I’ve always liked the ornaments that I make in a combination of silver & gold, and apparently my customers do, too, since I’ve sold them. So I started by making a new double swag ornament using [...]]]> Amid weaving in preparation for the Roycroft Winter Show, I did manage to get two new Victorian Christmas ornaments made.

I’ve always liked the ornaments that I make in a combination of silver & gold, and apparently my customers do, too, since I’ve sold them. So I started by making a new double swag ornament using these two colors. It’s shown here on a matte finish gold ball.

Then I wanted to make a super-fancy ornament. This didn’t reach that height for me – it’s a medium fancy. I used silver-lined clear beads and metallic mint green beads in this netted ornament. Like all my Victorian ornaments, the beading is a little jacket that can slip off and onto another glass ball to change the look or in case of breakage. Here it is on a dark green matte finish glass ball…

…and now on a shiny silver ball. (Unfortunately, you can see the reflection of my red kitchen table in the bottom of the ornament. I didn’t realize that until I sized the picture for the web.)

I doubt I’ll have time to make the super-fancy one I have in my mind, since there are many more scarves I want to weave. You’ll start seeing them soon.

Your turn: do you have a favorite Christmas ornament?

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided to continue with my earlier pieces and make some more necklaces with [...]]]> I’ve finished making jewelry in preparation for the Letchworth Arts & Crafts Festival. I hit my target numbers for bracelets and exceeded it in both earrings and necklaces. Here are the remaining necklaces I’ve recently created.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided to continue with my earlier pieces and make some more necklaces with center dangles. While none of them are exactly alike and I have to make adjustments for every one due to bead size, weight, and color, once I’m in a mode it’s easier for me to stay on it than to switch gears entirely. So I made a necklace with some nice poppy jasper I had.

Then I decided to slide sideways into a necklace with a different kind of dangle. This is made from gold coral. (I believe it’s dyed.)

Sticking with the coral, I made also one that makes a much bolder statement. The coral is so lightweight, this necklace is surprisingly light around your neck. It will be just perfect for the right person.

After I put the coral away, I was going through one of my drawers for the next inspiration, and came upon some beautiful, large, horn rondelle beads. They were just the ticket for a whole different type of necklace. Pairing them with a variety of agates for a big, chunky necklace seemed the right move. I added a thick handmade copper toggle clasp, making it so the necklace can be worn with the clasp in the back, the front, or on the side.

Now for the pièce de résistance. In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit that this wasn’t the last piece I made; I’ve been saving it to show you at the end. Every year the Letchworth Festival has competition. Artists and crafters can enter two pieces: one in their category (in my case for this show, jewelry), and one in the annual theme. I only entered a piece in the theme category one other year, as I never had anything that struck me as appropriate for it.

This year’s theme is harmony. Several days ago as I was sitting at my dining room table (where I create the jewelry), out of the blue I got an inspiration. The old duet between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder started playing in my mind; you know the one – Ebony & Ivory. I sang it through mentally a few times without thinking about it, just enjoying the old classic song.

Then the lightbulb went off! When I got rid of that ancient, broken player piano that sat in my damp basement for years, I purposely pulled off the ivory from many of the keys. I had that ivory sitting in an old peanut butter jar in my cupboard. I could use that ivory and some onyx to make a necklace in the harmony theme. It would have been ideal if I had also saved some of the ebony keys, but I didn’t.

Initially I thought I’d create a rather literal interpretation of a piano keyboard, but as I got into the design, I changed my mind, and made a necklace more loosely based on a keyboard. I’ve only shown it to one other person at this point, and Margaret loves it. She’s such a good friend she’s not necessarily objective, though. So here’s the big reveal.

I have no idea how it will be received at the show, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter because I’m happy with it.

Your turn: have you ever won a prize because of your work?

I had three lovely, tear-shaped pieces of turquoise. [...]]]> I’ve been making bracelets and necklaces for the past week, and have made great progress. The necklaces photograph better than the bracelets, so that’s what you’ll see here. In some cases the bracelets coordinate with the necklaces, in some cases there’s no connection between the two.

I had three lovely, tear-shaped pieces of turquoise. I had previously considered making them into three different necklaces, but now decided to use them all at once. It would make a much bolder statement, and would use up my stash quicker, to boot.

In stash-busting mode, I scanned my separate drawers of gemstones and decided to use some garnets. I had an idea for a necklace in my mind, and it took me some time to work it out, to get each strand to hang at just the right level, but I’m quite pleased with the results.

As long as I was working with garnets, I moved onto some stunning green garnets. A much simpler design, this one didn’t take as long to make.

Last night I moved to carnelian. An even simpler design, one that works well with the 12mm rounds I had.

