It's All About L O V E !

It's February, the month of L O V E ! !

Thought I'd share a new jewelry set that I made this past week with beads that I'm in LOVE with.  The combination still makes me happy.

I read a post recently by another jewelry maker who said she only makes jewelry when she's in a good mood so that it will bring happy feelings to the person who wears it.

I can so relate!  I was working on something last night and the wire was frustrating me, so I put it away for the day. 

Anyhooo, this is new and I love it!

Hope you do, too!

Happy February 1st!

Happily,

Laurel 
xoxo

My Jewelry Workspace

So I have a great craft room, right? 

Here's my craft room

But where do I make most of my jewelry?

In the family room on the love seat in front of the tv.

This is what my table looks like today.  Full of some of the beads I used in a piece I made last night.  The inspiration for the colors came from the C-Coop Enamel pendant.

Here's the necklace I just made.  I haven't decided if the chain strand will be a separate strand or will be connected to the bead strung strand.  The gold beads in the strung strand are amber, the rest are either glass or freshwater pearls.  The darker beads are glass pearls. 

Tonight's agenda is making matching earrings and a bracelet.

What do you think?

Laurel

Want vs Need

What do you do when you have dozens of things you need to do, and all you WANT to do is play? 


I want to be creative today. 


I want to try some new things with paper, watercolors and stamps.

Sometimes being creative is a need that can't be subdued no matter what else is on the list to be done.

Sometimes those practical endeavors must be tackled and you've put them off too long already.

So what do you do?

Do you promise yourself that you'll get to the fun stuff once you've completed one or two of those less than inspiring tasks?

Or do you ignore the mundane and go for the gold?

It depends, doesn't it? 

Today I'll tackle a few of the pressing must-do's and hope that there's time enough in the day to play.


Hope you have time for doing some of the things on your want list in the next few weeks.

Cheers!

My Library/Work room

I haven't completely moved everything back in yet, but here's how it looks today.




The view looking in from the doorway at my computer and desk.




Looking to the right; most of my stones are in the baskets divided by color and in zip-lock bags.

This is a picture of the china cabinet with all the knick knacks that used to be on all the shelves.  The plastic white containers have all my 12x12 papers, stickers, and other paper supplies.  The wooden 8-drawer cabinet contains glass beads by color.  The smaller wooden box has my unpriced jewelry in it.

This view is to the left of the doorway.  These shelves hold paper scraps, some stamps, a backet of wire, a basket of unmounted stamps in CD cases, and other things.

The desk I use to work on metal stuff and paper stuff.  Against the back wall is a table where I keep my rotary cutter and my scoring board.  Right now I'm taking pictures of jewelry for posting on-line. 

Some day maybe I'll show you my drawers.   :)

Inspiration

Vintage Inspired Citrine and Carnelian Nuggets

Citrine and Carnelian are not stones I would normally highlight in my jewelry designs.

Yellow was my favorite color growing up because it was bright and cheerful.  The yellow walls in my teenager bedroom were offset by fairly dark olive green (shag!!) carpet, and my mom made me a quilt with yellow, olive green and orange rectangles.

Forty years later, that would be the LAST combination I would add to my interior design wish list. 

So what intrigued me about these particular stones?

• I LOVE the shapes; rough but with smooth facets, assymetrical and large in size. 
• Rugged and untamed, I knew they would make a statement, and lately I'm into making statement pieces. 
• The splash of orange tickled my fancy. 
• Vintage brass shed some warmth on the icy-looking Citrine
• They stood on their own with no need for crystals, pearls or glass.
• They were different from most everything else I've used in the past.

At the time I bought the Citrine nuggets, I also bought nuggets in Smokey Quartz and very light Amethyst of about the same size.  Normally I would have done something with the Amethyst nuggets first, but I had recently made a necklace with purple, olive green and yellow (Charoite, Swarovski crystals and Pineapple Quartz, a manmade glass), and I felt the pull of yellow like a sunbeam drawing me in with it's warmth.

The Carnelian beads are from a recent trip to Anoka to visit my friend and fellow artisan, Delayne. We stopped at The Garden of Beads on Main Street, where many new treasures decided they had to come home with me.  I love this beadstore; check it out here http://www.thegardenofbeads.com/  

The Carnelian beads are smoother and more polished than the Citrine, and seem to glow from within.  I only bought a few, though, so I had to use them sparingly.

Earthy, rugged and vintage have me in their grip right now, and I'm having fun.  Maybe I'm just designing with fall in mind. 

Now, to play with lemon chrysoprase and red, red coral!

Cheers!

Laurel

What's New?

Hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!  

Seems like the planning, cleaning, preparing, and cooking go on forever, and then in just a few short hours, the food is gone, the holiday is over and family is on their way out the door on to their next adventures (hope the Black Friday shopping excursion was successful!!). 

November is nearly over, and here I am again wondering where the time went.  Seems like I rush and hurry all day long and only have time to sit down at the end of the day to watch one of my favorite TV shows.  Since that's the time when I work on my jewelry, there can never be too many of those hours in a day.  And sometimes when I'm on a creative hot streak, I have a hard time putting it away for the night.  Those are the days when bedtime is pushed past midnight.  I try not to do that very often since DH is trying to sleep, but it does happen, just ask the neighbors who often see my light still burning.

I do want to send a huge thank you to all my customers and friends who came out to the Arts and Crafts shows at Southtown Mall in Bloomington, MN, in mid-October and again in mid-November.  I had one of my better shows there this month;  I truly couldn't have done it without your support.  Many of my favorite pieces found wonderful new homes with some of my favorite people. 

My next venue will be a boutique at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, 7227 Penn Ave S. in Richfield, MN.  Thank you, Barb, for stopping by and asking for my participation.  Barb does a fantastic job of putting the boutique together and staging all the craft items.  She's also my step-daughter's mother-in-law and a very sweet woman.  I don't know the boutique hours yet, but it will be Saturday and Sunday, the 10th and 11th of December. 

I'll be making some new items for the boutique so stop by if you're in the area.

Now it's time to rush off and make supper.  Then it's time to sit in front of the tube and CREATE! 

Have a good one!

Laurel




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