A Few Of My Favorite Things - Silver Edition

Recently I did my Jewelry Creators Unite In Numbers (JCUIN) collection of handmade jewelry for the month of December, called A Few Of My Favorite Things - Silver Edition.   I thought I would share a few and why I like them.

Shadow Dog Designs

These earrings are faceted amazonite beads with sterling silver, by Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs.  I love the color of these beads, they make me think of tranquil blue waters of a tropical beach.  Also for Inuyasha fans, they are slightly reminiscent of Kagura's earrings.  I have always intended to make a pair like that.  These are the closest I've seen.

Pretty Gonzo

Mary of Pretty Gonzo made these unique labradorite and sterling silver earrings.  First of all, I like them because I like that iridescent sheen that labradorite has.  But I also like the unusual design.  It's common to see little round dangles, but not so much flat ovals.  What is especially different though, is the way she used little wire loops instead of headpins to hold the beads on.

Lunar Skies

The truth is, I could just about pick anything from Lunar Skies and include it here; I love Quentin's work.  This pendant is larimar and sterling silver.  Once again I love the gorgeous blue color.  It's my understanding that larimar only comes from the Dominican Republic.  This one is a rather abstract bird shape.  Do you see the bird?  

Boho Wire Wrapped

This intricate wire-wrapped pendant on a sterling silver chain is by Magaret of Boho Wire Wrapped.  How can you not love those fiery little opal beads?  Of course, her wire work is stunning in itself, but those opals make this piece a knock out!

Crystal Bazaar

Here, once again, we have amazonite earrings paired with silver.  Although in this case, it's fine silver (99.9% silver).  These are made by Crystal Bazaar.  What can I say, I love this color.  That, and the roundness and simplicity of these earrings.  They have a classic beauty.

Shanghai Tai

Lastly, I have included a fine silver metal clay snowflake pendant by me, Roxanne, of Shanghai Tai.  I like the pendant itself, but I especially like it on this sterling silver chain, called a black and white snake chain.  It goes perfectly with the pendant because, as it moves, the contrast between the black and white makes something almost like a sparkle.  It reminds me of the tiny sparkle of a snowflake.  That's why I thought they were so perfect together.

By the way, in case you're wondering why this was the silver edition, it's because I'm leaving the door open for future editions in gold and copper!

Thanks to the talented artists of the JCUIN guild for letting me share these pieces with you!

Wedding Reception Place Cards With The Silhouette

Some of you may know that I use the Silhouette, especially since my post about using it to make metal clay bezels.  Usually I use it to make etching templates for my dichroic glass.  But if you know anything about the Silhouette you know that it is primarily intended for making cards and scrapbooks.  I am an amateur photographer, so I also love to scrapbook.  Unfortunately, I don't get to do it as often as I would like.  I did do a project a while ago that I have been meaning to share, and that was the place cards for my daughter's wedding reception.

Photo by Kate Perez

It was a garden themed wedding at the botanical center at the Indianapolis Zoo.  The colors were Wisteria (purple) and green, which by the way, go great together even with a little white mixed in.  I got several sheets of card stock and paper with various textures, some green and some purple, in various shades.  Although they were different shades, and some even had patterns, they all went with the two basic colors.  

To do this you will need whatever card stock you want to use for the place card itself, and various colors of paper for the flower layers and letters. 

3 sizes of flowers and mini paper fastener

 I used little mini painted paper fasteners in pastel to fasten them.  (I think we used to call them "brads".)
  
I used a design from the Silhouette store called "petal flowers".  They even already have holes in the center, which is probably what gave me the idea in the first place.  You could use any round design that has different sizes.  If they don't have holes in the center, you will need to add them.  (The easiest way to do this would be to copy and paste the holes from the place card template.)  I noticed now there are some 3D flower designs in the Silhouette online store now that would look really cute with this.  

