My new direction

Part of my new direction is to go in a more casual direction with a lot of my newer items. This seems to be the way jewelry is trending lately - casual, shabby chic, or BIG statement pieces. I have a few of these crystal wrap bracelets in the shop. They are super sparkly, but the wrapping and leather allow it to be casual still. I have one I wear pretty frequently myself!

This turquoise one is finished with a handmade polymer clay button. It's a double-wrap style.

This bracelet was strung on waxed linen cord, instead of my standard beading wire. I really like the color combination, and the knots between the beads add a little extra texture.

These are just a few of the things I've been making lately. I will continue to make more classically styled jewelry, much like I have been, but I'm enjoying branching out and challenging myself.

A challenge to myself

One of my challenges to myself was to step out of the box in terms of symmetry and "matching" in my jewelry. I knew I had these agate disc beads, and began to look around my gemstone boxes (yes, boxes - I have 3 boxes full of stones, not including my boxes of glass, wood, crystal, etc.) to see what would work with them! I had ONE green aventurine bead left from another project, and it think it all worked well with the moss agate nuggets, and purple web jasper for an extra pop!

I feel pretty good about how I rose to my personal challenge with this one. I'll have better (as in not taken on the dirty windowsill) pictures soon, and will list on Etsy ASAP!

As far as my other challenge areas, I have some supplies ordered, and they should be here soon, so I can get to work. I'm taking a break from clay work (*sob*) while my back heals from minor surgery. It just hurts too much to have to use my pasta machine to work the clay still. Hopefully I'll be up to it in a few days, but in the meantime, beading doesn't seem to bother me so far.

Some new stuff

Something I had been wanting to try this summer was making carved Polymer Clay nuggets. They were actually a little easier than I thought they were going to be, once I got the right blade for carving. I had started out trying to use some wood-carving tools I had, but they weren't quite sharp enough, so I switched over to a much sharper blade, and that made the process move more quickly.

When I envisioned this project in my head, I had always been planning on making some sort of rainbow bead project, so I came up with this bracelet and necklace!

The bracelet beads had somewhat bigger holes so I was able to easily string them on leather, and finished with a button closure. This is almost EXACTLY what I had in mind when I was designing this bracelet in my head!!

And the necklace... *sigh.* I apparently have a weakness for this style, with the ribbon, but I think it is just such a great contrast between the rustic clay beads and the finished silk ribbon. I couldn't decide how to finish it off, so I'm leaving that up to the customer! You can just tie it at whatever length you choose!!

I'm layed up right now after having a fatty cyst removed from my left shoulder yesterday. It makes it hard to use my left arm much right now, but I can tell this is going to help a lot with my overall should pain I've been having. Already, I haven't been experiencing some of the "pins and needles" that I had been having frequently, so I'm really hopeful that this will be a good thing. In the meantime, I've been getting a LOT of inspiration, and making a lot of plans for new projects. (I also ordered some new supplies from Etsy last night - I'm really excited!!).

If you are a Facebook fan (and if you aren't, why not?!?), you have seen that I'm going to have a 200 fan giveaway. My plan was to have the piece (it's a necklace) done tomorrow, so I can announce the giveaway, but my recovery is a little more painful than the doctors had anticipated, due to the amount of muscle involved. Hopefully I'll be able to work on it tomorrow or this weekend, so I'll try to announce the giveaway by Monday!!

I'm ready for spring!

Right now, as I look out the window, the sky is gloomy, and overcast, and it's been raining off and on all day. I long for green grass, brightly colored flowers, and my vegetable garden! So with that in mind, I made these two pieces the other day, and both are listed in my Etsy shop.

These earrings were inspired by the photograph for March in our Arizona Highways 2011 calendar. It was a macro-photograph with large fuchsia flowers, smaller orange flowers, with green foliage and small cream colored flowers. They aren't colors I would traditionally mix together, but I thought it came out beautifully! (and they aren't heavy either!)

I really love the color combination of brown and light blue, and continuing in my floral mood, I created this bracelet! I've had the light blue glass round beads for months, and hadn't used them yet, so I mixed the clay color to match. It's like getting flowers, jewelry, and chocolate all in one package! It's strung on stretch cord so it's really easy to wear.

I've been down with The Plague for the last 2 weeks, but I have more ideas in my head for flower beads, because I love them, and they are FUN! They are surprisingly easy to make, so I'll try to post my process when I make the next ones.

The first day of Spring is in one week, and you'd better believe I have my countdown set!!