A friend of mine showed me a clunky necklace that had very pretty beads, but was just too big for her. She asked if I could “do something” about it. Ahhh… the open ended “do something”….one of my favorite tasks. Anyway, here are the before and after pictures. I took this one big necklace and made 4 pieces (adding some silver beads and wire along the way). The resulting pieces were perfect for her.
I recently bought some gorgeous Suchow jade beads, and finally got around to making some new pieces. I’m not really sure what Suchow jade really is, but I got the idea (from googling around) that it might not be real jade. Well, whatever it is, it sure is pretty. Reminds me of raspberry ice and limeade…..
Here is the wire wrapped pendant:
These pieces are also in my store
I’ve taken a pretty long hiatus from making jewelry, but am now slowly getting back on track. In the meantime I’ve been spending my free time lampworking, taking classes, and learning new techniques. Last month I took two classes taught by Mary Lockwood at Glass Firenze, located here in Eagle River. One of the classes was on encasing beads, the other was on making floral beads. Both were terrific, but as you can see from the picture, I still have a lot of practicing to do.
I was recently at a special education conference in Anchorage (in my spare time, I’m an occupational therapist in the school system—oh wait—that’s my real job…jewelry is in my spare time…I forgot)
Well, anyway, at this conference I met Casey Wade Bitz who, along with his family, collects beach glass in southeast Alaska. I love beach glass and immediately had to buy a small bag of it. Here is a pendant that I made from one of the pieces.
Ruby Zoisite Earrings with Indian Rubies
This past weekend I worked on a lot of jewelry pieces. I’m trying to get ready for four upcoming shows and need to be sure I have enough inventory. These unique earrings were created with ruby zoisite stones, Indian rubies, Swarovski crystals, and sterling silver. See them here .
Green glass and copper bracelet
I found these Czech glass beads in a local bead store and wish I had bought more of them! The rectangular beads are transparent brown and green glass, with a stripe of opaque white. Several styles of copper beads and Swarovski crystals are incorporated into the design. Item # 554 $20.00. See it here
Trying to get good pictures of my dichroic glass pieces or of the highly reflective Swarovski crystal pieces has always been a nightmare. No matter what camera setting I used, it seemed that the colors were off. This is unfortunately when you are trying to run an online store where customers can’t pick up the pieces and carefully look at them. You want to have the best pictures that you can take. I had heard about Cloud Dome, but never had access to try it until now. Developed by meteorologist Cindy Lichfield, Cloud Dome uses a white plastic or nylon dome to cover the jewelry with lighting outside the dome. This way it evenly diffuses natural light over the surface area of the object being shot. A local studio, Glass Firenze, has a Cloud Dome and as a member I am able to use it when needed. Look at the pictures below and see the difference between using my normal lighting (which consists of an Ott Light and an incandescent light) and using the Cloud Dome. Notice how full the colors look using the Cloud Dome, and how the reflections have disappeared.
The boro glass workshops given by William Hagy are some of the best classes that I’ve ever attended! I attended the Intro to Boro I and II classes (beads and pendants) and then decided to also attend the glass sculpture class. This was quite a learning experience for me as I had only worked on soft glass. I had a lot of trouble adjusting my flame correctly, and wasn’t used to the idea of continually adjusting my flame. William is not only a terrific teacher, but is very patient when having to explain the same thing multiple times! He nicely balances demonstrations with hand-on work and is happy to come to your torch and help you out when you get into trouble. I really appreciated his keen sense of humor as well. Many thanks to Deborah at Glass Firenze for bringing him up to Alaska. Make sure you don’t pass up the opportunity if you are ever given a chance to attend any of his workshops.
