Hi from the Hiatus!

Recently I moved homes, scattering all my jewelry making supplies in various boxes and niches. Since then I have slowly been uncovering various treasures and now I think I finally have all the pieces of the puzzle sort of jumbled together. Needless to say, I haven't made anything in a while! Also my camera ran out of batteries and my wallet keeps forgetting to buy some lithium batteries. But I have started the process of making again! Now, if I can just find my tools...

Dag-Garnet!

This delicate thin bracelet is made of garnet and sterling silver. Beautiful and understated it could be worn with other bracelets or alone.

Poise with Turquoise

Small pieces of turquoise gradually gets larger in this enchanting necklace sprinkled with sterling silver beads.

And the Earring Jumped over the Moon

These earrings are made of wood, jasper, shell and sterling silver. Dangling and delightful these are some of my favorite earrings. They could easily slip into a tribal trend, bohemian style or with any casual attitude.

River Round

These lovely bracelets are made of river rock. They are stretchy and slip onto the hand with ease. They are casual, match with everything and perfect with the tribal trends.

Proper Porcelain

This necklace is made with blue and white porcelain beads, lapis lazul, sterling silver and ribbon. It's small and dainty and a little bluer than pictured. Perfect paired with a summer dress!

What's Red and Black and Gorgeous all over?

This is a necklace I made for my mother-in-law for mothers day. Since we live in Athens, Ga, the colors red and black are very popular (UGA go dawgs!). It is made of sterling silver, red bamboo coral and dyed smoky quartz.

Getting the blues (the good kind)

I love this stone! It is another necklace made with the crackle agate and sterling silver. It is 18 inches with the stone drops an 1 1/4 inch long. It hangs beautifully on the neck and makes an elegant statement with an ancient accent.

A gate into Agate

The guy I bought these stones from said they were agate. I think they are beautiful. This necklace is made with sterling silver and all handcrafted with 20 gauge silver wire. It is 16 inches around the neck and the pendant part falls 3 inches down. A wonderful piece of crackle and blue.

Snap, Crackle, Glass

It's almost summer and what could be more fun than wearing crackle glass beads on your wrist? These bracelets are fun, in lots of different colors and very, very affordable! Layer them up your arm and watch your body sparkle!

Amber Waves of Turquoise

This necklace is made of chinese green turquoise, amber and copper. I made all the connectors myself! The process was lengthy but well worth the time! Steadily moving forward towards learning all I can about wire wrapping!

Pepper Pendants

Get your chili on with these red hot pendants! Made of dyed bamboo coral and copper wire, it will add a little spice to any outfit!

Pendant Power

Lately I have been making lots of pendants. This one was an experiment with a looser swirl. I need to invest in a wig jig so I can get a more perfect circle. Alas, tools cost money. It's like a catch 22. In order to make you have to have the capital, yet that is why your making! Thank goodness creating art is fun! Anyway, this pendant is made of sterling silver and agate. It is 2 inches tall and 1 1/2 inches wide and looks like a drop of ocean reflecting the sunrise on your chest.

Turquoise Swirl

Turquoise is such a wonderful stone, especially paired with sterling silver! I saw a picture of an african woman wearing a necklace with two huge swirls and thought to myself, that is awesome, I bet I could do something like that! So I got some silver wire and started swirling! The swirl reminds me of an infinity symbol for the universe. Let your ears start whirling!

The Power of the Smoky Quartz

My friend Becky who was with me in the mountains of NC found this smoky quartz while we were gem mining (See the previous post "Crystal Clear"). I found a regular quartz and so I have now wrapped them both and we have friendship necklaces (BFF)! Anyway, the powers of her quartz became apparent that night when we were all playing the game Risk. We played for over 6 hours and she rolled 6's and 5's every time, it was eerie. She claims the crystal lost some of it's luster and when I received it in the mail I could tell it needed a good polishing, unfortunately I do not own a gem polishing machine (wish list). So I tried my best and lathered it in some aromatherapy oils to shine it up but oil can only do so much. Regardless, it smells divine.

Nature-ally a Necklace

This is a necklace made of wood, hematite, copper, and wax linen. I used a macrame technique to create the lovely beadwork and finished it with a toggle clasp. It reminds me of seeds and autumn.

Macrame

I learned how to macrame through making this owl necklace, by a pattern I found online at elainecraft.com! Now I love to macrame! After learning the techniques you can start making up your own patterns, I made up this one:

Both of these are made with colored wax linen, and carnelian (the owl also has a twig). I still need to work at my technique but I can feel my inner hippi blossoming already!

The Issue of Price

All my jewelry is for sale. I price them according to the cost of material, time and design originality. These earrings, for example, are made of sterling silver and lemon chrysoprase and cost $10. For any inquiries just contact me at fiveorion@gmail.com.

Tea Time

I wore this necklace to an art opening and one of my friends liked it so much, she wants one! Except I think she wants it in a different color. This necklace is made of 8mm carnelian stones, copper wire and a red brass chain. The stones are all bundled together in a cluster that sits in between my collar bones. I have another necklace like this but longer, made of amethyst that reminds me of grapes. I think I will make one with a variety color cluster for a funkier statement, how exciting!

