A Bevy of Bracelets

Today I am featuring several handmade bracelets from the artisans of the Jewelry Creators Unite In Numbers guild on Artfire.   

First up is a lovely little lucite number from Kath's Elegant Accessories featuring purple and blue flowers with green leaves:

I love the bright colors of lucite.  I also have some of these pretty lucite flowers and leaves, so you may be seeing some of these little beauties in my studio soon.

This next bracelet by Copperrein is sooooo cute!!  and so happy:

The artist made these orange and yellow lampwork beads.  I don't know about you, but I couldn't possibly be depressed if I was wearing something so cute!

I always love the metal work, and aspire to get good at it some day. Here is a copper and leather bracelet by AuNaturale Jewelry:

The artist has painstakingly sawed the tree of life motif out of the copper sheet.  What a beautiful piece.  I hope someday I have that much patience.  (I don't currently.)

If you love bright colors as much as I do, you'll love this next bracelet:

This is the "Chakra Rainbow Chainmaille Bracelet Framed With Light" by Meant 2B Cherished.  This bracelet is made out of annodized aluminum jump rings.  Another work requiring a lot of patience, but what a great result.  

This bracelet is called "Make a Splash" by Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs:

Don't you just love the look of semi-precious stones?   These stones are sea sediment jasper and they have been paired with mother of pearl beads.  

Last but not least is my wire-wrapped gemstone bracelet:

This bracelet features yellow turquoise (also known as Chinese Turquoise) with large gold freshwater pearls.  I wire-wrapped it with 14K gold filled wire.  

These bracelets and more were all included in my latest Artfire collection, titled A Bevy of Bracelets, which you can see by clicking here.  Hope you enjoyed it.

For The Love of Autumn Blog Hop

Thanks to Hopes and Dreams Studio for hosting this fall blog hop:

A Little Shameless Mutual Promotion

One of my fellow jewelry artisans, Catherine Waterhouse, has featured me in her blog.  Many of you probably already know her, perhaps by her studio name, Shadow Dog Designs.  She is a fantastic writer, and she also makes some very nice jewelry.   

If you'd like to see her blog, you can find it here:

Inspired By The Orient -- Roxanne of Shanghai Tai

Please take a look, because she went to a lot of trouble and did  a great job!  

Also today, purely by coincidence, I won the daily blog award from On Fire For Handmade!  

Anyway, it's always nice to get a little recognition for your work.  Twice in one day is really exciting.  Hope you are all having a great day too!

By Your Hands Blog Party Week of 9/9

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Thunder Rose Leather - On Fire For Handmade Featured Artisan

Beautiful Leather Creations!

Thunder Rose – Featured Artisans

This weeks Featured Artisans are Debbie and John,  Thunder Rose Leather. You will find original quality made leather accessories! Handbags, clutches, baby moccasins, medicine bags and more! You can find

Thunder Rose Leather on:
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Metal Mania

Metal Mania!

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A Victorian Romance

This month I decided to make my Jewelry Creators Unite In Numbers (JCUIN) collection on Artfire with a Victorian Romance theme.  I'm not an expert on styles.  I don't know exactly what makes them Victorian or Romantic, other than I think they are.  So here is a closer look at some of them.  If anyone wants to share their expertise on whether or not they're actually Victorian style or not, feel free to enlighten me!

I love this cha-cha ring with a dusky pink rose.  Actually I love the rose all by itself because it looks so real you just want to smell it!  But it looks even better with all those leaf and filigree layers that Sally of Crystal Bazaar has added to it in the process of making it into a ring.   I did not know this, but apparently a cha-cha ring is a ring that is made by attaching beads to it.  When I think of Victorian, I think of flowers and filigree, so this cha-cha ring fits the bill in my opinion.

  

This one, called "Bling in the Holidays" by Holly of Au Naturale Jewelry, might be a little more modern spin on the romantic Victorian look.  I think the fact the filigree is flat looks a little more modern, but what do I know?  It still has filigree, and it has crystal dangles as well!  This would make some great bling for a holiday party.

Here's a stunning pair of earrings that is in the collection along with the matching necklace by Strega Jewellry.  It is very ornate, which I think is another feature of the Victorian era.  She has added a very nice verdigris patina with a little accent of merlot wine.  I love the combination of the green patina with the shiny pearl-like glass beads.

   

I picked these earrings because of the embellished little hearts with dangles.  That makes it Victorian Romantic inspired in my book.  These prehenite and sterling silver earrings were made by Jill of Jill's Jewelry.  The round beads are prehenite, and the little bicones up top are Swarovski Crystal.  An interesting fact I learned about Jill by looking at her Artfire Bio page is that she is actually a practicing attorney. 

