Happy Birthday To Me!

Wow, did I have a great birthday. I belong to a quilting group that I helped start 8 years ago and we do the "secret sister" gift! Well this is what my Secret Sister gave me for my Birthday; there are some beautiful fabrics, The Quilting Book, a Belle Armour Jewelry magazine and a gift card! I have such a generous secret sister...she is absolutely spoiling me! When I'm not making jewelry...I'm quilting!

PEACE

I had a request to make a PEACE necklace and I think it turned out quite well. I took a sterling silver disc, stamped the word PEACE on it, antiqued it and polished it up. I then added a sterling silver peace charm and strung it on 2 strands of black seed beads. I'm told the girls in high school are wearing "anything" with peace on it.

A Weekend in Greesburg

What a great weekend it was. My son and I drove to Greensburg, Kansas to visit my friend Debbie of Prairieemporium.com We tried etching for the first time and we came up with several nice pieces. Then Debbie drew a cross and a leaf (she's the really artsy one) and we made some pendants out of those shapes in brass. We also did some soldering and she did some resign designs! It was so much fun, it was like being at a workshop for a few days. And my son, Sam, had never been in the "country" before so he was in heaven around all the animals! Thanks Debbie for a truly wonderful weekend!

SING......

Sing..........such a small word but it has a lot of umph!!! It seems like whenever I have a charm with the word "sing" on it, it sells immediately. Some friends from Colorado visited a couple weeks ago and bought this right up, I need to make another one similar because I have so many things I could wear this with.

I'm going to visit a friend this weekend, Debbie at Prairieemporium.com and we are going to have so much fun....we're going to make jewelry all weekend. We're going to solder, etch pendants, make silver rings and all sorts of things. She is so talented and I can't wait to see what we come up with!

Turning Over A New Leaf!

That's right. I finished making this incredible leaf pendant that the owner of my local bead shop taught her instructors! I will teach this class this coming Saturday and can't wait. It was so much fun and they all turned out so unique!

Teaching Day!

Today I'm teaching a class at our local bead shop "Beadles". I'm going to teach a class called "Charmed". It will be a small class demonstrating how to cut metal, stamp metal and add adornments to the charm. It's a simple class but I "love" making charms.

This necklace is currently my favorite. It's made of copper charms, copper rings and a beautiful brown and teal cross stone pendant!

Sam's New Blanket!

Ok, so when I'm not "beading" I'm sewing my son a new blanket! Sam has always found the feel of soft fabric across his face relaxing. A few weeks ago I dragged Sam to a fabric store while I looked for some quilting fabric and we came across this extremely soft and plush fabric with Skeletons. He fell in love and "begged" me to make him a throw to cuddle with. I simply stitched it around, turned it inside out and so now he has a very soft blanket to cuddle with. I love making things that make Sam happy!

I'm Charmed!

I guess you could say I'm on a "charm" kick! I found this tutorial on the web on making a birds nest and this is my "first" try and I love it. I bought some steel wire today at Ace Hardware after reading a couple blogs that use steel to make some absolutely beautiful jewelry. I've never used steel in my pieces before but I like the workability of it and the way it looks so I'm going to try to incorporate it in some of my future pieces.

After looking closely at the "birds nest" picture, I need to get my tripod out so the picture isn't so blurry. There is sooooo much to consider when you start a blog. I read some blogs and they add a new piece of jewelry and comments each day and I think...wow, I don't think I could ever get enough ideas for jewelry pieces to make, then take a picture, edit the picture, download it to my computer, add it to the blog along with a comment. My goal starting August is to post twice a week showing two new pieces that I make that week!

I so appreciate those of you that continue to check out my blog even when it doesn't change regularly! Thanks! Leave a comment and let me know what I can do to make my blog for fun to visit!

Here are some charms that I made during my vacation. I've really been wanting to master the art of making a tree with branches, grass and a bird. And while I was at my parents I found some tools in my dad's tool box and I think I've got a couple of pretty good trees with branches. Notice the bird(s) on them, I've been wanting to use this new stamp forever!

I went to the Beadles (our local bead shop) today and signed up to teach a few classes for August and September. I'm going to teach a class on making charms, forging silver into earrings, and riveting a pendant! I hope to see some of my local friends there! You know who you are!

SUMMER IS FLYING . . . . . .

Wow, my summer is flying by! Sam and I visited my family in Illinois and the weather was perfect, low 80's every day we were there (compared to 107 in Oklahoma).

I have this favorite gift store I shop during every visit and they had two of these awesome necklace stands for sale. It's a metal copper and it looks really organic. I've got some ideas in my head I'm anxious to make into jewelry necklaces so I'll have some pictures soon. Also I have new stamped copper charms I'll get posted on here tomorrow! So much to do, so little time!

It's good to be back to my blog and my beads!!!