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Works in progress

August 31st, 2010 . Posted in New Work, Uncategorized, Works in progress | No Comments »
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Here are some terrible snaps of some of my newest work freshly made, drying and awaiting sanding and filing:

birds and butterfly necklace components

I’ve been going through a bird phase ever since last fall – I can’t help myself, I love them!

necklace components and one bracelet set

My new favorite though are these peacock feathers! I may have to keep one of them… There’s a nice deep blue sapphire in the eye of the feather on the right.  I’ve also really been excited about geometric shapes lately and I did a whole series of them for necklaces and earrings.  The three oval bracelet components in the lower right corner of the above photo are textured with my piped silver design as shown but on the back they are textured with the spiral texture that you see in the rectangle components to the left of them.

butterflies and flowers

geometric shapes

modern Etruscan shapes for necklace

modern embellished Etruscan shapes for necklace

These elements are finished on the other side with my piped silverwork (like the oval bracelet components).

square elements for necklace (with tanzanite)

These elements are textured with a paisley pattern on the reverse side.

I’ve also made 65 new pairs of earrings in similar motifs and I have sanded and filed over half of them (43 pairs). Tonight I hope to fire at least two loads and finish firing tomorrow. Then I will tumble everything during the rest of the week and begin making actual jewelry out of these components over the weekend.

New photos!

August 27th, 2010 . Posted in New Work, Uncategorized, photography | No Comments »
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I think I’m starting to get the hang of taking pictures of my work. I’m not completely sold on the background (it has a pixelated effect and I’d rather it be smoother) but as far as lighting, cropping, framing, etc. I’m pretty happy with how my most recent photo session came out.

mehndi teardrop amulet necklace

This is one of my amulet necklaces – I choose a selection of items in a motif that tell a little “story”… maybe it’s a color story or a story about geometry… this particular necklace is an exotic story!  I set a marquis faceted blue sapphire into the fine silver clay and fired it in place and wrapped a sky blue zircon at the top.  I accented both little silver drops with a deep blue kyanite briolette.  I love the royal colors of the blue with the exotic design.

Oval Lily Cluster Necklace

This necklace has my favorite little “flip flop” mini cornflake keishi pearls in an unusual shade of baby blue.  Mixingcolors with these pearls was challenging as the shade of blue has a subtle cast of green in it but it didn’t go with my usual blue/green stones that I tend to favor when I make things for myself.  I used chalcedony and iolite in the necklace and in the cascade I used additionally some gray sapphire and mystic blue quartz.

Granulated Disc Necklace

Do you ever make something and think “I hope this doesn’t sell because I want it”? That’s the case with this necklace I made two years ago.

spiral textured oval earrings with quartz briolette

I made a series of these, from which I was going to make a bracelet, but then the show I was at, which was multiple days, I was selling out of earrings and I didn’t have any more fired pieces that I could make earrings for so I scratched my bracelet idea and decided to make multiple pairs of earrings instead – so now I have 4 pairs of earrings made from these little spiral textured ovals. I do think that they are pretty cute!

Back after a long break…

July 7th, 2010 . Posted in New Work, photography | 1 Comment »
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I took a long break after the holidays due to exhaustion and some health issues which I have started to resolve and now I’m back! I’ve been taking photos of the jewelry I had left after the holiday season like there’s no tomorrow! I’ve been experimenting with different ways to light and frame my shots, and a plethora of what I hope to be very creative backgrounds (that are also hopefully not distracting).

Take a gander at these and tell me what you think! Can you guess what I used as a background?

Alexandrite Star Earrings

The photo does not do justice to the amazing color of these alexandrite stones (lab grown) – a vibrant purple with shots of teal blue!

Sapphire Star V-Wire Earrings

Sapphire Star V-Wire Earrings

These limpid blue sapphires are amazing and I never get tired of using them when I can get my hands on them. Its a pain to set the v-wires, especially when I’m also setting a stone, but I think that the overall effect is worth it for these earrings.

Peridot Sheild V-Wire Earrings

Peridot Sheild V-Wire Earrings

Don’t you love trillions? The shape is a little challenging to work with but they sparkle so beautifully!

Green Amethyst Lily Cluster Earrings

Green Amethyst Lily Cluster Earrings

I accented this Asian-inspired lily cluster with full round-cut pale sage green amethyst (prassiolite) briolettes.

Victorian Double Peridot Earrings

Victorian Double Peridot Earrings

I cast these earrings from a fragment of a mold that I made of a Victorian-era stick pin. I found these large, clear, sparkly peridots at a recent gem show and thought that this shape, along with the smaller peridots set them off nicely.

Victorian Peridot Button Earrings

Victorian Peridot Button Earrings

I cast these earrings from one of my favorite molds that I made of a Victorian-era button. I love the rough edges – they give sort of an artifact-y feel to the earrings.

Dainty Flower Earrings

Dainty Flower Earrings

Sweet little flowers for dainty ears!

Aqua Chalcedony Briolette Earrings

Aqua Chalcedony Briolette Earrings

I call this spectacular cut of briolette “pyramid” because I can’t figure out what else to call them. Shades of blue-green (or green-blue) are my favorite and this shade of chalcedony has a wonderful “glow from within” effect. I felt that these needed no further adornment.

Rose Quartz Pointer Briolette Earrings

Rose Quartz Pointer Briolette Earrings

Another pair of briolettes with no need for further adornment from my stash of uniquely cut beads. These rose quartz briolettes are so beautifully faceted and they also have that “glow from within” quality that the chalcedony does. I have a matching pendant necklace (slightly larger) so perfectly cut that it could be used as a pendulum.

This is just a small portion of the photos that I’ve taken recently. I will post more later.

I feel like this is really important for me to post

January 13th, 2010 . Posted in announcements, of extreme importance | 1 Comment »
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Please read this article and share with loved ones, particularly anyone you know who has a child or has a child in their life:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/article_c81ea644-6c23-5ed9-b51d-4655bbd0ddd4.html

Downtown D.C. Holiday Market

December 14th, 2009 . Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Come one, come all to the Downtown DC Holiday Market from 12/17 through 12/23 and see me and one of my jewelry partners, Cindy Folkers of Stardust Jewelry. We will be showing our jewelry at booth number 23 from 12 Noon to 8 PM Thursday through Wednesday.

In addition to our pure silver jewelry we will be introducing our new work in bronze and copper and showing a selection of our Christmas ornaments in the new materials.

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