Autumn is in the Air

Beach Glass Earrings in Olive Green and Root Beer Brown

Take a deep breath.  Do you smell Autumn?  I do!  I love autumn; it's my favorite time of the year as it brings cooler temps and wonderful daily bursts of color changes.  It's right around the corner.  The asymmetrical beach glass earrings that I created last week have been featured in a gorgeous Autumn themed etsy treasury here: "Putting the Rustic in Autumn"  Take a look at all the beautiful items that honor Autumn!  The treasury was curated by fellow EtsyMetal team member, Betsy Bensen  Thank you, Betsy!

Poppy Jasper and Viking Knit!

After a couple of months making "smallish" things, I decided this week to create something a little larger and bolder. The focal stone is a gorgeous piece of Poppy Jasper, the accent stone is carnelian. The chain is really special - an 18" Viking Knit chain that I made a couple of years ago and have never used before. That's a lot of weaving! It seemed a shame to keep it in a plastic bag for years, so I decided to give it some life in this piece.

I went to a gem show yesterday in Seattle and picked up a few goodies that you'll see soon. And I'm working on an aquamarine piece - just in time for March birthdays!

Check out all of the wonderful handmade art this weekend!

The Holiday Shop Hop is happening now! A group of artists have joined together to host a virtual Holiday Shop Hop today and tomorrow, Dec 3rd and 4th. Most of us are having sales or some other special promotions in our shops, so check out each one and get your holiday shopping done this weekend. The list of participating artists and their links are shown below. Many thanks to Michelle Buettner of MiShelDesigns for planning and coordinating this event!

I'm offering 15% off my entire shop this weekend. Just enter the words SHOPHOP15 in the coupon code area when checking out to receive your discount!

For those of you in the Seattle area this weekend, I'm also hosting a jewelry open house at my home on Sunday. My jewelry, along with fellow etsy jeweler, HalinaB, will be on display for sale. If you'd like to attend, just contact me for details and I'll send you the time/place information!

Here is the list of Holiday Shop Hop participants:

A Bead A Day
Blackbeary Mountain
Blue Pearls Handcrafted Goods
Chic and Frog
Crafty Hope
Dragonfly Dreamers
Etania Gems
ExPostFacto Jewelry
Fangdangles
GreenBead Designs
Handcrafted Serenity Jewelry Designs
Happy and Healthy Magnetic Jewelry
Holly Westfall / Silver Rose Designs
Just A Tish
Just Mare Pottery
Keefer Style Creations
Kabs Creative Concepts
Klassy Joolz
Kristi Bowman Design
Lilly Rose Jewelry Designs
Little Rocks
MiShel Designs
Melinda Orr Designs
My Life Under the Bus
Olive Branch Organics
Pine Ridge Treasures
Pink Poppy Studio
Rosebud’s Lampwork Beads
Sand & Sea Designs
SCJ Jewelry Design
Sew Stacy
SongBeads
Studio Waterstone
Sundancegems
Suzanne Stevens
Sweet Creek Herbs
Sweet Water Designs
Wire Worked Handcrafted Jewelry

Now, sit back, relax, avoid the crowds and shop away!

Spring Break! - Year of Jewelry 2011 - Week 11

The theme for this week's Year of Jewelry Project is "Think Spring". For most of the US, it's been a very long winter and everyone is eager for spring to arrive. Officially, it's right around the corner - Sunday, March 20th! I won't be able to take a spring break this year, but I long for beautiful, tropical ocean views. My favorite beaches are in SW Florida. Where are your favorite beaches?

In honor of the arrival of Spring, I've created the pendant pictured on the left. It's titled "Spring Break". The luscious color of these chalcedony stones remind me of a tropical beach. They are set in fine silver and backed with sterling silver. All of the silver is polishes to a high shine. The pendant measures 1-7/8" long and hangs on a 16" sterling silver box chain. You can view the necklace in my etsy shop here.

Now let's all ban our black sweaters and break out the colorful pastels! Happy Spring!

"Icy Hot" Treasury & SALE Reminder!

My "Snow Queen" Drusy Quartz Pendant is featured today in this beautiful "Icy Hot" etsy treasury! Many thanks to Purple Blossom Studio for including my pendant in this treasury. Check out the treasury and her shop today!

And a little reminder; my shop is having a New Year's SALE going on now through Monday, January 3rd! Enter the Coupon Code: HAPPY2011 to receive 11% off your entire order. Purchases shipped to US destinations will also receive FREE SHIPPING during the sale period!

