Autumn Leaves

Wear these earrings and the song will play on and on in your head....
now if only i could find the rickie lee jones version,
it's the best!
Citrine, Carnelian, and gold-filled beads
singing through Autumn...

On my front porch

Sitting in my favourite wicker chair on the front porch: Sparkling lemonade (Citrine), climbing wild grapes (Fluorite) reaching through the warm end-of-summer sunshine(corrugated and plain gold beads).
Earrings for summer memories.

Where did summer go..

Today is the Autumnal Equinox.
Where did the summer go?

I have been busy with precious stone beads and pearls. I have some catching up to do on this blog from summer projects!

This summer, I made this necklace for my daughter : freshwater pearls and tiny pink Jasper stone beads. I knotted the pearls and Jasper on silk and I made the Egyptian clasp with sterling silver wire.

New name

Interests change and evolve, but especially when they're new and not completely formed yet...my blog began as a way to document my love of opals and my efforts to learn how to contain them into jewellery. Learning the basics of making jewellery has exposed me to a whole world of other interesting gems out there and pearls, wonderous pearls!
So..my blog needs a new name!
A long time ago, I was once a web designer and registered my business as 'Weber Designs'. The name might still fit..especially as this web of interests keeps expanding one strand at a time.

Right now I am captivated by pearls and my thoughts keep drifting to the sea with its fresh colours and cooling salty breezes. I made these two pairs of sterling silver earrings. Each with a large freshwater pearl and a Citrine bead, one has Peridot and the other pink Jasper.

SOLD

Boulder Opal beads knotted on silk: take two

My second attempt at 'pearl knotting'. Well it's probably my hundredth, but who's counting? There's only little piles of snipped silk everywhere to give away what I've been spending hours doing..I think I've got it this time, but that's what I thought the first time, so we'll see. I am learning that just when you think you understand something, there is usually a whole furthur dimension to conquer.

I started off with the finishing: threading a tiny coil of gimp/bullion/french wire on the silk with the clasp. The thread gets looped and knotted back through the first few beads and the knotting continues until the last few beads when another peice of gimp is inserted with the other side of the clasp and the thread looped back through again. Tying the knots against each bead is helped by the thread being doubled. I used Gudebrod silk, I only figured out after buying several packets of Griffin silk which won't work at all with this method. There are some excellent discussions and videos on the internet covering these techniques, and they helped immensely, but I still seem to need to learn alot by trial and error.

I quickly made some ear-rings to go with it. They are the first pair I've ever made. I can see I'll need to learn alot about ear-ring making next!

After all that seriousness, here is a goofy smile I discovered in a boulder opal focal bead:

not for sale

Hollyhocks today

not for sale

I know, another silly flower shot. But it IS my blog, and for all I know I am the only one reading it, and I DO love flowers! Gold filled wire chain maille bracelet with Boulder opal beads.


I've been rather tangled up these days in silk thread: mostly researching pearl knotting. There is alot to learn(far far far more than I ever realized! I don't have any pearls to knot, but a
s you can see I am rather obsessed with boulder opal beads. My last posted attempt using silk knots was really terrible! I've learned more since then (which doesn't help me in any way yet!) There is the problem of finishing the peice whether to use elusive bullion/french wire/gimp or (readily available) ugly clamshells or what?!..but I am going way off topic as this post was supposed to be about hollyhocks! Simple garden variety hollyhocks and wire! Maybe I'll have to change the name of my blog, The Wandering Mind ?..now I want to look into pearls..

Another hot day in July

wire-wrapped
boulder opal beads
resting in the heat
on a daylily in my garden.





not for sale

simple swirls

I love to make these simple swirl rings, this one is in gold filled wire, I also make them in sterling silver wire. I'll stop with the poppy pictures now, they are almost finished in the garden. I've started to acquire the necessities for soldering at home..lots of ideas are brewing! But until I'm up and running it will more wire for a while..

Ring on Poppy

My first commission! It was a boring commission: just a plain silver ring (what no hammering??!)I think I like the photo better than the ring, at least silver is reflective and that can add to its character!









SOLD

Silk Knots

Boulder opal beads knotted on silk thread. It looks easy says my husband, but since I was teaching myself it took many hours of cursing and swearing, and I had to double over the thread to get it thick enough, but I think I have it figured out now for the next time!






not for sale

Wire wrapped boulder opal

Since I haven't set up a proper studio at home *yet* I need projects to keep me busy for the days I don't have access to all the necessities of working with silver (called 'gold-smithing' ) Wire is my solace at home. This is a drilled-through boulder opal I made into a ring with gold-filled wire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

not for sale

Hammered with love

My second ring project: for my 18 yr old son, graduating from high school. I hammered in alot of love and hope for the future. Rubbed with 'jax' to show the texture. He wears it, and that fills me with happiness.

First Ring

My very first ring, made during my first class with Karl. Sterling silver with a black opal from Lightning Ridge.

 

 

not for sale