While I have certainly NOT been busy blogging, I HAVE been busy creating.  In my little apartment in Boston, I have set up a studio and expanded my repertoire of tools, supplies and skills.
I decided to get posting again because of some of my charitable projects. Today, I wrapped up five sets of jewelry to be donated to a fundraiser for Kevin Cellucci, the young father of three who was critically injured when some students flipped their SUV over the median onto Kevin's truck.  Having lived through a serious head-injury crisis in my own family, I want to do some small part for Kevin and Tina and their boys. I will be adding photos of my donations to this post after I get them in the mail and do a few errands.  Please add Kevin to your prayer lists, readers. His wife started a Facebook page to update us on his progress.

Here's a link, and a shout-out to Tina to stay strong.

https://www.facebook.com/KeepingUpWithKevin?hc_location=stream

Photos below
Keep the faith!

This set is autumn jasper nuggets embellished with autumn jasper leaves, rounds, and gold-plated pewter caps & spacers & clasp.  The earrings are gold-coloured brass, 20 gauge, beaten and strung with unakite and jasper rounds, gold-plated rounds and autumn jasper rounds.  I am obviously enjoying my new steel block and hammer.

This set is matte-finished black agate rounds set with polished black and white agates and embellished with pewter rounds, spacers & clasp.

Just look at the beautiful striations in that agate!

This set is dyed shell, strung with aventurine nuggets & larger faux turquoise (probably magnesite)

nuggets, wood squares, & pewter spacers.The earrings are round shell strung on a pewter  ring.

This set is a handmade lampwork focal, strung with cobalt seed beads, separated by hand-made lampwork ovals and pewter findings. I made a number of them in assorted colours; I kept the other blue necklace.

I made the earrings of foiled lampwork also.

But my absolute favourite of the group is this one:

Hand made Venetian glass rounds complemented with garnets, quartz, & Czech crystals, silver-plated filigree rounds & stardust rounds, and seed & bugle beads.  It's definitely feminine and dainty.

I am hoping there are a lot of bids and that these net a good price for the Celucci family!

Focus Pieces-Turquoise

 So, early this summer my friend and I went to a gem show. It was pretty huge and I had a pretty good time. One interesting thing I found was a string with about seven or nine focal point pieces of all assorted kinds. I thought to myself what a great idea- there's an easy start to a necklace and I can just build components I have around the focal.  I think I got four or five strings.

I had a great sunny afternoon putting them all into groups by color, and then adding strands of filler beads, stone, glass and pearl that looked good.  I have to do it on a sunny day because the true light lets me make color combinations that just don't work when I do it by artificial light at night-the next day I

Then I got busy.

My first bunch of necklaces were based on turquoise. Yeah, I am pretty sure it's what Willis the Beadmeister calls "Faque Turquoise"; dyed magnesite.   Maybe if I had a shop I was selling this stuff in I'd spring for the real thing but not right now.

 This one was a gift for a friend. I loved the pendant. I paired it with some big pewter beads, and blue beads and some turquoise colored large seed beads. I made her some earrings as well.

This one was also a gift set, using the same blue beads. I shook it up by using these different pewter beads. I liked the markings on them-they make me think of waves.

 

For this one I used chips, separated by Miyuki seed beads, chalcedony faceted beads accented with pewter bead caps, gold-dyed pearls, and gold-dyed mother-of-pearl coins. The gold-colored striations in the focal stones made the gold accents a perfect foil for the gold-colored accents used in this series.

Closeup.

 For the next one, I used rectangular turquoise-colored magnesite and rounds, and bronze-colored pearls to go with the darker striations in the focal piece.

 Close-up.

 For this piece, I used chunks of magnesite, rounds, and bronze small and large pearls, pewter accent beads.

 Close-up.

At this point, I was getting a little tired or turquoise, so I put a few draft pieces aside and went on to some other colors that I will showcase next.

I set up combinations, put them in a baggie, and piled the baggies in a box.  When I had a few minutes, I would take one out and start playing around.  That made it much easier to keep going and keep myself entertained.

All About Me (Part 2)

I made a green necklace for St Patrick's Day. Last year, I realized I had very little green in my closet; this has been rectified and now green rivals purple in the closet.  Thus I needed some green pieces to wear with the green duds.  This is dark green aventurine.

It's paired with larger (4mm) agate beads, smaller (3mm) onyx beads, pewter Celtic squares, and sets off my sterling silver triskele ex-earring-turned pendant (lone survivor of a pair).
That's a pewter hook clasp with Celtic-style design.
Here's a close-up, however fuzzy.