Happy New Year SALE! 11% off your entire order!

Happy New Year! I'm welcoming 2011 with an 11% off SALE throughout my entire shop! The sale will last through Monday, January 3rd. Plus, I'll offer FREE SHIPPING to US DESTINATIONS during this sale period! When checking out, be sure to enter the Coupon Code: HAPPY2011 to receive your 11% discount.

I hope you have a wonderful, safe New Year's Eve and a peaceful and prosperous 2011!

SALE Continues through Cyber Monday!

Just for today, Cyber Monday, I've taken further price reductions on many of my jewelry items! Free shipping to US and Canada through the end of this year. Take advantage of some great values!

The picture to the left is a custom order pendant that I made last week. It's a gorgeous labradorite stone that I bought at the Tacoma bead fair a few weeks ago.

I'll be busy preparing for the holidays during the next few weeks by bringing out some treasured Christmas decorations, doing a little shopping, mailing gifts to loved ones across the country and by baking a few family favorite cookies. I love this time of the year!

HUGE SALE through Monday, Nov 30th!!!

I've decided to have my first jewelry SALE!!! Everything in my etsy shop is on sale!

Now through Nov 30th (cyber Monday), you be able to shop in the comfort of your home and catch some great prices on all of my jewelry in my etsy site!!!

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Two bracelets and a failing computer keyboard

I'm back from my trip to MN. As always, it was a whirlwind trip trying to see as many people as I can squeeze into my 4 days.

The top photo is a sterling riveted bracelet that I made as a fundraiser item for the Randy Shaver Cancer Research & Community Fund in MN.

The bottom photo is a sterling and copper riveted bracelet that will be on etsy soon.

It has taken me 30 min to post this - my keyboard is sticking and responds only about 10 percent of the time. Any suggestions????

How do you mark time?

When you think of past events, how do you remember when they happened? Do you mark time by historical events? By where you worked or lived? By who was there? By where you were?

It may be a bit morbid, and probably more information about me than you care to know, but I mark time by who was/was not alive at the time of the event. Like most people, I’ve had many losses in my lifetime. Today marks the 21st anniversary of my most significant, life changing loss. My first husband, the love of my life, was killed tragically in a car accident 21 years ago today. In one split second, life as I knew it would never be again. Suddenly, I was a young widow and a single mother.

Even though now years later, I’ve managed to somehow create a different life, actually a very happy life, this date is always one of great reflection for me. I am grateful for so many things; for 10 years of marriage to him, for the beautiful child we had together, that we learned to build a life out of love, hard work, humor, true joy, caring and understanding. His positive attitude towards life was contagious and I am forever blessed by his influence and love in my life. So on this day, I’ll remember, reflect, honor and give thanks for my many blessings and for the people that I’ve loved and have loved me.

Today, while we have the opportunity, let's take a moment to say "I love you" to the people we love.

PMA, PMA

Lydia's Filly - new website supports a great cause!

One of my facebook/blog/etsy friends, Michelle of Lydia's Filly has just designed her own website. She makes and beautiful jewelry, but another wonderful part of her business is that she donates a portion of her profits to a great cause. She is supporting Operation Mend, an organization that helps wounded military get the reconstructive surgery they need. She sells her jewelry through her etsy shop.

She also has an Artist Spotlight on her website and has put my etsy shop in that category right now. Like Michelle, I donate the profits from some of my jewelry (the Awareness Collection line) to a worthy cause, breast cancer research, to the American Cancer Society's "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk. The earrings pictured to the left are part of my Awareness Collection line.

I think it's wonderful when artists use their talents to help support their favorite cause. There is so much need out there and I truly believe we all need to do our part in helping whenever we can.

Thank you, Michelle for including my shop on your site and for your thoughtfullness and caring for others. Be sure to visit and support Michelle's etsy shop and her website, Lydia's Filly today!

A full day of metalsmithing class

Whew! Today was the first day of my metalsmithing classes at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. The copper cuff bracelet pictured here was the easiest thing that we made and pretty much the only thing I was successful at today.

After several tries, I think I'm now somewhat "proficient" at using a jeweler's saw and piercing techniques.

But soldering, well that's an entirely different story. I tried soldering 5 different things and only succeeded on one of them. The rest of the items I ruined, going so far as to melt my metal. Too hot, too close, too long, maybe my metal wasn't clean enough, too much solder, not enough solder ...my mistakes were many. I have never soldered or even watched something be soldered before, so everything about it was new to me. The lingo was new, the tools were new, and I felt way too close to my neighbors to be using an acetylene torch safely. Yes, my mother told me not to play with fire. The class was 8 hours long and by the time we started to solder, I was already tired, overloaded and rushed.

