When I saw that the Art Elements team chose ornaments as their theme for the winter design challenge, I signed up right away. I was already planning to make some, and having a deadline never hurts when you tend to procrastinate as I do. Continue reading
When a friend asked if I could make a crib mobile for her son’s room, I was willing to give it a try even though I’ve never made a mobile. She shared some photos of the nursery, which has a Calvin and Hobbs theme with birch tree silhouettes on the wall. She didn’t want anything too cutesy because the plan was for the mobile to be part of the room’s decor beyond the baby years.
This was the sketch of my original plan for the mobile. I used the same pan pastels to color the sketch as I planned to use on the mobile.
Thee brands of round nose jewelry pliers tested. From left to right: Beadsmith, Lindstrom, Beadalon.
I have been searching for the perfect pair of round nose pliers for my jewelry making. That’s not the reason I’ve neglected this blog, and you, my dear readers, for over two months. But the two things are not unrelated. You see, I moved in the spring and am just now getting back to my jewelry making. Continue reading
A “parliament” or “wisdom” of whimsical owl earrings.
Each month Erin Prais-Hintz presents a theme, with inspiration photos, and invites jewelry designers to create earrings for the “We’re All Ears” challenge. The earring design challenge theme for March is owls. Continue reading
Each month Erin Prais-Hintz chooses a theme and challenges us to design earrings inspired by it. The theme for this month’s We’re All Ears earring design challenge was “patchwork.” I’ve noticed a bit of patchwork showing up in clothing fashion lately and had been pondering how to create some earrings in that style. The images Erin shared for this design challenge were exactly the push my muse needed. Continue reading
Every month, Erin Prais-Hintz offers a new inspiration for an earring design challenge on the Earrings Every Day blog. The inspiration this month is the Pantone® Color of the Year for 2017: Greenery. Continue reading
Here there be Dragons! The theme for the winter design challenge from the Art Elements team is dragons. I love dragons. Love! So naturally I signed up to participate. I usually make jewelry for these design challenges. But, since Art Jewelry Elements became Art Elements, I did not have to limit myself to jewelry or jewelry components. However, I stayed in the general vicinity of jewelry, by making jewelry boxes. Continue reading
The eye candy from my 2016 jewelry and component making.
Continuing with a long-standing tradition I began many three years ago, I’m summing up my blog posts for the year. I wasn’t as prolific with my posts this year (I even skipped a month!) but I still feel I was creative and continued to grow my skills. Continue reading
These are all the polymer clay feather focals I carved, molded, and colored for my new jewelry collection.
I’m so excited to introduce my new jewelry collection – Of a Feather – featuring my hand-carved feather focals. I’ve been working on this new jewelry collection for quite a few months, making the feathers in batches according to color and finish. I’ve got aged and distressed metals, faux ceramics, metallics, and even some inspired by real birds. Continue reading
I’m kicking off fall with the Art Jewelry Elements design challenge. Their theme is “trees” and they shared many inspiration images and ideas on their blog. I had some grand plans, as usual. And, as often happens, I didn’t get around to most of them. Continue reading