Shameless promotional post!

As most of you know I've been doing an article every Monday on baytoday.ca...a local online newspaper.  I've tried to make the post interesting and informative, but I've decided it is now time for a promo post...hence the title of this post...the following is the article on baytoday.ca.

I think it is time I did a shameless promotional post…one that is just about my jewelry, not in relation to something else.

I’ve not shown a great deal of what I’ve been up to in the past two months so thought it was time to show a few photos.  I like the Picasso collage tool and have made a few collages in the past…I thought since I can’t post photos in the actual post on baytoday.ca, but have to have separate pages for each photo, I would do a new collage along with an oldie and a bit newer one.  The oldie is to show where I’ve been and the new collages are to show where I’m going!

The older collage shows Swarovski crystals, pearls, glass, and some silver, primarily as findings, showcasing lots of color and sparkle, much is still current today.   At that time, I was new at the jewelry design business but was looking to the future towards one day working with sterling silver, making my own ear wires, pendants, earrings, cuffs, bracelets, setting stones in bezels, etc…all working with silver.  I didn’t know anything about working with silver but knew where I wanted to go… I could learn!

The newer collage, #2, is showing pearls and Swarovski crystals, for a bride’s foot jewelry, gemstones, and glass, but primarily silver pieces…by this time silver had become my focus.  Four years ago I took a 5 day course on working with silver…loved it, reaffirming my direction.  Since that time I’ve accumulated many tools, some traditional, some I’ve made do with…they did the job.  I’ve made many mistakes but tried to learn from the mistakes.  I’m stubborn, I prefer to do it once… I don’t like to experiment with copper then duplicate in silver, so my mistakes can be costly!!!

The third photo shows the present, I’m in a comfortable place with my pieces…working with “scrap” silver, making earrings and pendants…this is enjoyable as I never know what the end result will be until the piece is, in my mind finished.  I enjoy that aspect of working with my scrap silver, it really allows for the creativity to come through.   I strive to ensure whatever I do has a rugged, rustic, classy, artistic feel to it…I want my work to look hand crafted…the last thing I want is for what I do to look like it came from a traditional jewelry store!  The jewelry store look a good thing…just not what I’m about.

 I encourage custom orders, I don’t mind someone bringing me a photo and asking to have something like it…I’m always happy to do my “version” of what it is they want…but…I would never copy a piece!  Inspiration is a “good thing”, as long as it is used as just that!  

Like any artist I have my moments when the creativity is just not there…when this happens I try to do other things…I enjoy taking photos, making greeting cards, attempting to paint, none of which I’m good at but find pleasurable at times...all the while awaiting the return of my jewelry creativity!   I’ve always said, when it stops being fun it is time to move on!  I’m still here…

Send any comments or suggestions to hjcote11@gmail.com or leave a message on my blog…

Cheers

Broken Heart...

NOTE:  After reading the comments on this post I realized I forgot to mention the reason I make the "Broken Hearts"...so for those who aren't aware of why I make them...

Heart disease is prevalent in my family, my father, both grandmothers, my paternal grandfather, died from heart disease, one of my twin brothers had a major heart attach at the young age of 43...he is good now but my other two brothers have high blood pressure. I decided to do my small part to help the cause, so when I make anything with a heart I give a donation to the Heart & Stroke Foundation...the "Broken Heart" is my signature piece for this foundation...each and every one I make is made with love!   

It's that time of year again...Valentine's Day is just  around the corner...

Here is one of my Broken Hearts... all hearts are hand cut, then cut in half and mended.  This one as you can see has been hammered with two different textures for a bit of detail.    I used to mend the each heart with rings but the last few times I've used sterling silver wire...I rather like the difference...the wire makes the heart more sturdy, less floppy.    The heart previouse to this one was mended with a 26g wire but I wasn't completely happy with it so this one is mended with 20g argentium silver wire...it does take a bit of pulling but I think the outcome is nicer and cleaner looking...I even added a little curly cue on the right hand side!

This particular heart can be found at Soul Sisters on Oak Street, here in North Bay!

Enjoy your day!
Cheers

Circles, folding, different!

Below is a variation of one of my earrings styles that I often make... large, small, medium, with a stone, or without, sideways or facing forward like these! They are an everyday "go to" kind of earring made from fine silver ...as you can see this pair have onyx dangles which jazzes them up a bit!

Two of the fold forming cuffs...

