Enough Already!

I've lost track of how many days my outdoor thermometer has been stuck on this number. Enough is enough. We get the idea. It's Alaska. It's winter. It's cold. Let's move on.

On a positive note, the sky has been beautiful. The mornings bring on a glowing shade of pink that is known as Alpenglow. It is truly indescribable. Yesterday evening, on the way into Eagle River for a celebratory anniversary dinner, the sky was in layers of teal, blue and finally, black. Absolutely gorgeous.

I tried to recreate it using the colourlovers website and this is as close as I could get:

Asymmetry in Motion

For a long time, all of my jewelry designs were symmetrical, controlled and orderly. Then I took some classes where I learned that designs needn't be symmetrical to be beautiful. Hey, I'll attribute this symmetry obsession to my engineering background.

Here's a necklace with a bit of asymmetry that works wonderfully. The big olive green pearl at the bottom reminds me of an irregular egg.

The pearl is suspended from a fused circle of fine silver. Trailing up one side of the chain is a line of smaller pearls. The other side is pure chain. All of the silver has been oxidized and tumbled for that shiny steel gray finish I love.

This necklace is for sale in my etsy shop. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you can do so by filling in the form at the right.

If I Can't be at the Beach ...

... I'll share a piece of jewelry that reminds me of the beach! This brooch/pendant base is a disk of super lustrous mother of pearl. I drilled a few holes in it to help secure the freeform beadwork.

The beadwork is composed of ocean-y colors -- aqua, teal, green, seafoam, turquoise and little bronze. The large bead in the center is a Peruvian Opal and the diamond shaped bead is Fluorite. The remainder of the beads are glass seed beads in various sizes.

Here's a peek at the back of the pin. I glued on a finding that will allow this to be worn as either a pin or a pendant.




This lovely piece is for sale and ON SALE in my etsy shop!

Aqua Blues . The Necklace

These colors are so reminiscent of the ocean and all things tropical. I enjoy making these free-form wire wrapped elements, but the real fun is in composing the collection of drops.

Here, I've used a large rondelle of chrysocolla, an abalone rectangle, a faceted amazonite rectangle, little teal coin pearls and a beautiful glass leaf. You see an assortment of other little goodies as well -- turquoise, sterling silver beads and a crystal.

All of the silver has been oxidized and hand sanded to reveal just a bit of the shiny silver. This necklace is for sale in my etsy shop.
litt

Two New Pairs of Earrings

Faceted briolettes and keshi pearls ... there's something about the combination that works well for me. This first pair features longish amethyst briolettes that I have topped with a cluster of peacock colored keshi pearls. I like to put these types of earrings on leverback earwires for the security offered by such findings.

The second pair of earrings has a more delicate look. I started with shorter and plumper gray quartz briolettes, which are actually a very blue gray. Topping these is a loose cluster of very small white keshi pearls.

Recently, I changed the background color for some of my photographs. I had been using handmade papers, then for a short time switched to a very white background. Those photos seemed boring to me. Now, I'm trying out this charcoal gray colored paper. I quite like the look.

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Happy New Year!

Rick & I had a quiet New Year's Eve watching movies and sipping champagne. We had to calm Xena every time some fireworks exploded nearby. All in all though, it was a pleasant evening.

Happy New Year to all!