions later. In fact, a U.S. colonel stationed in West Germany (probably with a military liaison mission, but that didn't make us feel any better) had been shot and killed in just such an area not long before.

Somehow, we managed to find the right highway, and headed into West Berlin via Checkpoint Bravo. The sight of the American flag fluttering over the gates was a particularly beautiful one that day, one we'll never forget. Yes, it is a symbol, and it is a symbol that is seen in different ways by different people. But I can tell you that, at least at that time in that part of the world, it was truly a symbol of freedom. It still gives me goosebumps all these years later when I think about seeing that flag that day.

This will only be the second 4th of July we will celebrate here in the U.S. for many years. In commemoration of all the good that this day means, and the freedoms that our flag is supposed to represent, I made a pair of earrings, perhaps my last for a while on the theme of stars. I call them Stars and Stripes or Simply Stars, because the little ruby, cobalt and white Swarovski bicones can be detached.

Falling Me

2007-06-12T14:09:00.000-04:00

There I was on my morning walk through the nearby stream valley park: one moment upright; the next flat on my face. The intervening moment of flying through the air was quite breathtaking! The really stupid part was that I was actually watching the path in order not to fall. In any case, my knee is scraped and swollen, and my body wrenched all over: serves me right for thinking a walk would do me good!

So, I haven't been able to work as much today as I had planned. Still, I did manage to make headpins and earwires to complement the wonderful bali beads I used in an earlier necklace, and to photograph them for my etsy shop. Here they are in all their glory, simple and stunning:

Falling Stars

2007-06-10T17:30:00.001-04:00

I've spent the entire day in my studio (despite having been out both Friday and Saturday night) having a blast, playing around with my metalworking tools and materials, and honing my skills. I love taking sterling silver wire and turning it into something beautiful. I prefer eyeballing, rather than measuring, and hand-forming shapes, rather than using a jig. I love every aspect of it, from the shaping to the soldering to the hammering to the filing. I love having an idea in my head, and then bringing it to life, changing it as I go if the unfolding design dictates.

I am feeling inspired by so many things, but stars are still uppermost in my mind and, therefore on my workbench. I made a beautiful pair of earrings today, which I'll call "Falling Stars". I also made the earwires. I'm going to have a hard time parting with them!

For my mother-in-law

2007-06-08T14:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Another rant against mothers-in-law! But, read on and you'll find quite a different tale. The fact is, I love my mother-in-law. I am very lucky to have acquired her through marriage to her son. Physically, she is tall, slim, dark-eyed, with wonderful salt-and-pepper hair, can practically out-yoga her daughter, who is considerably younger than she. As a person, she is intelligent, funny, alert, curious, warm, lovely, artistic... What's not to love?

The reason I am writing about her, and the reason for the title, is that her birthday is coming up on Bastille Day (I won't say which birthday it is, but I can tell you that she looks at least 20 years younger than that). Her husband, my wonderful father-in-law, asked me if I would be interested in designing a necklace for her birthday. Before his email finished settling down comfortably in my inbox, I had already responded with a resounding YES!

It is a very interesting exercise designing a necklace for a specific person. It is a very different process than designing something inspired by particular beads or stones, or nature, or dreams.... Designing a necklace for a real person means taking everything about that person into account. Knowing her as long as I have, and as well as I do, both simplifies and complicates the process.

She has lived in India (twice), in the former Czechoslovakia, in the former Soviet Union, in Nepal, in Romania, and in Chile. All that told me a lot. I didn't want to give her anything that would be too similar to things she might have encountered and purchased there (and maybe I've never seen because she keeps them tucked away in a box). She is very interested in the cultures of the countries in which she has lived, and, particularly, in the crafts she has seen being made. Her style, you might say, is "ethnic" in homage to the wonderful craftsmen she has come to know over the years.

One has to take into account, of course, how the person one is designing for tends to dress. My mother-in-law, who now lives in the Northeast Kingdom (for those who don't know, that is the far north eastern part of Vermont), wears jeans and turtlenecks around the house. Yet she travels a lot, to places like New York, Romania, to visit her daughter in Sarajevo, and dresses up more for various occasions. And, as I said, she is tall and, being tall, can carry off wearing "bigger" pieces that would like silly on someone shorter.

