Oxidizing Silver

I was browsing the Internet last night and came across a thread ina forum about oxidizing sterling silver with egg. It gave instructions on how to do it~ clear instructions that I, a total beginner at this, could understand. So today I tried it. I wasn't expecting anything perfect, I just wanted to see what it would do. It was fun!

First I boiled an egg in a pot of water for about 10 minutes. Then I put the egg, shell and all in a plastic zip loc bag. I smushed it up with my hands, and opened the bag, popping in six sterling silver headpins. This was what it looked like:

I let the bag with the egg and the headpins sit for about a half an hour. I then took them out of the egg and washed them off gently. Here is the before and after pictures:

The egg did a better job than I thought it would. The result wasn't perfect by any means, but I am so happy to have accomplished this. Working with metal isn't just a little crafty hobby: it's a chemistry and an art. I would really like to get into this art more~ baby steps first. :)

Blackened Silver

I am really falling in love with the look of oxidized silver. It really makes the color of anything that is paired with it pop! I even like it better than bright silver, because it can look delicate and bold at the same time! The color combinations do not have to stay strictly with black and white. Any color would look amazing with black. I have found a collection of really eye catching lovelies on Etsy that I am excited to share.

This pair of earrings is handmade by BINAGEYER (http://www.binageyer.etsy.com/) . They are entitled Vintage Frost Earrings. The frosted beads, paired with the oxidized sterling silver, give off such a luminescence!

These earrings, handmade by ShopClementine (http://www.shopclementine.etsy.com/) , are have a wonderful contrast, between the bright yellow and the blackened silver. These are entitled Radiant Daffodil Earrings. What a perfect title for them~ they are radiant indeed!

These earrings, entitled Poppies...Vintage and Sterling Silver, has one of my favorite color combinations~ red and black! These are handmade by jewelera (http://www.jewelera.etsy.com/) .

Oh... My.... God. I am in love with these shells! On their own they are adorable, but their beauty is heightened when they are paired with these blackened sterling silver earwires.They are entitled Conch Earrings, and are handmade by clevergirl (http://www.clevergirl.etsy.com/).

I have tried my hand at making my own pair of earrings~ I have used oxidized sterling silver earwires and ballpins, handmade by http://www.e2ssupplies.etsy.com/, and joined them with bright white top drilled freshwater pearls. I call this pair of earrings Let's Dance. These type of pearls are often called dancing pearls, so I thought incorporating dancing into the title would be whimsical.

Spotlight on Strawberries

I was thinking about my childhood and came across a memory of going strawberry picking every June in a place near where I used to live. It was a big field, where you could just roam around with a little basket and pick your own strawberries. The place had a huge strawberry shaped balloon that would fly high above the field~ you can see it from a ways away while you were driving. That's what I remember most about picking strawberries~ the balloon! In honor of my childhood memory, I went looking for beautiful things that have a strawberry theme to them.

This art print is handmade by LaBerge (http://www.laberge.etsy.com/). I really love the details of each berry, and their vivid color!

Ah... soooo cute. This is a strawberry felted doll necklace handmade by Rosemary4Remembrance(http://www.rosemary4remembrance.etsy.com/). I am really loving the adorable face!

This beautifully photographed soap, handmade by savor (http://www.savor.etsy.com/) , is entitled Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. I love the vibrant pink coloring...and well, it looks good enough to eat!

These earrings are from me, cymbaline84 (www.cymbaline84.etsy.com). I made them with my childhood memory in mind. I love how the brass and the bright red really go together.

A New Lariat

I had off from work tonight~ the perfect opportunity to sit down and create something! I came up with a new lariat necklace. It is inspired by a pair of earrings I have in my shop, sporting these wonderful bright brass daisy shaped bead caps. I have added white freshwater pearls onto gold plated chain to create a simple necklace~ the necklace, measuring about 18 inches, is threaded through the gold toned ring that is worn in the front, and therefore doesn't have a clasp.

This is the pair of earrings that this is inspired from~

Cooling Aquas

Fall might be here, but it's pretty close to being in the thirties out right now outside my window. I am already looking ahead to snow. I am for skipping for now the warmth and spice of autumn's colors and turning to the crisp cooler (colder!) side of the color spectrum. One of my favorite colors from that side of the spectrum is aqua blue. The lighter blues are used in interior decorating to bring a serenity to a room. I have comprised a list of a few of my finds, spotlighting Etsy artists who also pay homage to this calming color.

Not only do I love the muted tone of aqua used this soap, I also love the way it was photgraphed. The white background makes the color of this picture really pop! This soap is called Caribbean SpearMist, and it is handmade by AngelBellaBody (http://www.angelbellabody.etsy.com/)

It is a goat's milk soap, scented with Spearamint essential oils and sprinkled with rose hips on the top.

