Desert Bloom

The only thing I managed to finish this week......

Turquoise and Sterling Silver, now listed in my shop!

THAW52-10 Prehnite Cross Earrings

I went to a bead show Ft. Worth about 3 weeks ago and picked up these prehnite beads.  Prehnite is such a soft beautiful green color.  And I am always a little upset that I can't seem to catch the right shade of green with my camera.

I am more and more loving the sort of natural cut of the stones that are dangling from the bottom of the cross.  And I am completely in love with prehnite.  I love the color, and I even love prehnite when it has inclusions like these beads do.

I've built a sturdy sterling silver cross frame to support these beauties.  Tumble polished for hours for strength and shine, I have decided to leave these bright shiny silver.

Not that they wouldn't look great oxidized, because they will.  I just decided to leave them shiny for now.  And you know sterling silver, it will surely oxidize on it's own in all the right spots.

These earrings measure 2 1/2" from the top of the hand made sterling ear wires, and are 1 1/4" at the widest point.

They are available for sale.  If you are interested, they are $ 45 including shipping.  Send me an email at amymarez@yahoo.com.

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In other news:

I am seriously thinking about opening a shop on Big Cartel.  I could have my own website built, but I know myself too well.  I would be too lazy to figure out how to maintain it, and too cheap to pay someone to fix it for me.  

After completing my taxes for 2010, and realizing how much I pay in fees to Etsy....Whew!  Let's just say it's a lot!  It's tough though, because Etsy has the buyers, and I am grateful for the traffic I get there.  It just seems in these tough economic times it would be wise to watch my dollars a little more closely. 

Maybe direct my regulars to Big Cartel, every little bit would help, and I could slowly continue to build my clientele...I don't know.  I'm just thinking out loud at this point.  

What about you guys?  Have you ever considered doing another online venue that was more your own? 

THAW52-9 Confetti Earrings

 I had a few hours to myself yesterday and decided to finally enamel some pieces that I had made probably about 3 weeks ago.  It is amazing the stuff you find when you clean your work space!

 When I cut these pieces for these earrings, I was trying to think of ways to add texture and/or movement to the metal that would still be visible after the enameling process was complete.   

I discovered this by accident.  I was bored one day sitting at my bench and just started cutting into a scrap piece and happily discovered that I liked the look of the metal as it bent on it's own into a nice little ruffle.

And the color?  Another happy experiment.  It is a gorgeous color that I am calling ultra teal.  Too green to be blue, and too blue to be green. If that makes sense...

Deep saturated color.  Exactly the type of color I wanted to achieve when I decided to start enameling. 

There are so many layers of enamel on these earrings, front and back, that I lost count.  Richly enameled rounds of copper on sterling silver ear wires.  Hand made and tumble polished for shine and strength.  The total length of these beauties is just a smidge over 2".  They are 1" at the widest point, and a medium weight earring.  $ 52 including shipping.  Contact me via my email address amymarez@yahoo.com if you are interested in purchasing!

Raindrops....

After watching the video on the Spanish gentleman who truly made his jewelry by hand, every step of the way...I have to change my "100% handmade" label to something with some sort of disclaimer like, Entirely made by hand from prepared materials.  Doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it?

I'll have to work on it... ;)

I am behind on my Thing A Week project, so this is my entry number 7.  

Little sterling clouds with hand crafted chain and fine silver patterned rain drops, highlighted with turquoise rounds.

Rain is an interesting thing.  Depending on where you live, rain can be very different.  It may be something that you have never thought of before. 

Growing up in a very dry climate, we got very little rain.  Most of our precipitation was from snowfall in the surrounding mountains in the winter.

When it did rain though, big fat rain drops would fall from the sky.  Slowly making their way to the dusty earth, they would fall and land with a splatter.  

When it rained I loved to be outside, feeling the drops landing on my face.  Breathing deeply the smell of the rain.  It really was a rare treat.  

The rain storms, if you could call them that, would never last long.  Leaving as quickly as they came.  The sun coming out and quickly drying out anywhere the rain had touched, and leaving behind a rainbow. 

When I moved to Texas, I first lived in Houston.  I'll never forget the first rain storm I experienced.  The rain came pouring from the sky in sheets.  And would last for hours...often times flooding areas all around the city.

I remember being afraid.  I had never seen such rain before.  

After living in Texas for 18 years, I am quite comfortable with rain pouring forth from the sky in sheets, but I will never forget the big fat drops of rain that fell from the sky over North East Nevada.

THAW2011-6

Another "better late than never", this time for THAW.  

Enameled earrings.  This shape kept cropping up in my doodles, and I finally decided to make some earrings using it!  

More experiments with layering enamels, and wondering what color I was going to end up with.  This is true grass green.  I've been noticing a lack of green in my shop, so here we go.  Plus, I think I'm anxious for Spring. 

To be listed in my shop soon...

THAW2011-3

 Rhodonite from Nevada looking like a wood grain pattern.  The colors look like pink mixed with dark brown at first glance.  But when you look closely, it is in fact a deep dark purple.

 This particular stone was cut by Terry of LostSierra on Etsy.

 It has been in my collection for some time.  But when I went on my pink kick, I pulled it out.

 Doing a little research on the stone, I discovered that Rhodonite is associated with the emotion of Love.

 Well, no wonder I was drawn to it right now!  Now, when I am on a pink love kick.  (Thank you Valentines Day!

A lacy detailed edge and a scalloped bezel, heart cutouts on the back.  Pink opal, rhodocrosite, and pink tourmaline beads.  100% crafted by my own hands here in my home studio.