Week 4 of Project Runway had the models tell the designers what they wanted made.  The designers were making dresses for them to wear to an industry party.
Because we had no models to tell us what to do, we made a list of jewelry types, styles, and materials.  And then the lovely Victoria of http://Experimetal.etsy.com drew from a hat to tell each participant what they had to make.

I ended up with:   necklace, leather/fur(faux), tribal/ethnic

This necklace is a twist on a traditional strand of pearls.  It features freshwater pearls, chrysoprase beads, and leather.  I cut the leather into leaf shapes and placed one between each pearl.  A green bead adds a splash of green color.
This necklace can also be worn flipped the other way around, where only the leather and pearls show.

This week’s challenge was to create a beach wear look.  The contestants actually worked in teams on this one and had to make 2 pieces.  I decided to keep things simple by not trying to hunt down a partner for the project, so on my own this is what I created:

I happened to have these great chysoprase gemstones that look just like the ocean, so why not put them to use?  I put blue chalcedony stones at the top of the earrings.
The sides of the bezels and prong settings have been textured to look like sand, at the same time this has the effect of making those areas extra glittery.

For my second piece I made a ring:

The ring is made of sterling silver and set with a chalcedony stone.  The shell was cast from a tiny one that I collected on Tybee Island, GA a while back.  I’m *very* happy with how the ring turned out!  I hope to have more of these rings available for sale in my shop.

Today officially kicks off the start of a busy season of shows.  Today I will be setting up my display and participating in a preview sale/party at @ Home Vintage General here in downtown Savannah (Broughton Street to be exact!)  Tomorrow the show will last through normal store hours (10-6pm).  In addition to all the lovely vintage goodies already in the shop, there will be 7 local artists displaying their work (myself included).   Please stop by if you are in the area!!

If you can’t make it, but have Saturday 9/12/09 open, then follow me to Jacksonville, FL for the Riverside Arts Market!  There are a ton of artists and local farmers at the market, along with entertainment and good food.

That takes us to Sunday, where I’ll be cleaning house and watching the season finale of HBO’s True Blood.  I’ll be sad to see it end, but at least I can read the books while I wait for season 3 to start.  I think I want to make something special or do something special for the finale…know any good recipes?

Finally I’ll be throwing one more art show your way.  This next one is in Augusta, GA:  Arts in the Heart of Augusta  It is a 3 day festival running from 9/18-9/20.

That should keep me busy, right?

The challenge was to make something chic for a pregnant woman to wear and show off her curves.

This necklace as a single chain is 32″ long.  There is no clasp to fiddle with (in the event your fingers are swollen), just place it over you head and it will drape to the top of your belly.  Or, if you want to draw attention a bit higher, you can use the handmade S hook clasp to double it and raise the height.

The materials are sterling silver, patina, goldfill, freshwater pearls, peridot, and apatite. This necklace would fit into my Renewed Collection which uses tree rings as a metaphor for regrowth, rebirth, and new life. Pregnancy fit nicely into that concept, so I decided to make something using elements from the collection. There is one bird’s nest with 3 eggs on the necklace. Also, the scattered larger freshwater pearls are egg shaped. The peridot and apatite chips mimic leaf shapes and are scattered throughout the chain. The green and blue give the impression of looking through green leaves and into a blue sky.

Follow this link to see other submissions for this challenge!

My etsymetal group is holding a challenge that coincides with season 6 Project Runway. We are watching the episodes, and then individually interpreting the challenges into a jewelry challenge. We are doing this for fun, so the materials and time invested is totally up to us. The catch is that we have to have it finished within a week (when the next episode airs.)
This piece was my necklace for the first episode’s challenge. The challenge was to make something for any red carpet event. Pretty broad…. Originally my design was based on white flowers and would have been a long necklace with lots of the flowers all enameled white with bits of red. Very pretty, but also very labor intensive…by the time I could work on the necklace, I had no time to make it!
In a moment of inspiration I decided to make this poppy inspired necklace. I see it being worn by someone young, wearing a black or red dress (mostly solid with a splash of the other color). The event would be something fun, maybe VMA’s or something along those lines.
Overall I am very happy with it. It was a bit of a challenge to make it, easy and hard at the same time (for various reasons). It’s a happy, fun piece that has broken me a bit out of my shell. It’s good to have these challenges and be able to experiment.

Yesterday my Delf Clay casting ‘kit’ arrived and I’ve spent several hours experimenting with it!  I’m finding there is a bit of a learning curve, and I’ve had more failures than successes at this point.  However, my successes are getting more consistent as I continue to experiment.   Try, try again seems to be my motto so far!  I have a handful of silver seashells for my effort

This link will show some videos on the process (and it’s also where I bought mine):  Delf Clay Casting

Yesterday we (Dave and I) took a brief trip to Tybee Island’s beach.  I took some photos and collected a few shells.

The water and weather is still too cold for much typical beach enjoyment, in fact, we avoided getting our feet wet!  It was a rather nice trip though.  The views at the beach are always beautiful, and we found many shells to bring back.

Why did I bring back shells?  Well, I guess you’ll just have to wait and see! 

My new custom fonts are here!!  They arrived last Saturday while I was teaching a class, would you believe that my husband (knowing how excited I am about them) hid them under the bed?!!

The picture above shows all the different options I now have for stamping.  I haven’t yet had a chance to use them fully, actually have only had time to do the stamping in the photo, but I hope to be able to play with them more tomorrow.

My favorite is the third one up from the bottom.  It is based on medieval characters, which is appropriate to the history of posey rings (often given as engagement rings during that time period.)

Bacon and chocolate.  Together.  It might sound weird or even gross, but I tell you it is fantastic!!!

Seriously give it a try, it’s not cheap, but it is worth every penny!  Order online or check in a local gourmet grocery store.

THE BEST CHOCOLATE BAR

Back in December I ordered some new custom stamps, and now they are only a few days away from being in my hands!  I can’t wait to play with them–it’s truly torturous to have to wait 2 months!!

Keep  your eyes open for my new fonts, as they will be making their dabue very soon