This morning I went to my fiber arts guild meeting. When I came home I sat down to make more jewelry, and made two varieties of what I’m calling a snowflake necklace – sterling silver and Swarovski crystals.

I’m whittling down the number of pieces left to make – only 6 more necklaces and 10 bracelets to hit my target numbers.

Once again, I’m really glad that I keep all my business records on QuickBooks; with a few clicks of the mouse, I could pull up a report from last year’s sales at Letchworth to give me some idea of how many pieces I had [...]]]> I’ll be mostly working on jewelry for the next few weeks.

Once again, I’m really glad that I keep all my business records on QuickBooks; with a few clicks of the mouse, I could pull up a report from last year’s sales at Letchworth to give me some idea of how many pieces I had to have this year. I had to make at least enough new pieces to equal the number of pieces in each category (earrings, bracelets, necklaces) as I sold last year. I was surprised that I had sold lots more bracelets than earrings. Was it because people weren’t buying earrings, or because I didn’t have the kind of earrings they were looking for? I assume the latter.

In any case, I didn’t think to pull up that report until I had already made 31 pairs of earrings in brand new designs, and now I know I need to focus more on bracelets and necklaces. That’s fine, and I know that I’ll create earrings to coordinate with them as I make them.

Here’s a new necklace.

I’ve made similar things in the past, but not for a few years. I’ve always been attracted to a multitude of gemstone chips, and my customers seem to like them, too. Obviously, by this time I’ve gotten back into a routine of being able to replicate loops repeatedly – I had to make two loops of sterling wire for each gemstone chip in the necklace.

Then I had an idea for another new kind of triple necklace. (I’d made triple necklaces in the past, which had been quite popular, but which I didn’t want to make them just like that again.) I’d combine the idea of my triples and my convertibles (wear a long necklace, or a take a piece out and wear shorter necklace and a bracelet). I had a lot of freshwater pearls, so tried out the concept with them.

The 3-in-1 necklace has three (relatively) identical, handmade clasps. Hook the three sections together for a necklace that’s about 23″ long. One section has three strands of pearls; two sections each have two strands of pearls.

Take one section out, forming a choker and a bracelet. Or wear it as three bracelets, for 7 strands of pearls around your wrist. That’s multi-purpose, and will hopefully be appreciated by buyers.

Astute readers will notice that the two necklaces aren’t identical. I liked the first one well enough that I made a second, using more subtle colors of pearls.

I tried the concept a third time, using onyx, red jasper, and turquoise. Although I like the way it looked, I won’t do it with other gemstones again. Other gems are so much heavier than pearls that I had to use lots of sterling spacers or the whole thing would have been much too heavy. That’s not the concept I wanted, and like my weaving, if my jewelry doesn’t make me happy, it doesn’t get made.

But by now I’d checked my records and knew I really had to focus on bracelets the most. I had an idea in my mind of something that would combine my fiber interests with my jewelry. I’ve had plenty of experience and know that what works in my head and what works in real life can be completely different. So I was pleased that this one worked rather like I had planned.

Each bracelet is made with 2 or 3 different colors of yarn. The orange is a 3 colors of very fine cotton, the blue-green-brown a medium cotton. The blue & white and red & purple are actually both variegated rayon yarns. The purple is a very fine blend of cashmere & silk in light and dark. I like them all, but must admit the oranges are my favorite, partly because of color, partly because of their thinness. It took a while to work out how to make these, and I think I’ll make a few more before the show.

Your turn – how often are you able to combine your varied life interests?

Since my last post I have updated several pages on my website. [...]]]> It never ceases to amaze me how much time I can spend doing work on my business that isn’t weaving.  It’s pretty much always work that I think is important or I wouldn’t do it, but geez – I should be producing more finished products!

Since my last post I have updated several pages on my website.  I spent far and away the most time on my home page.  And most of that on the visual – I haven’t really begun to update the content.  I do know that it’s the content that drives search engines, and that it’s critical that I pay serious attention to it.  And I will.  I just had to get the visuals completely re-done first.  My old home page embarrassed me.

Here’s how it used to look.

Actually, the jewelry picture wasn’t all weirdly out of shape like it is here, but you get the idea. The scarf picture was far from flattering of my weaving, and weaving and jewelry had equal weight on the home page.

Here’s the new home page.

It’s now very clear that weaving takes precedence over jewelry. The photos of the scarves are flattering, and show varied styles and fabrics.