If you are one of those people who prefers consistency these earrings are not for you...I had a number of the turquoise stones that sorta, kinda matched at least in comparison to these two and then there are these two stones, which as hard as I looked I couldn't see them matching in any way. I thought about doing two pendants but then I decide...these would make great earrings because they don't match...I'm a huge fan of the matrix and color difference so I really love these stones.

It was settled, I soldered the bezel to the brushed sterling silver rectangles and set the stones!


Enjoy the day...
Cheers

Sticks, Silver & Stones

A "Broken Heart"...I've made many of these, all different sizes and shapes, they are a favorite of mine to make!

Simple stamped rectangles attached to round flat onyx beads...


Beautiful oval apatite spaced with sterling silver beads surrounded by 4 sterling silver chains...


Wavy sterling silver rectangles...


Fine Silver "Sticks"...scrap silver hammered and soldered together...

Cheers

Earrings...

These are kind of cute, very tiny though...only 10mm long! They look a little crooked...the bangle they are resting on is a bit slanted on the starfish...I actually just checked them out as I thought the ear wires might have been off. I always make at least four at a time so there shouldn't be any difference but you never know...

Again...these were cut from scrap silver then 4 pieces of sterling silver was soldered onto each...



More scrap pieces...before I began doing this I would have cut a piece of silver from the larger sheet for this...not sure why I didn't start doing this earlier? The curly Q's are small pieces of fine silver fused on the rectangle.

The elongate diamond shape was cut from my sheet silver...to which was soldered the left over silver wire pieces...
I am please with the recycling aspect of making these pieces but the fact they allow for one of a kind jewelry makes it even more appealing to me...besides it is fun searching around in my boxes of metal for just the right piece to work...

Cheers

Gotta love rings...

I find rings to be very popular...the only problem for me is to have the right sizes! It is not easy to do...the only rings I have a variety of sizes in is the fine silver stacking rings...like the one below with out the silver ball fused on top...

Here is another style that people seem to like...the Egyptian design...at least that is what I call it!

These are great as they are somewhat adjustable, and can be designed many different ways, textured, smooth, curled ends, flat hammered ends, flattened balls at the end, etc....I think part of the appeal is they are wide and spread over the finger...I have to say I prefer wide rings myself.

The twisted rings are fun to make as I'm guaranteed no two will be the same...just won't happen!

I could make the two rings like the one below but even then the curves would be a different shape and size...

I'm beginning to experiment with setting stones in my rings and pendants...photos to come soon!
Enjoy the day...
Cheers

Recycled silver again

These two pieces were done a while ago but I hadn't taken the time to photograph them...I'm not happy with the lighting here so I put off taking pictures...won't be long now before I move...the end of June, hopefully the lighting will be better suited to taking photos!

As you can see this was four pieces of scrap silver that I soldered together with a horse shoe bail...sort of...if you look closely that is what it looks like?

This was a piece of silver left over from something else that was cut out and I liked the shape so I punched two holes in it and soldered on all kinds of little scrap pieces...fun to do!

Enjoy the rest of your day...
Cheers

Pearls, Pearls & Pearls

I'm a huge fan of pearls, traditional cream or white, yes, but I just love the multi- colored pearls available...last fall I did a post including Artbeads.com pearls and Pantone 2010 Fall Colors in the same sentence. It was very exciting to look over the "new" colors such as Endive, Golden Glow, Living Coral, Lipstick Red, Purple Orchid, Chocolate Truffle, Lagoon, Oyster Gray, to name a few...aren't they delicious names?



It is funny because as soon as I saw all the gorgeous colors I decided to look for pearls that would be in the same family...while I didn't find all the colors in one strand I found enough to satisfy myself.
You might remember I chose two gorgeous strands of multi-colored pearls along with a delicate sterling silver hook clasp and leaf link. Below is a better look at the beautiful silver items.
I new right away what I wanted to make...something simple, elegant and classy!

...there are 6 strands of pearls at the front, light but still substantial in appearance, I'm always conscious of weight when it comes to a necklace...I attached the strands with sterling silver ends...on one side, the leaf link and the other the hook clasp situated so both should be visible when the necklace is worn; I try not to hide such beautiful clasps and connectors when ever possible...the back is a solid strand of pearls.
(Please excuse the lighting in the photo below it's a bit bright)

I was trying to show something of the back of the piece, while still showing the front...rather hard with this necklace...below a close up of the clasp.
I loved these pearls so much I ended up buying more and made myself a triple strand necklace...I wear it constantly!

Many thanks to Artbeads.com.
Enjoy the weekend!

