When I was a child, I made arts and crafts things to give to my mom for Mother’s Day. I can’t remember most of them, but I know she treasured and kept them all. There were hand-made cards, macaroni necklaces, macrame plant hangers, crochet pot holders, and misshapen pottery, to name a few.

When I got a little older, I stopped making gifts and began buying them. I don’t know why I thought taking my allowance to the department store to choose a pair of slippers or mass-produced earrings was better than giving handmade. That was also the period in my life when I preferred fast food to home cooking. So, clearly, my judgement was questionable. Continue reading →

Art Credit: Beth Miller Petricoin.

I recently had a new logo designed for Paisley Lizard. It’s fabulous. And now I can’t decide which fonts to use with it on my website banners and business cards.

There are too many choices. There are so many typefaces, and then there are color choices and special effects in infinite combinations. How do I decide? Continue reading →

This is my first, and hopefully not last, Blu Mudd jewelry design challenge. The way it works is, Moriah Betterly, the artisan behind Blu Mudd, creates components, jewelry designers use them, and the designs are shared on Facebook where a winning design is chosen by popular vote.

Every participating jewelry designer uses the same Blu Mudd components, plus any beads or other components of their choosing. The components for this challenge were a seagull head-shaped pendant, a branch connector, and nest connector.  Continue reading →

When I saw that Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) was doing a theme challenge for March, and anyone could join in, I got busy designing. The theme for the challenge is March Hares.

To participate,  artists needed to design a jewelry component or finished piece of jewelry featuring hares, or rabbits. The AJE team created some amazing rabbit components, and we were also free to use or make a component of our own. Continue reading →

Baby barn owl bead by Jetta Bug Jewelry. Photo credit: Rejetta Sellers.

I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite jewelry component artists, Rejetta Sellers of Jetta Bug Jewelry.  I am positively addicted to her handcrafted beads.

Rejetta is a genius with polymer clay, sculpting whimsical versions of birds and woodland creatures in amazing detail. All scaled down to the size of beads and charms that can be used in jewelry. She also sculpts flowers, bird houses, feathers and more. Continue reading →

The theme for February’s challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog was patinas. Hooray for weathered, worn, and distressed!

A patina is a thin layer that forms on the surface of metals, wood, and stone through age, wear, or exposure to the elements. If you don’t have years to wait for just the right aged effect, you can speed up the process with chemicals and heat, or fake it with pigments. Continue reading →

Last month I wrote about the Secret Garden jewelry design challenge on the Bohemian Vibe group on Facebook.  My interpretation of the theme was an Octopus Garden statement necklace. But I had ideas for other designs.

Luckily, the challenge was extended for a month and I was able to create a second secret garden. This time, my design was inspired by some of my favorite flowers, which only bloom at night.  Continue reading →

A Peep posing with goodies for my partner.

I would like to introduce you to the jewelry artist with whom I have been partnered for the Bead Peeps Swap ‘n’ Hop. But before I do, let me tell you what the Swap ‘n’ Hop is about.

There’s a group on Facebook called Bead Peeps where jewelry and component artists can hang and share questions, information, photos, etc. about all things bead- and jewelry-related. There are over 1,000 members, and a small subset of them are participating in a bead swap and blog hop. If you don’t know what a blog hop is, you can get the general idea from this post.  Continue reading →