I'm Pumped

Guess what???? Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime won the necklace that I gave away. She received it the other day and guess what???? She blogged about it. I'm so thrilled that this wonderful artist likes the necklace that I made. Go over and see what she said. Thank you, Deryn. I'm really glad that you won.

And the winner is

But, first, I want to say Happy Birthday to my sweet and wonderful son. Sunday, we had dinner at his house and did a little birthday celebration. His birthday was actually on the 13th but they left to go on vacation then. So, Saturday, he and his brood got back armed with some great vacation pictures. Then we got to do the Happy Birthday song. He had some help blowing out his candles on the cake.

Jason, I just want to say what a fine man you've grown up to be. I'm so blessed and honored to say that you're my son. BTW~~~~how's it feel to be 36?

Now, on to the drawing for the necklace. I decided to have my granddaughter do the honors. She was so excited because she's familiar with many of you because of my blog.

First, I printed all of the names of everyone who commented. Then I cut them out, all equally and folded all in the same manner. We put them in grandson's hat.

Then Paige took the hat, closed her eyes tight and pulled out a name.

Is the suspense getting to you?????

There's the winner's name in her hand. She already knows who it is :o)

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AND THE WINNER IS!
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DERYN MENTOCK OF SOMETHING SUBLIME!

So,Deryn, just Email me the snail mail addy of where you'd like your necklace shipped. And it will be on it's way to you right away.

As I've said before, I wish I could send something to each and everyone of you who've read my blog and made such kind and wonderful comments. Keep reading~~~I had fun with this and I'm seriously thinking of doing another give-away in the coming months. I want to thank all of my blogger buddies for all of your support.......

Wire wrapped links

I've been having fun today. Take a look at Deryn Mentock's tutorial on how to make wire wrapped links. It's wonderful, so clear and concise. If it's something you would like to try you can't miss. I've made a few today. I can't wait to include them in my work. I was looking for anything I could get my hands on to wrap. Below is an example of window screen, velvet, a candy wrapper and lace. Yes, that's right!!! A candy wrapper!!! Yes, I ate the candy to get the wrapper~~~~it's a sacrifice that I HAD to make for the sake of art!! Cool art supply Huh?

Good News

Well, the Christmas spirit is upon me. I'll be in the studio all the rest of the day today. Fortunately, the weather is grey, rainy and chilly. Good studio time,not very tempted to go out and about.

I also want to announce that I've been lucky enough to get my jewelry into Damselfly Studio and Gallery http://www.damselflybeads.com/1601.html in charming Midway,Kentucky.


Midway is the cutest little town. There's a train running right through the middle of it and it has shops and restaurants so you can spend a day there browsing (And hopefully, buying.) I feel as though I'm walking around in another century when I go there.


Here are a few of the pieces I've placed there.

I made this one with Argentinium silver with Garnet beads.

Here's one with silver fused to copper for the pendant. I made copper beads and those are Unikite beads at the ends of the copper beads. The chain is sterling silver...........

Remember this one from Deryn Mentock's http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/ summer challenge? I've finally decided that I can part with it. I can always make another, right? Although it won't look exactly the same.

And finally, a close-up of one the the fused silver to copper earrings. So, if you're anywhere near Midway, Kentucky do stop in at Damselfly.

More later, gotta get to work!!

Jewelry Challenge #4

Here is my take on Deryn's jewelry challenge #4. In this piece I used sterling silver,copper and brass metals. Each layer was cut and forged and heat treated. I drew a bead on the copper wrap. The charm at the end is brass,cut and textured, hanging from copper wire. The chain is made of annealed steel with the hook and eye clasp placed on the side. I'm happiest with the way the silver looks. I'm gonna use that texture on something else as well.

#1 and #8

Here I am with more to add to Deryn's Summer Jewelry Challenge. Finally got around to #1.

For this one I used copper,silver and brass. The copper piece at the front was flame colored and I added some eyelets, however, I have the back side of the eyelets showing to the front~~~ they remind me of little flowers like that. Next is a textured piece of silver~~~then the brass piece.

I'm loving the way this one turned out. I used some homemade tools on it to get the design. I hammered wire into it to get the spirals. Then, accented the spirals using a nail and a hole punch. Then I worked from the back with a small dowel to get the raised effect. Instead of a bead at the top of the bail I used a small gear that spins.

The neck chain is steel and copper that I formed then flame colored. Then I did # 8~~~ two of them.

Didn't have a watch to use so I made a center piece using the same technique that I did on the brass piece of #1. The rest is made with sterling silver,hammered and an eyelet added and hammered and flame colored brass. All connected with sterling silver jump rings.

This one is copper and brass and sterling connecting it all. The center piece reminds me of a Yin and Yang symbol.

The challenge is helping me stretch myself. Sometimes I get stuck in a certain mode that doesn't let me try new things or go beyond my comfort zone. Doing this is giving me that boost that I need to do the techniques that I haven't done in a long time.

For this I'm grateful. Thanks Deryn.

Deryn's Challenge

Here are my entries for Deryn's summer challenge. I started with #3. Don't know why, but that one really called to me. In fact, I did two different ones.

I etched both brass pieces first. Then hammered the "shelf" so it would have texture when I folded them over. The shorter piece has some Swarovski crystals and Lapis Lazuli. I "repurposed" some beads from jewelry that I had in the 80's. Days of big hair and chunky earrings. Looking back I can't believe that I ever thought that looked good.

The other longer piece has glass pearls, FW pearls and a stick pearl. The circle hanging at the bottom is a textured copper washer. Both neck chains are made of annealed steel wire.

Here are Paige and Suzi one evening on our deck after catching lightening bugs to use as a night light. After Suzi's visit, I'll recover a bit first, then I plan on doing more pieces for Deryn's challenge.