 I made my own place card design, and have uploaded the template.  You can find it by clicking here.  I have a silhouette SD, so I have them 4 up on a 8.5 by 11" page.  The names are cut out, so you just type in the name you want.  (Do this by selecting the name, then right click and choose "edit text".)  Then glue a piece of contrasting paper inside the card so it shows through the name.  

The flowers I used came in three different sizes.  Make sure you get them the sizes you want in relation to the place cards.  You can stack them on the screen to see how they look.  (Just make sure to remove them before you cut the cards!)  Since I had to make about 75 place cards I filled a page with all three sizes of flowers, then cut the flowers out of several different pieces of paper.  As a result, I have several options of colors and patterns in all three sizes.  Stack them from lithe smallest on top to the largest on the bottom, and fasten them onto the place card with the paper fastener.

 Above is a picture showing the inside of the card.  You can see the piece of paper that I glued to the inside, and also the back of the brad that is holding the flowers on.

Here are a few of the finished cards:

A few of the finished place cards

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

In my last post I mentioned why I chose the stone I did for the pendant that I made.  It had a particular sentimental value to me.  Catherine Waterhouse mentioned that she would like to see the pictures, so here are a few.

 It was July 2009 the first time we drove out to Taos.  There are a lot of artists here and we thought it would be a good place to hang out for a couple of days.  I fell in love with this town.  Above is our hotel room.  I like the fact it is very "New Mexico".

 Someone told us that it was worth it to drive west of town to see the Rio Grande Gorge bridge.  In addition, the "earth ships" are only a mile or two further, but that's a story for another time.  Taos seems to have mountains everywhere, and a storm was coming over the mountains from the east.

Above was my first view of the bridge.  Near this spot there were a few vendors selling things.  There was this guy (some would call him a hippie) selling some cabochons, most of which he had cut himself.  I bought a few stones off of him, including the stone that I put in the pendant shown in my previous post.

I started out on the bridge, but it was really scary.  There was just this little railing and when you looked down it was SO far down!  Every time a truck would come by the whole bridge would shake.  It didn't feel very sturdy at all.  The wind was starting to pick up because the storm we had seen was getting close.  I snapped three pictures from the bridge and then turned around and went back.  I did not want to be on that bridge when the storm hit.

 At left is the view looking back towards the vendors and the storm.  You can see how close the storm was getting. 

Here is the view to the north as we left the gorge behind.  You can see some of Taos at the end of the rainbow!

As we got closer to Taos, the sun came out and we kept seeing a brilliant double rainbow.

And then we saw the other end of the rainbow.  If you look closely, you will see it's still a double.


I want to leave you with a shot that I took when we revisited the bridge on a nice day in 2012.  The bridge had been totally redone.  It no longer shook when vehicles went over it (confirms my suspicions it wasn't safe in 2009!) and they had added some bumpouts for pedestrians to stop and enjoy the views.  By the way, the guy I bought the stones from was married to a photographer who took a drop-dead gorgeous shot of the gorge from the bridge.  Last I knew it was being used by the Taos department of tourism.

Cutting Bezels on the Silhouette

Recently I had the opportunity to take a metal clay class on how to cut bezels on a Silhouette.  This might require some explanation for those of you who are not familiar with one or both of those words.

A Silhouette is a machine that is sort of like a printer, except it cuts instead of prints.  It is designed for scrapbookers to cut shapes out of paper for their scrapbook pages.  Another brand that you may be familiar with is a Cricket, but unlike that one the Silhouette doesn't require cartridges.  It has software that allows you to create designs.  I have been using it to create stencils for etching glass for some time.  At right is a picture of my Silhouette.

In jewelry, a bezel is a strip of metal that holds a stone in place, as you will see later in this blog post.

Wanaree Tanner is a talented metal clay artist who apparently has been doing some experimentation with the Silhouette.  Holly Gage, another talented metal clay artist, was hosting Wanaree for a 2 day class in how to use the Silhouette to cut bezels.  I had to drive to Pennsylvania, but it was worth it!

