evenings in the garage

bamboo inspired ring, coming soon

sounds fancy, doesn’t it? spending the few hours between dinner in bed in the garage? it’s been lovely, though. almost heaven.

new necklace coming soon!

i’ve been delving back into metalsmithing. well soldering and hammering at any rate. i even tried switching up my creative methods {my usual technique is to craft on the fly, but i sat down and drew up some imaginings and then made them. i know, right?*}

hoops inspired by rose petals

i’m looking forward to my classes {this weekend!} so that i can get better. faster at least. and maybe a little less messy.

*sorry lindsey

my favorite hoops

meet my new favorite earrings. i wear them almost every day. a little bit boho, a little bit chic, they go with everything {which is a huge bonus in the mornings}, making earring choice one less thing to worry about. {can’t help you with where are the car keys? what’s for lunch? or for the last time, who took my purse?! but i can make one thing a little simpler.}

the best part about these earrings isn’t the fact that they’re lightweight {personally i can’t stand it when earrings drag down my ear lobes and make me want to take them off after a few hours because they’re giving me brain pain} or that everyone else loves them oodles and bunches. it’s not even that each rock crystal rondelle is individually wire-wrapped {by yours truly}, lending sparkle and interest to your every move. nope, the best part is that the hoops themselves are handmade in thailand by women who are paid a living wage. {yay! right?} i’m proud to support the women-friendly company that makes these stunners.

want your own? go get ‘em now at my etsy store. as always, they will arrive inside one of my pretty handmade {reusable} boxes, meaning that if you don’t keep them for yourself {you have such willpower, you}, you will have everything all wrapped up. {don’t worry, everything ships safely within a sturdy usps priority mail box, arriving within a few short days!}

the sunburst earrings are back!

i decided to bring back the sunburst earrings, small little rounds that dangle from sterling silver earwires. in the original cheery citrine…

sunburst earrings in citrine

…in spring green peridot…

sunburst earrings in peridot

…and in a slightly larger size in rock crystal.

sunburst earrings in rock crystal

all are on the small side, measuring just over one inch in length. they’re light, so you can have tons of sparkle without the strain on your ears. i used petite sterling silver earwires to keep the focus on the sunburst. they ship free–and order by tuesday, may 3rd for mother’s day delivery.

here’s how i would pair them up without being too matchy-matchy:

sunburst earrings in citrine & yellow and grey agate necklace

sunburst earrings in peridot & green lotus necklace

sunburst earrings in rock crystal & princess necklace in rock crystal

introducing…stardusters!

drum roll puh-lease…according to my instyle magazine, circa this month, chandelier earrings are, like, so out and long drop earrings are soooo totally in. like, for real.

if instyle says it's true, it has to be true.

not wanting to be behind the times, i hopped right on this trend. okay, i’m usually behind the times. aaaand i’m not a huge trendsetter–though i was the first one to wear jellies to school in fourth grade–but i love the grandeur of this style and i’ve been looking for some earring inspiration, which has definitely abandoned me of late.

stardusters in rock quartz

so allow me to introduce stardusters…and let me just go ahead and get this word out of my system: sexy. because there’s really no other way to describe how these move and make you feel when you’re wearing them. i mean, sultry, hot, and gorgeous are just not gonna cut it here.

stardusters in labradorite

each finely faceted stone is wire-wrapped to create a single link, lending maximum movement to these earrings: when you move, they move. and sway. and shimmy. and….oh. my.

stardusters in rock quartz, showing wire detail

i finished off the trail of starry wonders with faceted briolettes of the same stone. they aren’t exactly shoulder dusters, as they measure in at a mere 3 inches in length, but they’re perfect for anyone not walking the red carpet or being followed everywhere by paparazzi. i’d wear them with this season’s messy up-do to knock-out and out-stun everyone around you on a special occasion, or with my hair down for just a hint of sparkle for everyday. even to the grocery store.

of course, they’re made to last a lifetime, with gorgeous gemstones and sterling silver. so, if for some odd reason, you feel you have to retire these at some point after this season, they’ll be waiting in your jewelry box the next time this trend comes around. though good luck getting me off this trend. it’s better than when i discovered platform wedges!

