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Where I Have Been

Well, it has been a long time since my last post. Where have I been? At home with my kiddos! Yup, schools out which means a lot less time for me to work, but a lot more time to spend with my babies!
I promise there are a few pieces in the works and a lot of pieces in my mind :)

All Sorts Of Inspired :)

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my sons third grade class. We took a boat into the San Diego Harbor and learned all kinds of cool information about our ocean and the creatures that live in it! The kids got to throw a net into the ocean and actually pulled up a lobster, a sea star (don't dare call them starfish), a sting ray, a bat ray, a bass fish, an octopus, some crabs and sea sponges.

I couldn't believe how many creatures they brought up....I mean an octopus? Really? He (or she) was REALLY cool!

I sure hope my children don't take for granted where they live. It is SO inspiring!

So with that I present my Sea Star ring!

Adjustable with a shield form. I gave the background a texture not unlike the sandy beaches of San Diego, a shiny beveled edge all around and a nice rich oxidization to bring out all the textures.

Having Fun With Etching

I recently (okay a couple of months ago) purchased the E3 Etching kit by Sherri Haab. I finally purchased some E3 paper from her and have begun my love affair with etching! It's so easy. You take a picture, print....whatever copy it with a laser printer onto the E3 paper, iron onto your silver and etch! Seriously it's that easy.....look what I have made so far!!!! All for sale in my Etsy shop....

Baby Footprints.....yes, REAL baby footprints taken from the hospital! I can do hand prints, drawings and much more too!

But it doesn't stop there....here I have taken a picture of a leaf and etched it to make a pendant-I dressed it  up a little with a tube set garnet.

And finally a hand drawn wave (gotta love Southern California!)

Keep watching-next I am going to be working with handprints and fingerprints!

Something New and a Little Romantic

You may have noticed that I really don't do many earrings. I'm not sure why, other than they just don't come to mind when I am looking through stones. Maybe it's because I tend to buy large stones...
Plus I like my earrings to be symmetrical, so I also need my stones to be symmetrical.

Well, while browsing stones on Etsy, I found these cute little Stichtite pear shaped stones. They immediately screamed, buy me and make me into earrings. I didn't even have to wonder what to do with them....

I set them down on paper and my hand started drawing. It was almost as if I was being lead by the stone (well, if you have ever set stone, you know that is exactly what happened). Anyway, here is the result of a set of beautiful stones that lead me to set them exactly as they wished.

These beauties can be found in my Etsy store

Man I LOVE Turquoise!

So I was going through my stones and already made jewelry and realized that I sure do have a LOT of Turquoise! What do you think? They are just so pretty! These are just a few of the ones I have~

UM, My Dog Ate My New Work???

So today I found myself with a few new pieces ready to be photographed. It is a beautiful day here in So. Cal, so I had my sweet (not so little) puppy out and about with me while I took photos. It was going well, until I turned around and the ring that I was taking a picture of was GONE! Oh where could it have gone you ask?

HMMMM.....ask Hazel the puppy

Oh don't let that angelic face fool you! She had it. That's right, she had the ring. In her mouth, saving it for later. From that moment on, she thought she had made up the best game EVER! Take mommies jewelry, slobber on it and then pretend to be oh so innocent.

The puppy face would totally work on me, if only the minute I set something down she didn't use her 78 pound body to PUSH me out of the way and mouth the jewelry. Yeah, she's not sorry. 

Finally after some scolding and my moving out of her attack range, she decided to let me finish taking my pictures. Then I gave her snuggles and rubs and laid her down for a nap. After all who can stay made at a gorgeous face like this??? Not me!

So after all of that, here is my newest ring. ( I have been working on some commissioned pieces too), but this ring is in my Etsy shop right now. Inspired by some Henna tattoo work I have seen, this ring incorporates the swirling movement of lines and dots with carnelian and turquoise. Quite honestly, I really LOVE this ring! 

Oh, and all jewelry has been de-slobbered!

Three-That's the Magic Number

I am THREE sales away from reaching the 100 sales mark on Etsy!

I joined Etsy almost three years ago. It has taken a LOT of work to get my store up to date, to look nice and to offer items that my customers will want.

I have a few new pieces that I will be adding to the shop this week, so hopefully that will be the tipping point for me to reach 100!