Jewelry break

Every now and then I need to take a bit of a break from the regular art and when I do, it's usually to do a bit of jewelry.

Here's a few new pieces I decided to add to my Etsy shop. I've been having a lot of fun doing some summer earrings.

Snowflakes

Feel like I haven't been around for a while. It's been a long week or so. We lost a very much loved family member a little more than a week ago, and it has been a bit difficult to sort things out emotionally and get on with things. I honestly never do very well with the passing of loved ones.

The last few days I've slowly started to get back into my art. Managed to do a couple of small pieces for some art swaps and just discovered this lovely bead pattern who's design just reminds me of snowflakes. The pattern was meant to create flowers as embelishments for a

necklace...but when I made the first one and saw it coming out looking like a snowflake...well, I just had to end up creating snowflake earrings with it.

I must say, this has made me smile and feel good when I'm working on them, so I've added them to my Etsy shop and I think I'll look for more ways to switch them up.

I hope you enjoy them. They've certainly helped my spirits.

Beach thoughts in snow

Ahhhh....thoughts of the beach. I can almost feel the warm sand between my toes and the sun on my face!!

Reality check....it's in the 20's and snowing yet again! But hey, a girl can dream, can't she!! I've had enough of winter already!

These are just a few seaglass pieces I've been working on lately for my Etsy shop. Thought it was time to do something with the promise of summer yet to come!

Off season finds

I just love finding things that are "after the holiday" clearence sales. I was recently at a craft shop and found their clearence on all the Halloween items that were left over. After hunting through everything, I found these wooden "haunted tree" decorations. The only thing I really saw that was "haunted" was that they had a face.

Well....that was easily taken care of!!!
I purchased two of these....at 75% off....which brought them down to $1 each.

I took them home and first painted white over the faces.
I then painted the whole tree with a lovely shade of green.
Well..........look what a nice "earring display" they turned into. I've put a bunch of the leaf earrings that I've been making for my Etsy shop on the trees....and they look sweet.

I'm going to use one of them as a display for the earrings at my sister-in-laws wellness center.

Gotta love those off season finds!!

Yellow this time!

Well...this time I tried the shrink plastic with a photo of a yellow leaf that I'd gotten from a tree beside the pond. I LOVE the way that the yellow turned out. The transparency of this one is even nicer and I found just the right beads to add to it to bring out the colors!
It's official....I'm hooked on this stuff.

Faux Glass

is what these new earrings look like in the light.

I have been playing with shrink plastic and have had such fun. Using crystal clear plastic I free formed the shapes and gave them a pale pink and green color. When the plastic was still really hot I impressed a rubber stamp into it. They came out looking like antique pressed glass shards. Adding glass beads and wires they make a great pair of earrings. I've just added these to my Etsy shop and will be making more!



The pair of leaf earrings are done using the same plastic. These however are done using a photo taken of actual leaves from a red maple tree in my front yard! The process is quite different and a bit more involved, but I just love the end result!
I haven't added any of these to the shop yet, but plan to!

Chartreuse

I just love the color chartreuse !! I think it may be a favorite. I made these little chartreuse beadwork earrings last night. It's also the first time I added bead caps to the ends of a pair and I think I'm loving the finished look. I've just added them to my Etsy shop....and I think I need to go make a pair for myself now!!

Skellies

Well....finally did some creating! It may have helped that I just got back from my yearly girls weekend. The timing couldn't have been better for that. With any luck....I'll keep the creative juices flowing.

These are my little skellie earrings. I just posted them to my Etsy shop. They are tiny little "Day of the Dead" style skulls. They're made by hand, not molds, from polymer clay. I then painted their little designs on and added the wire and beads.

I personally think they're cute. It's all in the eye of the beholder...lol

Had some quiet time

here at home this weekend. Took advantage and did some drawing for an atc draw-a-thon. Got four done.....

two pen & ink

and the lilly done in colored pencil and the tropical boat house done in marker.

I also broke out some of my new beading books and

taught myself a new beadweaving stitch.

I made these green glass bead earrings using some of my

favorite square green beads. They've got little garnet bead

accents.

I think they came out pretty nice for a first time. I've added them to my Etsy shop. I'm gonna try a few more variations on them.

I've also got another stitch in the works but haven't gotten it quite down yet. I think it'll be beautiful once I've figured it all out.