So, I was pondering all these things one day when I went to my local bead store for inspiration. I'm not the kind who can look through catalogs or online shops and order something special. I'm a very visual and tactile person, and I have to see and feel something before I can respond to it. So, there at the bead shop, I saw them: wonderful dark translucent smoky quartz nuggets that felt as good as they looked. Oh, and fabulous oval sterling silver bali beads (since she'd never lived in Indonesia, I figured they were a better bet than Indian silver beads). I knew right there I had a start. But I wanted a pendant. Hmmm, could be silver, but they had nothing that would go. They had nothing that wasn't silver that would go either. I bought the quartz and the silver, though, and headed home to my studio.

I began playing with the beads, adding in this or that bead from my own collection, when I realized it really needed something more. I was sure I'd know that something as soon as I saw it. So, armed with a smoky quarz nugget and one of the bali silver beads, I headed to another local bead store. There, I spotted some delicate little aquamarine rondelles that added just that right touch of complementary color. I also found some wonderful facetted smoky quartz rondelles and a mixture of Czech beads which contained both brown and greenish blue hues, and added the little bit of sparkle that draws the eye to the necklace. All of these would help round out the necklace without adding too much weight. So, all I needed was the pendant. I looked. I looked at all the walls, all the shelves, pulled out all the drawers...nothing. Just as I was beginning to despair, I spotted a bowl of large turquoise pieces that were sold by the gram. Out of the fifteen or so in the bowl, there was only one that was perfect. Just the right size, with inclusions of brown and aquamarine: it was just the thing to tie the whole necklace together.

Triumphant, I was, until I got home and realized that, of all the sterling silver clasps I have, none was just right. One was, well, it would do, but I really wanted something special. Happily, I had just taken a metalworking class and, when my own materials for working with silver arrived at home, one of the first things I made was the perfect clasp for the necklace (for story of clasp, see my earlier Giant Stride post). So, the clasp literally and figuratively tied the whole necklace together. And, to top it off, I made it adjustable because, as they say, women like to change their minds (and their outfits...!).

So, to all of you who don't have a wonderful mother-in-law: I'm truly sorry. To all of you who do: you know what a pleasure it is. To you, my mother-in-law, this necklace was designed for you with great love and care by your very lucky daughter-in-law. I see it as elegant, ethnic, bold, and beautiful, with strong lines and a bit of sparkle, well, pretty much the way I see you! Happy Birthday!

Seeing Stars

2007-06-06T17:15:00.000-04:00

I woke up last night at 3:00, and started thinking about stars. I don't know why stars popped into my head, but they, and a lot of other things, prevented me from going back to sleep. A little voice was telling me to get up and head into my studio, but another voice was saying: "what, are you crazy? It's three in the morning!" I ended up tossing and turning until 5 o'clock when I finally got up, put on my bathrobe and went into my studio (for those who have tried to convince me over the years that a studio outside the home is much better, try going there in your bathrobe! ;)). I'm sure I looked fabulous!

So, what did I produce today? Stars, of course. I have a beautiful little pair of earrings ready, completely handmade, featuring little stars dancing within bigger stars. Then, to make them even more enticing, I tethered little labradorite rounds in the very center to cast their Northern Lights' glow and twinkle. Even the earwires and delicate little headpins are formed completely by my own two hands. Obviously, I didn't make the sterling silver wire, but this is the closest I've come in jewelrymaking to a design that I dreamt of and executed without any raw materials other than sterling wire (and, of course, the labradorite rounds!).

Working with wire is a lot of fun. I made a large star out of 14 gauge wire, and tomorrow I hope to attach somehow a beautifully lustrous peacock coin pearl, which has a bit of the moon about it. Maybe I'll try to throw in the sun as well, just to keep the heavenly theme going. And, I've got some flower things in the gestation stage as well. So much to do; so little time!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, hardboiled eggs work beautifully to oxidize silver if you don't have any liver of sulphur lying around!

