Are jewellery sets becoming more popular?

My blue sponge coral necklace sold yesterday at the market after only two weeks out on the table. Whoo hoo! I'm so pleased. Now to make more.

The buyer asked if there was a matching bracelet, but all I had was an adjustable leather bracelet that included the smaller, carved agate bead. They were happy with that. They particularly commented on the large pewter heart clasps that I've used all all my necklaces.

Earlier in the morning I sold a summer-casual white pearl and dyed bright blue agate necklace to an older gentleman for his wife's birthday and we also spent several minutes looking through my earring racks for similar pearl earrings to make up a set. He was very definite about his wife's taste and mentioned that she loved jewellery -- I got the sense he'd bought a lot of it for her through the years. 

Have any of you been asked for sets, or at least similar earrings/bracelet/necklace to make up a set? Is this the new trend, or is it confined mostly to gifts, for greater effect?

It's raining all day today, a good day to be sitting here typing most of the day. It's the Grand River Bead Society meeting, garage sale and par-day tomorrow evening in Guelph -- maybe see some of you there! I'll be bringing turquoise and matte lapis, as well as destash items. I'll be handing in my application form for the GRBS bead show coming up on October 5th and 6th. Mark your calendars for that. It gets bigger and better every year with a variety of great vendors.  

Thanks for looking!



2 Aqua Terra/Impression Jasper Necklaces...

This is the fun part of making jewellery for me, how the same stones can look so very, very different, depending on a slight colour variation, cut and/or the addition of just one other colour.


(L) Deep blue aqua terra/impression jasper with brass & silver-coloured zinc/pewter beads
& a pewter fish clasp, 22", $59
(R) Bermuda blue aqua terra/impression jasper & crab fire agate beads with silver-coloured zinc/pewter beads
& a pewter fish clasp, 21", $49

 

Thanks for looking!

Impression Jasper Necklace

A slow start today, but a start nonetheless... sunny today, too, after days of cold rain. The deck hidden below the ferns beckons... cappuccino and new library book are singing their siren song.

Does anyone get as confused by the names of stones as I do? I'm currently working on a necklace and it seems like the same bead, depending on who you buy from, has a different name -- aqua terra jasper, impression jasper, imperial jasper. Besides being a gorgeous blue colour conjuring visions of tiny islets lost in impossibly blue seas, they look the same to me.


Impression/aqua terra/imperial jasper slabs & beads, crab fire agate beads, Tibetan-style zinc beads,
awaiting a pewter clasp... photographed on top of one of my many bins of zinc/pewter/silver beads. Love these!



Making necklaces this morning with a view

Rounds from the large and varied selection available at Nelson Gemstones. Can't remember where I got the slabs from.

Thanks for looking!

Ethnic/Tribal-Inspired Necklaces...

I'm finally on a roll. There's been no typing for the past few days -- I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it's only the beginning of the month, so maybe I'm entitled to a few days off -- and I've been making necklaces. It's also been raining and cold out so no reason to set foot outside for days here. I have the new store that I hope will take some of these styles, as well as a few other venues I have in mind for which I need to make stock to take in to see if they're interested. Earrings to follow.

Apologies that the pictures are a little out of focus: my camera batteries died so I had to use my cell phone. 

Three days' production... Yay for rain days



Matte black agate saucer beads, zinc & silver-plated Tibetan-style beads, brass spacers strung on
adjustable black Greek leather



Yellow and pinky-orange matte seedbead necklaces with assorted silver-plated and Tibetan-style zinc beads, both necklaces have blue sponge coral beads, the yellow necklace includes aquaterra and brass beads



Matte blue-green seed beads with Tibetan-style zinc beads.
I'm looking at this now and thinking it would look better with a few brass beads. Next iteration. Funny how you see all the mistakes/what-ifs when you take a picture.



My favourite. Matte blue seedbeads (not quite as bright blue as they appear here) zinc and pewter beads. Beautiful pewter bird beads look like they're sitting on nests.

Large Kingman turquoise chip necklace with aquaterra beads and Tibetan-style zinc/silver-plated beads

 

Large Kingman chip necklace with white seedbeads



Small Kingman chip necklace with matte black glass bugle/tube beads

 

Amethyst rounds & peridot chips, white clear matte seedbeads, Tibetan-style zinc/silver-plated beads,
pewter heart clasp

Thanks for looking!

Blue Sponge Coral & Tibetan agate necklace...

I've been wanting to use these blue sponge coral beads for the longest time. I have no idea if they're natural or dyed, although my bet would be that they are dyed. The colour looks a little too even across all the beads on each string, but it's such a pretty blue.

The spotty beads and carved tube beads are agate and the focal bead is dyed agate. The necklace includes copious Tibetan-style zinc and pewter beads and a large pewter clasp for easy on/off. It's about 22" in length. Price is $45, shipping extra. Email me for availability or to discuss a custom design.

Thanks for looking!

New chokers from Saturday's market...

It was busy at the market yesterday. I do need to get outside and take some pictures of how pretty it looks first thing in the morning with the mountains of fruit and vegetables, flowers and bedding plants, honey and baked goods -- and eggs. Lots and lots of eggs.

These are the items I made while at my table. Three of the large howlite skull pendants I posted yesterday sold! One guy picked one up and said to his friend, "It looks like bubble-gum!" I guess he meant jawbreakers. They do, too.


Bat-winged skull pendant with gunmetal noodle spacers, zinc beads, on 1.5mm black Greek leather, sold. This is the first time I've used the gunmetal noodles -- I think they are very effective. I'll be doing variations on those next Saturday for my customer. They'll look stunning with the copper bicones below.

 

Black bone claw with African Fair Trade pure copper bicones, black matte glass bugle beads, black Greek leather choker, out on approval.