Picturesque

This is a pair of simple earrings made of sterling silver and pink jasper. They are dangly, small, and cute. Hardly anything to make a huge fuss of but I just loved the way the photograph turned out!

Brace yourself!

I love carnelian and magnesite! They are some of my favorite stones to work with especially when paired together. This is a simple but charming bracelet strung with stretchy string to simply slip onto the arm. Wow, that's a lot of alliteration!

Crystal Clear

Last month I was in Spruce Pine, NC with my family and some friends. While we were up there we went gem mining at a little tourist trap and it was fun! They give you a bucket of stones and you rifle through them in water and find uncut gemstones. They are obviously picked through and they have a stone cutting business along with it so you can have a ring made. All the people were very nice and it would definitely be great for children. Regardless, I found this lovely crystal in the pile of stones and wrapped it up in copper. It hangs low just under the chest. It is my first try at any kind of stone wire wrapping and it is much harder than it looks! I now have much admiration for wire wrapping! I love this necklace and wear it almost everyday!

Mystery Stone Solved with a trip to a Trade Show!

Today I went to a bead trade show at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Ga. It is so easy to spend money on beads and hard to find really great deals at these shows. I did find one vendor "Bead Gallery" (Gary Yu and Helen Zhu from Alphareta, Ga) that gave me a great wholesale discount without having to purchase a million dollars worth of beads. I bought some, chrysocolla, aventurine, agate, carnelian, onyx and some red bamboo coral. I have never used agate before and I love it, it's crackly and this particular agate is a turquoise blue. My mother-in-law wanted a red and black necklace (Go Dawgs!) therefore I bought the red coral and some onyx in one of my favorite shapes, mixed size daggers. It was fun but I think shopping online might be cheaper with many of the beads. I like firemountaingems.com. They seem to have to most reasonable prices I have found in my quest so far. My favorite part of the trip, finding out that the stones that I have been trying to figure out are...Aquamarine!!!

The Beauty of Amber

I love amber. It's like beautiful, hard, transparent wax that could just mold in your fingertips, but doesn't. I love the golden glow and the rich warmth of the stone. These earrings are made of amber chips, wire wrapped in sterling silver to produce a cluster effect that dangles from earlobes.

Mystery Stone Necklace

Today I toted my baby Wesley around town. Five Orion is actually named after him, his middle name is Orion. He was all smiles and giggles especially when I bought him a huge stuffed animal that was on easter sale (this year the easter bunny's cousin, budget bunny, came and saw him)! I spent my night photographing some of my jewelry. The image above is the necklace made from those blue stones and sterling silver. It's simplicity compliments outfits and looks very pretty worn. It's one of my favorite necklaces to wear, now if only I can figure out what those stones are...

Mystery Stones

I bought these stones at a trade show in Dallas, TX and I am having the hardest time identifying them! They are beautiful and I have made a great necklace out of them and would like to find more of these stones. They look like they are natural, quartzy and a baby blue with opaque white streaks and dark grey and brown streaks. The blue has clear transparency and semi-opaqueness as well, i'm thinking it's probably a pretty low grade of stone. Could it be amazonite or possibly larimar ? Any suggestions?

Gasp! A Clasp!

I made my first clasp! It is an S-shape clasp with a 16 gauge sterling silver wire. At first I was a little daunted but after making one I now realize that it is relatively easy. Just make some loop-dee loops and presto, a clasp! This necklace is sterling silver with rose quartz and pink pearls debuting my first clasp! I am so very excited! Now all need is to invest in some hammers and an anvil. Working with wire is great and I can't wait to have a great technique. Practice makes perfect!

Amethyst

This is a braided amethyst necklace with copper beads. I had originally strung several strands of amethyst and didn't want to just have them layered on top of each other. I had never braided stones together before but I tried it and I thought that it looked wonderful. It wears like a choker.

Jewelry Party Planning

Today I received a call from a good family friend who is throwing me a jewelry party! This picture is the front of the invitation. It reminded me that I have a lot of work to do. I still need to finalize my invitations, make business cards, open a bank account, hassle the people at the trade name office (they forgot to do a step), get a receipt book and most importantly, make some more jewelry!

Business as Usual

Sitting here next to an adorable 5 month old girl listening to her gurgle about her favorite subject (which is probably milk), as my own 11 month old boy takes a nap, i have decided to create a blog. I recently graduated from the UGA with a BFA in Ceramics and found myself unable to continue as I became a new mom. Luckily my appreciation of all the arts lead me to start making jewelry. I started fooling around with findings and beads late last year which quickly lead to an addiction. This year I started a business (which took me all around town and I still have some steps left) and thought maybe people would like to share in my new adventures of starting a jewelry business to see it through it's failure or success (hopefully the later). Maybe I can give inspiration and receive helpful insight from others through this process but I won't know unless I try! This is jade necklace with copper findings, red brass chain and brass feather charms. The chain part wears like a choker with the jade beads hanging below the charms, creating a floating charms effect from the contrast of the beads to the thin chain.