So after coming back from the destination wedding (it was a destination for us, not for them!), I set about playing around for myself.  I took an earring that had a long-lost mate, and turned it into the centerpiece for a necklace.  I had planned to use Labradorite; I love its opalescence. Oddly enough, when I lined it up, I ended up useing Prehnite, a pale green African stone.

 No fancy spacers for this; just onyx beads to emphasize the tiny black streaks in the translucent stone, peridot to enhance the green and Miyuki silver-lined seed beads to separate & make them pop.  I had fun making the dangly earrings; they continue to be my favourite pair right now.  Here's a close-up.

Then I just had to make myself something with this yummy faceted lemon quartz. It didn't need much of anything to dress it up, so I just spaced it with Czech crystals & my trademark use of Miyuki  seed beads-this time gold-lined.  Sophisticated is what I was aiming for & I think I got it.

And dangly earrings to complement it; seed bead, cold-colored spacers and crystals.

I know this post is about my own stash, but I had to make something with the lemon quartz for my sister.  I paired it with citrine chips and gold-tone beads. Yeah, and some dangly earrings, too.

Then I used the leftover citrine chips and paired it with some large chips-my friend thinks they're glass, but I think they are dyed quartz or dyed fluorite.  I added jasper and seed beads.

The elementary school my kids went to had art and music as full subjects; when they were setting it up, the teachers all applied for grants.  The art teacher got funding for a kiln.  I have a lot of ceramic pieces the kids made.  Dan made a bunch of beads. I could never figure out what to do with them so I got my friend to string them.  Then I found some huge pewter beads and decided to re-string the set.  I wear it a lot more now.

This is another re-do; I removed the tiny opalite rounds on the back of the neck, added more pewter stars and opalite coins and moonstone spears.  It's a lot more balanced now. I also added a few strands to the earrings.

Here's the close-up.

I did the same with the amethyst squares; took out the smaller rounds on the rear of the necklace and balanced out the piece with square Celtic pewter beads drilled on the diagonal like the amethysts.

Here's a close up.

Did I show you the set I made for my son's wedding? I can't remember, so I'll show it here now.

This is a ceramic focal piece I had for a long time.  I finally decided to pair it with 3mm "fossil" agate, 4 mm howlite and pewter flowers.

Then I finally made the labradorite set. I used a sterling silver dragon that had captivated me as a focal point.  I used labradorite rectangular beads separated by pewter frame beads that contained labradorite ovals.  I used a few onyx beads on the dangling dragon. For separators, I used pyrite; everyone knows a dragon must have gold (however foolish).

 

Close-up; LOVE that opalescent glow.  I even like the dark specks. My friend hates this stone and thinks it looks dirty. I love the look, the feel, the weight.

So that's my stash. The next few posts will highlight some more stuff I have made for friends, and necklaces I have made just to be making things.

All About Me

After making a bunch of things for friends, I turned to making some stuff for myself. I also tried thinking outside the box and shaking up my colors a bit. I have a tendency to stick to sea and twilight colors for myself.

This is my own red necklace with pewter spacers and three sizes of dyed coral.

This is my carnelian set. I loved the patterns on each oval bead. I paired it with carnelian rounds, onyx rounds and gold-tone beads & clasp. See? I am capable of making and wearing gold once in a while.

(I still always prefer silver and have had a love affair with pewter from the first time I ever engraved it.)

This necklace was originally made by Kate as a gift for me. It was too tight, she miscalculated the length. She got some more onyx beads to finish it but gave it to me to do as she was in the middle of moving.  It's jasper rounds separated by onyx 3mm rounds.  I liked the way she spaced it, so all I did was add onyx to the length. Then I made me some earrings to match. I subtracted the jasper rounds from the necklace & put them in the earrings so that the final count of jasper would not come to thirteen.

Glass

I re-made the white glass necklace with copper-toned pearls and Venetian glass; accents are silver & copper beads, small pearls, and copper clasp.  Funny how the big pearls and the Venetian rounds make it so much more sophisticated.

I really liked these glass beads, they reminded me of leaves. I paired them with brown glass rounds and green glass Czech cylindrical beads, "pewties" spacers and a sterling leaf clasp to make myself a bracelet.  I made a necklace and earrings to match that I will add photos of later.

These are mixed glass bracelets. I was experimenting with the square and round shapes in summer colors.

I had a bunch of cobalt blue beads in numerous shapes; I love cobalt blue. I tried pairing drops, bicone crystals and flat round glass beads with crystals and sterling spacers and crystals. I liked it when I made it. Three months later I hated it so much I took it apart and still haven't done anything with the components.

I have a lot of glass beads still but have worked more with semi-precious gemstones. Documenting my artistic journey has made me want to go back and dig out the glass again!