Starfish, lapis and scrap!

I managed to take a few photos yesterday on my iPhone...I was at my studio and forgot to bring my camera...it was either go home or give the iPhone a try. I'd taken a few photos with it a few weeks ago so I felt it was worth a try.

You know the iPhone actually takes good photos, in fact all I did to these photos below was crop them! That is amazing...my camera has never taken "great" photos" I always thought it was the operator but now I'm not so sure. With my camera I could take 10 photos, sometimes more, of something before I took a photo I could use...all of these are first shots...while not perfect they are much better than what I usually get from my camera!

My signature starfish...cut out, stamped, brushed finish and tumbled on a sterling silver chain.

As most of you know I'm a fan of cobalt blue...these lapis stones are gorgeous...I only had four stones like this...the first pair of earrings sold so I made these...they could be mine, you just never know? I've always liked this particular style but was a bit unsure of making the ear wires...they actually were not difficult once I sat down and thought about it.

Another "scrap" piece...fine silver fused together.

By the way the starfish came from the east coast...my daughter brought them back for me when she visited there last summer with her family!

Have a great day!
Cheers

Wet...

Well... it had to end...last Saturday was unpleasant to say the least...it started to rain around 9:30am and continued for most of the day. Of course it rained the hardest in the time frame when I was packing up!!! :0) I didn't venture out from under my tent to take photos because we didn't have may customers milling around, the fellows entertaining were troupers, they actually brought a tent and played for the whole morning, gotta give them credit...a little but of fun in an other wise unpleasant day...BUT...we had 4 sunny days in a row so who am I to complain!!!

I've finally managed to take a few photos...

I've had a few requests in the last couple of weeks for lapis...I can only remember one other request for this stone two summers ago, a young girl asked me to make a pair of earrings for her mother as lapis was her favorite stone...other wise not a very popular stone. I've made a few pieces with sodalite, which looks rather similar but darker, more towards navy while lapis is more towards the turquoise...at least in my eyes!
So...made with lapis, resin, glass, and pewter beads with a star to add a bit of fun!

I've used this pendant before, as I rather like it, the large rectangle stones are natural coral, very interesting, glass, and agate, finished the a sterling silver toggle...

The focal is a rather unique resin pendant with shell inlay, hemalyke, and glass beads, finished with a silver plated lobster claw. For those of you who aren't familiar hemalyke is a man made metallic looking bead that very much resembles hematite...the word hemalyke means "look alike" and the bead can be mistaken for hematite.

Next is an Argentium Sterling Silver cuff...I've distressed this one more than usual as I was going for a more rugged look this time...

Here is a fun summer choker, wood, resin, metal, agate and dyed turquoise, finished with an extender so it can be worn a little longer if need be...

Love the dyed purple howlite, but then you knew purple is my favorite color, set off with pale green aventurine rondelles, pewter and sterling silver beads...

Here is another unique resin pendant inlayed with shell, a mixture of large and small smoky quartz round stones, glass rondelles, mykonos spacers and a sterling silver toggle finish the necklace... fyi the mykonos beads are a clay bead fired in a kiln, then coated in copper, fired again, after which they are coated in fine silver... a lovely bead, they come in many shapes and sizes as well as coated with 24K gold or copper.

Cheers

Another Beautiful Market Day!

We had another beautiful sunny Market day this past Saturday, a little cool for this time of year, but I'm not complaining!

The entertainment this week was Stack of Barley, a huge success with the Market goers! Below they are warming up first thing...


People gathered around to listen to them most of the morning...they did some Irish tunes that had people clapping...
Below is a pair of earrings that I hammered with the new square hammer, I like the detailing. The gemstone is topaz...I'm a fan of sodalite vs lapis... sodalite is a deeper darker blue, while lapis is rather pale...this lovely necklace is part of my Heart & Stroke collection...as always once sold a donation will be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation.

Yes this is my hand...modeling my fine silver rings...I've been doing some fusing and rather enjoy it...I can do rings resonably well but I would like to make a bangle and for some reason I can't seem to get it to fuse...will have to practice more I guess!


Cheers!