{it may interest you to know that almost 2 and a half yards of sterling silver wire go into each pair of earrings. it’s hard to imagine once it’s all wrapped up, but i counted, just out of curiosity.}

wood smoke earrings

it took me a while to get these just right (plus i had to head back out to the garage to fire up the ole butane torch and make some more headpins) but i think i nailed it.

made to pair with the wood smoke necklace, they’re made of rutilated quartz with oxidized sterling silver.  i wire-wrapped each bead to form a cluster and dangle them from sterling silver earwires.  i made the headpins myself and then oxidized and hand-burnished them so they would have a little shine to them.

available at my etsy store for $38 USD as part of the urban prairie collection.

hand tooled leather meets carnelian

i normally think of hand-tooled leather as being for belts or cowgirl boots, but when i saw these beads, i thought that leather might have a place on ears, too.  the pattern reminds me of a river delta.  or maybe desert dunes.  something soothing in its repetition.

the lines on the leather had been dyed with a lovely orangey-tan, so i looked to carnelian, a personal favorite of mine (yay orange!).  together, they looked so great that i didn’t add much else: just a bali sterling silver spacer.  i hung them from sterling silver earwires; because of how they hang, they have a little movement to them.

they’re available at my etsy store for $22 USD.  part of the urban prairie collection.

fiery sunset earrings

i have a love/hate relationship with red but just a straight-up love relationship with orange.  (not sure where my red-phobia comes from, i can’t blame it on cabbage patch kid like i can with purple.)  when paired together, the orange tones down the ‘red-ness’ of red and makes it warm and toasty.  plus these faceted ruby quartz beads aren’t just red…they’re a deep ruby slipper kind of red.  so i can get into that.

add a bali sterling silver spacer bead (um, another fave of mine) and hang them from gunmetal, and i may just have to reconsider my feelings about red.

they’re available at my etsy store for $22 USD and would warm up any day.  even if there’s tons of snow and your capital isn’t functional.  ahem.

one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer…

well, okay, they’re not exactly my tribute to george thoroughgood, but they are fabulously delicious.

i recently learned how to oxidized and hand-burnish sterling silver to give that shiny metal a little dark edge.  the oxidizing deepens the color, ranging from a reddish coppery hue to a dark blue-black. for these beauties, i took the wire out of the sulphur solution about halfway through, so they are a dark grey color.  then i hand-burnished them with a brass brush to even out the tone and give them some shine.

when paired with smoky quartz, citrine, and hessonite (an orange garnet), they look infinitely better than bright white sterling slver.  they’re available at my etsy store for $32 USD and are part of my delicas collection.

perfect for adding an edgy classiness to just about any outfit, day or night, they would make a great valentine’s gift (wink, wink; nudge, nudge!).  they can still get to you in time as long as you order by the 10th of february.  i’ll continue to donate $5 for every purchase made at my etsy store until v-day to benefit the victim’s of the earthquakes in haiti.  sure to warm everyone’s heart.

queen of hearts

when i was little, i played the queen of hearts in alice of wonderland.  i hung onto the skirt i wore as part of my costume forever–i still remember it: red check gingham happiness.

when i saw these red beads, they just struck a chord.  they are a gorgeous bright red at the center with delicate swirls spinning out to a clear finish.  you have to see them to believe them.

i added gunmetal, bali sterling silver, and black matte czech glass beads to make them shine.

available at my etsy store for $20 USD.  perfect for your queen of hearts!

i’m still donating $5 for every item sold to the aid organization of your choice to help the victims of the haiti earthquakes.  i know it’s out of the media for the most part, but as someone who went to assist with rebuilding in mississippi a year after katrina, i can tell you the work has just begun.  you cannot believe how much devastation there can be.  let’s keep doing what we can.

amethyst revisited

i’m not a huge fan of purple.  i think it stems from the time when i was a kid and i got stuck with the cabbage patch kid with the purple dress (a friend got the pink one.  blerg!  i think our parents took turns trying to get them at toys-r-us).  but if you darken purple up like a sky at sunset, it’s one of my favorites!  and it’s february’s birthstone.

for these earrings, i’ve used two different metals to bring out the darker, edgy side of purple.  in the ones on the left, i’ve paired amethyst and iolite with gunmetal.  they’re available at my etsy store for $20 USD.  the ones on the right have carved amethyst beads and iolite combined with antiqued sterling silver wire that i burnished to bring out a bit of shine.  they are available at my etsy store for$26 USD.

i will donate $5 for each item purchased through my etsy store to the aid organization of your choice for haiti. participate in ‘hearts for haiti’, too–add my store to your favorites list and i’ll donate $1 to red cross.