Metalsmithing class Part 1



I went to a metalsmithing class on the weekend that was a gift from my mom for my birthday back in June.
I had tons of fun and I could do this the entire day all days of a week.


I have a couple of tools already, but now need to get the ones I am missing like a ring mandrel, a plastic mallet etc.


Anyways. I made three pieces. The first one was this sterling silver ring. In the beginning, I wanted to add something to it, but decided against since baby is tearing most of my jewelry apart and a big ring would not be the thing to wear. It wears super nice. The size is just right as I adjusted it for my middle finger.


I will show the pendant maybe tomorrow - still need to do some sanding. And then I started a third ring made out of brass, but this is still in the infantary stage.


Like it?

Thoughtful Tuesday

“The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist.”






Harold Wilkins


British journalist, historian (1891-1960)

I am the LMAJ Designer of the week

How cool is that. My autumn birds necklace made me "Designer of the week" at Love My Art Jewelry. Read all about it here.

This is so special to me. I often feel that I do not really have a real space out here in the jewelry world, and now these talented bead and jewelry artists Kelli Pope, MaryAnn Caroll, Maire Jane Dodd, Barbara Lewis, Shannon LeVart, Patti Lakinsmith and LeAnn from SummersStudio have selected ME as designer of the week.

I am truely speechless. Need to go back to my bead table and continue to make something new to submit it to the LMAJ blog. Wouldn't something like this make your day? It truely makes my day!

Dear Holland, Michigan reader

I checked out my stat counter today. And this was the map I found when I checked for recent visitors. So one of my biggest findings of today: I am well on track with my goal of conquering the world!
(We need to set ourselves targets, don't we :) ?)

The second finding from today is the reason for this blog post. It is you, my dear JCI Holland Michigan reader. It is just a question, but would you let me know who you are? Since we both work in the same company. And I wonder if I know you. I live in Germany, but who knows, maybe we met. Leave me a comment or if you prefer, send me an email to: nickisreef@hotmail.com
I am so curious and I would love to chat with you. Thanks for stopping by.

And I hope everyone else will have a wonderful day too.

ABS submission: Hatching life

For the first time I submitted something to the ABS challenge. I always wanted to do it, but by the time I had decided on my design, it was usually the next month with a new challenge. But this time, it came natural to me. The tree of life directly remembered me of a giveaway I won a long time ago and that has been sitting in my stash ever since.


Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze, 1909
Gustav Klimt 1862-1918



I created this necklace based on a wonderful ceramic swirl bead set (beads, pendant and button) from Tracee Dock aka the Classic Bead. For the clasp, I made a double wire gunmetal hook and used it together with the button.
I also wanted to add some color and had that bright orange sari silk ribbon left that complemented the colors of the bead set really nicely (life should be colorful). I made some wire wrapped chain out of gunmetal wire and created a nest with coral beads that I attached to the clasp. Assymetry strikes me so to balance the ceramic beads I used czech glass beads. A wire ring was added to the pendant and voila - hatching life.









So here is my first submission ever. I hope you like it and buy some beads from the Classic Bead as well. They are really gorgeous.

Which one is your favorite?

So three questions for you today, since I made some more pendants and need some direction on where to go with it.

1) Which one is your favorite?
2) Do you generally like the plain ones better or the ones where I tried the image transfer?
3) What would you pay for it?

I have put some on etsy but did not sell any so far. I made one necklace with a bird pendant and I think it turned out quite nice (check it out here).

Your choices are the following:

1) Bamboo

2) Water and Air


3) Lotus


4) Field of flowers


5) Orange blossom


6) Pink swirl


and a few for Xmas
7) Snow heart


8) Snow rings


9) Snow waves


They are not totally done yet, and need to be sanded on the edges. But I like all of them. I will list some of them in my ETSY store, and some others will directly go into jewelry. I like creating with them, they are lightweight, and unique and made by me.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Erin's challenge


I am participating in a challenge that was just kicked off by Erin of Tesori Trovati called the challenge of color.

How does it work? I had to choose a color family (my pick was blue - what else?). Erin chose a pain tchip palette just for me - which is the one you see in the picture above. Isn't that gorgeous? I just love that color combination. I could actually paint my living room in those colors (if I had not just painted it a year ago).
I will now create a piece of jewelry using some or all (bonus points) colors of the palette, select a name for the piece from the palette and post it on December 3rd. There will be a huge blog hop, some make sure you note the date in your calendars. And there will be a random winner to win some .... BEADS. YAY. And there are lots of talented ladies participating, so I am sure it will be well worth it.

if you are interested about the details - click HERE.

I celebrate - ABS Carnival Post

I celebrate



Night and Day


Sunshine and Rain


The sky and the ocean


Air

 

Peaceful times and Party times


Friends and strangers


Music


Vacations and daily routine




Time with my baby


My family and my animals


Our health


My garden




My work and finances

Good dinners with a glass of red wine


Time to bead







Remembering that not all of these things might be there forever

I celebrate nothing special


I just celebrate being here


(All jewelry will be available in my etsy store tomorrow:
Blue Silk copper cuff
Greek hammered spiral necklace
My bird smile necklace with handmade polymer bird pendant).

Thanks for leaving a comment.



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