Antique Silver Spoon Necklaces

These are Jane's Sterling Silver Demitasse spoons:

These are Jane's grandmother's pearls and crystals (do I dare cut these apart?):

I played around a bit:

I wanted to create a special heirloom piece.  And here's what we got:

One for each of Jane's daughters and a special niece.  How sweet!  Merry Christmas Jane!

Just a few more . . .

Just a few more gifts to finish up.  Just when I think I've run out of projects and orders, I think of a few more!  Christmas time also means jewelry time, so here are more custom pieces for your viewing pleasure!  Heart earrings for Valerie to give:

A mother's necklace for Zalea's 4th grade teacher.  She can wear it in multiple ways . . . with all the charms:

Or she can separate them for a simpler necklace:

One for Royce:

Seen above with all of the charms, and below with just the names:

And one for Ashley!

Custom Necklace Charms for New Babies!

I love making charms to celebrate new babies!  I think it is one of the loveliest gifts!  And I am thrilled when I get to add to someone's necklace down the road as another child is born.  Here's a necklace I made for my friend Tracey's daughter:

When she had her second child, Elizabeth, we got to add this charm:

And recently, I got to make this charm for Jared:

Here's another set that is ready for a new addition. This necklace is dog-tag style for Jen's Husband, Mike:

Check back here to see the new charm for Lucas (when it's finished):

Personalized Christmas Presents

I've been busy in my studio!  I love it!  The Christmas music is playing and I'm busy at my workbench.  I am so grateful for the work that I've had this year!  I have really enjoyed working with all of my customers and making special gifts for them to give this Christmas.  I am working hard to be able to purchase some new tools, so stay tuned to see what I make!  Here are a few more projects that I've done this past week:

Above, silver hearts for Dave's girls.  I included aurora borealis Swarovski crystals for a touch of sparkle.  Below, silver hearts for Valerie to give.  These hearts have the Swarovski birthstone crystals for February, August, October, and May.

The following two are for Carleen to give:

Here's one for Jacob to give.  This is the front:

And this is the back with a special date to remember!

And here's one for Steve to give his lovely wife for Christmas:

And these are for my Mom!  She came to visit last week and loved this "Simplify" bracelet.  I re-wired it for her with beautiful gemstones which include: citrine, blue kyanite, smoky quartz, labradorite, ruby, peruvian blue opal, aquamarine, and hessonite garnet.

 

Does this one look familiar?  I made it for my Mom as a Christmas present, but used it as a sample in the show I did at the school.  Here, I've added a white coin pearl and a Swarovski crystal to give it a little sparkle and class.  But, it's a surprise!  No peeking, Mom!

Beautiful Lampwork Glass Pendants

I resurrected the old laptop to track down some photos of projects I made years ago and came across some photos of my most favorite glass pieces.  These are made with a bench-mount torch on steel mandrels and annealed in the kiln for hours to strengthen them.  The torch-work is so fun, and satisfying, but it takes a lot of time and the set-up is a bit elaborate.  I have to be in just the right frame of mind (and have hours of uninterrupted time) to really have a successful day at the torch.  I'm hoping for a day like that soon!  The hardest part of the glass for me is photography!  I can't quite seem to get the lighting right - they end up looking flat and 2-D.  It's frustrating, so I usually don't post very many photos of the glass, but you can have a peek anyway!

Above is a "lollipop" shaped transparent bead made with amber-colored glass.  I've made a pattern with opaque glass that looks like avocado halves or fish eggs.  This is one of my favorite pendants!  I also make it out of clear glass and it's beautiful.  Below is an organic hand-shaped bead with silver foil and cobalt blue glass shards that are melted into one solid bead.

This is a necklace/earring set made with a beautiful copper and pink glass frit along with silver foil.  The necklace focal bead is also "lollipop" shape.

And here is a vibrant blue and green frit "lollipop" bead.  Frit is little pieces of colored glass that I roll the bead in to give it color and pattern - it is the same material that glass-blowers use but is on a smaller scale.

This is an opaque lollipop bead.  I've made the pattern by melting dots of blue colored glass over ivory glass that has been wrapped in silver foil.  The silver reacts with the metals in the glass causing organic looking patterns and that dark edge around the blue dots.  This is a very fun combination of glass to play with.  The reactions are so cool, it's kind of mesmerizing just thinking about it!

Here is a square focal bead that I made using a bead press.  You get the glass nice and hot on your mandrel and then shape it in a brass press.  Most of my work is shaped by hand (well, actually, it's done by tools because the glass is WAY too hot to touch!), but I occasionally like to play around with some of the fun technology that's available to glass-workers, such as bead-presses.

Custom Personalized Jewelry for Christmas!

I love making custom meaningful jewelry.  It is one of my favorite things!  I get to help people celebrate special moments and even major milestones in their lives.  It is such a joy to me!  Occasionally, I get to be a part of something really cool.  Take Paige, for example.  Paige's mom contacted me about making her something to show her how proud her parents are of her and how much they love her.  I don't know Paige's whole story, but I get the feeling she's pretty awesome!  Here is Paige's pendant:

The back has a secret message:

And here's one of Amy's gifts to give this year: 

Karen asked me to make this special necklace for her daughter.  Our church has a wonderful program for the girls ages 12 - 18 called Personal Progress that focuses on teaching 8 essential values.  This necklace has all 8 of the values plus their colors represented in Swarovski crystal.

Missionary Cufflinks and Brag Charms

First ever cufflinks!  These are for my friend Valerie's son who just received his mission call to serve in the Utah, St. George LDS mission!  He loves cufflinks, so we made him this surprise for Christmas!  (Shhh!! Don't spoil the surprise!)  They have his mission scripture stamped on the back.  One reads: "Oh that I were an angel" and the other reads: "cry repentance unto every people."

Constructing these was definitely an experiment!  (The kind I like best!)  They are really fun, but certainly not perfect.  And they were a beast to photograph - they reflect everything!  I ended up with an extra cufflink front (it may or may not have a backwards stamped letter on the back side . . .) and couldn't bear to put it in my scrap pile, so I made it into a charm.  This can be strung onto a chain and worn as a necklace, or attached to a little lanyard and made into a zipper pull.  Either way, it's a fun little extra that I saved from the scrap pile!

This set of charms is for my friend, Karen, who also has missionary sons!  She had the idea of making "brag charms" to show off the accomplishments of her children.  Here, we have a BYU Idaho graduate and 3 missionaries.  Karen already has several pieces that I've made, so she can just string these onto an existing piece and away she goes!  They will layer so nicely with other necklaces.  They are a really fun way for a proud, hard-working mom to celebrate!