That Old Familiar Feeling!

It's that time of year again. The time when everything shimmers and turns to gold and red. Autumn is my favorite season. It makes me melancholy even before it starts. I love the bitter sweet feelings Fall arouses in my soul.

It's the cool nights and gloriously blue skied sunny days. It's the papery crinkle of fallen leaves. The rich scents of baking in the kitchen. Smiling pumpkins, sweaters, boots, long walks, apples...the list is endless. If I could live in a place that feels like Fall all year round, I'd be a very happy camper.

I've been busy creating lots of Fall jewelry in the last few weeks. Gearing up for craft shows and church bazaars. I am so thankful to God that He allows me to do something I love and has given me a little talent and a lot of passion to be creative!

The Autumn Bouquet bracelet features lampwork beads by Carolyn Conley. 

It can be found in our Etsy shop here...

The Elephant Walk necklace and earrings set is another one of my new creations. It features one of my hand sawn pendants. This started as a sketch in my sketch book and was created entirely from scratch. He can be found in the Etsy shop as well.

Show Off Your Hooters?

The girls over at the ning site, Artisan Whimsy have been showing off their hooters! Owls that is, LOL. They put together a challenge showcasing owls. The challenge was to create either an owl component or a finished piece that featured an owl.

I'm not really crazy about owls, so I had to think really hard about what to create. I went for something fallish and embossed the owl onto sheet copper and then stamped the feathers in with my V stamp. Next came hole punching and then the dangles were added.

For my dangles I used a Russ Powers boro bead accented with Citrine rondelles. A brown glass pearl and crystal were accented with some gorgeous goldenrod yellow Aragonite rondelles. I suspended my plaque from some pretty solid copper rolo chain and finished it off with a hand forged copper S clasp I made.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how my little owl came out. If you like him too, please go to the Artisan Whimsy site and give me a vote!

What sort of owl creations do you make?

New Techniques!

I tried my hand at something new this past week. Riveting...seriously. LOL. I riveted my first items together and it was SO much fun. I'm searching all over for more things I can jam together with a rivet. I don't know why I waited so long to try this out, it was really very easy.

I also stamped out my first word. That will take more practice to perfect but I enjoyed doing that too. I need to find more inspiration for words and blanks to try this out on. I'm LOVING learning all of the metal smithing techniques.

Here is my project piece. I used a 34mm Vintaj brass blank and riveted on the 'flower' bead cap. I then stamped out stem and leaves and finally added the word 'blossom' and another flower to the end. My spacing isn't great yet, but I think this one has lots of character.

My beading group, The Bead Hive, has a new inspiration up this month. I LOVE this color palette and wanted to use the colors for a project.

I decided to use my new pendant with the crystals picking up the colors from the inspiration palette. I used rose, olivine and amethyst crystals and the brass chain picks up that tone from the palette nicely I think.

What would you make using that color palette? Does it say Fall/Autumn to you too?

Fall is in the Air

It's that time of  year again! Time to start thinking about Fall and Winter. I hate to put away my oceany colors and Summer clothes. I know it's going to be hot for the next month or so, but it's definitely time to get busy designing Fall and Winter items for our shop. Pretty soon it will be time for Pumpkin Festival here in Milton, WV and that means our town will be totally transformed into a Fall paradise.

I just perused the Pantone Fall 2012 color palate and there is so much to LOVE this coming season! My favorite is Ultramarine Green followed by Pink Flambe! The softer Rhapsody and Rose Smoke colors are uber romantic!

Pantone Fall 2012 Colors.



Rome and I just listed a bunch of great new pieces in our Etsy shop!  You can see the color influences from the pantone scheme here. You can find all of our gorgeous jewelry at www.thepinkmartini.etsy.com

Sedona. Features Arizona mined Chrysocola and Aqua Negra Agate. It falls in the Ultramarine Green group.

Principessa offers some of the warm romantic pinks from the Fall color trends, both Rose Smoke and Pink Flambe!

Tangerine Orange and pink lampwork beaded earrings! Simply, Tangerine!