Spring Cleaning & Moving

Hey everyone!  We're moving this weekend, and things have been crazy getting ready.  I'll be back to making jewelry and posting once we're settled in!  I'm so excited to have my own room for a studio. My work area has been in a small corner in our apartment, so it will be a big change for me.  Once settled I plan on breaking out the silver to play with too.  If you have any organization advice I'm all ears!

The weather here has been gorgeous lately, and I am so glad that spring has arrived!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! (okay so I'm a day early...)


Do you have plans for the big day and did you go shopping for a special gift, or make one for somebody?   My hubby and I intend to stay home and take care of one another...we both caught an icky cold.  Chicken soup and snuggling is romantic enough :P

I was feeling the Valentine's Day mood so I decided to make some themed jewelry.  Surprise!  For once I have completed pieces to show.

Valentina Necklace: 
Copper pendant (CopprClay) with copper and brass findings, brass chain, Swarovski crystals and pearls.

Plum Wild Necklace:
  Copper pendant (Hadar's formula), copper findings, gold filled findings, glass beads, plum colored rubber cord.

Love Knot Necklace:

Copper pendant (CopprClay), copper findings, gold filled findings, glass beads and labradorite. 

 

Celtic Heart Necklace:

Copper pendant (CopprClay), brass chains, copper and brass findings, glass beads, Swarovski crystals, and and aqua chalcedony.

 

Carnation Necklace:

Copper pendant (Hadar's formula), brass chain and findings, sterling silver, glass beads, pietersite, emerald chalcedony.

 

I have a bunch more heart and floral pendants to assemble but I lost steam.  Look for more this week!

Here's another question for the day...do you have a favorite type of jewelry (bracelets, earrings, etc.)?  What about favorite metal?

Here's hoping you have a wonderful Valentine's Day...be careful of sugar comas and hang overs! ;)

Lastest Dabblings

Shortly after my last post, I decided to give my BronzClay and CopprClay another test drive.  I've been using Hadar's clays lately instead.  My CopprClay works just fine with no firing issues, but every time I'd fire the BronzClay something different would happen to it.

I've had the bronze in an unopened package since it had first been introduced (has it been two years now?!).  It took me until this summer to finally be able to really work with the bronze and copper clays after recovering from surgery.  So I think it's an age issue.

I also recently fired a few new pieces in Hadar's clays.  I'm working on getting a bunch of stuff done for Valentine's Day and I just love these rose tubes for a romance theme!  They're a lot of fun to make, but I did have a goof and when I fired the bead it split its pants...I mean seam!  I thought I had it covered and sealed well at the time, I couldn't notice it before.  Now I know to be more careful.  I'm still trying to get the hang of these clays!

It's picture time!  There are more pictures on my Flikr gallery of test pieces and different angles if you're interested.  You can find the link to my gallery on the bottom right of my blog.

                                                 Bronze Clay - Paisley Flower Teardrops:

  Pre-firing pictures of my rose tube:

 

Annddd after.....

 

Copper & Bronze Rose Tube Bead, White CZ. 

It's sitting on top of my buffing wheel to hold it up.

 

On Monday Nick and I went for our second trimester ultrasound and found our we're having a baby boy.  You can see  his legs crossed above himself, it was funny watching him kick me the whole time!  Caught in action!  He has been quite a ham every time we go for the ultrasound.

 

What's Going On?

You guys probably thought I got lost somewhere, it has been so long since I've posted!

I'm still here...and while I don't have any nifty pieces to share with you guys, I do have some great news. I haven't been creating lately because I've been too drained to...right now I'm 14 weeks into expecting our own little gem! We plan on finding out the gender as soon as we can, but we still have a while before that happens. I'll let you guys know when we find out!


I've starting to feel like making things again, and I just got a bunch of new things to play with so maybe soon I will have something to share! I'm dying to try making a bracelet, which I've never done before; especially a cuff style.

Anyways, I wanted to share our good news with all of you and let you know I'm still around and you can expect more posts soon!

Pleasanton Highland Games

On Saturday my husband and I went to the Pleasanton Highland Games. We went the year before and had a blast, and this year had been fun as well. There's so much to do and see. We spent the day wandering around watching the different sports and competitions, as well as listening to music; and of course...I did some shopping!

Here's a picture of one of the competitors tossing the caber:


This year the Scots Guard came out. They did a performance with the Marines and Isla St Clair. It was neat to see the bands side by side:
One of my favorite events is the Sheep Dog competition. Showing off what the doggies do best...herding sheep! I love this picture from last year, it looks like puppy love!

Afterwards, we attended the Ceilidh Barbecue and enjoyed an evening of music. One of the Scot Guards danced for the crowd...sadly the picture turned out blurry.


As for shopping; I got more vintage buttons to make molds from, and a lovely custom bracelet from Angus Mac Knot. I'll have to post a picture of it later.

And now for some metal clay! I decided to make a jewelry set to wear for the occasion. Here's my Scottish Thistle set. It's made from bronze and copper, and the earrings have a small lavender CZ in them. The chain is silver toned, and the ear wires are niobium.


You can expect to see an Irish version with shamrocks soon...I'm thinking of an olivine CZ instead of a lavender one. What do you think about that? :)

It Worked!

After talking with Hadar about my sintering issues with the copper and bronze, I changed a few things around. Okay more than a few things...more like everything! I bought a smaller firing pan and larger kiln posts to help with heat flow, and replaced my carbon with a different brand. I followed her firing schedule again and this time it worked. I have finally fired my own pieces!


Here are my little test 'strips' of copper from the firing:


And here are some of the pieces from Hadar's class; which she fired for me:

These are bronze with a copper inlay. The earrings are movable!


My Pictish Crescent, also a bronze with copper inlay:



My hollow bronze bead with copper leaves. It makes me think of a tree stump:


If you want to see more detailed pictures of the pieces, you can check out this link here to view my Flickr gallery. I'll be turning these into earrings and necklaces once my wire and chain order comes in on Tuesday. I'll try to post a picture or two of the finished results when I get the materials in.

Have A Great Day!

A few days ago while I had been drying a few pieces on my hot plate, I looked over to see this funny image:


It was completely unintentional, and I just had to get a picture of it. So here's to hoping you have a smile-worthy day!!