A Giant Stride Forward

2007-06-05T17:35:00.000-04:00

I made my first clasp today, designed to go with a specific necklace I created to highlight a most luscious translucent smoky quartz nugget. I knew I wanted an adjustable necklace -- because I love the convenience of going longer or shorter depending on the outfit -- so I knew it had to be an s-hook clasp. S-hooks, because of their versatility, and because they are used so widely by ancient silversmithing cultures, are my favorite kind of clasp.

The silversmithing class I took enabled me to figure out many things that had remained rather murky and mysterious despite how much I read about the process, in metalworking books, on the ever-helpful etsy forums, catalogs and the like. I enjoy tremendously the extra control I have over the ultimate design of my jewelry with the knowledge I've gained. I made another special clasp for a very special necklace I was commissioned to create (see photo below) and, right now in my tumbler upstairs, is the third clasp of the day, which is for a three-strand necklace.

My head is bursting with ideas for more jewelry design projects. I can't wait to see what I can do with my newfound skills!

Waiting, waiting: I'm not good at waiting!

2007-06-04T17:08:00.002-04:00

Okay, so the supplies I ordered and wrote about in the last post did not arrive by Saturday night, so I knew I would spend Sunday without them. That's okay: I had lots to do with my family around. But, I was relieved on Monday morning, while checking the UPS locator service, that my little parcel had left Chantilly, VA, near Dulles Airport, therefore not far away at all, at 3:48 a.m. They were on their way!

So, I spent the morning eagerly anticipating the UPS truck. Well, I said to myself, I'll eat lunch and surely it will be here by then. Lunch made, eaten, dishes cleaned....no UPS truck. Okay, I'll go back up to my studio and take my mind off the whole thing and just work. Which I did.

I made three necklaces (one of which I cannot show as it is for someone who might see it!) but came to a screeching halt in finishing them as I would really like to make the clasps, using my newfound knowledge, and even perhaps the chain for making them adjustable lengths.

A clasp is an essential component for any necklace. It is much more than merely a means to fasten together the strands; it can tie the whole thing together visually as well. Taking a necklace to a bead store, or opening up a catalog, is a crapshoot. Occasionally, one finds that perfect clasp, that fits beautifully in with the design and artfully adds its own touch. Mostly, however, one has to settle for second best. I hope that my knowledge and skills will allow me to design the perfect clasp for my necklace, adding immensely to the beauty and value of the piece, not to mention my pride in it.

So, three necklaces.....no materials for making clasps. Okay, it's 5:00, and I need to get started on dinner anyway, so I'll quit for the day. The minute I quit, well, you know what happens: the doorbell rings and the box is there. At least there is tomorrow!

Breathless Anticipation

2007-06-02T16:25:00.000-04:00

I feel like a kid at Christmas, waiting for my packages to arrive. After taking a metalworking class a week ago, I ordered some supplies from two different companies. In this wonderful shopping world of ours, online ordering and UPS shipping make the whole process a breeze. You'd think I'd be satisfied with arrival within a week, but even so, I find myself listening impatiently for the roar of the UPS truck and the sharp honk that announces his arrival. I realized after receiving the order from one company that I made a stupid mistake: I now have only half of what I need to really begin work. Why didn't I order everything from the same company so that it would all arrive together?

I have a torch, but no sterling silver wire. I have solder, but no flux. I have pickling solution and went out and bought a used crockpot at Goodwill, but I have nothing to put in it. I have a tumbler, but no stainless steel shot. Grrrr, she says, leaping up once again to check outside the front door in case he came and went, unheard.

Still, I did have a few scraps of 20 gauge sterling silverwire, so I've been making headpins for some beautiful stones that require a stronger headpin than is available commercially, and that was so much fun. I figured out how to fill the torch with butane from the local hardware store, ignited it and - voila -- holding the wire up to the flame with my tweezers caused a little silver bead to form on the end, looking so exquisitely handmade. I suppose I could have cleaned the resulting oxidation by putting it in the pickling solution, but that seemed a little extreme for a couple of headpins, so I grabbed some steel wool (I always have some on hand, as it always seems to be needed for something) and scrubbed away, and there they were: shiny headpins made by me in my own studio. That was proud moment, to be sure! The photos above show the three phases, from wire, to oxidized headpin, to incorporation into a necklace I am designing called Smoke and Water, after the smoky quartz and aquamarine stones.

