Brooch #10 and hellebores

Brooch #10 was not going to befall the same fate as brooches 8 & 9... So I kept it simple. Hard to crack a pearl...

Kind of nice and minimalist...

And I just had to share a bouquet of hellebores from my friend, Debra's garden... Spring at last!

Brooches 8 & 9

In the continuing brooch saga there have been a couple of heartbreaks recently...

Brooch # 8, is a very lovely piece of malachite/chrysocola with a wonderful undulating surface. Paired with a very pretty south sea pearl and fabricated in sterling and 14kt gold...

love that movement!

took the time to pierce the back...

measures just over 2"

This week's brooch, brooch # 9, I've been working on all weekend, about 15 hours worth.

It features a piece of Sonoran dendritic rhyolite with a little amethyst up top and a baroque pearl drop. The metal is sterling, 14kt and 18kt gold.

I designed a little converter that slips onto the pin stem and allows it to be worn as a pendant. 

pretty cool!

So the heartbreak in the story is the fact that both stones developed a crack after they were finished, or at least I only noticed them after they were finished...

I spent a little bit of time wallowing in self pity, took a walk and listened to my husband remind me that 99 out of 100 pieces end up unbroken! Maybe I don't have to go find a job at the local grocery store bagging canned goods.

Well, the first brooch had a very happy ending. I offered it in my etsy shop at a reduced price an it went to a very good customer who will love it and wear it.

I haven't decided what will become of brooch # 9. It could go as a second, the crack is hairline, but I don't want to be offering seconds in my shop on a regular basis, I mean, how would that look? She can't be trusted not to break her own jewelry??

I could use it as some kind of prize for a drawing to get more facebook likes, or what?? What should I do with it? All suggestions would be appreciated, and considered with proper gravity...

Flores immortalized...

I've been wanting one of  Carrie Tasman's pet portraits ever since I saw her work at Art in the High Desert about 4 years ago. Carrie's portfolio goes beyond pets, it's colorful and charming, a delight for the eye. Her pet portraits are all that, plus the pet!

Here is our lab, Flores. He sits in our den, with his favorite teddy on the couch. Two "photos", one of Lizzy who passed away several years ago, and shown at the river where she loved to swim, and Jay,  Flores' dad.  The blue hydrangeas in the vase, grow all around our house. The view out the window is our backyard and a shed built by my husband, who was the recipient of this painting. Happy birthday, Bruce! 

I can't resist showing off just a few of Carrie's portraits. Check out lot's more here.

one of my favs. I bet he chases that Frisbee for hours on end...

thank you Carrie!

brooch-a-week continues

Having just completed brooch #7 in my quest to meet etsymetal's challenge of 1 brooch a week for the year, I feel like I've gotten into the groove, and the ideas seem to stay at least a week ahead of me. So far so good! Here are brooches 4-7...

#4   rhyolite, hessonite garnet, sterling, 14kt gold

#5  17+ ct amethyst, sterling, 22kt,18kt,14kt gold

#6  ocean jasper, .24ct rose cut diamond, sterling,18kt, 14kt gold

#7 sterling silver, 14kt gold

 I'm glad for this challenge, I had forgotten how much I really love making brooches. #8 is on the drawing board!

From a different perspective

I feel really grateful to have work that I love, and can't wait to get to every morning. My daily work seems so familiar and normal, nothing glamorous, in fact, downright dirty! When Deanna Piowaty asked to interview me for her online arts magazine, Combustus, I thought, what could I possibly have to say that people would find interesting? Well, Deanna crafted a beautiful piece out of our interview, and I got to see my work from the perspective of an outside observer which was quite wonderful!

This is the interview for those interested, and I urge you to peruse more of Combustus, you won't be disappointed, I promise!

This is brooch #3 in the etsymetal brooch-a-week challenge. I thought I'd just slip this in, and as I'm currently working on brooch #7, I'll post that along with 4, 5, and 6 in my next post! 

Fresh Faces

I decided it was time to bring in some new faces to add to the prop department. If only they had some soldering skills...

Such eager faces, I'd better get working! 

Brooch-a-Week, can she do it..?

OK, I resolve to make one brooch a week (BAW) for each week of 2013.

And I'm not alone in this resolution, 140 others have taken up the etsymetal BAW challenge...  

And if 52 brooches just isn't enough, there's a renegade group stepping it up to a brooch a day (BAD). That's 365 brooches by the end of the year. Those are the truly possessed... and I admire the heck out of them.

Week 1

A piece of Australian opalite set in sterling silver with a bit of 14kt gold. I decided  to make a piece that did double duty as a brooch or pendant. This one shown on a 16" sterling neck ring.

Looks great with the Neesh wool blazer I scored at the Goodwill a couple of years ago...

Here is a small sample of the first week's entries from some of my etsymetal teammates:

Quercus Silver

Danielle Miller Jewelry

Simply MegA

Week 2

My simple brooch in sterling, with again, a dot of gold and a sparkly druzy agate.

And a few more cool brooches from some of the other players in week 2:

donauluft

Evelyn Markasky

citizen objects

This link will get you to photos of all of the entries from the last 2 weeks, and the variety is endless. I can't wait to see what week 3 brings!