Sparkling BiColored Quartz Dangle Earrings

The gorgeous, large nuggets of bicolored quartz (part lemon quartz, part smoky quartz) needed a dazzling setting, and I think I came through:

 Bicolored quartz dangle earrings

I've added pale yellow Swarovski crystals (the same pale yellow as the lemon quartz) above the large quartz nuggets, and lots of sterling silver. A short length of sterling silver chain allows the quartz and the crystal dangles to sway and sparkle.

They're available in my Etsy shop!

New Necklace and Earrings

Remember the copper and aluminum pendant I made awhile back (I can't believe how long ago that was!)? It has been for sale ever since, and never sold, so yesterday I turned it into a necklace:

Blue and Green Necklace with Beaded Heart Pendant on Copper and Aluminum

I still had a few of the pretty iridescent keishe pearls left over, so they found their way into the necklace, as did all the blue and green seed beads I used in the freeform heart, and the blue topaz and Czech firepolish glass.

Here's the back of the pendant, with its hidden message:

I also had a little bit of the chrysocolla from the center of the pendant left over, so I used 2 of the beads to create these matching earrings:

The shiny silver was so heart to photograph, and the pearl are so white they just blend into the background. I really need a photo expert to come teach me how to master these difficult pics!

The necklace and earrings are available (separately) in my Etsy shop.

I'm in a Turquoise State of Mind

I seem to be in a turquoise mood this week - I'm following up on the turquoise bracelet I made Wednesday with this statement necklace:

Genuine turquoise and sterling silver statement necklace

I've had this design rolling around in my head for about 4 months - it started when I came across this absolutely stunning turquoise: it's a deep teal; blue with just a tinge of green, and in addition to its own natural luster, it is highly polished, catching and reflecting the light beautifully.

I found these incredible sterling silver tubes at a show at least 5 years ago, if not more, and put them aside. As you do. In a safe place.

When I pulled the strands of turquoise 4 months ago, I wanted to put them with these tubes. But, guess what? I couldn't find the tubes. Anywhere. I looked everywhere I could think to look, and then the holidays started, and other things moved to the top of my "to do" list, so the turquoise necklace idea had to wait.

But on the heels of finishing the turquoise bracelet, I decided to look, again, for the sterling tubes. I guess no one who knows me (or, who also hoards one-of-a-kind treasures like this) will be surprised to learn that they were in the very first place I had looked all those months ago - and I'd actually looked there SEVERAL times. But there they were yesterday, right off the bat, so let's just go with it.

In my head, I had seen these as open tubes, and my multistrand idea was going to work perfectly (like ALL ideas in my head do!). But upon closer examination, my beautiful sterling tubes had a single, small hole at the end, and I just couldn't figure out a way to make them work the way I'd planned.

Until I started playing with them, and discovered that the ends of them are removable! And the ends aren't threaded, so when I finally got the endcaps off (they were on there quite securely!), the tubes looked like long curved cones (they are 4.75 inches long) - no ugly threads; so I decided to just use them without the endcaps.

I strung 4 strands of turquoise, wired it into the tubes, and connected it to a sterling silver toggle (after adding a little more turquoise and sterling at the back).

And, it's available in my Etsy shop!

Asymmetrical Turquoise Bracelet

Asymmetry is hard for me, but I had some gorgeous turquoise nuggets, and wanted to do something a little different with them, so this is what I came up with:

Asymmetrical Genuine Turquoise Bracelet with Swarovski Crystals

In addition to the genuine turquoise, I used 8mm Swarovski crystal cubes (in Crystal Silver Shade); wavy, textured, square silver-plated copper discs; 2mm sterling silver beads; and a beautiful triangular sterling silver toggle with 9 bezel-set genuine turquoise cabochons. I added another Swarovski cube as a dangle.

It's available in my Etsy shop!

New Beadwoven Necklace, featuring my Aluminum and Felt Pendant

One of the things on my (mile-long) To Do list is to create necklaces from my many handmade pendants. For this piece, I chose the aluminum and felt pendant I made last Spring, using a remnant of felt from my felted vessel:

aluminum and upcycled felt pendant

felted vessel

I love the blue and burgundy in the felt, and wanted to pull these colors into the necklace. I decided to weave what I call a "skinny spiral", using an 11/0 seed bead as the core. I used burgundy firepolish ovals, 3mm Swarovski crystals, and a mix of burgundy, purple, and blue seed beads to create the rope, adding 6mm dumortierite rounds at intervals:

Handwoven Blue and Burgundy Dumortierite Necklace with Aluminum and Felt Pendant

This necklace is available in my Etsy shop, and so are the matching earrings:

Dumortierite, Swarovski crystal, and sterling silver earrings