The first thing we had to do was design the back plate and bail for our pendants.  We designed a texture for them using scratch foam and a ball point pen.  I love using scratch foam!  Here is a picture of mine at left.  I used a template for the bail, and I thought the shape kind of looked like leaves.  So I drew some leaves and made more leaves on the back of the pendant.  Since I'm kind of artistically challenged, I just had them poking in from the sides.  Then I decided to make a little bug flying through the middle.

We picked the design we wanted for the bezel, and Wanaree showed us how to cut them out on the Silhouette.  Then we attached the bezel to the back plate, attached the bail and fired.  After firing, we did not do finishing work before setting the stone.  We set the stone first, because the bezel is very thin and delicate.  The silver was still all white looking, as you can see in this picture.  (The chain is just one I happened to be wearing.)  The bezel is the zig zag strip that is holding the stone on.

I bought this stone off a hippie outside of Taos, NM at the Rio Grande Gorge bridge back before they rebuilt the bridge.  (It was really scary to walk across!)  Since this pendant was a class project that I would keep I wanted to use a stone that meant something to me.  He told me it was Spectralite, but someone at the class told me it was Labradorite.  It doesn't matter to me, it looks cool either way.

Below is a picture from the first night when several of us went out to dinner.  From left is Silvie Waals, Wanaree Tanner and Holly Gage.

Silvie entertained us with lots of interesting stories!

Here is my finished pendant, front and back:

To learn more about using the Silhouette with metal clay, check out Wanaree's YouTube video.

Jewelry Inspired by Nature

Octopus Necklace

A few days ago I did an Artfire collection of nature inspired jewelry by the JCUIN guild.  There were so many interesting pieces, I thought I'd share a few more here.  You can click on the pictures for more into.

Above is a piece that I thought was really unique.  You don't usually see octopus jewelry.  This one is part of a set by Plethora of Jewelry.

Angel Fish Naval Ring

At right is another unusual piece.  An angelfish dangle belly button ring.  I thought it was so cute I had to include it here.  This is by one of our newer guild members, William or as he's better known, Dream Catcher Man.

Copper Blues Tree of Life

Of course, if we're going to talk about jewelry inspired by nature, there's going to be at least one tree!  This handmade tree of life pendant is blue and copper, including a blue moon.  You can find it at Wagoner Wire Works.

Spiral Wire-Wrapped Pendant

This intricate wire-wrapped pendant, right, was inspired by the spiral of an ammonite according to Margaret of Boho Wire Wrapped.  Spirals are certainly a favorite of jewelry designers everywhere.  The bead in the center is an alexandrite, which changes color depending on the type of light.

Fused Frog Pendant

A green frog jumping through the grass is definitely nature inspired.  This pendant is made from fused glass by Roxanne (me) of Shanghai Tai.

Crocheted Snowflake Ornament

Last, but certainly not least, when I saw this I knew I had to include it here.  Winter is almost here, and those of us who live up north will be seeing these soon, if we haven 't already.  This crocheted snowflake ornament isn't really jewelry, but sometimes we jewelry makers like to diversify a little.  It is made by Wyvern Designs.

If you'd like to see the Artfire collection, you can find it here:  Inspired by Nature

Hello October Rocktober and a Gift From My Studio.

Today is the first day of October, which makes me think Rocktober!  Probably every radio station calls it Rocktober.  At least ours used to.  (I haven't turned on the radio yet today.)  Anyway, I have tickets to see the Moody Blues today!

Since I probably shouldn't post a pic of the Moody Blues due
to copyright issues, here is a Moody Blue Pendant!

So in celebration of my good mood, I am offering a free gift with a purchase from my shop.  Today only, you will receive a $5 gift certificate free with every purchase, not including gift certificates or handmade components.  So that's almost everything!  Use the code "BGD1" at checkout.

If you know me, you know I don't do this often.  Here is the link if you'd like to shop:  www.shanghaitai.com

Enjoy Rocktober!  I know I will.

