Sunday, September 30, 2007

Jewelry at Marissa Collections

More and more traditional boutiques are branching out onto the Internet and one of the latest I discovered is Marissa Collections. From jewelry to shoes to clothing, you can get that total looking now on line. Pretty cool! From the...

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[Source: The Jewelry Weblog]

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Cuff Enough Bracelets

How does that saying go? If you have to ask the price then you probably can't afford it. That came to mind when I was surfing around jewelry designer Chad Allison's web site. Under his couture collection, there is simple...

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[Source: The Jewelry Weblog]

Friday, September 28, 2007

Fresh and Passionate Jewelry

I like this little story about jewelry designer, Megan Thorton. I too once sewed, though I can't say that I traded my needle and thread in to create my own fine jewelry company and to make some of the great...

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[Source: The Jewelry Weblog]

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Havoc!


The office/studio, always a refuge of sorts where I can engross myself in the mystery and beauty of gemstones and beads, has become even more of a refuge the last 2 weeks. We are remodeling two bathrooms and putting down wood floors in our master bedroom, the study, and the den. We are also putting tile/granite down on the master bathroom floor and replacing the tub with a shower with seating. Upstairs we put in a Jacuzzi bathtub and had the wallpaper taken off and the walls and ceiling painted. The house is a mess; a layer of dust at least a 1/4" thick covers most surfaces (did I mention that I was allergic to dust mites?).
My own jewelry lies scattered about the house in various plastic bins at the moment. We are sleeping upstairs in my son's old room (it does have a queen bed and a tv) while our bedroom is downstairs. I don't know where half my clothes are; getting dressed in the morning is an adventure as I go up and down the rather steep stairs looking for a top, then a bottom, trying to stay out of sight of the workmen when I haven't found one or the other (what happened to my robe!?), and telling myself that no one will notice that I am not wearing makeup.

Meanwhile, kitty Cluny, my little dear who is terrified of everyone but my husband and me, basically hates the workmen, their sounds, their voices, their movements. He is always hiding, but when he hadn't shown up after the workmen left last week, I feared the worst: that he had fled outside and was lost and terrified, shivering with fear somewhere on the golf course, not knowing how to get home. I slept little that night - on the couch in the den with the garage door up and only the glass door locked so I could see if he came back home. He didn't.
At 6 o'clock the next morning, I'm still looking when my other cat, Cuervo, starts acting strangely. I hear faint meowing and Cuervo goes crazy scratching at the walls. I follow the meows and find that Cluny has hidden himself underneath the new Jacuzzi bathtub (before they put the panels on the outside) and now he can't get out. The man has to come and take the heater off, but since he is present, Cluny still won't come out, even though now he is physically able. I send the workmen downstairs, but Cluny can still hear them. I lure him with albacore tuna (the stuff we eat), he turns up his nose and takes a nap now that he knows he can get out.
No, he's not still in there; when the workmen left at 6:40 that evening, he came out.
It took me two days to catch up on the sleep and recover from the emotional trauma!
What does this have to do with jewelry? Nothing, and in the last two weeks, about the only thing I've done is work on custom orders since my all creativity seems to have left me in the series of sneezes I've been prone to.
So only 2 pieces that aren't on the site: the top bracelet made with peach aventurine, borosilicate lampwork beads, and aquamarines and the necklace created from lampwork beads by James Derrick Reeves, rose quartz and emeralds (yes, emeralds). Of course, Reeves' beads were the catalyst for the necklace. It's a strange mixture, but I like it.
Here's hoping the remodeling is soon finished. Believe me, I'll be thinking twice before we attempt any changes involving the creation of heavy dust in the house!




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[Source: The Jewelry Blog]

Emitations Celeb Jewelry

We saw lots of glam and glitter recently at the Emmy's, and who doesn't want a little of the sparklies sometimes? Normally, many stars can't even afford the diamonds and platinum they wear, let along little old normal folks...

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[Source: The Jewelry Weblog]

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Sapphire and Computer Woes!



I love sapphires and I love to work with them. The sapphire bracelet that you see here features some fairly large faceted sapphire rondelles that are mixed with tiny little sterling silver beads from the Karen Hill Tribes.
I'm having so many problems with my computer and with the blogger program at the moment (my pictures are refusing to upload) that this may be my entire post for the moment. I have been busy, and there will be some new jewelry pieces on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website soon (some are there already although not all have the complete description or the shopping cart beside them yet). My new computer ships June 21st, so I'm holding my breath that this one holds out until then!).




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[Source: The Jewelry Blog]

Lampwork in All Its Moods


I love lampwork beads although calling some of the lampwork I've seen merely "beads" seems an understatement. Take the lampwork beads in the bracelet above. An amber-opal (my term) colour takes the form of a gorgeous flower bead and little "ruffled" nugget beads. Beads such as these are a joy to work with! These are by Lynn Nurge, a Texas beadmaker (hmmm...wonder what there is about Texas that makes for such great lampwork artists?). I accented the lampwork with Copper Crystal large Swarovski crystal beads and sterling silver. The bracelet reminds me of the wrist corsages that young girls wear (used to wear?) to the prom.
The next lampwork bracelet is made with some very, very nice etched lampwork beads in black and silvery-gray. With sterling silver and Silver Shadow Swarovski crystals (large Cosmic crystal and rounds about 10mm), it has a decidedly cool feel to it (good because once again the temperature was over 100 F today - a trip to the post office left me dry and drained!).
******To my readers in Finland, Estonia, and Norway - are you making jewelry or are you out enjoying what must be very pleasant weather where you are? And to my Canadian friends, I can just imagine what Vancouver must be like right now - how lovely! And to my readers in Manitoba (around Churchill, the Polar Bear capital), surely you are basking in warm (not hot) sunshine and cool breezes.
Until next time....


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[Source: The Jewelry Blog]