Custom Secret Message Necklace - BELIEVE

This is one of my favorite necklaces to make.  This one is for Aubrey - she is such a cute girl.  Her parents wanted to do something special for her for Christmas, so here's a fun personalized necklace with a secret message just for her!  This is a great pendant to celebrate ANY occasion.  Fun for weddings, thank yous, new babies (with the date of birth on the back), or any time you want to make someone feel special.

Custom Personalized MANTRA Necklace

Another beautiful project for the amazing Heather.  This one is for her sweet mother.  Heather wanted to give a "Mantra Necklace," representing her mom's best qualities.  She is strong, beautiful, and greatly adored!  Heather liked the look of this necklace (top), but wanted it in a gold-tone.  This was a fun project because it made me think outside of my usual box.  I work mostly with sterling silver and will often mix metals, always using silver as my base.  My stockpile of findings and attachments is mostly silver, so it was kind of like an adventure using brass for this necklace.  I'm always up for an adventure!  If only I could afford gold, but that's another story!

Copper Fortune Cookie Bracelet

Another project for Heather, this is a "Fortune Cookie" bracelet.  You can see more Fortune Cookie bracelets here.  The first one was actually inspired by a real fortune cookie message, hence the name, and the size of the copper piece is the same size as the fortune paper.  Well, Heather's sister-in-law's (also a Heather) mantra is "CARPE DIEM."  That's pretty much a fortune, isn't it?  This fortune comes with genuine swarovski crystals, turquoise jasper, garnet, moss aquamarine, smoky quartz, and my favorite sunny citrine.  The copper will patina as Heather wears it, giving it a beautiful worn and cherished look.  Seize the day, Heather!

Custom Grandmother's Necklace

Here's a beautiful Grandmother's necklace that I made for my friend, Heather, to give to her Mother-In-Law for Christmas.  Count them!  10 grand-babies on this necklace!  It is a really fun, huge (about 2 1/2 by 3 inches), handcrafted brass heart pendant that hangs from a 30 inch chain.  A real keepsake!  The brass heart will patina with wear, giving it a rich and aged feeling.

Have Yourself a Purple Little Christmas . . .

Here's a special little Christmas gift for a very special little friend of mine.  She loves purple!  I used to make quite a lot of these necklaces - back in the early days of bead-making.  Before I figured out how to make reliable "pairs" of beads.  I made a lot of beautiful singles (ugly ones, too!) - unable to duplicate the size or design.  So, I came up with this beautiful style of necklace to showcase a single bead.  I sold many at local craft fairs, but honestly, most of them ended up on the necks of neighbor-girls as birthday presents.  It's a sweet little necklace for a sweet little friend.  I hope she likes it!

Been busy . . .

Been busy, you know, as usual.  Doing everything BUT the thing I love the most.  I still sneak it in every now and then, but if it's been nearly 10 months since my last post, well, that says something.  Life can get loud and busy, can't it?  Here's a look at a few of the projects I've sneeked in over the past several months:

Above, a mother's circle pendant for a good friend.  

Birthday pendant for the one and only Diana, below.

Remember my crazy post about Eddie Vedder? You can read about it here.  Well, an AMAZING fellow Eddie Vedder fan bought the necklace for his wife.  He even had me make a coordinating pendant for him.  Well, I'll be dipped and hung out to dry!

These Antique Garden Markers have nothing to do with jewelry, but they sure were a fun project for my church's Super Saturday craft day.  That would be Zalea Marie who stamped the one on the far right!

And finally, FINALLY, in August, a precious day at the torch.  I got several good sets and have been dreaming ever since about another spell at the torch.  Maybe my dreams will come true - in January?  Maybe? 

 

Below is the bottom bead in the above photo.  It's for Jen, my long lost friend.  She saw my post on facebook about finally getting to torch and stamped her name on this bead.  It's only taken me 4 months to get the time to wire it together for her.  This will be a nice surprise in her mailbox!

Oh, there's a few more projects I've been working on.  We've been switching around computers and got a new camera, so I'll have to admit I'm having a hard time tracking down photos, and I honestly have missed even taking pictures of a few projects.  Hopefully I'll be back in the habit of posting before another 10 months goes by!