Take Flight (Featuring the JCUIN Guild)

Copper Bracelet With Ceramic Beads by Pink Sunset Jewelry Designs

Dragonfly and Fern Light Switch Plate by Wyvern Designs

Flying Geese Pendant by Shanghai Tai

Recently I did a collection on Artfire called "Take Flight!", featuring jewelry from JCUIN guild members that had wings or things that fly.  There were so many choices that I couldn't include them all in my collection, so I have decided to include a few more here.

First is a bracelet by Pink Sunset Jewelry Designs.  I just really like the look of this one.  The colors in the beads look good enough to eat.  And they go great with the copper.  I would have guessed, because of the swirls, that these beads are polymer clay, but they are actually ceramic.  Of course, the reason I included it here was because of the copper-tone swallow charm

Winter Birds Pendant by M2BC

Now this light switch cover is made out of polymer clay.  I love the deep dark green with the ferns.  You can imagine the dragonflies in a shaft of light breaking through the deep green forest.  This was made by Wyvern Designs.  You can see why I had to include this one!

Turquoise & Copper Earrings by Iron Mountain Jewelry

Larimar & Sterling Pendant by Lunaar Skies

Next are a couple of pendants that are very appropriate for the season.  The geese are flying south for the winter; I heard them just yesterday.  So this pendant is very timely.  This is an etched dichroic pendant, with the geese etched into the dichroic layer.  Three geese flying against a dark blue and purple sky.  This one is by me, Roxanne, of Shanghai Tai.












This fused pendant, by Meant 2B Cherished, is more a reflection of things to come.  Called "Winter Birds", it features white birds silhouetted against shades of blues and greys.  This technique is the opposite of the previous pendant.  Instead of being taken away, these birds and trees are added by fusing on an enamel design.  Enamel is another form of glass, so the design becomes part of the glass.

So far all these pieces have had realistic flyers.  But they can also be abstract.  These earrings feature an abstract wing design.  I love the combination of the turquoise with the copper, and also the texture around the wings.  These were made by Iron Mountain Jewelry.

Last, but certainly not least, is an abstract bird design.  The winged design is obvious to the viewer, but I think it must take a lot of creativity to create a design like this.  This larimar and sterling silver pendant is made by Quentin of Lunar Skies.








I hope you enjoyed this virtual flight.  Thanks to the talented artists of the Jewelry Creators Unite In Numbers guild on Artfire for the inspiration!

ShyMousee's Fall Blog Hop

Shy Mousee is hosting a fall blog hop of handmade items, so I just had to enter a few.

Copper wrapped fused glass pendant

When I think of fall, I think of Thanksgiving and Indian corn.  When I was a kid I was always fascinated by Indian corn, and how people would hang up dried ears of Indian corn as a decoration.  My mother was always too practical for any kind of decorating like that.  I don't really know if it's good for anything else or not.

The glass in this pendant at the right reminds me of corn kernels, and of course, Indian corn.  I wire wrapped it in copper because it is the perfect compliment to the autumn burnt orange color.  Every time I see this pendant, I think of Thanksgiving!






I have been meaning to list these earrings for awhile now, so the blog hop was exactly what I needed to give me a little push.  I got them photographed and listed just this afternoon.

I make the copper charms by hand from copper metal clay.  (They are 100% copper.)  I have attached them to niobium earwires.  These are annodized to give them a nice copper color so they go great with the little diamond shaped leaf charms.  Also niobium is extremely hypoallergenic, so just about anyone can wear them with no sensitivity problems.  Just in time for fall!

Falling Leaves fused glass necklace

Now, this one is an oldie but a goody!  The photos weren't too good, so a took a couple of new ones before I entered it in the blog hop.

It's hard to see here, but I fused the three leaves between a sparkly green background and a clear layer of glass.  Can you see the tiny sparkles?  I also left a space to run a cord or ribbon through it to make a necklace.  The organza ribbon makes a nice addition, because it looks good under the glass.  I call this the "falling leaves" pendant.  I wanted it to reflect all the different colors that the leaves turn in autumn, and I wanted it to look like they were falling from the tree.  Did I succeed?

