Finding My Inner ‘Eh’

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It’s been a pretty crazy in the studio this week. I guess you all went shopping over Memorial Day weekend, eh?

I’ve been practicing my “eh” in preparation for our upcoming trip to Canada. Growing up in Michigan (on the border of Canada) I have a proper Canadian accent, which used to be accompanied by “eh” at the end of every sentence. I shed my “eh” when I headed off to college, but picked it up again during my year at the Vacouver Film School. I suspect it will be back within a couple of days once we get into Canada. Andy is always amused when my inner “eh” comes out.

I guess my Canadian accent is pretty good, because I lived in Vancouver for a year and never once got spotted as an American. People always seemed really surprised when they found out I was American. It’s a nice benefit, to be able to blend with the natives. I never did pull that one off in Germany…



I’m working on a couple of rainbow obsidian necklaces, one of which I’m keeping for myself. I need some bling for my vacation! I’m torn between these two pieces. I think both of them are sheen obsidian, just because the color is fairly consistent (pale blue for the one, lavender for the other), but I’ve never seen sheen obsidian in color before, just silver sheen and gold sheen.

My supplier inherited a rainbow obsidian mine when his grandfather died several years ago, and he seems to have lot of unique and rare pieces of rainbow obsidian. I’m hoping to pick up some more at the next gem show in a few weeks. Cross your fingers that he’s there and he has some new stones cut!

Pickle Au Natural

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For all you metalsmiths out there, Metalsmiths in Action are featuring my organic pickle recipe up on their blog today. What a fun group! I’m looking forward to hanging out with them - virtually, of course, since they’re all over the world!

Bloomin’ Heck!

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flower cartilage hoop earrings

I’ve gone a little mad with my new Bloom designs. I’ve already made cartilage hoops, nose rings, and nose studs, and I’m sure I’ll think of something else soon! I had fun shooting them with some jacaranda flowers I found during my morning walk. The jacaranda trees are in bloom at the moment - they produce the most glorious misty lavender-blue flowers every spring.

flower nose ring stud

Red Flower Jasper

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I love round cabochons - why are they so hard to find? I lucked into these insanely gorgeous red flower jasper cabochons recently, and I just couldn’t pass them up. I’m keeping one for myself, but I bought five of these, so I’ll have to decide which one to keep. Not an easy decision. I want to make myself a necklace before I go on vacation, so I’ll have to choose one soon…

I Didn’t Miss That One

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Just had a nice little shaker of an earthquake, and for once I didn’t miss it! Probably because it was a 5.0 and it was only about 125 miles from here. I heard a nice cracking noise and the sliding glass doors were shaking. Just enough excitement to get the adrenaline flowing, but not enough to keep me awake tonight. Nice!

It’s kind of crazy that we’ve been in California for 12 years and never been in a big quake. Growing up in the midwest, I was always under the impression that huge earthquakes were happening on a monthly basis in California, and they had trouble keeping the buildings standing up. In reality, I can count on one hand the number of earthquakes I remember from the last 12 years. I suppose if we’re ever in a big one, that’ll be enough excitement to last me for a lifetime.

You know, on second thought, I think I’ll pass on the excitement…

For all you earthquake fans out there, you can check out the gritty details on the USGS website: main earthquake, and aftershock 1. We were too far away to feel the aftershocks.

Earring Experiments

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I had a fun day at the bench yesterday, experimenting with new designs and putting together custom orders. I ended up working until 8:00 in the evening and I didn’t even mind. It’s a lovely thing to enjoy what you do so much that it doesn’t feel like work.

I took a couple of quick photos to share a few of my pieces from yesterday with y’all. In the front (below) is a Bent Sprout Nose Stud in 18 gauge white gold for one of my customers, who will be headed out to get her nose pierced once she gets this lovely piece in the mail. Apparently, if you’re too hip to be happy with surgical steel, you can use yellow or white gold in unhealed piercings, too (as long as you aren’t sensitive to nickel).



I was so happy to find this out that I made myself a new hoop out of white gold - it’s that curly looking hoop in the front on the right. My Krav Maga class starts up again on Monday, so I need to be able to take my cartilage hoop in and out easily, even though the piercing isn’t quite healed yet. The captive bead ring I had in there was a huge pain in the you-know-what to get in and out, so this was my solution. I popped it in yesterday (top photo), and it went in really nicely, but I think it’s a bit too big for me. So I’ll be making a smaller version today to test out.

Also in the top photo you’ll see my Cherry Blossoms Open Hoops, which are still glued to my ears, and my experimental Bloom Studs in my second piercings. I oxidized this pair, but I think I preferred them lighter. So I’ll be making up another pair today to try out. I am my own best guinea pig. Once these designs pass muster I’ll add them to my shop. New things are a-comin’! I’ve also made a nose stud and a nose screw in the Bloom design, and I’m tinkering with an open hoop design in my head. We’ll see what happens.

Back to the remaining mysterious items in the second photo. The two little cylinders on the left are 12 gauge plugs in sterling silver. I’m planning to offer these in my shop just as soon as I get them photographed. The two pairs of earrings in the back are custom orders - Mini Loops in 16 gauge in the middle, and 13mm Curls in 20 gauge on the far right. I oxidized the Curls for my customer as well. Very cool!

Facebooking

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Is “facebooking” officially a verb yet? Yes, i dream i can fly has made it to Facebook! I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a page for my lovely little business. Become a fan and join in on the fun! Get in early while there’s still enough elbow room…

Storm Rising

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My second piece of fossilized coral - this piece is a moody blue-gray. These grey fossilized coral cabochons seem to glow once they’re set in sterling silver. I’m constantly tempted to keep one for myself. I only have one piece of fossilized coral left to set, so hopefully I find some at the next gem show!

I think the next batch I buy, I think I’ll keep one back for myself. I fancy one this shade of grey, but round, like my Jellybubbles piece. But we’ll see what I find. I may be sorry I let this one go…



Love it? You can find Storm Rising in my Etsy shop.

Rainbow Pebble

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I decided to work on three necklaces at the same time this time around, thinking that would be faster. It probably was, but wow, bezel setting three stones in one day makes for really sore fingers!

Anyway, I took a couple in-process photos for y’all again, so you can have a glimpse of the process. The first shot shows the bezels soldered (the strip of fine silver that holds the stone in), and sitting loose on top of the silver that will be the base, with the stones placed in them.



The second photo shows the bezels and recycled silver pebbles soldered onto the base, after pickling and before cleaning, sawing, and tumbling.



This is the smaller piece of rainbow obsidian, which shows deep violet concentric circles when lit from this angle, gold from other angles, and black when not lit at all. I love how the stone cutter cut this cabochon with the rainbow circles slightly off center. I’ve set recycled sterling pebbles to compliment the rainbow patterns in the stone.



Love it? This piece is now available in my Etsy shop.