My first project when all the materials arrive will be an ambitious one, if I can pull it off: an intricate clasp that will match beads I am using in another necklace, and I can't wait to give it a try! But I have to wait, eagerly, anxiously, impatiently, for that brown truck to pull up.... Imagine what it was like in the days of the Pony Express, and the mail wagon delivering all those supplies you'd ordered months before from the Sears Roebuck catalog!

Old Dogs, New Tricks

2007-05-28T12:30:00.000-04:00

It was just over a year ago that I opened my online shop at etsy.com. I was convinced to do so at the urging of a wonderful friend who has played a huge role in pushing me in the right direction over the past few years. She had opened a store for her marvelous purses, and felt I would find a market for my jewelry there as well. While I've sold more jewelry since then outside of my etsy store than through it, I have no regrets. Opening that store has propelled me into the internet and its many wonders in ways I find astonishing.

My entire relationship with the internet was considerably delayed compared to other Americans. When Americans were just beginning to flex their "surfing" muscles, I was living in Burma, a country so repressed and dictatorial that, in one instance, mere possession of a fax machine led to the death in prison of a wonderful man we knew there. Rather than joining the large crowds whose morning ritual included a computerized voice insisting "You have mail" along with coffee and the paper, we moved to Cuba. Allowing connection to an unfettered source of information was too threatening to Fidel and his minions, so another two years passed before we moved to Peru, where connection was limited only by the vagaries of electrical power, and the internet's many wonders began to open for me like the petals of a flower.

Yet, for the following six years while I lived in Peru and Costa Rica, I was busy painting, mothering, befriending, exploring, entertaining, and the like, so I used it mainly for connecting with far flung friends and family, finding facts for my elementary school-aged child, researching medical symptoms, and the like. I was way behind the learning curve in chatroom lingo and other signs of internet competence.

After I opened the shop at etsy, I began reading the forums there, and was amazed at how computer-literate many people were, and I realized that I was not only behind the curve because of where I had lived, but there was also a generational thing going on. If there were a forum post involving computer code issues, for example, I found I couldn't understand a word people wrote, and there were many like me, "of a certain age", who felt completely lost in that world.

I'm the impatient, I-can-figure-it-out-on-my-own kind of person who ignores instructions while assembling furniture or operating equipment. That attitude, however, only gets you so far in terms of gaining internet knowledge. So, while researching what such things as ROFL, and IMO and the like meant, I also began learning about blogs, and realizing how they can assist in promoting one's etsy shop. So, one day recently, on the spur of the moment, I started this blog. I have learned about linking posts, cutting and pasting html code, pinging, and all sorts of things which wouldn't have made a bit of sense to me a year ago. So, for all of those internet-challenged or -fearful folks out there, I'm a perfect example of how old dogs can indeed learn new tricks! Woof woof! ROFL!

Finding Comfort in Camelids

2007-05-24T13:39:00.000-04:00

It is probably safe to say that I was one of the few Americans who found solace after the 9/11 attacks by surrounding myself with camelids. I was living in Peru at the time and feeling very depressed and worried and far from family. I had heard there was a camelid fair that had just opened near Lima's seaside. Camelids, for those who are new to the term, are related to camels and, in the case of South America, include alpacas, llamas, vicunas, and guanacos (for a great example of what to do with an alpaca if you happen across one, visit http://northstaralpacas.etsy.com). I thought it would take my mind off the terrible tragedy America had just suffered, so I packed my camera gear in a fanny pack and went.....only to find that it didn't open until the afternoon, several hours off. Perhaps because I looked so woebegone, the guard took pity on me and let me in. Except for hundreds of wonderful camelid specimens, and a few herders and breeders, I had the place to myself.

