Celebrate!

Happy Fourth of July!!

To help celebrate, I am offering Free Shipping on everything in my Etsy store!

Enjoy and have a safe and fabulous holiday!

My Dad is so Cool!

We all know our dad is the coolest and here's a chance to share why! Leave me a few lines about why your dad is so cool and enter to win this brass wire wrapped, green aventurine pendant.

Here's mine: My dad is soooo cool...when I was a kid, we would do camp outs in the backyard (or in front of the fireplace if the weather was bad). We would set up the tent and get the sleeping bags, eat junk food, and here's the best part, we would listen to old radio plays all night. My favorite was always The Shadow.

Share your My dad is so Cool story and enter to win this pendant, which would look wonderful either on an simple chain or incorporated in a hemp necklace. Pendant measures 1" from the bottom of the bail and 1/2" across at the widest point (sorry chain is not included).

Have more than one story? You can enter once a day with a different story.

Want to enter again? Either tweet this giveaway or follow my blog and leave a comment with the tweet link or "follow."

One more time? Visit my etsy shop and tell me your favorite piece.

Giveaway will run until 9:00pm on Friday, June 19 and the randomly picked winner will be announced on the evening of Sunday, June 21. Please be sure to leave an email address so I may contact you if you win!

Have fun remembering and thank you for sharing!

My Mother's Jewelry Winner Announced!

Thank you to everyone that entered! You all shared such beautiful stories about your memories. In addition to this blog post, I also posted it on byhand.me. So, in order to pick the winner, I combined all entries and assigned each entry a number in the order they were received. The winning number was then selected via Random.org.

So, without further adieu...Congratulations to greeneginger!




Thanks again to all the participants and stay tuned for my next giveaway that will be posted on the evening of Tuesday, May 26.

My mother's jewelry

Is there a piece of jewelry that always makes you think of your mother? Is it something she wore often? My mom had some fun, fabulous jewelry when I was growing up. The one I remember most is the ladybug necklace. I thought it was sooo cool that if you pushed the button, the wings opened and revealed...a watch! I remember the giddiness I felt when I knew she would let me push the button. It was like waiting for the coo-coo to come out of the clock.

I've included an image to give you the idea...but it's not the giveaway! :)

Leave me a few lines about your mother's jewelry that you remember and it will enter you to win these sterling silver and shell flower earrings. Enter a second time by tweeting about this giveaway and leave the link of your tweet. If you want to enter a third time, just visit my Etsy shop and leave a comment telling me your favorite piece. Make sure to leave me a way to contact you if you win!

Share your story about your mother's jewelry! Giveaway will run until Friday, May 22 9:00 pm (EST). The winner will be chosen at random and posted on the evening of Sunday, May 25. Earrings dangle 1 and 1/4" from the bottom of the ear wire.

Using Images in my work

First I will tell you a little about my background. I started in theatre and my degree is in oil painting. My painting was always centered on still life. I loved arranging those little objects like characters on a stage. As I continued my painting I found I enjoyed working in a very small scale and this aspect has carried over into my jewelry design.
I love working with stones and shells but recently I have been fascinated with this idea of incorporating images in my work. I think what pushed me explore this was a couple pendants my husband found for me. One is a Frida Kahlo pendant (she is a major source of inspiration) and the other is a wonderful Asian figure embedded in resin. Through experiments I have found a number of ways to incorporate images. For now I will focus on image transfer.
In some pieces I use the image directly on the object. I will just cut out the image, place it on the support (whether it is metal, bamboo tile, a button) and then apply a clear protective coat finish. I also like to be able to layer images. My penguin piece is an example of this.
I like to use OMNI-GEL you can get it from Fire Mountain Beads http://www.firemountaingems.com. This transfer gel dries clear so it can be used as a protective coat and glue as well. Cut out the image you would like to use, but leave a little edge surrounding the image you can remove this later. I like to prep several images at once. I cut along the seams of a plastic bag and lay it open for my surface workspace wax paper works too.
Apply the gel in three coats with a brush. First coat brush across the image horizontally and then let this dry. The second coat you brush vertically, let it dry. The last coat you brush in a diagonal direction and let this dry. You can brush thick or thin - I like the thick because it adds a painterly texture. After the three coats I usually let it sit overnight.
Typically the paper gets stuck on the plastic so in the morning I just slide an exact-o under the edge of the paper - otherwise the image can stretch. Soak the images upside down in warm water for 10-20 minutes. Take them out one at a time place face down and begin to rub the paper off the back of the image with your finger or a lint-free cloth - I like to use a dishtowel. You can decide how much paper to remove based on how transparent you would like your image to be. Let them dry. Once they are dry you can remove the extra edging you left when you first cut out the image. I usually use scissors for this as the exact-o can sometimes pull at the image and stretch it.
Now you can apply your image to the desired surface. It can either be placed in the original orientation and have a glossy finish or upside down and have a mat finish.
As for images there is a great free ephemera website http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/ephemera.html and of course the collage websites are awesome. Some of the collage sheets are on thick paper so you really need to commit to rubbing off the back. But if you print from a free image website or royalty free book (Dover has a great series) then plain printer paper is pretty forgiving.

Additional photos of work in progress can be seen below...