Cheers

*FTC compliance disclosure* the products attributed to Artbeads.com in this post where provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to the blogging program. My comments pertaining to these products are my personal opinion, no compensation has been received for the comments.

Precious metal

This winter I was planning to spend as much time as possible working with silver, be it argentium, sterling or fine silver...love it all! Well that didn't happen nearly as often as I would have liked, not for lack of wanting to though...

Below is fine silver links fused together and linked with sterling silver rings, I've added two tiny stamped argentium silver circles,one with my signature starfish and the other with two butterflies. Finished with a hand crafted hook...

I've had a bit of a thing for circles lately...here we have three argentium silver circles randomly soldered to a larger lightly hammered argentium silver circle.

Argentium silver rectangles hammered in two directions...domed slightly... three balls each made from my scrap pile of silver, soldered to the rectangles, hanging of course from my own ear wires.

There is something new on the market... in January, Pearl from the Beading Gems Journal did an interesting post on "silver filled" wire...basically the same idea as gold filled. I've ordered some of the wire from Fire Mountain Gems...they are saying it handles like silver, can be hammered and soldered. Once I've had a chance to work with it I'll let you know what I think.

Thanks for stopping by...
Cheers

Finally

Hello...

As you might have noticed...I've been away since the beginning of February...I've spent the last little while since my return catching up on boring issues!

I've finally made it back to my blog...

Last fall my Mother happened to see a onyx and black swarovski dangle bracelet that I was wearing(love dangles) and she thought she would like one in brown...she loves brown over black. So when I went to see her this winter I brought her this brown pearl & swarovski, sterling silver bracelet...she rarely ever asks for anything so when she does I'm on it!

She loved it but, has arthritis in her hands and found the claw too difficult...I used this swivel claw as I thought it might work well for her but it didn't so I changed the claw to a magnetic clasp and safety chain...I checked out a local bead store and found a nice strong clasp...I've not had a great deal of luck finding strong magnetic clasps lately. I order them online and I'm often disappointed in the strength when they arrive. If anyone can recommend where I can purchase strong magnetic clasps I appreciate it!

I'm an earring and bracelet person...without either I don't feel properly dressed when I go out...and I'm also one of those who likes my earrings to coordinate with something I'm wearing. (I know, I know, but I do) I decided rather than bring my whole earring collection I would bring one of my favorite pair of sterling silver earrings, they go with almost anything...I then made a pair of long kidney wires, after which I wire wrapped Bali beads, white, dark pink & lime green pearls, onyx, dyed purple & magenta jade, denim something or other, I forget the stone and sodalite...these are colors I wear most often/packed.
Worked for me...simplified the earring packing...now all I have to do is simplify the close issue!!!!

Cheers

My version of recycling silver!

This has been a difficult year with the price of silver...it is now up to $29.37 an oz. I guess I shouldn't complain gold is $1,381.50 an oz....a considerable difference, but then it is relevant to each designers metal of choice and customer preference!

Yesterday a blogging friend, Pearl, from The Beading Gem's Journal, did a post on the price of silver and an interesting alternative...silver filled wire. I'm sure most of you are familiar with gold filled as I was but that was the first time I'd hear of silver filled wire...take a peak at her post it is very informative. I checked around for information to see if I could find any more information but haven't been successful so far...I'll keep looking and will post when I find info on this product.

The Blob!
recycled sterling silver and fine silver wire

I've been keeping an eye on the price of silver since the summer and have been somewhat frustrated with the rise in the cost of silver... so as you may have noticed in a previous posts I showed a pair of circle earrings to which I soldered scrap sterling silver pieces...I've been making earrings, pendants & rings since the fall and have found them to be well received.

Hand cut argentium silver, with soldered scrap silver!

Customers like the originality of each piece as well as the idea they are recycling silver. I've also been using larger pieces of scrap silver and soldering them together to make pendants...I don't have any photos but when I do I'll post them.

Triple Pair!
Argentium silver with soldered scrap silver.

Enjoy your weekend...
Cheers

Argentium silver...

I've been making this type of earring for some time...I don't do the shiny finish a great deal (in all honesty they aren't as popular as the textured/hammered/brushed finish) but they certainly are pretty to look at...all smooth and shiny!!!

Being so shiny it makes for taking photos rather difficult...


I've been doing soldering and fusing for awhile...I don't have any photos of my latest pieces yet, they are coming, but here is a sample of earrings I did about a month ago... I prefer abstract and like the fact people know they are handcrafted...so I tried soldering scrap silver, and pieces I've made into scrap, onto in this case, argentium silver circles, no two will ever be exactly the same but it works...

