My one weakness, and three more brooches...

Thursday I paid my favorite stone dealer a visit just to pick up a few high domed stones for some rings I wanted to make.... I left with WAY more then I had planned. And this happens  every.  single.  time. 

But, look, how on earth can a regular person resist THIS!!

The high domes were secured and many other temptations were put in front of me. 

ring ring ring ring ring ring ring!

I'm not a huge fan of tiger eye, but when I laid eyes on these pieces, with their beautiful matte finish, omg, into the "shopping cart" they went... My friends, this is not your mother's tiger eye!

I also replenished my supply of petrified palm wood with these beauties.

I'm finishing up two of the rings today, but honestly, if anyone is right this minute drooling on their keyboard over these stones, and NEEDS a piece of custom jewelry, get a hold of me at my etsy store! 

I need to start selling some of these!! 

Just so I can buy more of course.

And on another note...

Three weeks and three new brooches have passed since my last post. Here are numbers 19, 20, and 21 in the etsymetal brooch-a-week challenge 

Number 19 is a sweet little brooch, and at 3/4" works well as a tie tac or lapel pin.

sterling, 22kt, 18kt, 14kt gold, rose cut diamond

Number 20 is a hunky ocean jasper, with stick pearl and rose cut peridot.

Sterling silver, 18kt, 14kt gold

Last week's brooch, number 21 is a fordite cabochon set in sterling silver. It comes with a handmade chain and can be worn as a necklace as well. (This is the first piece of fordite I've purchased... and of course I just bought more, it's really fun stuff,very Jetsons-esque!)

I surprised myself!

wow, it's Sunday and I finished brooch #18 YESTERDAY!! That hasn't happened since the etsymetal brooch-a week challenge began way back in January! I was an eager little beaver in those days... Now it seems like everything is last minute. I'm not sure I've ever had a first quarter as busy as this one, will all kinds of work coming my way. This is not a complaint, simply a wonder!

Brooch #18 is a big piece of Nevada boulder turquoise set in sterling silver within a sterling frame. Three little 14kt gold balls and some serious oxidation help to create a very mid century modern feel. 

This brooch measures just over 2" wide.

a sturdy pin mechanism allows it to be worn at various angles.

Surprise #2 is that I'm actually blogging about it in what's practically "real time".

Onward and broochward...

the brooches march on...

Brooch #16 in the etsymetal brooch-a-week challenge was a last minute affair. The week sped by sooooo fast that come the deadline day, I was shocked I tell you, to find myself standing in Sunday without a brooch of an idea, and an empty oxygen tank.

 You know how dog emergencies mostly happen on weekends when your vet's office is closed, and you have to pay the big bucks at the emergency vet's office? And the plumbing goes haywire on weekends, that's overtime for the plumber... Well my oxygen tank seems to run out after noon on Saturdays when the welding supply closes for the weekend. In my business, there's not much I can accomplish if I can't solder.

So instead of taping a safety pin onto a toilet paper roll, (I figured I could save that one for a real emergency, like late on a Sunday night...) I looked around my bench and found these sweet little handmade glass beads I had purchased a while back from PaulBead on etsy and  a little sterling leaf I'd done ages ago and some of the stainless steel wire I use for my pin stems.  A little targeted work with the pliers, and voila! I have a little something to wear on my jacket. No soldering required.

brooch 16

Brooch #17 began on Saturday and finished up on Sunday. It features a really fantastic druzy agate. I've set it in sterling and added 14kt gold round prongs.

brooch 17

Today is Thursday. I'm counting on myself to start the next brooch tomorrow.

We'll see if that actually happens. Currently I haven't a clue as to what I'll do...