New Beadwork and Enameled Jewelry

As life settles in to a new routine, I have found time to create new jewelry: beaded, enameled, and strung. I am especially excited about this peyote stitched bezel around a Labradorite Cabachon with some serious blue highlights. Next I'll bead the bail and decide how to hang it.  Beaded rope or chain?

With so many projects in progress, a few that have been on the back burner recently called loudly for completion.  Quite a few are still in various stages of becoming but the momentum is building and the satisfaction of finishing is pulling me forward.  Here are some that I like a lot!

Enameled Pendant Choker

     Enameled Earrings with Blue Niobium Earwires

Scrafito Technique Enamel Pendant Necklace

 Earrings with Sterling Silver Spiral

Outside the window I'm finally seeing the signs of spring with something other than a gray background!  Huge cumulous clouds with billowing white tops and ominous looking undersides are hiding Mount Baker.  The Red Flowering Currant is So in the pink this year! Appreciated doubly, as I had one bush die last year. Across the street the neighbor has yellow Forsythia and the last Cherry blossoms are giving way to maroon leaves.  The blue sky is doing my soul good today!!

Happy Spring!!

Traditional Rowing Boat Blog Post

In my new job at Emerald Marine Carpentry one of my tasks is to keep the blog humming along. Below is a link to my first post.

After wanting to work at the family business for many years, the time arrived!  Part-time work in Anacortes allows me time to keep up with my jewelry business, exercise, gardening, and projects around the house.  The short bicycle commute is a nice addition.

My office skills come in handy, in addition to marketing and promotion as well.  The learning curve involves retail wood sales, pricing, shipping and receiving and general inventory.   Part of the fun is learning customers and their boats names, adjusting to general shop routine, and training on how to help maintain tools and equipment.  I tend to be most happy with a variety of hands-on tasks so the good balance between shop work and office work is perfect.

There is, of course, a large well equipped shop with lots of tools, bronze casting equipment, a forge waiting to be set up, metal bandsaw, almost everything except for the perfect jewelers torch and the precision rolling mill I dream of!  There is always great music playing on the stereo and a general good feeling.

I have been listing new items on Etsy slowly.  Making a few new items and taking a lot of pictures.  I have so much still to learn and explore with my kiln and as my new routine takes hold, more space and time are opening up.

Emerald Marine Blog Island Star post




Photo by Phil Eley

Been gone too long!

First beading project for 5 months!!!  It is a peyote stitched bezel around a small oval Labradorite Cabochon.  It feels good and strange but I wanted to dive right in and start creating again!  My job was cut to half time, so I suddenly have a portion of my life back!!

I have been missing from my Etsy shop and from blogging.  I lost my way and got caught up in a new job. Waking up earlier than normal, driving 25 minutes, adjusting to a hectic pace with lots of change and transition took about everything I had for about 6 months.  I am happy to say I am back and have just been updating Etsy shop again and hope to add some new items soon.

I will take a picture of my new project as soon as it looks like something!  Last weekend I started to unpack my enamel studio stuff again and am so excited to get enough time and space to pick up where I left off there!  I don't think I ever enjoyed any thing quite so much as creating pendants and earrings with fire and glass powder!!

Dusky Owl Eyes

Here is another Etsy Treasury Team Collection with owls, brown, gray, gold, and blue in a calming collage.

New Etsy Treasury Team Treasury

I'm a new member of the Etsy Treasury Team.  It's a bit of a commitment but it's fun and I feel like it will help me tune up my titles, tags, photos and descriptions.  I also think it will motivate me to branch out and go in new directions with my craft.  I am always keen to explore what works while discovering new things that I enjoy!

Misty Morning Treasury from Etsy

Getting on a roll making treasuries again. I'm a trial Etsy Treasury Team member so I will post a team treasury here soon. There seems to be something missing from it right now.

Celebrating one warm family member! or Rain, Rain, go Away!!!

Green, green, green, verdant, lush, forest, Kelly, chartreuse, lime, sage, new growth red/green of the roses, pine green, moss green, and lichen gray green. It's all here today in dripping soggy splendor. Somewhere in Avignon, our son has been enjoying sunny and warm spring days. He's gone on a two week adventure with the French Travel Club from Anacortes High School. The first week is a family stay, the second, Paris.

I had not driven out past Heart Lake, in a long time until yesterday evening. It is one of many beautiful small bodies of water on our usually rocky island home. The lake level was very high, the swampy areas were so full, and there were many areas that I don't recall being wet before, growing full and lush with Skunk Cabbage. Waterfalls that occasionally appear just seemed to be gushing. We were on our way for a lovely Indian meal with friends. After dinner, we were serenaded by a chorus of tree frogs while enjoying a hot tub soak. No doubt they have been loving our extra precipitation. As you can gather, I am not complaining about the rain necessarily, it adds to the emerald splendor of this place we call home.

Last weekend, my husband Andy, went on a mountain bike ride and said he had never seen so much water and water in new places. Right now it is just a solid monotone gray in the sky and the steady drizzle is collecting along the sidewalk and in puddles in my garden. Beautiful Red Flowering current is blooming out my window and the neighbor has a bright yellow Forsythia and daffodils as promising signs that spring really is here! If it hadn't been for my Wii-hab to warm me up this morning I probably would have started a fire. In fact maybe I will tonight if I can find any dry wood! I have seen smoke coming from at least three chimneys in the neighborhood!

Seems like a hearty stew would be the best meal for tonight. I was told today a story that a local travel agent was getting calls from desperate Northwesterners, saying, "Get me a ticket to anyplace sunny!" For now we'll have to put on some music from a sunny land, start a fire, and dream of a beach with warm blue waters. It's good enough for now to know that my son is in Avignon where the daytime temperatures are in the high 60's. He's enjoying a bit of spring for sure!! I hope he's taking pictures of bridges, old castles, papal enclaves, and rivers! I'd take a ticket to southern France if it was offered!