These sterling silver and cultured freshwater pearl earrings are made by me and you can find them at Shanghai Tai.  I had these sterling silver components for awhile and finally decided to make something out of them.  Each Swarovski crystal and each pearl is close wire-wrapped onto the intricate sterling chandelier component.  Certainly romantic, are they Victorian?  I don't know, maybe if I had used black pearls and crystals they would be Goth!

Lastly, this chain maille bracelet and earring set by Moxie Gem Designs isn't actually Victorian at all.  It's use dates back to a much earlier era.  But this jewelry, in my opinion, gives an illusion of having that intricate detail like that romantic Victorian jewelry has.  The intricate design itself is made from many individual jump rings all put together.  This bracelet and earrings is a little mini work of art in itself.

I hope you enjoyed my pretend romantic jewelry journey though the Victorian era.  If you'd like to see the rest of the "A Victorian Romance" collection, you can find it here:

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=37229

Thanks for looking!

Lottie's Trinkets - On Fire For Handmade Artisan of the Week

Quality Original Artisan Jewelry

This weeks Featured Artisan is Lise Spence-Parsons,  Lottie's Trinkets. You will find original Artisan Jewelry handmade by Lise in her shop. Quality craftmanship and beautiful designs. Truly unique OOAK pieces!

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Blue Highways - On Fire For Handmade Featured Artist

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Wonderful creations by Andrea - Blue Highways

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Featured Artist: The Handmaden Soap Co.

Featured Artsian - Share the Love, Blogger's Unite

This weeks Featured Artisan is Tracy Cornell - The Handmade Soap Company (formerly Braggin' Rights Bath) Indulge yourself in luxury with these wonderful bath and body products!

You can find the Handmade Soap Company on:

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Blog Hop - Red Hot Fire!

It's a Handmade World (Hopes and Dreams Studio) is having a blog hop. The theme for this blog hop is Red Hot Fire! If you have a handmade item with a fire theme, you can post a link to it here by clicking on the "click here to enter: below. Also it you have a blog, please feel free to share this on your blog by getting the html by clicking on "get the code here" link below. And don't forget to BUY HANDMADE! Thanks to Hopes and Dreams Studio for hosting this blog hop.

A Walk in the Enchanted Forest

With the hot weather, I decided to do a collection that would make me feel nice and refreshed.  So here are some pieces from my "Enchanted Forest" collection on Artfire.  These are all pieces made by the talented members of the JCUIN guild, and I will highlight a few here.

Take a walk though the Enchanted Forest with me:

The first piece was really the inspiration for the collection, because it looks so nice and cool, and just a little magical:



These earrings are made with Green Prehnite beads and Hematite roundels.  Don't you just love the look of the green prehnite?  It's just luminous, like something you might find glowing after dark in an enchanted forest.  These "Forest Medley" earrings are made by Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs and she also has a matching necklace!

Imagine walking through the enchanted forest; do you think you might see a butterfly on a rock?



This butterfly has a small fairy in the middle!  But that shouldn't really be a surprise in the enchanted forest!  It has a green patina and is on a brass chain with asymmetrical accents.  This necklace, called "Just a Fairy Princess" was made by AuNaturale Jewelry.

The forest is full of deep greens, but I couldn't forget that there are also lots of browns.  Here is a beautiful pair of brown earrings that look right at home in the forest:

These earrings were made by Daly Craft Works.  They almost look like copper hammered disks to me, but they are actually golden turquoise disks paired with some brass leaves.

Sometimes, when you're walking through some very dense, dark forest, you can see rays of light streaming thought the trees, making little patches of bright green:



This necklace is called "Luscious Lime Delight" (but I think it looks like sun-dappled forest green.)  It was made with gorgeous 20mm black and lime swirled lampwork beads by Cathy of Caty Ann's Creations.

While walking through the forest, sometimes you find little vines (or big vines) or accidently run into little spider webs.  That's what these earrings remind me of:

Like little tiny vines growing all tangled up together, these earrings are made from knitted copper wire by Kath's Elegant Accessories.

Lastly, sometimes when you are walking in the forest, you are lucky enough to find a pond or a stream.  Maybe you will throw in a stone and make a splash:



This spiral design fused pendant looks like ripples on the water deep in the forest.  The handmade pendant is reversible and you can find it at Shanghai Tai.

To see the rest, you can view the collection in it's entirety here:  Enchanted Forest Collection

Thanks for walking through the Enchanted Forest with me!