I like the results and have made many earrings and pendants, in all kinds of shapes/sizes/designs...
Enjoy the rest of your weekend...
Cheers

Pie Crusting Pendant

I've been doing a bit of experimentation lately, trying to see what direction I going in the future...I've been doing some fusing, soldering, wire wrapping, glass pendants...trying techniques I've not considered or had the time to try before. I've decided if I don't make the time I won't grow as a designer. Which would be fine if that was the direction I chose, but I love to learn so I'm jumping in with both feet...we'll see how I make out!

In August I found this amazing tutorial by Rosamond Bain..."Pie Crusting Pendant".
I looked it over then filed the tutorial away as a "possibly in the future", I found it again a few weeks ago and thought I would see what I could come up with. The tutorial is well done, easy to read instructions, with great photos...this is a great technique tutorial while allowing for artistic interpretation, detail and design.

These two pendants are made with 26g. argentium silver sheet, with coral, and turquoise stones.


I used considerably more metal than is probably necessary and curled around the edges a great deal more as I was nervous about the stones falling out, this also prevented the stone from moving around...I know more experience in folding the metal to prevent movement is what will do the trick in securing the stone. Eventually I will try another with less metal to show the stones more and see what happens! :0) None the less, I enjoyed making the pendants...

Thanks to Rosamond Bain for the great tutorial, it was fun to see the pendant emerge from a piece of sheet silver. It also made me realize I have to think out side the box!

I've more "new" pieces to show you...coming soon!
Enjoy your day...
Cheers

Love, Noel, Joy!

I was asked to do something "Christmasy" a few weeks ago...my first thought was simple as there is so much in the way of decoration/adornment at this time of the year...this is what I decided upon. I've done "love" and "believe"as well as a few letters in copper wire but never sterling silver wire...these are fun to do...a little slow going but fun none the less!

More photos to come...I'm having a difficult time getting the light just right...as you can see from this photo!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Cheers

A Grand Success!

I would like to extend a heart felt "thank you" to those wonderful people who attended my 2nd Annual "Silver Christmas" show...you made the evening a grand success!!! Your show of appreciation makes me want to work harder, learn more!!!

I brought my camera but forgot to take photos...nothing new as I often forget! The set up was the same as last year...only the jewelry was different...of course... :0)
I will have time to put photos of my pieces up here...soon.

In the next few weeks I will be concentrating on orders but once they are done I will be setting my sights on updating my website and Etsy shop...both sorely neglected since May! I'm still trying to find a good light source here...not having much luck...but then the weather has been very gloomy which doesn't help. I find cloudy days work fine but not the dark dreary days...the pieces loose their sparkle! I'll keep at it...

I was trying to put up my Christmas background but I'm having issues so will work on it a bit later...

Enough chatting...gotta go.
Enjoy your day...
Cheers

ArtBeads Pearls & Pantone colors!

Don't you just love pearls...they are one of my favorite beads...classy and elegant but fun when you want them to be...truly versatile! I've done a single strand of graduated pearls to a multi strand long necklace and everything in between. Take a look at what I've got this time from ArtBeads.com ...the most gorgeous multicolored strand of pearls...two actually...the colors are so vibrant!


I was sent the Pantone color report for fall 2010 and the first page shows all the exciting new colors for fall...check out them out they are definitly colors I would choose personally!

After looking through the report I chose these two strands of pearls from ArtBeads.com...while I couldn't get something close to the Lipstick Red or the Golden Glow I thought this strand was complementary to the rest of the stunning colors!!!

I also chose a sterling silver leaf link and an elegant sterling silver hook and eye clasp...these are delicate but still a nice substantial weight to them, perfect for pearls.

As soon as I saw the pearls I knew exactly what I wanted to make...something classy & elegant but fun...

Thanks Artbeads.com for for being a great place to shop! So important for someone like myself who must rely on the internet!!!

Enjoy your weekend!
Cheers


*FTC compliance disclosure* the products attributed to Artbeads.com in this post where provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to the blogging program. My comments pertaining to these products are my personal opinion, no compensation has been received for the comments.

Moving.....

I may be absent from the blogging world for the next week or so as I'm moving today!!!!!
I will return when I've things under control... :0)

In the mean time...how about a walk down memory lane...

2007

2007

2008

2008
2009

2009

2009

2010

2010

2010
2010

Cheers