There were llamas, with liquid eyes fringed by long eyelashes, long necks and erect ears, and their wonderful combination of immensely dignified bearing and silly expressions. I began to feel better, as it is impossible to remain sad around llamas. There were adorable alpacas as well, with their fluffy mantles and utterly cute faces, in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, all looking very huggable. There were a few vicuna, delicate wild creatures whose wool is said to be worth more by weight than gold, wool so soft and fine and tempting that they are perennially poached in the Peruvian altiplano, despite government efforts to protect them. And there were guanaco as well who, unlike their cousins, the alpaca and llama, were never tamed by the Inca or Spaniards.

After some time spent at this fair, I'm sure my expression gradually changed from sadness to amusement to bliss, which is a difficult feeling to avoid when surrounded by several hundred camelids. As I was nearing the end of the fairgrounds, I heard the sound of jingling and tinkling, and looked up to see some llamas dressed in their finest, rivalling their camel cousins in the Arabian deserts in festooned glory. Leading them was a llama herder, a man with a wild and distant look in his eyes, who was dressed from head to toe in clothes made of llama and alpaca wool, utterly oblivious of the hot sun heralding the beginnng of the Peruvian summer, or camera-toting foreigners. He had eyes only for his llamas. A breeder standing nearby told me that the llama herder had come down from the altiplano with his flock. I had travelled quite a bit through Peru's high mountains plateaus, and had noticed the occasional speckling of llama herds in the far off distance, surrounded by hundreds of miles of emptiness, where they would be herded into little corrals at night to protect them from attack by puma. Therefore, I understood, I thought, the look in this man's eyes. To spend one's life protecting these animals, sleeping with them for warmth, with little or no human contact for weeks, perhaps months, would be enough to drive anyone wild. And to think that, in the dead of night, with no sounds to break the immense stillness, the llamas would start to hum......for llamas do indeed hum.

Shopping in Lima

2007-05-22T14:33:00.000-04:00

Most foreigners hate Lima. It is huge, crowded, and dangerous. The traffic is horrendous. The hills surrounding the city look like accumulations of vacuum cleaner dust. The sea is polluted. The winter consists of the "garua", a low-lying layer of clouds that spits and drools, trapping the smell of fish meal being produced in the seaside factories. What is there to like, they wonder, and scamper off for the greener pastures of Cusco and Machu Picchu, places filled with things tourists like.

What they miss are the hidden treasures. For me, Lima has more hidden treasures than any city I've lived in. I was lucky when I lived there to have a dear friend who, if anything, was even more ready and willing than I to hop in the car and drive to areas that even most inhabitants of Lima avoided. The two of us, equipped with determination and a sense of adventure, and shorn of purses, jewelry, and any other temptations, would dive into the city as if it were a sea and we were scuba divers in search of treasure. We invariably found it.

One of our favorite places to go was the wholesale flower market on the decidedly "wrong" side of town, near the colonial-era bullring and surrounded by impoverished shanty towns. We would drive there, leave our car in the care of some trustworthy -- we hoped -- individual eager to make some spare change, and enter another world, illuminated by rays of sunlight entering through holes in the roof high overhead. Row after row of cut flowers, of every variety and color one could want, heaps, and stacks, and mountains of flowers, watched over by women in traditional Peruvian dress. Men would wander through bearing baskets full of figs so ripe they oozed their honey, or home-made tools used to strip rose stems of their thorns. We would buy enough flowers to fill the car -- roses, sunflowers, freesias, peonies -- and laugh in wonder at how little we spent. My favorite memory of that market was a day when a minstrel group appeared with their ancient instruments, singing songs of beautiful flowers, and lovely women...

The food markets were marvelous as well. My favorite one had beautifully stacked displays of vegetables of an amazing variety. Four different colors and shapes of eggplants; more varieties of raddichio than I saw in four years in Sicily; purple beans; sacks filled with fresh artichoke hearts in acidulated water, strange Japanese and Chinese tubers and vegetables. One could also find small bodegas, or neighborhood grocers, that were filled with wonders from around the world. One day, browsing, I came across some strange-looking objects, looking like large brown fava bean pods covered in wax. Abudurajo, they were called. Could they be? I wondered. And they were! Bottarga, or pressed dried fish roe, which I'd grown to love in Sicily, grated over pasta or thinly sliced on toasted bread, a product one could find in the U.S. only at specialty markets at an exorbitant cost. Lima's position on the coast, near the Humboldt current and its famed schools of fish, her immigrants who came from every corner of the world, the geography that enfolds and supports infinite microclimates....all these elements lead to one of the richest cuisines in the world.

