Cuff Me!

Don't taze me, bro!  Cuff me!

Hello all,

Hope that you have all had a great week.  As my jewelry making time dwindles into an ever decreasing sliver,  I am enjoying the bits of time spent working even more than usual.  I was able to get a couple of things finished up including this cuff.....

I roller printed antique lace onto the copper cuff months ago, waiting for inspiration to strike.

Strike it did!

I wired on an overlay of crocheted yarn,

and affixed an oxidized filigree piece.

The focal is a gorgeous vintage piece, which, I think is a

perfect elegant accent to the rustic fiber and metal.

Here's how it closes......

A brass leaf has been altered to function as a clasp adorned with

two floral headpins.

I enameled one side of a penny with

Venetian blue enamel,

the other side with transparent enamel so that you can see that it's a penny

and added a rhinestone wreath atop of the blue.

How about another shot of my soon to be no more back yard....

A pair of doves nested this year in our yard.  I've attempted many times

to capture the babies at the birdbath outside of our kitchen window.

They seem to know when I go to grab the camera,

because the second I return with camera in hand,

they're off in a flash!

Finally,

I managed to catch this no longer a baby-

not quite an adult-

enjoying a cool drink.

You can see that I took the pictures through the slats of the window blinds.

Even so, they seemed to know

I was there with the camera. 

Love the zoom feature!

I unsuccessfully tried to capture the doves

 when they were much younger, timidly taking their first baths.

They were flapping wildly doing their best not to fall into the bath,

as their siblings nervously cheered them on from the edge of the birdbath.

I hope you'll get to see that delightful show for yourselves sometime.

and now, back to all things jewelry....

I made these with some of my goodies from the

Bead and Button show.

I tube set a sky blue topaz onto one of the hammer textured shields

and added that same color to the other shield via rhinestone chain.

These hang under an arc of freshwater pearls

with rainbow moonstone briolettes and tiny faceted pyrite beads.

Do you notice something

that's not quite working on the tube set earring?

Look closer......

I don't know what I was thinking.

In my head it was supposed to look like the rays

of the sun bursting out from around the tube setting.

Nope,

looks like a bunch of scratches.

hmmmmmm

I'm going to have to do something about that.

Thinking, thinking....

Maybe stamp a little design...

ideas anyone?

But there is a bit of good news on the earrings front....

the torso-less head looks quite lovely as an ear model, don't you think?

Here she is wearing the newly oxidized

Roman glass, druzy and labradorite earrings I showed you awhile back.

I think with the oxidation, they're ready to list........

 

These had been listed, but I decided to oxidize em,

redo the pictures and relist them.

 

Roman glass and labradorite.

here's the same antler tine bracelet from last time.

with a new clasp,

and on a hand (courtesy of my amazing realife ear model, Melissa)

so it's easier to see how it looks when worn.

Much better, eh?

Antler tine, turquoise, horn bead, bird band,

fossil mammoth bone bead and a locket.

Yes, that's a much better shot than last time.

So I caught a cold and have been feeling pretty miserable for about 4 days now.

You all know what makes me feel better, right?

That's right-ice cream!

But look what my daughter put on her wellness blog

  Since she so thoughtfully informed me as to the best kind of cool creamy treat to eat,

 I feel compelled to go find

healthy ice cream.

But since I'm home sick,and don't want to go out

and infect the community with this

nasty summer cold,

I'll just have to suffer through and eat

the wrong kind of ice cream that I have on hand.

Someone has to.

If any of you follow me on

Pinterest,

you may have noticed massive pinning this weekend.

hahahahaha,

yes, that's me resting up,

trying to beat this cold into submission,

by repeatedly hitting "Pin it"! 

You're so right ladies,

ice cream and pinning.

Look what awesomeness I ordered from

small bronzes

Aren't these incredible?
These are for those of you who were creeped out by my manne's hands.

( I didn't think the manne hands were creepy at all, btw,

and was quite surprised that some of you did)

These are absolutely exquisite.

Not an iota of creepiness.

You're welcome.

These will become pendants in assemblage necklaces.

Can't wait!

Here's more from small bronzes

Love this work!

Wouldn't these be wonderful joined together, circling your neck?

You get lots of random cool things to look at

when I don't have alot of new jewels to share with you.

Now quit applauding,

 you might hurt my feelings.

Here's one of my fav local places to hunt for little treasures.....

Isn't that a fabulous name?
And goodies abound inside.....

If that picture in the upper left corner was smaller,

it would be perfect for photograghing jewelry on.

Check out the patina on this amazing safe.....

yum, patina love

wonderful old stove. You know if you were trying to find ones of these,

you wouldn't be able to, right?

Yet, here is this one just waiting to go home with someone.

Isn't this a fab face?

antiques, vintage, modern, retro, funky-

they've got it all!

The one that got away....

a 4 foot tall bright turquoise statue that would have been

a great necklace display.

When you visit you might be helped by gorgeous Braidy Megeff

or her equally lovely mother, Johnna.

No website but the store is on facebook.

I tried to give you a link, but no go. 

You know, cuz of the tech-challenged thing I have going on.

Coffeefreak, this is your neck of the woods! 

Grab some friends and go-definately worth checking out.

Sparrow, THANK YOU for the wonderful link to your photography tute

in your comment on the last post.

Looking forward to putting those great tips into practice when I get all of my props unpacked.

I don't need to tell you, because it's painfully obvious, that I've kept out just the bare minimum.

Folks, if you want to see how to take better pictures of your jewelry, check it out.  Yes, you have to go back and get the link for yourself because, well you know. 

You don't come here for tech saviness, right?

Why exactly do you come here? hmmmm?

Oh yeah, so you can learn how to say goodbye in 14,000 different languages.

I knew you had a good reason.

That's all for this week.

Hope you all enjoy yourselves till next time.

ba bye (creole)