Friday, December 20, 2013

Hold Your Fire Cold Connections Boot Camp Blog Hop LMAJ

Close up of  HOPE  Toggle Clasp constructed with cold connections by Mary Harding

Love My Art Jewelry has been doing  a series of Jewelry Boot Camps. The idea is to promote and teach skills for making handmade jewelry with handmade components:  an idea I fully support.  The current Boot Camp  is called  Hold Your Fire which  is about learning how to put metal together without using a torch.  Instead of soldering two pieces of metal together, we learned alternatives that do not require a torch, such  as screw rivets, tube rivets, metal eyelets, escutcheon pins, and nail head rivets. For my project, I used 1/16 inch short and medium brass eyelets that I purchased from Objects and Elements.  They are a bit tricky to use without splitting them, so it is a good idea to used the rounded side on the front of your piece.  I used my center punch and a very light tap with my chasing hammer on the punch and then used the ball  head of my hammer to gently tap around the edges until they curved and formed a tight bond with the metal.  


The toggle bar is also designed with brass eyelets and one of them has a balled head end pin threaded through it and wired wrapped into a loop on the underside.  I like this way of making the loop since it doesn't allow any escape route for the stringing material.


Close up of wrapped wire loop made through the tube of the brass eyelet.  You can also see what an eyelet should not look like when it gets split by heavy hammering,.

You can see what others made by following this LINK and scrolling down to the inlinkz list of participants.  I look forward to the next Boot Camp on Love My Art Jewelry. Thank you to all of you who work so hard to provide us with your wonderful ideas and techniques.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Last minute gift ideas - start a tradition at Facet Foundry Jewelry Studio

Purchasing Glass Eye Studio Ornaments has become a tradition for many of our customers.  These hand crafted pieces make wonderful ornament for the tree, decorate your windows, or make keepsake gifts for teachers, friends, and family. Start your family tradition today.

These unique necklaces, bracelets and earrings are hand sculpted glass and sterling created by North Carolina Artist Kimberly Adams.  "Each bead that I create using the lampworking technique, is an individual work of art. And - when brought together in a finished piece, is a fascinating and beautiful piece to wear.", says Adams.
North Carolina Artist John Beirle has a bold organic style . John does a variety of high quality custom work, using many precious and semi-precious stones.  He does stone cutting, and makes original pieces and castings from molds made from his designs.


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Kameleon Jewelry - Jewelry that POPS

Special Welcome to Girls on the Run from Facet Foundry Jewelry Studio!  Go Girls!

For only $89 receive a Kameleon pendant with chain and 2 jewel pops with case. This is a $139 value. While supplies last.

Express yourself with Kameleon Jewelry, with pops you can change to fit the occasion. Below are a few of the holiday pops.  For more pops and Kameleon Jewelry
 come and visit us at Facet Foundry Jewelry Studio - we look forward to seeing you!

Come in and register for free gifts all this week!



What is Kameleon Jewelry
All of us share a basic desire to express our individuality, our feelings and emotions- to stand out from the crowd. Inspired by Nature, Kameleon Jewelry captures the essence of this spirit with the launch of a new line of sterling silver interchangeable jewelry. 

Kameleon's base jewelry designs include rings, earrings, pendants, bracelets, neckaces and pins.  They feature natural, flowing lines that are all carefully crafted in sterling silver to accept small interchangeable inserts called JewelPops.

How it Works













Monday, December 2, 2013

Seahorse Treasure Necklace *SOLD*

Happy Cyber Monday everyone!! I hope everyone had a wonderful fun-filled Thanksgiving holiday!!

Seahorse Treasure Necklace
17" Custom Cut Sterling Silver Diamond Link Necklace
Engraved Sterling Silver DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski Crystals, Fresh Water Pearl
SOLD

My Darling Pearl Bracelets

 Rosaline Moon Key Bracelet
Measures 7 1/4" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls
One Left
$25

 Peach Sorbet
Measures 7 1/4" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls
Still Available! $35
  Peach Rose Swirl
Measures 7 1/4" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls
SOLD


My Darling Bracelet
Measures 7 1/4" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls
Sold, thank you Rimmy!
 Lovely Violet Bracelet
Measures 7 1/4" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls
Sold, thank you, Anna!
 
 Winter Pearl Snowflake
Measures 7 1/2" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Large Swarovski White Pearls
Large Swarovski Snowflake Crystal
SALE: $25

Caroline Bracelet
Measures 7 1/4" Gold Plated
Engraved 14K Gold-filled DSK Jewelry Tag
Swarovski White Pearls
$35
Free shipping USA!
International shipping starts at $9.95!

Thank you for shopping!
Love, Steph

Sunday, December 1, 2013

4th Annual Challenge of Color Hosted by Erin from Treasures Found

This is the 4th Annual Challenge of Color hosted by the gracious, very talented and generous Erin Prais-Hinz on her blog TreasuresFound; my second yearof participating and a wonderful feast for the eyes blog hop. This year we were asked to pick a palette from ColourLovers. We could also play a word game with the palette to give it a name.  I chose to pick an already created palette.
Here is the palette I chose from the ColourLovers web site.  It is called  Southwestern Sunrise.
seems my color brain still gravitates to the land of my childhood:  the southwest
This marvelous palette was created by Sunmeadow
You can view it in its full glory on ColourLovers here





With this bright and varied palette I made what I call a free form herringbone stitch double wrap bracelet.  I say free form since there is no specific color pattern to my piece.  I randomly stitched the bracelet with my Southwestern Sunset palette of  seed beads and twin beads strewn on my beading tray.  Some years ago I found little lazy susans that had a cloth surface that is perfect for containing seed beads and for picking them up with a beading needle.
Unfortunately I have not been able to find any like them since, but I have quite a few since I  bought up a bunch for beading classes I teach.



Although peyote stitch is my favorite off loom beading stitch, I really enjoy the challenge and symmetry of herring bone stitch.  It is always worked in pairs which means you can do some fun things when you think in pairs.  For example it was fun using some of the new twin beads on this bracelet since one twin is equal to 1 pair of seed beads. 

Twin Beads I used in my bracelet



I also enjoyed the challenge of making the clasp an integral part of the bracelet since making the external button hole always puts me in a stitching tizzy and usually ends up too tight!! The pair structure of the herring bone made it easy to use this as a way of creating a negative space for the button.
integrated button hole and my handmade copper button

Overall the bracelet also reminds me of a Persian carpet and rich colors of exotic lands.  
Here is a picture of it all finished up with one of my handmade buttons.
finished double wrap bracelet

Thanks so much Erin for organizing this fun event.  Please visit the other participant by heading over HERE,