Handicrafts were another wonderful source of endless delight and discovery. There were the markets, of course, known as the "Indian" or "Incan" markets, filled with ceramics and textiles and mirrors and paintings and all manner of lovely things at good prices. Even better than the markets, though, and hidden off the tourist beat, were the little "talleres" that surrounded the city, mostly in the shanty towns clinging precariously to the dusty mountainsides. During the terrible years when terrorism had its claws in Peru, many people fled the killings in their home villages. Many of these villages were in the Ayacucho region, which happened to be one of the richest regions in terms of ceramic crafts. After arriving in Lima, the craftsmen set up shop and continued to practice the crafts and traditions passed down through the generations. Those with determination could uncover these treasures.

One day, stuck in a horrendous traffic jam in an old part of Lima, I happened to look over at a small building nearby. The front door was open in the heat of summer and inside, illuminated by a skylight, I saw an old man applying gold leaf to an elaborately carved frame. With a sense of adventure and with eyes wide open, one finds hidden treasures in the most unlikely places!

Stay tuned for more: bead shopping and the famed fabric district!

Sunday Lunch

2007-05-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

I love the custom in parts of Europe and Latin America (and probably elsewhere as well, although I haven't experienced it personally) of spending Sunday afternoons with friends, relaxing outside, eating, drinking, talking. This Sunday, my family and I went out to the beautiful, forested Virginia countryside to experience such a lunch in the new home of some dear friends. Those gathered included Americans, a lovely Thai woman, and an interesting man from Alsace. The food, as always, was excellent. My Thai friend excels in cooking everything from Thai food to Italian to, well, you name it and she can cook it.

She began cooking when she was a young girl growing up in the mountains of northern Thailand. Her parents had a small farm, and they needed someone to cook the daily meal provided to the laborers. Cooking the daily meal in Thailand is, of course, quite a different exercise than cooking here in the U.S. Every morning she would go to the market, buy what she needed, come home and start chopping and dicing and sauteing. In spite of what others would consider to be daily drudgery, she grew to love cooking because she had an instinctive talent for it and she loved making people happy. She still makes people happy with her cooking.

Recently, she underwent some hardships, with the loss of her 13-year-old boxer "baby", and then moving away from a large circle of close friends in another country. She was sad. Wanting to help her, I offered to show her how to make a necklace, and she agreed. Immediately, she took to it, went to a bead store and never looked back. I think it provides for her the same thing her cooking does: she has an instinctive talent for it, and she makes her friends happy with the lovely creations she gives to them.

The blue gill above was caught by my son in my Thai friend's pond.

Pearl Swirl Necklace and Costa Rica

2007-05-18T15:03:00.000-04:00

I spent the morning editing the curriculum vitae of a lovely Colombian woman whom I got to know while living in Costa Rica. She was the director of a community-based environmental organization whose goal was to protect the nearby mountains and watershed area. I hiked those mountains every week with friends, and was utterly captivated by them.

So here I was, thinking back about my three years in Costa Rica. When I'm thinking about Costa Rica, my thoughts often stray from the beautiful mountains of the interior to the wonderful beaches on the Caribbean coast. Unlike the Atlantic side, which is filled with tourists, the Caribbean side has stayed more true to its roots, and life is less ruled by foreigners. Our favorite restaurant in Costa Rica was there -- Pecora Nera -- and our favorite beaches -- Punta Uva and Playa Chiquita. When I wasn't eating Italian food or floating in the warm waters of the Caribbean, I was walking the long length of the beach looking for interesting shells. It was thoughts of those shells that led me to create today's design, which I call my "Pearl Swirl Necklace". It would have been the perfect thing to wear, after a wonderful day at the beach, while drinking a glass of wine and waiting for Illario to bring out his magical food.

