Black & Gold Monster

Like something come back to haunt me from the late 80's - a giant black and gold tone charm bracelet.
I wish I had an old Chanel earring or button to add to it...

It's huge, brash, jangly and not for the timid.

The base is made with some of my black glass beads, then I layered on a pile of antique black glass buttons and lastly, because too much was not enough, I added a mess of vintage gold tone charms from my stash.

There is a kitten, root beer barrel, mushroom, unicorn, clown, lots of hearts, hula dancer, crown, Eiffel Tower, purse, clam shell, some old coins, a bell, seahorse, race horse with lucky horse shoe, and I can't remember what else. So much fun.

The old glass buttons are really cool.

The clasp is sort of boring, but it needed something big and sturdy and overall the design worked.
I used a lot of bronze wire putting it all together along with some black enameled oversize jumprings.

Less may be more, but sometimes nothing succeeds like excess.

A Snowy Gray Day

It's so gray and snowy here.
The sky is cold and grim, the dead leaves are crisp and snow covered.

The glass I used in the beads for this bracelet is just pale transparent gray and clear sprinkled with medium sized white frit, nothing fancy.

The clasp and links are all sterling silver.

Perfect for that ice princess in your life.

Behind The Tree Truck

As we were driving along on some damn country road we came up behind a truck hauling holiday trees and I realized I am about to be run over by Christmas.

I have no master X-mas plan, only a few presents squirreled away and the knowledge that my red & green doom is two weeks away. There's not much spirit in me this year. I see other bloggers posting about handmade ornaments and gifts they have lovingly made and have seen their fancy trees all decorated.

My friend Tommy told me about this a great holiday song called 'Truckin' Trees for Christmas' by an old timer named Red Simpson.

I love it!

Maybe I'm just hungry but I am feeling the urge to bake some sugary cookies. I found a festive recipe, or two, on Pinterest that seem intriguing. That's a start, eh? Maybe some Christmas cheer will wash all over me any minute now? Maybe I just need an eggnog and a Valium to kick-start the season.

Whatever am I going to do about Christmas this year?

Bad Bad Bangle

A thick leather bangle with lampwork glass beads, some metal bits and a great skull bead.
It has a magnetic clasp which makes it super easy to wear.

(sold)

Cold Rain

A new necklace.
Simple. A graduated strand of glass beads and sterling silver.

It's my interpretation of a cold rain.

A November rain, nearly frozen droplets on bare branches a gray blue sky.

The cores of each beads is a mix of transparent aqua and transparent brown that were rolled in fine raku frit. Then the centers were encased in mixes of palest gray, pale lavender, clear and pale aqua.

(sold)

Craftacular! Craftacular!

If you're a Rochesterian ...
Tomorrow is Craftacular!
It's a small show, just nine vendors each one making something different and special.
Hand spun yarns and woven scarves, stuffed animals made from old cashmere sweaters, deluxe cookies, tiaras and hair ornaments, dog hats and potholders, arty tote bags, floral pottery and ceramic ornaments, glass beads and jewelry.

Berry & Leaf Earrings

When I come up with a style of earrings I like - I am not afraid to make a lot of them.

These little, glass, off-mandrel leaves are a staple in my jewelry designs.
They also sell and sell and sell to people who want to use them in their jewelry pieces.

Some of them have shaped leaves that I have nestled a few tiny gemstone 'seeds' in the fold.

All of these earrings will be at my studio open house tonight, 'More Fire Glass' tomorrow and 'Craftacular!' on Sunday. Yikes what a weekend.

English Toffee Anyone?

I wish I had take a picture of the 50's vintage 'English Toffee' tin that I cut up to make the spangles for this colorful bracelet.

This is the second jangly spangle bracelet that I've made.
I love the way they sound.

It's fun.

(sold)

Grape Honey

Bracelet season is upon us.

An assortment of transparent pale gray, violet, dark honey brown and iridescent glass glass beads hammered together with bronze wire.

It's lighter than it looks because many of the beads are hollow.

Buffalo Gal

Glass beads, buffalo nickels and sterling silver.

I used a helicopter punch to make the holes in the nickels.

Best of all, I finally made a clasp that I really like.

(sold)

Happy Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving feast is at my house.
So I had better stop messing around with my laptop and head down to the kitchen and start that stuffin.'

Just Another Necklace

Tis the season for necklaces.
This one has my lampwork glass beads, sparkly rough cut citrines and sterling silver.

Easy to wear, a perfect length and not too fussy.

Peacock Nuggets

I happily used up almost every transparent short rod of teal, blue, ink blue, emerald, and anything blue green I could find in these hand shaped nugget beads.

Each bead has trails of iridescent glass on the outside for a nice shimmer.

The sterling silver links are all a nice heavy 18 gauge.

Somebody is going to be very happy this holiday season.
(sold)