Returning to my Jewelry Work Bench

I have not made any jewelry to speak of since the middle of  May.  I had a large glitch in my health and am just now, four months later, beginning to feel like myself again.  I really do feel fantastic but I cannot get going at my bench again.  I have some great ideas , especially just as I am falling asleep, but so far I can't translate them into anything concrete.  It is becoming frustrating....but I'm confident that my muse will reappear shortly.  Hope that she didn't get as sick as I did! ! !

The one thing that I have made are with some beads from Kenya, Africa.  They are all hand made and hand painted making them somewhat irregular and I love them because of it.

I think that these are fun and colorful.  The company where they are made is a

"Fair Trade"  company and they figure that their 400 employees provide  a living wage that covers over 1600 people.  So not only can you have a great necklace, but help your fellow man at the same time, an all around winning combination.  If you didn't know, I am an elephant freak and finding good looking pieces that I can use in jewelry is a real prize for me and these are  definitely  good looking and not too heavy to be comfortable to wear.  These are in my Artfire  shop .

The  only other thing that I have made is  with a formed bead of brightly colored agate and resin and I combined them with  colored "O" rings to make a winning combo......

I wear these allot - especially the necklace as above but without the pewter center piece.  Only because I am really a plain Jane when it comes to my jewelry - give me color or bling or both, but keep it simple.  I admire complex, involved, difficult - I just don't want to wear it or make it...because I only make what I  would personally wear.

So that 's the extent of my output since May - rather skimpy and dismal...but I hope to correct that soonest.  My other problem is that my eldest daughter spent a whole day cleaning my studio - she did all that she could without me  and it looked fantastic.  I promised her that I would finish it...and  that is exactly what I have been doing with allot of my creative time...it's not very creative, but I have to refind everything in my studio and I have to fulfill my promise...when I get it done, it will be the best that it's ever been....I even purchased some new storage, but getting there is a real pain.

I hope that you all have a great day and hopefully, I will be returning here soon - One more thing to add to my "to do" soon list - blogging.  I've really missed it.....

Resin Jewelry and Do These RESINate With You???

I am a jewelry artisan.  I love to make jewelry and I use pricey stones, pearls and metals to achieve my goals.  Because of the time, effort and the cost of my materials, I am very serious about what I make.  I spend allot of time planning my piece and putting it together exactly right....But once in a while we have to jump out of our rut - and I did that today, and boy, did I have fun! ! !

My jewelry is in a marvelous little boutique in the artisan section of Phoenix, called Made Art Boutique, and it is certainly worth your while to do some browsing there if you are in the area of Roosevelt and 7th.  This shop is very different from most of the boutiques that I am in and the demographics especially are quite different from my other shops.  They have many college students and people with limited pocketbooks shopping there, but the owner likes my work and I like her shop - so we work at finding the right things at the right price for her.

I found these great pieces of resin at one of the web stores that I buy from and the owner of Made liked them as much as I did...so I ordered them and today I created earrings...all for $40.00 or less.  I am very excited about them and think that they came our great.  Some have Swarovski crystals and all of them have silver filled ear wires so I didn't cut too many corners.  The majority of them are 3 to 4 inches long so they really make a statement and if I could wear earrings that are that long, I would wear them in a heartbeat.

I must admit - I had allot of fun today.  It's fun to do something different.  It's fun to work with bright colors.  It's fun to do things that I consider retro, like the pink and black that I used allot of.

It was also fun to use a material, resin, that I hardly ever use - it's light, very reasonably priced and takes great colors and I will definitely be using it again...It would be a great way to cut the weight on a heavy stone necklace.  I'd also like to try a really long necklace in resin because it would not be too heavy - but that's for another day and another blog.

I do not have these earrings in my Artfire shop, but I do have the materials to make them.  If anyone is interested in purchasing them...please go to my shop and contact me.  I will send more pictures of the ones that you are interested in and the cost. Here's a few more of today's creations...and remember, to keep yourself and your creative muse fresh...try something utterly different once in a while.

Edited to add - Have no idea why that one image is so large and even less of an idea of how to correct it - please see other blogs about my techno-tardness