My Mother's Jewelry Box - Part 1

I'm using Mother's Day (May 8th) as my jewelry inspiration for this entire week. I'll take you on a little trip this week through my own mother's jewelry box. My mom passed away more than 20 years ago, but I still have a few of her old pieces of jewelry. I occasionally wear them on days that I want to carry her with me, but some pieces simply sit in my small jewelry collection as a quiet reminder of her.

One of the things I distinctly remember about my mother is that she had beautiful hands. They were petite with long, slender fingers and beautiful nails. She loved rings and wore them well. The picture above is of her high school class ring. I have the same ring size as she did, so I feel privileged to be able to wear her old rings whenever I'm in the mood. Unfortunately, they don't look as nice on my short fingers as they once did on her lovely hands. But, that isn't why I wear her rings.

Water Worn - Sea Urchin Earrings

The theme this week for the Year of Jewelry Project 2011 is 'Water Worn'. Inspired by the theme, I've created these earrings out of red sea coral and natural river rocks. I've added some sterling silver wire decoration as seaweed. I love how playful and organic they look!

They're in my etsy shop now: Sea Urchin Dangle Earrings

Midwestern Love - an etsy treasury

My new turquoise and copper ring is featured today in this "Midwestern Love" treasury! I'm proud to have Midwestern roots and I go back to MN several times a year to renew my spirit.

Take a look at the other lovely items in this treasury and leave a comment on the treasury site! Did you know that clicking on and leaving comments on etsy treasuries helps them rank high enough to be featured on the front page of etsy? Many thanks to the creator of this treasury, botny, for including my turquoise ring in the treasury!

Turquoise Ring with Mixed Metals

New from my bench today, this turquoise ring is set in a fine silver bezel and backed with sterling silver. The ring shank is also sterling silver. I've added a decorative copper plate on top of the sterling back plate. The copper highlights the brown & copper veins in the turquoise quite nicely. The patina adds a little depth and warmth to the copper. I love the look of mixed metals! It's size 7.5. It's listed in my etsy shop.

Honeydew & a silly little joke

I've titled this necklace "Honeydew". While I was making it, a little joke from my childhood kept popping into my head. It goes like this: Two melons are sitting side by side in the produce section of the grocery store. One says to the other "But darling, I cantaloupe." The other says "Oh please, honeydew!" Cute pun, right? This was one of my Dads jokes. He loved puns and he was great at telling jokes. I remember laughing so hard when he told this one. Of course, I think I was about 10 years old and "getting" any joke made it hysterical.

The color of this Rhine chrysoprase reminds me of honeydew. I love how the warm yellow in the Oregon sunstone accent brings out the little flecks of golden yellow in the chrysoprase. It's available in my etsy shop now.

A Drop of Sunshine - Lemonade Druzy Agate

I live in Seattle, where rain and grey skies prevail from October through May. The other day I was complaining about the rain to a friend and her response was "Just think of it as drops of liquid sunshine!" The comment didn't cheer me up, but it did make me think of this lemonade druzy stone I've had for a few months. It's rain drop shape and sunshine color certainly fits the comment my friend made. The sun even (briefly) came out while I was creating it!

The natural crystals on this agate catch the light from every direction. It's a drop of liquid Sunshine. This happy little necklace is available in my etsy shop now.

It's all about orientation

This week I set my sights on creating a pendant with this purple Tiffany stone. Originally, I designed it as a vertical pendant, which is my usual pendant orientation. I had it all finished, tried it on to check that it hangs straight, but I just didn't like it. It didn't feel right to me. Too big. Too long. Now, I love bold pendants, but this was beyond my personal comfort zone of big and bold.

I set it down and walked away for a few hours. When I came back, my first glance at it was horizontal and my aha moment came! It looked so much better horizontally than it did vertically. So I added a hole to hang chain from the sides, tried it on and love it as a horizontal pendant. Of course, if someone perfers it vertically, I can always change it back to a vertical orientation.

Ironically, the theme for this week's Year of Jewelry Project is "Double Duty"; create something that can be used more than one way. I couldn't get inspired to use the theme because I wanted to work with this purple Tiffany stone and I already had a design in mind. But by the end of the week, I'd accidentally created something that had a double duty. I had been feeling guilty for not using the theme this week. No more guilt - I just needed to see things from a different orientation.

It's available in my etsy shop here. Don't forget, Mother's Day is May 8th!

If I Were Queen for the Day

My "Heart Full of Love" necklace is featured in this wonderful treasury titled "If I Were Queen for the Day". Curated by CocoChicLLC, she's put together some amazing gifts that would make any mother feel like a queen! Check out all the items today, post a comment or two about your favorites and show this treasury some etsy love. Don't forget Mother's Day is May 8th!

Robin Eggs

My latest creation is a tribute to the robin that built its' nest just outside my kitchen window. The gorgeous Amazonite stones are robin egg blue. I've set them in fine silver bezels and backed them with textured sterling silver. I gave them a light patina to bring out the texture and hung them from handmade sterling silver ear wires. A little bit of springtime to wear!

They are in my etsy shop here.

Happy 80th Birthday!

This weekend marks my mother-in-laws' 80th birthday! She's spry, still goes bowling twice per week and she's having a birthday bash this weekend. Sadly, I won't be able to go to MN to help her celebrate. Today I made this glowing (like she is) moonstone pendant for her. I'll put it in the mail tomorrow so she'll be able to open it on her birthday. I'm not worried about spoiling her surprise gift by showing it to you early - she doesn't "do" computers.

Eighty is wonderful!

Complements, Compliments!

The theme for this week's Year of Jewelry Project is "Complementary Colors" (colors opposite from each other on the color wheel). I chose to make this pendant in a red-green complementary color combination. The main stone is Cuprite Chrysocolla, more commonly called Sonora Sunset or Sonora Sunrise. It's a beautiful rusty red with green veins running through it. I've added an accent stone of green chrysocolla. I've hand made the setting of sterling silver and fine silver and added a rich patina for accent. Hopefully, this pendant with complementary colors will bring compliments to the wearer!

It's available for purchase and more photos are in my etsy shop.