Tomorrow, we'll be soldering rings and bezels and setting stones into the bezels. I suspect it will prove to be another deflating day for me since I've not mastered basic soldering yet. I need to start back at square one tomorrow. I'll try to just focus on mastering the skills, then do some serious practicing at home in the future. Maybe far into the future. I know several really experienced jewelry makers who won't solder anything. But I have so many ideas of things I'd like to make that would require soldering, I refuse to give up on it - yet. The next 3 days of classes will be interesting!

Time for some sleep, so I can concentrate tomorrow.

Another Treasury Honor and some new items

I'm honored once again today by having my new pendant, Sand Storm, featured in an etsy treasury! It's the one on the bottom right corner. I love this pendant; the lamp work glass bead reminds me of a huge gust of wind and waves blowing up sand on a beach and I love the amulet frame I forged for it and the heavy sterling ball chain. The treasury is titled "Sand... beach dreaming" and was curated by Jill of PuzzleBoBuzzle. It's a beautiful treasury with many wonderful items and artists - be sure to check it out, click on individual items in it and also check out PuzzleBoBuzzle, too!

I've also listed several new items on my etsy site this week, so be sure to check them out here and let me know what you think! fyi, I originally made "Sand Storm" a few weeks ago in a class, but wasn't happy with it (it was crooked in the frame) so I took it apart and remade it into its current form this week :) I'm much happier with it now!

A few things for my sister

My sister has been visiting me from MN this week. She brought a glass bead that she wanted me to forge a pendant frame for. She also got a first hand look at my mixed metals jewelry line and loved it, so she asked me to make a pendant and earring set for her.

She loves to garden and I really, really hate weeding, so while I've been making her jewelry, she's been weeding my yard and planting flowers for me. It's been a fun, win-win week! She'll head back to MN tomorrow with her new jewelry and my yard looks great! Thanks sis!

Free Shipping!

I order a lot of my tools and supplies on-line and I absolutely hate paying shipping fees! I often compare prices of items, then when I finalize the order, I get socked with shipping fees far in excess of the competitors' fees. For people who purchase a lot on-line, shipping becomes a major factor in their decision process and who to purchase from. In light of that, I have decided to change my shipping policy on my etsy shop and not charge extra for shipping. So for now, all items are shipped free of charge. No kidding.

The photo above is a bracelet I finished this week. I have special orders for 5 of these mixed metal riveted bracelets. I have 2 of them finished so far. These bracelets are proving to be quite time consuming. Last week, I had made the components and estimated it would take me about 7 hours to do the riveting of the 2 bracelets. It actually took me 20 hours this week to completed these bracelets, in addition to the first 20 hours the prior week. I may have to rethink whether this is something I can afford to keep in my line-up. It's such a popular item that I'd hate to discontinue it and I enjoy making them, but......

Jewelry for a cause - Breast Cancer Awareness

It’s been almost 2 years since I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I’m happy to report my first “completely normal; you don’t need to come back for a year” mammogram! During that difficult year of 2007, I was graced with the love and support of my family, friends, and kind strangers.

In honor of all who struggle with this disease, I’m introducing a new line of fundraiser jewelry, “The Awareness Collection”. Some of these items will have pink awareness ribbons; others will just have a subtle hint of pink for those who prefer to honor the cause quietly. Other items may simply be jewelry that I create with intention of sending strength and courage. I will keep introducing new items throughout the year.

I will donate all of the proceeds of every item sold from my "Awareness Collection" to the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. I will keep the total amount continuously posted on my website and will make the cumulative donation at the time of the walk in Sept, 2009.

I got the idea for this jewelry fundraiser from a dear friend who, as I was facing chemotherapy, had 4 identical bracelets made. Her intent was that I would wear mine and, she, my-sister-in law and my daughter would wear theirs every time I had chemo. They became our chemo day bracelets and a reminder that they were thinking of me and sending me strength (we live in separate states, so they couldn’t be close to me). The bracelets were made with the feng shui bagua colors, with intention to help put my life in balance and harmony. What a beautiful intent and I treasure that bracelet. I wear it on my breast cancer fundraiser walks & I even wore it to my recent mammogram!

