Lots of pink for spring!

I have been keeping busy around here lately, between work and getting more pieces made and listed. Not so busy that I couldn't snap a couple photos of one of my magnolia trees while it was in bloom! It came very early this year. The buds were on the tree for about a week and then one (unusually) warm March morning I left for work. When I returned home, the entire tree was just covered with large pink blossoms. It was spectacular!

Below is a custom PMC order I recently completed. My customer, Ashley, was just lovely, and so easy to work with. It was the first time I've done a double-sided pendant in one piece, so it was a bit of a challenge. The front was a floral pattern that I have used a few times for earrings and pendants. The reverse featured an inscription and her husband's and children's first initials. It was a family birthday gift to her from them. Very sweet!

I oxidized all the sterling silver and the fine silver pendant, and then hand-buffed it to a soft gray with a high shine. It is paired with a soft powdery pink rose quartz briolette, which is perfect with the gray. It took a bit longer than anticipated as I had to wait on the stone to arrive, but she insisted she was not in a hurry. In the end, she was just thrilled with the result, which makes me very happy!

A very colorful, very paisley treasury.

Love the pop of color here. And thank you to StampShackLady (who has an adorable shop, by the way) for including my paisley and pink quartz PMC necklace! Stop by and check it out!

Loving the PMC...

These are a few pieces I finished up Sunday (meaning I finally put some of my PMC elements actually into some designs!). I've been such a slacker lately, so it feels fantastic to get some new pieces made and I'm really happy with how they turned out too. Not bad for my first attempt. I will be adding them to my shop before long, but I need to get some more photos. After that, I'm going to be purchasing some more clay and working on my technique. I'm very excited!

First up is a fine silver pendant paired with a AAA amethyst briolette. I had two of these little guys and they are stunning stones. Just have to figure out where the second one will live now. I finished the chain with a hand-formed clasp and two tiny faceted peridots.

Next is one that I'm especially fond of.. I had this teardrop shaped pendant and couldn't quite figure out what to do with it until I sat down and dug through my gems. I came across this beautiful garnet and it just spoke to me. Really a lovely piece, if I do say so. Also finished with a handmade clasp and two faceted garnets.

Last is a pair of earrings. 'Lace' is their name. AAA pink amethyst, fine silver discs and hand-formed sterling earwires. Perfect for spring!

PMC me!

A few weeks back, I finally got to take a basics class in PMC (or precious metal clay.) I had been wanting to try it out for a long time, but it's not the cheapest of materials to just play around with and figure out on your own.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect going in and I certainly learned a few things. There were two ladies, myself and Mandy, the instructor at A World of Beads. We all got a tiny little packet (25g) of clay and once Mandy explained how to use the playing cards, roller, rubber stamps, various fondant cutters (like mini cookie cutters) we were allowed to open the packets! The clay sort of reminded me of kneaded eraser. There was a lot of rolling it out, trying out shapes and textures, re-rolling it out and, of course, keeping it moist.

I think the most important thing to remember about PMC is that it seems to lend itself to the more organic shapes and textures. I really enjoyed learning a little bit about it and I ended up with a few really pretty pieces. I can't wait to get another packet and try my hand at it on my own.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me to the class, so the photos below were taken after the pieces were fired and tumbled and polished. This was also my first attempt at using my new light box and I need to work with it a bit more...

First, Lucy had to check out the new light box.

A few of the new pieces. The smaller ones are around the size of a dime.

Mandy covered many things in the class, such as making and adding bails to pieces to create pendants.

I also learned that most natural stones can't survive the kiln firing process. I was a little disappointed to hear that. I had visions of setting stones, but, it turns out you can add bezels prior to firing and then set stones in them. Or, you can use dichroic glass, which is a heat tolerant fused glass. I wanted to try as many different techniques with an instructor. This one ran the gamut! I added texture, made a bail and attached it, fashioned a bezel and set a piece of dichroic glass.

This last one is a pair of earrings that I created for my neighbor. Over the summer, she and her family had gone on a beach vacation and she brought me back a baggie full of shells that she had collected. She thought I could use them in some of my jewelry creations. (I love that idea.) I ended up using one to make impressions in two small ovals of clay and then added tiny aquamarine rounds and handmade earwires to finish them. She loved them and I think she was surprised to have the shells used that way. (I still intend to use the shells themselves in the future!)

I feel like I have fallen off of planet blog

Well, happy new year! Here it is January 6, 2010. I haven't checked in here in way too long. I've had good intentions, just haven't gotten around to it. I need to get back on the horse with my Etsy store too... need to get some new pieces listed.

We didn't do a whole lot for New Year's Eve this year, which is okay with me. I've never really been the go-out-and-party type. My husband and I spent a quiet night at home. I picked up a pizza and we worked on a 750 piece Las Vegas puzzle. (I know it sounds weird or even boring, but we enjoyed each other's company and it was fun to do it together. Tougher than we thought it would be too!) Now we have a good size assembled puzzle under our sofa. Maybe it'll get framed one of these days.

I have been looking forward to 2009 being in the books for a while now, so I'm glad it's a new year finally. I have some cool new toys from Christmas, including a photo light box. While I love the look of photos with natural daylight, it's just not very practical to wait for a sunny weekend day to take photos of my jewelry. And right now, it's pretty darned cold out there even if it is sunny, so enough of that! I was pretty excited to get that. Just need to set it up and get moving.

My husband enrolled me in a PMC (precious metal clay), which is this Saturday. I can't wait. I've been wanting to learn more about PMC for a while now, but it's cost has so far prevented me just buying some and playing around with it. I figure a little instruction never hurt anyone. Hopefully, I'll have some new fine silver pieces from this to add to my shop in the near future!