I’d really hate to admit how much time I spent on the design of the new page. I had a draft that I actually went live with and sought some feedback. I liked the suggestions I received, and spent way too much time, again, incorporating them into the design. Being mostly self-taught on using Dreamweaver, there’s absolutely no doubt that I do everything the hardest way possible. Plus, my obsessiveness runs full steam when I’m doing design work. I spend ungodly amounts of time on things that no one else will ever even notice.

Anyway, I’m happy with the new home page design, and will get back to updating the content SOON. (If I tell myself enough times, and with enough force, I will make it happen.)

Today the binding came in for all the baby blankets I recently finished weaving. I’d love to tell you I’ll get them done in the next few days, but unfortunately, that won’t be possible. My first show of the season is Friday & Saturday, & I’ll be lucky to get one of each style bound before then. Although I make very little jewelry these days, I know my local customers will want to see new earrings, and I HAVE to get them made. So in reality, I won’t get to the majority of the binding until Sunday. Sigh.

I also spent a bunch of time on the email marketing for this upcoming show. Thanks to the responses to my survey, I had a really good idea about what I needed to do, it was the how that took time.

Your turn: where are your time sinks?

I hope you feel the same way. And that you love a bargain.

I’ve created a really short survey to get to [...]]]> I like taking surveys. Online surveys and telephone surveys. Political surveys and consumer surveys. I have an opinion about lots of things, and am happy to give them to people.

I hope you feel the same way. And that you love a bargain.

I’ve created a really short survey to get to know my readers and customers a bit better. And I mean short - there are only 5 questions, and 1 of them is optional. It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes to complete it. Created with SurveyMonkey, your response is completely anonymous and confidential.

To sweeten the deal, I’ve built in an incentive. Take the survey and get a coupon code for 10% off any in-stock merchandise you order from my website! When you finish the survey, you’ll get the code, and you can use it anytime till the end of August.

What are you waiting for? Go take the survey!

Since I didn’t have any gold-plated [...]]]> I liked the green garnet necklace so well that I just had to use the design for more than one necklace. I had some lovely citrine beads in that same pleasing flat oval shape, so modified the necklace slightly by using 14 karat gold-filled wire instead of the sterling silver.

Since I didn’t have any gold-plated beading wire, I used liquid gold and little 2mm gold-filled beads for the length of the necklace. It’s a tiny bit heavier than the green garnet necklace, and a little bit less delicate. For me, that’s a good thing — I’m not the most careful person when it comes to wearing necklaces. I tend to either play with it while I’m wearing it, or forget I have it on and end up doing damage when I pull my shirt over my head – with the necklace clasped on top of the shirt!

Citrine enhances self-esteem and clarity in communications. It encourages generosity, prosperity, happiness, and success.

You can download the http://secondwindjewelry.com/jewelry-weaving-blog/?p=1698 Although the overwhelming majority of my time this year has been spent weaving, for my September and October shows I was showing both weaving and jewelry. I hadn’t really made any jewelry this year, so needed to get those creative juices flowing. I started by making some simple pieces, and then moved on to [...]]]> Although the overwhelming majority of my time this year has been spent weaving, for my September and October shows I was showing both weaving and jewelry. I hadn’t really made any jewelry this year, so needed to get those creative juices flowing. I started by making some simple pieces, and then moved on to new things that were really fun to make and used some beautiful beads I had in my stash.

The result was this necklace and earrings made from a nice grade of green garnet.

I used 21 gauge sterling silver wire to make the squiggles that served as both head pin and necklace interest, hammering it after I bent it to work harden it (make sure it retained its shape). The five dangles of varying lengths are surrounded by sterling liquid silver and 2mm beads. All are suspended from very fine silver-plated 49-strand beading wire. Although you can’t see it in the photo, I made a sterling hook and eye clasp for closure.

I haven’t used green garnet much, but find it really beautiful. Like all gemstones, green garnet has healing properties; they are different than red garnet properties. Green garnet promotes healing, encourages cooperation, and can be helpful in meditation. It can be a help in the creative process (maybe that’s why this necklace worked so well), as well as enhancing a sense of peace and serenity.

I won’t likely be putting this or other new jewelry on my website, instead only having them available at shows or by contacting me directly.

Handcrafted jewelry in [...]]]> I’m part of the Allegany Artisans, dozens of talented people who live and create here in Allegany County, NY. Every year we have a studio tour, when people open their homes and studios to visitors from far and wide. Here are a few shots of how this takes over my home.

Handcrafted jewelry in the dining room

gemstones for dinner?

handwoven scarves in the living room

handwovens take a seat, and a table

the kitchen's not exempt from displays

I’ve set up my Macomber loom so visitors can try their hand at weaving a mug rug while they’re here. I’ll be working on rayon chenille scarves on my counterbalance loom.

Gotta run – the show starts in minutes!