New Designs!

I have been really struggling with the flu the last couple of weeks.  No time to slow down, which means its taking longer to get well than I would like.  Despite the struggle I did manage to squeeze some creating time in.  I am introducing a line of glass rings into the jewelry shop.  These are fun and different and will come in a wide range of colors and designs, although each one will be one of a kind and unique.  Currently, they are available in a size 6, although I will be ordering the mandrels to make a size 5 and a size 7 ring.  If there is enough interest in other sizes I will consider ordering more mandrels in other sizes also.  Here is an example of a simple ring with a geometric dot design.

 If glass rings aren't your thing, I also have a variety of more traditional rings, like this pretty copper and red wire wrapped ring.  The wire wrapped rings come in a wider variety of sizes that the glass rings, although each one is also unique, and one of a kind.

    
I also have a small line of the more traditional metal smithed rings.  I will be adding to this line in the future, but for now, what I have listed is all I have left (we are working on re organizing my metal smithing space, currently, I have a 6 foot snake in a cage occupying most of my metal table). 


If you would like to purchase one of these rings or take a look at what rings are available you can either click on the pictures, which will take you directly to that listing or you can go to my Etsy shop and visit the rings section.

Deep Blue Collection on Artfire

I really like this one. Okay, I really like all of them but this one is just really blue lol! One of my favorite colors. So much talent to choose from. Please go check it out, leave me a comment and let me know what you think and give these wonderful artists some love. (sales are good too lol)
Do keep in mind that this is just a preview, there are a total of 12 gorgeous, deep blue handmade items.

Deep Blue

Curated By: SilverRiverJe...

ArtFire.com

Fine Art Photography

Jewelry Item of the Week July 26th, 2010

This is one of my favorite pendants. I love being able to make most of each piece myself. In this case the lampwork bead is made by me and of course I put the rest of the finding together. This pendant has a lot of depth and has a very cool and serene, earthy feel to it. If you look closely you can see the flowers inside the glass. You can find this pendant in my shop at http://www.silverriverjewelry.artfire.com

Bead of the Week July 26th

I really like this particular set of beads. Dark, stormy hues of rich purple, blues and grays, each bead is different, yet similar. Encase in clear to bring out the depth and richness of the patterns in each bead.

Jewelry Piece of the Week June 12th 2010

Blue Midnight Handmade Lampwork Pendant
Pretty black bead made in my home studio. Made with a base of black, a layer of clear, a layer of blue frit, and another layer of clear. Then I added square gold colored spacers and light blue swarovski crystals. Simple, elegant and fun, this can be worn with a t shirt and blue jeans or a simple, elegant dress.

Beaded Necklace

So I have taught myself how to bead crochet (can I tell you what a pain it is to start the darn thing with those teensy tiny seed beads lol) and was fooling around with different ways to use the resulting efforts. I settled on this design, incorporating metal work, wire wrapping and one of my handmade lampwork beads. I designed the clasp to be the focal piece in the front so its easy to use but still makes a statement. This is available in my Artfire shop.

Bead of the Week

This particular set is a new technique I tried and I have to say that I really like this set. I am pretty fond of blue and these just turned out really well. I will be making more of these in a variety of colors I believe. If you think of an interesting color combination that you would like to see these in please feel free to leave a comment.

And for those of you who are curious, I will be posting an update on my progress with the new food plan and how the weight loss/fitness thing is going.

Orange and Yellow Summer Flower Handmade Lampwork Bead

I have been working on my floral and encasing skills. I am quite happy with some of my most recent results. The florals can be quite challenging as they are a multi layer bead. The first layer is the base color or the background if you will. Then comes the vine or stem layer, usually a twisty of whatever combination you think will compliment the flowers. This is encased in a layer of clear. On top of that layer of clear go the flowers. Most flowers are also multi layer for depth. You base petal color, then usually a transparent on top of that for depth. This is melted in and then the centers are plunged, (many times with a contrasting color for the center of the flower). A dot of clear over the center if you want a bubble. Then of course you have another layer of clear to finish it off. This is the simple version, I have seen floral beads that have four to six layers of clear and are complete works of art! I am happy with my progress so far lol!

