Bracelets

I have been making a lot of these bracelets lately.  They are quick andeasy to make and there are a lot of variations so it can be more personal.  I made the one with the cross for a fewlittle girls as a first communion gift earlier this year.  They are the perfect gift, it’s thetype of thing you could wear daily, on its own or with other bracelets. 

Triangle Necklace

Recently I had the privilege ofteaching a six-week jewelry course at a local middle school.  I went over the basics with them,sawing, soldering and bezel making. It was a lot of fun! For their final project they were to make any pieceof jewelry with a stone setting to display the skills they had learned.  This was the piece I made as an exampleso I could show them how to set stones. I am very pleased with the way it turned out.  I love the negative space; it has inspired me to incorporatenegative space in some of my newer pieces.  I also used a cabochon stone, because I thought it would beeasier for the kids to set.  I wasn’tsure about the stone at first because I mostly work with faceted stones but Ithink the cabochon works well with this piece. 

I feel like I am experiencing this right now.   I find myself getting frustrated or disappointed with the pieces I am making.  I just don't know where exactly I am going wrong.  I get really excited about the design or idea of a piece but once I'm finished making it I don't like it at all.  I don't know if I'm falling short in the execution of the piece or the design was just bad to begin with.  It's just upsetting because I want to have another show but I am not proud of any of the pieces I have made recently and I don't think it's fair to try and make money from them.  

Texas Ring

This is my new Texas ring.  I originally wanted to do a stone for each city - Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso but I thought it looked too cluttered.  I chose these cities because they are the most well known and the largest in Texas - sorry but Fort Worth is the same as Dallas in my book.  The lines depict different highways (45, 10, and 71).  The stone moves along the "highways" to the different cities.  I love this ring because I love Texas.  It is a very simple ring but not small.  This is not a ring you could wear if you had to use your hands at all, it would definitely get in your way.

Sofia's Necklace

  This necklace I designed with a little six year old I used to babysit.  She came up with the stone hanging from the chain.  Which is so funny to me because it fits in with my style of jewelry so well.  I love unexpected movement in my pieces.  I oxidized the inside of the diamond shape to make the stone pop even more.  I love the movement I  get working with the really small chain but I always forget how much of a pain it is.  I have gotten better with it but I still melt the chain at least once every time.  But overall I love the necklace and I hope I can find someone that would love to have it.   

Scrap Necklace

This is what I like to call a scrap necklace.  I really liked the shape of this scrap piece of silver I had and I thought it would make a really cool necklace.  Of course I had to do a little more to it to make it interesting so I added texture and then oxidized the texture so it would stand out.  I also put a small amethyst in the corner to bring some color to the piece.  I think the purple and the black together make it look a little Gothic(not in a good way) but I love the way it hangs on the neck.  As with most of my pieces, it has a very geometric look to it - sloppy geometric.  Sorry the photo is so bad.

Mother of Pearl Earrings

I really like working with mother of pearl and I thought it would be a lot easier than it was to work with the chain.  I had to melt about three chains before I could get to this point, but I guess the more I work with it the easier it will get.  These are very simple, almost boring, earrings.  But they look beautiful on the ears and the movement of the chain really catches the eye.