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!

THAW52~1

I've told you all about the RAW52 project I'm doing, but I haven't had a chance to tell you about THAW52 yet.

Any guesses what THAW stands for?  :)

 It stands for "Thing a Week".  

 Which, while I do enjoy making rings, appeals to me greatly.

 Because that means I can make my very favorite things, Earrings!!!

And as you can see, I am a week behind, but plan on being caught up just in time to begin week 3!

These are the Aphrodite earrings, in keeping with my red, pink and heart themes that I am enjoying right now. :)

All of the metalwork hand made by me here in my home studio with sterling silver and faceted ruby rondelles.  

I better get back to work!  Shop update tomorrow! :)