For those who love purple

This necklace with one large amethyst bead and many smaller ones has a variety of shades of purple along with gold-plated filigree beads and seed beads.

More items added to my Artfire Store

These unusually shaped stones are set in necklaces with handmade gold-filled wire bails on gold-filled chain.   They are available in my Artfire store.  See link on the right side of the blog.

Amethyst Necklace

Here is another necklace with interesting rough-cut stones.

Faux Raku

I've always loved Raku pottery in all its many varieties, but I'm particularly fond of this vase that I've owned for years.  I used it for inspiration in designing this Faux Raku necklace.

Faux Stone Necklaces

These unique polymer clay and sari silk necklaces make quite a statement. The gold crackle suggests seams of pyrite running through the stones which have hints of color. Although the faux stones look like they might be heavy, because they are made of polymer clay, they are actually quite light in weight. The stones are wired together with antiqued copper wire and the same wire is used to bind the ends of the beautifully colored sari silk. A handmade copper clasp or a lobster claw makes secure closures.

I was inspired by and credit must be given to Staci Louise Smith’s tutorial on Craftart.edu for the design ideas and technique for making the faux stones.  I love the fact that the sari silk comes from women’s cooperatives in India and Nepal - the scrap silk doesn’t end up in landfills and the women have a safe place to work and make a living.

Lapis Lazuli and Gold

I love Lapis especially the stones with lots of golden flecks of pyrite running through them.  I saw this fan of rough-cut stones and had to buy them, but then I had to figure out what to make with them.  My solution is this gorgeous necklace composed of the Lapis, blue Sodalite beads, gold-plated filigree beads and a gold-plated clasp.  I really like the rough cut because it emphasizes that these are STONES.

Crushed Velvet Technique

I've been playing with a polymer clay technique called Crushed Velvet.  It is a mica shift technique where you run the metallic clay through the pasta machine a bunch of times to line up all the mica particles, then you put the sheet of clay through the fettuccini cutter which slices it into little tiny strips.  Then you mush up the strips into a cane. You take a slice of the cane and turn it into a veneer and then make what you want.  You get a 3D effect even though you used only one color of clay.  I made some earrings and a couple of cabochons.  Fun and pretty.

More Pollock inspired earrings

I had another fun day in the studio - incense burning, big band music blaring and paint splattering.

My homage to Jackson Pollock

I've always liked Jackson Pollock's paintings, so I decided to emulate him in some of my own work. These post earrings are polymer clay with acrylic paint splashed on them.

Back to the Wrap

My very first jewelry pieces, years ago, were wire-wrapped stones, but silver wire became very expensive so I turned to other media.  Once I discovered polymer clay and the ability to make my own colors and shapes, I was hooked and focused almost exclusively on clay.  In the last year or so, however, I've been doing more with metals, wire and stones, and I've fallen in love with copper.  When I found some beautiful Jasper stones, I decided to wrap some of them.  As you can see from this example, I like simple wire shapes that expose most of the stone.

I'm published!!!

My first "how to" article was just published in Easy Metal 2015, a special issue from Step by Step Wire Jewelry.  The design is a brooch made from copper sheet and polymer clay.  The paper edition should be on magazine shelves soon, but a digital version is available now from the Interweave online store.  I'm doing my happy dance.

Working with stones

I've been very busy preparing for my spring shows.  The Toronto Knitters' Frolic went well, and I have the Milton Farm Craft Show this weekend, the 2nd and 3rd.

The Milton show will be my first opportunity to show off some of my new jewellery designs.  One thing I've been working on is making necklaces with beautiful Jasper stones.

The necklace above features a big Jasper stone and handmade bronze wire links.

This necklace features a beautifully colored stone, bronze bars woven together with copper wire and an antiqued copper chain.

A little bling

I didn't design this bracelet but Malliga Nathan, a talented designer who works at my favorite bead store, BeadFX, graciously gave me permission to reproduce it for sale.  It is made with metal beads and Swarovski crystals in a right-angle-weave technique and is placed on a leather strap with magnetic clasp.  I'm fairly new to beading so learning this stitch was a challenge.

New Shawl Pin Design

Here is my latest shawl pin design.  I made them using my new "Now That's a Jig".  I choked on the price of the jig, but it works beautifully and is easier to use than my homemade jigs of nails hammered into pieces of wood.  I've got a lot of experimenting to do with it.

A Bevy of Bracelets

I recently watched a session of Craftcast with Alison Lee called Patina Playtime where she made some cool bracelets from brass cuff blanks.  I decided to make some of my own, and I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Mokume gane pendants and earrings

I'm preparing for some shows this fall and these pendants and earrings are some of my new works. They are in the Julie Picarello style of mokume gane technique.  For those who don't know, you make a stack of different colors of polymer clay and poke holes in it.  Then you take shavings from the stack and use them to make your objects.  It's a fun technique because you never know quite what you will get.

Pretty scraps

I had a lot of multicolored scrap material left after making my rainbow earrings, so I mushed it up and put it through the pasta machine and ended up with some lovely striped sheets.  This pair of earrings was made from the scrap.

Rainbow Earrings

I'll be a vendor at the Toronto Jazz Festival later this month which coincides with World Pride Week, so to honor the occasion, I made a rainbow cane and produced these earrings.

I hope people like them and the other versions I plan to make, because I made one big mother of a cane!

Week 29 Year of Jewelry

Here is another new design for my line of copper shawl pins.  I used wire wrapping to define the shape and it features a large lampwork bead from Laurel Mountain Glass.

Half way through

I'm half way through with the Year of Jewelry project.  Here are my entries for weeks 24-26.  The first earrings are made of polymer clay scrap canes and look sort of like little quilts.  They are folded into a wavy shape to look like fabric.

The earrings below are made from large copper "beads" placed on niobium ear wires which are colored to look like copper.

 These are copper wire pieces I purchased and put on the niobium ear wires.