If you would like to enter Shymousee's blog hop, you can enter it here:

Fall Earrings for the Earring Challenge Blog Hop

Candy Corn Earrings

I stumbled across another blog hop, this one is called Earring Challenge.  It has some great fall earrings.  So I hope it was ok that I decided to join the blog hop and add some of my own.

First I added the most recent pair of earrings that I listed in my artfire shop.

These candy corn earrings I make myself from fused glass.  It was a little work trying to make the kernels, but I think I have it down now.  You will notice they are not identical.  Just like snowflakes, no two candy corn kernels are the same!  The argentium sterling ear wires are hand forged (by me, of course.)

Dichroic glass clip on earrings

For my next pair, I thought, clip on earrings would be really different.  Hardly anyone makes clip-ons.  I don't have too many pairs at the moment, but these seem to have a lot of fall colors in them.  I made these from fused dichroic glass.  In addition to the gorgeous colors, they also have a very nice texture to them.  The lines you see going across are actually raised ridges.

Copper heart earring with niobium ear wire

Lastly, here is what I will be making today.  I make these copper heart charms from copper metal clay.  This particular pair features a heart with a swirl on a diamond shaped charm.  I add niobium ear wires that have been annodized to make them look like aged copper.  These earrings are perfect for fall!  As a matter of fact, the reason I need to make these today is because I think I have sold out of every single style of copper metal clay earring that I have listed in my store.  So I guess I better get busy!

I hope you enjoyed these, and I hope it was ok to enter the blog hop because I crashed the party!  If you would llike to crash the party too, you will find the link below.

12 Types of Handmade Jewelry

Black Onyx and White Jade Necklace, Shadow Dog Designs

There are many different types of handmade jewelry, so I thought I'd share a few of them with you here.  Maybe you'll discover something new!  These are in no particular order.

1.  STRINGING:  First of all, we have stringing.  This is basically just stringing the beads on beading wire or cord.  Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs does a great job of this.  Here is one of my favorites.  It's not so obvious here, but when you look at the whole necklace, it reminds me of our California Banded King Snake named Ringo!  Stringing is usually the first thing a jewelry designer learns to do.  Although, some people are more talented at it than others, and Catherine is certainly one of them.

Wire-wrapped Nautilus Pendant in Copper, Wagoner Wire Works

2. WIRE-WRAPPING:  Wire wrapping involves making things out of wire.  It could be as simple as connecting two beads together, putting a little accent on something, or making a bail to attach a pendant.  Then there's the advanced version, and this copper wire wrapped pendant by Wagoner Wire Works is definitely a prime example.  I can't imagine the skill and the time involved to make something like this nautilus pendant.  I also love the back lighting in this photo!

Teal and Orange Flower Earrings, Blue Morning Expressions

3.  POLYMER CLAY: This is special clay that when you bake it in the oven it turns into something like plastic.  Crafty people have all kinds of fun with this, including making miniature food, etc. Also it doesn't require a lot of equipment to be able to do it.  A talented polymer clay artist can make very intricate and beautiful designs,  Floral designs are popular, such as these teal and orange floral earrings by Blue Morning Expressions.

Picture Jasper Cuff Bracelet, Lunar Skies

Dragonfly Necklace, Rio Rheba Boutiques

 4. METALSMITHING - This is the traditional sawing, forging, soldering that most of us jewelry makers aspire to do.   Quentin of Lunar Skies certainly has it down pat.  In this bracelet we see all of those skills put to work and more.  He even cuts his own stones!  I am a big fan!  Since the jasper looks like a mountain landscape, he continued the mountain design onto the cuff itself.  The sky on the cuff has been textured and a patina added to make the mountains stand out.