More Lampwork

I have been practicing! Some I am happy with some not so much lol! But I will post them anyway so that I have a good record of my progress. These beads are at the the 5 to 10 hours at the torch mark. The almost clear ones are called cirrus. And the white ones have sangria brown as the dots. The yellow ones are some tries at encasing with clear and the yellow barrel shaped one and the funky shaped one are a shot at raking and encasing. Not too bad since it was first attempt. The blue bead is black encased in the palest of blue. I REALLY like this one! (of course I haven't been able to duplicate this but I will keep trying). Then some others using the same colors but the black is much more predominant. I like them, just not as much as the first one lol! And I think I am doing okay over all, mostly I am working on round, and dot placement with a tiny bit of lines and other stuff thrown in.

A New Wire Wrapped Pendant Necklace Life At the Beach

So as everyone knows I like to do a wide variety of things inside my chosen field of jewelry design. (yes, I bore easily, and I am fortunate that there is such a wide variety of things to do when designing and making jewelry lol). One of my first loves is wire wrapping and is in fact one of the first things that I taught myself to do when I got started. I haven't been doing a lot of fancy wire wrapping lately, between summer, some home projects (cleaning out the basement to make more room for me to work in lol) and just everyday life, I haven't had much time to do more than the basics. I finally sat down at my desk the other night and designed and made this piece. It didn't start out looking like this but kind of evolved as I went along lol! I was relatively pleased with how well it turned it out since it has been a wee bit since I have done anything along these lines!

Spring Give Away!

So spring is right around the corner and Ohio got a little taste of it over the weekend (including heavy downpours lol). It was such a nice change from icy winds, lots of snow and gloomy gray skies. In fact it put me in such a good mood I decided to do a give away of my own. I will be giving away my Vintage Glass Sky Blue Cat's Eye Sterling Silver Ring. I will make this in your size if you win. (sizes 4 to 15 available and it will take a week or two for me to mail since it will be custom sized for you).

The rules are simple. Go to either my 1000Markets shop or my Artfire shop and choose the item that you like the best and then leave your pick in the comments along with a way to reach you if you win. Also please leave your ring size in the comments. The winner will be chosen by random.org on Sunday March 15th 2009.

"Lovely vintage blue cats eye glass cabochon set in a fine silver bezel with a sterling silver hammered band. This ring is oxidized to give it a lovely aged finish."

Have fun and good luck! If you decide to make a purchase during this give away simply put Spring Blog Giveaway in the notes to seller and I will refund 10% of the price.

Another Treasury

So I finally had the time to catch another treasury over on etsy. Check it out and let me know what you think. It kind of caught me by surprise since I wasn't really trying for it. Not too bad for an on the fly attempt. If you want a really good look at just click on the picture and it will take you to the original. Which looks way better than the screen shot lol!

Featured on The Indiego

So I woke up to a convo on etsy this morning stating that I was the featured artist of the week on The Indiego. This is an advertising network for creative professional. Needless to say I was thrilled and excited. What a nice way to start the day. Go check out the site it has lots of interesting information and many opportunities for indie artists to advertise and be seen. Don't forget about the Christmas in July sale in my etsy shop it ends at midnight tonite!

Is it real or not?

There is a huge amount of information and also a huge amount of mis-information about what a stone is or isn't. Is it man made, is it quartz, is it jade, is it serpentine, is it glass? I am fairly new to stone identification so most of the time I can't answer that question without some help and relying on the dealer or store that sells it to me. I do know that it takes time to learn the differences and trust me, I am going to learn, not only because I don't want to get ripped off myself but I also don't want to steer my customers wrong. Today's learning tidbit is this: If it has bubbles in it, it is almost certainly glass. Yes I know that quartz is considered "glass" but the gemstones with rampant bubbles in them are man made glass not the good stuff so to speak. So if someone tells you it is genuine blue aquamarine and you see bubbles run the other direction. So can you tell? Are these "real" or are they "glass"?