Three day weekends

Well it is for me anyway. I'm taking tomorrow off because Saturday is my birthday. Apparently it will be a busy weekend for me too. Last night I got an order in my etsy shop for 5 pendants. It's from a person who has boughten from me in the past and I think has a boutique or consignment type store. Not sure but just a hunch which if I'm right I'm totally cool with. It's nice to know that someone thinks enough of what you make or do that they will put it in their store and even better when they keep coming back to you because it sells. Then after that this morning I received a shawl pin order and at lunch another order of two pins and a pendant. Happy early birthday to me indeed. So, this weekend I'll need to start making some more pendants to replace the ones sold to keep my stock up. I plan on making some extras that I won't list until the craft show in October that way if some end up selling right before I'll be covered and have ones to replace them so to speak.

With the suden income I went supply shopping. Got some more solder to finish off some pieces and work on other things as well as some more wire to stock up on. The price of silver has been rising like crazy. Seems like just early last month I was paying high $12 an ounce and now it's up to almost $17.

I started doing some knitting again. I sort of got away from it for a while and am starting to pick it up again. I think it's the upcoming fall months that makes me want to knit. Right now I'm working on a hooded zip sweater for Little G. I need to get another ball of yarn for the hood and sleeves but the body is finished and being blocked. I think it's going to be really cute when finished.

I also did a crochet scarf that has a woven look to it. I really love the modern kind of look that it ended up with. Too cool huh?

I have some other yarn that has been sitting in my stash that I think I'll make another one with.

On the metalworking front this is the second labradorite ring that I talked about in an earlier post. I bought this stone in a matching set of two so I have a second one to play with as well. The color is beautiful and it keeps that same color flash at just about every angle. I really like this curved triangle shape.

Such a slacker

I so have been slacking in the blog department. I've just been busy with things and then I have pictures but haven't edited them. The list of excuses is long, let me tell you.


I did some more metal work the weekend before last and made another labradorite ring using one of the stones out of a matching pair. I also did a pendant using a larimar stone I had that was an odd shape. While it's technically "finished" I have a couple of things I want to do with/to it just to expirement. I'm getting the hand of the bezel making for the stones but I'm finding when I make rings that attaching the bezel to the ring is a bit tricky for me. Of course there's a couple of tools I should probably pick up that would make this process much simpler and would hold everything in place better than what I've been doing. I am enjoying it though so I guess that's all that really matters.


I'm thinking of adding a discounted section to my etsy shop that will house my first attempts. I've made a really lovely double stranded bracelet from the unakite piece and the larimar pendant turned out pretty good. I have a couple of other rings in the lineup (as there is no way I'm giving up my two labradorite rings) but alas, I ran out of solder and haven't gotten around to ordering more to finish things up.

Here is one of the newer things I've been working on. I'm taking my love for shawl pins and wire wrapping and combining the two. This is my first one but I have a large light colored amethyst stone and a large fire opal that I plan on doing something similar with. I haven't figured up pricing yet so it's not in my shop but I think once I get another one made I'll list them.

Also, speaking of slacking, I need to get busy with getting stuff prepped for the craft show where I work. My pendants have been coming along nicely and I have been able to keep 32 in stock which fills all the spaces in a display tray that I have. The thing I really need to get cracking on is making a stock of wire wrapped earrings. They're versatile, reasonably priced and I think they will sell really well in person.

New Ring

So, after my first attempt last weekend at some metalwork I haven't touched it all week. Yesterday I had some time and decided to try and do a ring since that is what I REALLY wanted to learn this for. The problem recently has been deciding what stone to use. I have quite a few sitting in trays just waiting to be plucked out and something marvelous done with them. This of course ends up being the hard part. I really love doing the wire wrapping so I'll pick up a stone for possible metal work and then think it would really look good wire wrapped and put it back down. This is why I decided to make a ring next. I have a handful of stones that are smaller than I like to wrap and are a nice ring size.

I had a labradorite oval that was part of a two stone lot. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it and after some time I figured it would make a nice ring. It really is a beautiful stone as it is basically all blue flash there is no green or yellow play at all. I am quite pleased with how it turned out for a first attempt. It is not totally finished so don't mind some of the imperfections in the silver, I still need to do a few tweaks in shaping and it still needs polishing. Of course I have to keep it off my finger long enough to do these thing....

It's not perfect but it's a start

So, earlier I said I was wanting to get into the metal working aspect of the jewelry making. I ordered some silver sheet and bezel wire and some other needed tools that came in on Wednesday. I was needing some more wire anyway so I picked up these additional things. For a first try at the whole process it didn't turn out too bad.


Of course I NEVER do anything basic or simple the first time around. I didn't want just a plain round bezel edge so of all things I used a pair of scrap booking scissors for cutting out decorative edges...worked great. Since this is just a test piece I decided I wasn't going to make it a pendant and once I was finished thought it would make a pretty nice center piece to a bracelet so I puched 4 holes into it and put the jump rings in. I have some unakite beads in my stash which is what the stone I used is so I'm sure I'll be able to put something together. I still need to get some new polishing tools for our dremmel so I can get it shined and cleaned up a bit more.

Other than that which I did this morning I've been busy wrapping stones. I have to admit that for pendants, I still prefer the wire wrapping method to making them. I really wanted to learn the soldering and metal work for rings and I do think it's something I'll be able to do. Here are the stones I've wrapped so far this weekend.


From left to right, Malachite, Larimar, Labradorite, Larimar and Tourmaline in Quartz.

10 years and new stones

Friday was Dave and I's 10th anniversary. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long which I guess is a good thing. I took the day off and we just spent the day together and went out for breakfast and lunch. It was pretty nice and the weather held out for most of the day.

I am starting to get in some stones I purchased recently. I still have two more sets of stones I'm waiting on, one of those most likely on Monday the other sometime next week. I'm trying to get some more colors and different stones so I can have a nice variety. Here is my latest haul.


The 3 green on the left are malachite, a pink andean opal, then an absolutely beautiful deep purple amethyst, 4 pink rhodochrosite stones, a speckled lapiz chrysoclla stone, 2 smokey quartz stones and lastly a petrified palm wood stone. The petrified palm has to be my favorite but that amethyst and the smokey quartz are close seconds. I think I have just enough gold filled wire left to wrap the palm wood and then I think either the amethyst or a malachite piece will be next. There's an idea I have in my head for the large rhodochrosite piece so I'll be saving that one for when I have some time to really sit down and just play.

Lately I've REALLY been wanting to venture into the metalworking aspect of jewelry making. I picked up a couple of books this weekend and watched a couple of tutorials on youtube just to see what I might be getting myself into. For some reason the idea of soldering kind of freaks me out. Don't ask, I have no problem at all working glass in an open flame but for some reason I doubt myself that I'll be able to solder and it turn out presentable enough. I figure it's worth a shot though and if I don't at least try I'll always wonder if I'd be able to.