To all who support this cause, I offer my sincere thank you. To all who have been touched by this disease, I offer my wishes of strength and courage and my heartfelt encouragement and prayer.

If you haven’t already, schedule your mammogram today!

Look for the Awareness Collection on my etsy site in the next few days!

It's official - I'm addicted to metal - I can't stop!

I love metal! There's just something about working with it that draws me to it and makes me feel grounded. It's as if it calls my name and says - "Sandy! Come back to the office and make something with me!" I've probably spent 10 hours today in my office/studio, barely able to see the huge desk space (or the floor) because it's covered with projects. Copper here, sterling there, a batch of Viking knit on the other desk, some pieces being tumbled in the tumbler, a pile of steel wool dust from polishing off liver of sulfur, a photography corner, etc... Needless to say, my space desperately needs to be cleaned up and re-organized. But it's so much more fun to create! Tomorrow will be a clean up day so I can re-group and get back to metalwork next week.

It was a productive week though; I made a bracelet utilizing a lamp work bead that I purchased last summer in MN. The bead just screamed to be joined with Viking knit and I think it turned out really well. I pushed a 14 gauge wire through the middle of the Viking knit and put the bead in the middle. Even though it has a clasp that I made a clasp with the ends of the 14g wire, it is really stiff and feels like a bangle bracelet. I still need to do a little finish polishing before I take final photos and put it on etsy. I wish my photography skills were better, I spend a lot of time taking and editing photos, and I'm usually still not happy with them. I'm trying to make my photos a little more colorful with background paper; sterling doesn't really grab one's eye very well all by itself and I don't use much color in my designs.

A while back I purchased some alphabet stamps and experimented with them today. It's really difficult to get everything lined up straight and as you can see, I need a lot more practice! I can get about 3 letters lined up, and then the 4th letter is never quite right. Maybe I should just make some discs that just say LOL on them.

A couple of mixed metal earrings sold on my etsy shop this week, so I made a couple more pairs and listed them. Check them out on my etsy shop - link is on the right!

Beads have a plan of their own

I set out today to make a necklace out of a strand of lovely graduated sized turquoise beads and sterling spacers. I strung and re-strung and just couldn't seem to find an appropriate necklace design for them. While I was flinging the strand around, it landed on my wrist and looked and felt beautiful! The beads were telling me they need to be a bracelet, of course! I just needed to listen to them guide me.

It does seem that most of the time I make something, I go back and re-do it, sometimes several times, to get everything right - the right balance, color, shape, weight... While I sometimes find that tedious when I just want to get something finished quickly, I try to remind myself that it's all part of the process of making jewelry. It isn't about getting to the destination. It's about the journey. That's really what I love and find soothing about jewelry making.

My jewelry making day was made even better today because a dear friend joined me for the afternoon. She's a brilliant peyote beader! While we create, we more importantly build our friendship.

Another new toy!

I have another new toy in my toolbox! It's a doming block and punches. After some serious experimenting with copper (much cheaper than sterling) sheet metal, I graduated to sterling and made several new pairs of earrings. I used my disc cutter to make the circles, hammered and/or textured each and then used the doming block to form each into a gentle convex dome. Oh, such fun! I discovered a new tool store in the area (one that my husband didn't know about) and now he says I have to share! The right tool for the job applies to me, too!
Look for my new earring series in my etsy shop. They all remind me of planets and such, so I named them accordingly. I like them so much I made 2 pairs to keep for myself. If anyone has any great name ideas for them, please let me know!

Tools of the day

I recently purchased a disk cutter and today I made a couple of pairs of earrings using sterling silver sheet metal. First I cut the disks in the cutter by placing the sheet silver under the size hole I wanted, then I pound the cutting die through the sheet, resulting in a disk. My edges were rougher than I would like to see so I had to sand them smooth. I know it's not the best cutter in the world, but I will purchase a better one later on, probably sooner than later actually. I first did some disk cutting in a class I took in January, using my instructors' disk cutter. It was much better quality than mine and gave a cleaner and easier cut. Then, I sanded the edges and hammered some texture into the disks and brushed them to a satin sheen. Then I polished them in a tumbler with steel shot in it, to give it a nice, professional finish. I mounted them together by piercing a hole through them, placing a jump ring through each hole and connecting them to a pair of sterling silver French ear wires. One pair is now listed on etsy and I'm keeping one pair for me! Last night I made a mint green necklace and earring set, so be sure to check my website for new items!
http://scjjewelrydesign.etsy.com/