Aquamarine, Swarovski, Dichroic Beads, and Labradorite

I'm going a thousand different directions these days, seldom settling on one gemstone to work with (when I get to work), and with my mind full of all the changes going on at home. I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to have the house in order for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for good reasons: Great food, my favorite people, the house full of laughter, and plenty of good wine combined with a great tolerance towards anyone who decides that he/she must have a quick nap.
While I've been terribly flighty the last two weeks, I did manage to make some bracelets using aquamarines. I have some especially pretty blue aquamarine, both opaque and translucent, that falls into the category of gemstones that I want to use and have too. The first bracelet "At the Edge of the North Sea" features one of my favorite combinations: aquamarine and labradorite. Here I've thrown in a couple of ringers: special dichroic beads by Paula Radke and amethysts. This is on the Handmade Bracelets page.
The next two bracelets also have those lovely aquamarines; the first aquamarine bracelet has dichroic beads that look great with the blue aquamarines. The second aquamarine bracelet is for those purists who want only sterling silver with their aquamarines. Both of these are on the Aquamarine Bracelets page.The last two bracelets are made of Swarovski crystals. The clear crystal bracelet is made from the new shaped Swarovski beads in crystal Moonlight. The last bracelet has Indigo Swarovski crystals, Karen Hill Tribes and Turkish sterling silver. Both of these are on our new page Holiday Gift Ideas.
If you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner (as I am) , good luck with all those once-a year-dishes!

After Thanksgiving

I have the post-Thanksgiving case of nerves I always get at this time every year. With Thanksgiving over, Christmas is breathing hard at my heels, and from now until Christmas Day actually comes, I feel as though I'll be playing catch-up. At least this year, I'm being a bit more disciplined about the situation. Of course, to make things even harder, we're usually out of the country every Christmas although it looks as though this year we may be in Washington - away from home, but not that long aching plane ride away from home.
I've been working mostly on custom orders lately and am finishing a wedding that will go out tomorrow. Lots of amethyst! Then, I have several other custom orders to get made (most for Christmas, so I'm doing okay there), but I've either sketched them out or know what I'm doing and where I'm going with them.
I've been working with different elements. The lampwork earrings above with lapis and carnelian (found in our Holiday Gift Ideas section match a fantastic bracelet on my Handcrafted Bracelets page.
The bracelet is made with freshwater pearls and Swarovski's newest crystals in a wonderful grey opal colour that I love. The silver freshwater pearls are perfect! The bracelet will be on our Swarovski Bracelets page.

Swarovski: Playing with Sparkle

Sometimes working with Swarovski seems like playing with moonbeams that gleam and sparkle, only moonbeams that come in every colour of the rainbow. The past couple of days, I've been taking breaks from other work to scoot the crystal around my desk and see if they formed themselves into any kind of cohesive design - that's how working with Swarovski often is. I realized that there were certain colours that were not at all represented on my Swarovski Crystal Bracelets page, so I set to work to remedy the situation. I realized I had very few pinks and purples, so I created the bracelet above and the one immediately below. It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but almost all the crystals are 8mm, 10mm and over. I love the larger sizes of Swarovski crystals, and I also like to use the newer colours. The bracelet below features palace green opal (one of the newest Swarovski colours) and rosewater opal, as well as my favorite, Pacific opal.
The pink bracelet below has a focal of Crystal Moonlight and the majority of the bracelet is rosewater opal. Finally, I worked with the light red Siam , a colour I rarely use although I love, and I mean love, to work with red and red-toned gemstones. I mixed the red Swarovski with the more muted silver shadow and included a little silver shadow butterfly. The last challenge was photographing these so that their sparkle showed - and I am still not satisfied with the results - especially with the opal colours!

Don't forget to shop our Holiday Gift Ideas!