If you want to learn any more about the mountains of Costa Rica, and the wonderful plants and animals that inhabit them, you can do no better than to read the blog of another good friend of mine about her own piece of paradise http://fincaeltigre.blogspot.com/

Miracles of Modern Technology

2007-05-17T12:48:00.000-04:00

A long time ago at the well-known Georgetown fleamarket here in Washington, D.C., I fell in love with an antique dress form with a bosomy shape and little cast iron claw feet. I wasn't that I was much of a seamstress, but I just had to have it. I used it over the years to hang interesting clothes and hats on, but then it sat in storage for more than thirteen years. When I retrieved it, I found that had it remained the same, but I had changed a lot, and I discovered a wonderful new use for it: photographing necklaces. To my mind, photographing a necklace on a flat surface, while perhaps giving useful information about the detail and the construction, is insufficient. One has to see how the necklace hangs. I suppose I could use myself as a photographer's dummy, but that seemed awkward, and this old dressmaker's form seemed just the thing.

And I was happy with it "as is" for quite a while. Then one day, a dear friend mentioned how she uses the "cloning" tool on her photo software to "disappear" the hooks upon which she hangs her bags in order to photograph them. The hooks, she felt, were distracting. A little lightbulb switched on over my head, as I realized how unsightly the division lines on the movable plates on the form were. Aha!, I thought, I can "disappear" them as well, and so I did. I find it to be a strangely enjoyable, almost meditative, and certainly miraculous process, as if I were "stitching" the plates on the form together. I thought about the women who had used the form in the past, and how utterly astonished they would be at all of this: online shops; digital photographs; cloning. It is good to keep in mind those small miracles of modern technology. Given the difference between the two photos, I think it is pretty amazing! Hmmm....now if only I could use the cloning tool to "iron" the tshirt!

Here is a link to more great tips on taking photographs:http://enthral-enthral.blogspot.com/2007/05/photography-tips-for-posting-on-etsy.html

Friendship

2007-05-16T17:20:00.000-04:00

I had lunch today with a friend I have known since I lived in Warsaw almost a quarter century ago. She once more lives not far from me now, but we haven't seen each other much as we are both busy with our lives. We talked about so many things, the way girlfriends do: our children; our husbands; our parents and siblings; ourselves.... It was lovely and rejuvenating for me to spend time with her.

An odd coincidence: the last time I was in my nearby beadshop, there was an attractive woman there who reminded me very much of this friend. I thought "coincidence" and went about my business, then went to pay. The attractive woman was in line ahead of me, and I realized she had some of the exact mannerisms of my friend as well, so I blurted out: "Do you have a sister named".... and she turned to me and said yes! How funny that two sisters not only look so much alike, but also have such similar mannerisms! My own dear sister and I look nothing alike!

In spite of taking time out for lunch, I managed to restring a necklace of rock crystal drums separated by glass beads. The crystal I bought when I was living in Peru, and I can't bear to part with them as I have so few left. I need to take a photo of it.

It's been a good day.

A Half Century

2007-05-15T15:18:00.000-04:00

On the eve of turning 50, I signed up for a basic metalworking class. I have been working with metal as I develop my skills as a jewelry artisan, but I want an expert to teach me things that otherwise might take a long time to learn on my own.

I have been a painter for many years, and am mostly self-taught. While I believe there is great merit in learning through trial and error -- especially if one is as stubborn as I am -- I also know that simple skills learned from an expert can save valuable time. Perhaps it is because I am nearing a half century that I am particularly aware of the passage of time.

One of the skills I have learned in the past year since I began selling my jewelry (as opposed to keeping it for myself or giving it away to friends and family members) is how to photograph jewelry and work with photo software to create the best images possible for my online store, mebdesigns.etsy.com. The other skill is learning how to navigate the internet and use it as best as possible to promote my shop.

I love the fact that this past year has involved a lot of learning. With the new metalworking class, I hope my 50th year will involve even more growth, learning and development.