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.

An Honor to be Featured in an Etsy Treasury Collection!

I'm honored to be part of BarbaraCrochetStudio's treasury of "Pretty Things for EveryOne" today at http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=39116

The Treasury section of etsy is a unique collection where people can list some of the favorite items they've found on etsy and feature them in a single page. Sometimes the page is then featured on the main page of etsy!

Thank you, Barbara, for including my Simply Spiral -2 necklace in your treasury collection! You can also see Barbara's own etsy site of her beautiful crochet work at: http://www.barbaracrochetstudio.etsy.com/

Viking Knit - the middle phase

Pulling Viking knit through the draw plate - this is the really fun, almost magical part of making Viking knit! Starting with the large, hollow tube of weaving that I've removed from the wodden dowel, I pull the entire cord of weave through the largest hole of my draw plate. Then through the second largest hole, 3rd, and so on until I have the Viking knit in the width that I want it to be! It compresses narrower with each smaller hole size that it's pulled through.

Pull, pull, pull..and Voila! Beautiful Viking Knit!

Later this week, I'll oxidize the weave and attach a clasp to turn it into a finished custom bracelet. I'll post those photos later!

Viking Knit - the process

Today I started on weaving some Viking knit to make a bracelet. I love making Viking knit. The constant flow of sterling wire through my hands feels so organic and the repetition of the weaving process is really soothing to me.

My client for this bracelet wants a fairly substantial weaving, to make a heavy, dense bracelet. So, I start by making a flower of sorts with sterling wire, making 6 petals, or loops. I tape the loops on a wooden dowel and start my weaving process through the ends of each loop.

Before I knew it, I had spent about 6 hours weaving!
I removed the weaving from the dowel, leaving me with a hollow tube of messy looking sterling wire. I think it looks similar to a peeled corn cob!

Then I finished off the ends and tucked them inside of the hollow weave. No sharp ends allowed in my Viking Knit. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to that.

Later this week, I will show you how I pull the hollow weave through a draw plate of holes, compressing the weave into finished Viking Knit!

What am I working on now?

In January, I took a class on learning to use resin materials to make pendants. I wasn't thrilled with my results, but I learned a few other tips that I'll be able to apply to things that are more suited to my style of jewelry making. I used copper sheeting in this class and have now made a variety of items with copper and sterling silver sheet metal. I'm really happy with the results! Let me know what you think of them.

You can view them at : http://www.scjjewelrydesign.etsy.com/

Next week, I'll be making a custom Viking Knit bracelet for a client. I'll take pictures and explain the process of how Viking Knit is created.