5. RESIN:  Resin jewelry has become very popular lately.  It's easy to make and doesn't require a lot of equipment or special skill.  People who make this type of jewelry frequently purchase a bezel to use, although some make their own.  You can cut out a photograph, text or patterned image for a background then pour the resin on top.  This necklace by Rio Rheba Boutiques looks like she has two images, the dragonfly on top of a newspaper clipping.  If your bezel is thick enough you can add rhinestones, small flowers or other 3D objects under the resin.  It can also add color to jewelry when depressions in the metal are filled with colored resin.

Lampwork Glass Bead Earrings, Crystal Bazaar

6. LAMPWORK:  Making lampwork glass beads does not require a lot of equipment, but it does require skill.  You have to be able to put that hot glass in just the right spot to get the desired result.  At left is a pair of lampwork bead earrings by Sally of Crystal Bazaar.  The blue dots in these beads were drops of molten glass, as were the white dots underneath those.  To get them all about the same size and place them exactly where they need to be, and then to get them round and smooth, takes some talent in my opinion.

Multi Color Swirl Woven Cuff, Irish Expressions

7. WEAVING:  Weaving involves making something on a loom.  This involves two different sets of threads going perpendicular to each other, warp and weft.  When thinking of weaving, if you're like me, you think of people weaving big rugs on big wooden looms with a shuttle that goes back and forth.  That's not always the case.  When I was a child, I was taught to do seed beading.  My loom was a cardboard box with little slits in each end to hold the thread!  Most woven jewelry is made with seed beads, and you can make the most awesome, intricate designs.  Here is a colorful woven cuff by Irish Expressions.

Antique Yemeni Chain Mail Bracelet, Crafts of the Past

Reflection of Tree in Pond Pendant, Meant 2B Cherished

Enameled Leaf Pendant by Iron Mountain Jewelry

8. CHAIN MAIL - Chain mail (sometimes called chain maille) jewelry is made by attaching lots of jump rings together tightly in a pattern.  This can be fairly simple, as in a pair of earrings, or very complicated, for example if you are trying to make a ring in a certain size.  I came across this antique chain mail bracelet at Crafts of the Past.  This pattern is so tight, I'm guessing the person who made it may have pulled it through a draw plate to make it smaller and tighter.

Turquoise and Beaded Earrings by Bijoir Designs

9. FUSED GLASS: The difference between fused and lampwork is you need a kiln to make fused glass.  Compatible glass, usually in sheet form, is stacked on the shelf and then melted.  This is why it usually has a flat bottom.  Metallic looking dichroic glass is very popular with fusers, as are enamel or gold fuse on decals, like the tree on this beautiful wire wrapped pendant by Maureen of Meant 2B Cherished.











10. ENAMELING:  Enamel is actually powdered glass that is fused? onto a base layer of metal.  This is usually done with a kiln, but can also be done with a torch!  There are many different enameling techniques, most of them with French names.  My favorites are cloisonne and plique-a-jour.  I'm not sure what enamel technique this is, other than maybe what is called "painted enamel".  The round green bead is actually a lampwork bead, but the green on the leaf is the enamel.  This copper and brass pendant is made by Iron Mountain Jewelry.












11.  BEADING:  Native Americans are known for this type of jewelry.  I think often the beads are stitched onto a supporting piece of fabric or leather, but they don't have to be.  I have seen some unbelievable beaded creations at the Bead and Button show.  Here is a pair of beaded turquoise earrings by one of our newer members, Bijour Designs.

Textured Reverse of Desert Rain Pendant, Shanghai Tai

12. METAL CLAY:  A a relatively new medium on the jewelry scene, this clay is made from microscopic bits of metal mixed with an organic binder.  You can shape it like clay, then fire it in the kiln and all the organic material burns away.  Only the metal is left.  It is wonderful for putting textures in metal.  This is actually the back of a pendant by Roxanne of Shanghai Tai.  This one is fine silver, but it also comes in gold, copper, bronze and even steel!








So, I'm not saying these are the only methods, or the best methods, they are just twelve that popped into my head.  (So don't send me angry emails!)   Thank you to all the artists of the Jewelry Creators Unite in Numbers (JCUIN) guild for providing the jewelry photos!