The First Day of Earring Season

Just how many pairs of earrings will I make from now until the holidays?

I don't know but it will be stupid.

Poppycock

A new style of glass poppy bead.

A big pendant with a hammered bronze bail.
It's about 1 3/4" long.

Flower Buds & Seed Pods

Messing around, experimenting... first attempts.
New seed pod and flower bud pendants.

Made on the end of mandrels with sterling silver and bronze hand-hammered bails epoxied in.

The longest one is about 2 1/2" long.

This long flower bud with the twisted tip of iridescent pink glass is the winner.

I love the little India copper bells that I added to the bronze bail.

Ancient Love Beads

A new necklace.

Big glass beads and lots of sterling silver.

Seedy Sweet

A very simple necklace.
Round beads linked together with 18 gauge sterling silver wire 'rosary chain' style.

The glass is 'opalino yellow' with some random bit's of Double Helix frit.
There is more about these beads here.

Even the clasp is simple wire work.
Most times, simple is indeed better.

The toasty yellow color is perfect for fall.
I can't believe it's almost fall, sigh.

Button It Up

Art Quilter extraordinaire Jeanne Simpson stopped by my studio for a visit.

She shared with me this pic of a bag that she made that has one of my glass heart buttons on it.

p.s. she made the fabrics too, check out her website - she's amazing.

"Unicorn Lover"

"Unicorn Lover" a new love charm necklace.

The focal bead is one of my big art glass hearts.
It's 'carrot' red with bumpy white glass polka dots.

A curly, old heart charm from a garage sale and a prancing unicorn.
The fake pearl chain was scavenged from a vintage necklace.

A little more love added in - a nice 'raked' heart bead as part of the clasp.

"Lucky in Love"

"Lucky in Love" a Love Charm necklace.

The focal bead is one of my big art glass hearts.
It's grass green and transparent teal glass that's been smothered in fine silver foil.

A tiny, old heart charm and a four leaf clover stamping from a garage sale.

The chain is also scavenged and I added the three little bells charms.
I love this vintage chain and wish I had miles of it.

Strawberry Deathcake vs Christmas In Hell

Hilarious, right?
Deathly Strawberries.

I made the wee glass strawberry headpins using Cim's 'Sange' glass - my favorite red. The texture bumps are just a bit of clear frit.

The skulls are some sort of stone, the rondelles are copper, the cute little bead caps are brass that I scavenged off some broken bit of garage sale jewelry.

They can be yours in a few swift clicks, they are for sale in my Belvedere etsy shop.

above: Christmas In Hell - another pair of skull earrings that are in my etsy shop.

below: Chili Pepper Fleas - a smaller pair with bone skulls - also in my etsy shop.

50 Shades of Purple

For all the purple lovers in da house.

'50 Shades of Purple' necklace
Lampwork glass beads and sterling silver.

The beads are made with many shades of transparent purple glass and Val Cox ' Rio Nights' frit.
The constructions is a simple 'rosary chain' link done with 18g sterling silver round wire.

It will be available at Shop One 2 fine crafts gallery on the RIT campus.

Under the Toadstool

A new bracelet.

It was inspired by a page from "I Am A Bunny" by Richard Scarry.
This sweet book was one of my daughter's favorites, especially this page.
She thought it was hilarious.

A big charm bracelet that has everything:
my glass beads,
sterling silver hammered links,
red and white polka-dot tin spangles cut from a garage sale Christmas cookie tin,
an old bone heart,
antique jet beads,
faceted yellow quartz round beads,
little flower murrini beads,
and one old red Victorian bead scrounged from a broken bit of necklace.

It is available at 'Shop One 2" on the RIT campus.

I am so excited to have my work in this gallery, I delivered my first mess of stuff to them this afternoon. What a beautiful venue. Yep, I am an RIT grad, class of 1982.

Birds + Birds + Birds

New bird paintings in progress.

Inspired by a vintage box of bird flashcards.

Moon Rocks Necklace

A new necklace - 'Moon Rocks.'
Lampwork glass beads and sterling silver.

Here's the bead recipe:
Start with a barrel shaped black glass core and roll it in an equal blend of 'Raku' and 'Pink Lipstick' Val Cox frit. Melt it in and then heavily encase in clear and hand facet the bead.

Not to heavy, not to light, just right.