Black Greek leather chokers with side-drilled howlite skulls and zinc spacers; some have sold, anything with pink still available. I used up every single one of these side-drilled skulls that I bought at the bead show last Sunday. Now I wish I'd bought more!



Side-drilled dyed howlite skull rainbow chakra, black Greek leather choker.
Now that I look at it, I think the purple bead has to go at the other end. I'll fix it next Saturday.

 Lovely breezy day here in the treetops, although clouds have moved in. Sure hope the high heat and even higher humidity has gone away for a while. Have a beautiful and leisurely Sunday. Me? I'll be sitting inside here typing all afternoon. Thanks for looking!

New stuff...

Every time in the past three weeks I've sat down here to write and post pictures, something happens -- you know, like a pesky rush typing job comes in or I have to leave or something stoopid sings its siren song and off I go... like the doc in Stratford on Wednesday where I scored a pair of bat-winged skull earrings and a string of large genuine amber chips. Anyway, I was at the Toronto Bead Society Bead Show last Sunday, the 26th, and I brought home a few goodies...

I'd finally finished off some new designs (started by my pal Nancy) and put them into Thyme on 59 the day before, after the market...

And then today, Nancy and Joy showed up at 8:30 a.m. bearing pizza for lunch and dragged me kicking and screaming off of Pinterest to make jewellery and we got lots done for the table tomorrow. Here are just a few things.

I will come back later to write captions. Thanks for looking!

More men's chokers... & ferns...

Happy Mother's Day to all the human, canine, feline, avian, et cetera, mothers out there.

Here are more variations on men's chokers made with spikes and some new skulls I got.



Difficult to see, but these saucer-y beads are crackle matte black agate.

Ferns -- after looking at ferns for years including out in the temperate rainforest climate of coastal BC and in particular Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island and picking fiddleheads along the Nith River upstream from Paris, then this week watching them break through the earth below my window and slowly unfurl, I noticed something really interesting: how it's as if there are one, then two parent stalks, and then a number of baby stalks that come up one after the other, all facing protectively inward.


Mmmmmmmmmmmm fiddleheads. Nothing like fiddleheads, sauteed in butter and garlic,
eaten as is or baked in a quiche!



I'm still trying to sort out how a digital camera works. I took this with the zoom feature, and was able to achieve the out-of-focus background that I'm after, which doesn't seem to work that well if at all when I'm using regular a setting.  The next question is, did I have it on the portrait or closeup setting when I used the zoom?



Kind of makes me wonder, what are clumps of ferns called? A confab of ferns, perhaps?



Here is a picture of the local Leamington tomatoes, so sharply sweet, juicy and tangy that nothing needs to be added, which I bought at the market yesterday and taste almost -- almost -- as good as the ones I used to buy in Rome. There is nothing in the world like Italian tomatoes, especially when they're bought from one of the little neighbourhood street markets early in the morning. In the meantime, until I have a plane ticket to Rome, I am very happy to have found these, albeit greenhouse grown. If this is their greenhouse quality, imagine what the field tomatoes are going to be like!

Thanks for looking!

Lots of changes...

I am in limbo -- albeit a paradisical limbo -- with the main move of some of my furniture, books and art and jewellery paraphernalia still to come when the renovations are finally complete. Most of it will be sold, given away and/or tossed as I am now living in essentially one, albeit quite large, room which, given my proclivities, could fill up rather rapidly. This will be a social engineering experiment: I'm trying to psych myself up to live a more minimalist life. Okay, pick yourselves up, dust yourselves off and stop guffawing. I'm serious. Many, many thanks to Lynn of Fashion Your Space and Nancy, friend and jewellery student, who got me organised and moved.

Here are pictures I've taken through the window next to where I type and in future will make jewellery, perched on the side of a wooded, cliffy hill overlooking a river which in one week has become all but obscured by leaves.



Moving Day 3 May 2013



8 May 2013



10 May 2013 - in the morning

 

10 May 2013 - 3 p.m. View from my typing chair

 Not only have I moved, but as of a week ago I am in a new store. If you're in the area, Thyme on Fifty-Nine is just south of Woodstock on Hwy 59 below the 401, and is an intriguing nooks-&-crannies accessories and gift shop attached to the north side of Dean Michael's Griddlehouse, well off the highway with lots of parking under shady trees. There is even bus parking. Area Red Hat Ladies know this place well. The food? Nancy and I split a HUGE Monte Cristo sandwich with a super-fresh salad. It was pretty yummy and plenty large enough to split. I definitely want to try their Eggs Benny.

Meanwhile, lots of men's and ladies' chokers and necklaces have been made and sold in the past few weeks.

Lots of skulls & lethal-looking pointy things by me.

Pewter raven skull, zinc cones & beads



Pewter skull, zinc cones & beads




Assorted chokers made with copper skull & base metal beads (top), Javanese recycled glass bead &
assorted base metal beads (middle), and carved bone arrowhead with copper & base metal beads
designed by Nancy



Tibetan quartz crystal choker with moonstones, labradorite & onyx
designed by Nancy





A spectacular high cut peridot & quartz crystal necklace with pewter daisy spacers
designed by Nancy for her mother



Assorted silver-plated skull chokers,  middle with lava beads, bottom with handmade African copper spirals & copper beads & plated base metal beads.

Agate "claw" choker with Tibetan bone skulls, raw black tourmaline & red horn beads
designed by Nancy (sold)

Rice lapis lazuli focal bead, copper and pewter spacers, Kingman turquoise chip choker

Raw Chinese turquoise nugget focal with Afghani turquoise, silver & brass beads & base metal beads
designed by Nancy

Assorted chokers designed by myself & Nancy

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for new studio pix!