This print, handmade by OrangeWillow (http://www.orangewillow.etsy.com/) , has crisp lines and a bold color scheme. I love the details of the petals. The aqua hued background is perfect! It is another one of my favorite ways to create aqua, with a bit of gray mixed in, to make it more muted. This is entitled "Petal Dreams". It is a perfect size, 8.5" X 11", and would look so sharp with a black frame.

The pendant on this gorgeous genuine sea glass makes me thirsty... perhaps it is the refreshing color, a bit warmer tone of aqua that the previous two pictures, and perhaps it is because the pendant is a bottle top that was weathered by the sea. I love how this photograph was taken, it really shows the clear details of the pendant, and its vivid color. This necklace was handmade by seaglassdesigns (http://www.seaglassdesigns.etsy.com/) .

This aqua brings us back to the more muted aqua hues of the color spectrum. A wonderful piece of pottery that incorporates earthen browns, reds, and greens. This piece was handmade by redhotpottery, (http://www.redhotpottery.etsy.com/). It is perfectly sized to serve soup in, which is a wonderful thing this time of year. Personally I love eating soup out of pottery mugs, as opposed to eating it out of bowls~ they have handles so they can be held while you are curled up on the couch..wrapped up in a warm blanket. Did I mention it was very cold out right now? :)

Mixed Metals

With jewelry, I've always liked things to match. If I worked with glass beads, all the colors had to be similar to each other in some form. When I started to like working with copper, all the copper had to be the same shade~ there couldn't be a mixture of bright and antiqued copper. But I've been searching around Internet forums and discovered that mixed metals are are very popular.

Here are a few examples of mixed metals I have found on Etsy. I have these in my favorites list and kinda stare at them every day, like a kid who looks longingly in a toy store window.

This is a chainmaille bracelet made by MBOI (http://www.mboi.etsy.com/) . I love chainmaille, though I don't have any jewelry that has chainmaille in it. It reminds me of knights of Arthurian times, who wore chainmaile with their armor. It is a very epic medium. I love this bracelet because of the contrasts of the brass and the silvery steel.

This set of rings was made by kateszabone (http://www.kateszabone.etsy.com/) . There is a mixture of rose gold, which is beautiful pink, sterling silver, and yellow gold. Put together, they make a soft yet strikinng combination. I love how they have a hammered texture as well. They are simple~ there are no glittering jewels, and I really like that. They let the beauty of the mixed metals and the texture shine.

This stoic bracet is handcrafted by TammysTreasureChest (http://www.tammystreasurechest.etsy.com/). Not only do I love the mixed metals and its rustic appearance, I love the fact that its a cuff bracelet. I am am more into big chunky pieces of jewelry that I can wear often thatn the more delicate pieces. This utilizes brass, silver and copper. There is just the right amount of contrasting colors in this scheme.

In celebration of my new found fascination with mixed metals, I sat down at my own beading desk and created a simple pair of mixed metal earrings. I've taken beautiful brass daisy bead caps and accented them with a white freshwater pearl. I have contasted the bright brass with elongated sterling silver earring wires.

Blue n' Brassy

One of my favorite reasons I love working with glass beads is the amount of colors I can work with. One of my favorite color combinations is a rich navy blue that is paired with antiqued brass. Antiqued brass has a burnished dark gold color that works so well with the dark blue. I have made a few pieces that have this.

The necklace is lariat styled, featuring a simple antiqued brass chain that ends in a cluster of navy blue flowers~ it is worn with the brass ring in the front, with the cluster threaded through it. I like how the earrings turned out~ they are bold, swinging, and dangling. These, too, end in a small cluster of flowers. I was going to go with a streamlined earring, with three flowers in a line instead of the cluster at the bottom, but I love how the cluster has more visual appeal.

I am very much inspired and in awe of costume jewelry from the past century. If anyone is interested in this subject, there is a wonderful book out there called "Fabulous Fakes" by Carole Tanenbaum. It has a gorgeous array of pieces that the author has in her collection and has included for show in this book, illuminating what women wore in the past decades.

Bouquet Lariats

I am still on my little journey through making necklaces. I had an idea for a necklace that fit perfectly with the style of earrings that I make. Glass flowers are one of my favorite mediums to work with, so I incorporated them into a lariat necklace. I really liked the end result. I made a couple of them to match my earrings.


The Caribbean Cluster lariat~















This necklace is very simple, and I believe that my focus is on how the colors, the copper and the beautiful opaque turquoise hue, compliment each other. I personally love the shape of these flowers~ they dangle together in a cluster so well!

Flowers...and more flowers!

I've been pretty obsessed with flowers these days. There can never be enough colors for them. I've been working on a few projects for my shop that I'm pretty proud of. I've taken those awesome little lucite flowers and paired them with brass caps and Swarovski crystals. The frosted flowers go really well with the opaque brass. A couple of examples of these earrings are below: