New stone setting projects

Ooooo...here are a few fun stones. I've been working on a few of them already. The big pink one is actually an Opal from Greece. I got it from a guy who got it from THE guy who found it and cut it in Greece. You will be surprised when you see what I'm doing with it...Oh, I love it! Then there are 3 Labradorite stones (1 bigger and round and the other 2 smaller and square), a Peruvian Opal - the triangular shaped one and then a Chrysoprase. It will be fun to show you what I do with them all! Wheeee!

A little blog love...

I had a really nice little blog feature this morning in the Seattle PI featuring my holiday collection! The blog is written by a gal who runs the Urban Fashion Network here in Seattle.

Very nice!

Now off to get my hair done. Nothing like a fresh cut and color...it's going to be a good day!

Metalsmithing and other new endeavors...

Wow, I've been so busy! A couple months or so ago, I decided to give metalsmithing a try. I've taken a couple classes before, but never really applied the things I learned in my own studio - thinking I couldn't have all that fancy equipment in my house, plus I wasn't ready or willing to spend the money. But, in fact, you can do a whole lot with some pretty basic tools...and a whole lot of patience. To refresh my memory, I bought a few books for reference and gave it a go. Oh! And YouTube! Good god there is a ton of cool stuff on there. Tutorials galore. I started with just some basics - soldering posts on to earrings, soldering circles and hoops closed, etc...I loved it! It was so satisfying. Since then I've set a few stones and even made a few rings! I can't even tell you how much fun I've been having. The items I've been making have been taking forever though. I'm used to pumping out tons of pieces of jewelry a day, but with some of these new techniques that I'm still a novice at, I can only get a few done a day - at the most :).

I'm also getting ready to release a small holiday collection for Erin Jane Designs. I'm hoping to get my photos finished, pricing done and launched on the website in the next couple weeks. I haven't released a new line since last spring, so I'm pretty excited. You'll see a lot of examples of my soldering...I couldn't really get enough. I'll keep you updated and also post some teaser photos :). Some seriously cool stuff.

One of my favorite (and most time consuming!) items I did recently, is this ring. I'll be putting it in my Etsy shop SOON! Here is a photo after I made the band, bezel and backplate and pulled it out of the pickle - plus the crystal quartz stone I would soon set. Then, the after...bling!!

I'm also working on a necklace setting - it's still a work in progress. Ugh, and it might be for a while. I'm having such a hard time polishing these little guys. I'm learning that there are still so many tools that I still need to make the job easier.

More to come soon...!