Få ändan ur vagnen och blogga lite

Ja, usch vad jag är dålig på att uppdatera. Inte bara bloggen tyvärr, utan i stort sett allt.
 Men förutom att jag har gjort en del smycken, lärt mig lite nya tekniker och skaffat en hel del pärlor och grejor jag behöver så har jag öppnat en svensk webbshop på Adorna.se (adorna.se/stores/18).De har ett bra concept, där de håller betalningen tills kunden fått varan, samt att det inte kostar att lägga upp varor utan den tar 9% av försäljningspriset i efterhand istället. Känns mycket bättre så. Då kan jag fylla butiken till jul. Om jag får ändan ur vagnen och lägger upp lite ;-P

Long time, no see

I'm far too absent-minded to actually sustain a blog in any decent way. But I keep trying.

I'm better at making isolated pieces of jewelry, but only slightly. My day job has been taking most of my energy lately. But I've managed to do a couple of other things: I've created a photo box to take better pictures. I've filled up on my utilities, supplies and beads, and I've also learned a few techniques to help me create what I want.

I have also opened up a swedish shop on Adorna.se (http://adorna.se/stores/18) which has a great concept. All prices include shipping and Adorna hold the payment until the customer gets the merchandise. It's also free to list items, and Adorna take 9% charge when you sell. I much prefer that to haing to pay for just listing items.

And on top of that I've already sold a bracelet. It was one I made years ago, and I listed it just for testing, and somebody obviously liked it. It pays to be patient, I guess.

Floral Necklace with Garnets and Sterling Silver

 I made this necklace for myself, with only my own taste and likes in mind. It's rather short, almost choker size, and symmetrical, or as symmetrical as you can make anything made by hand alone.

I strung the focal flower as well so it does not slide but sort of centers the necklace by its weight. I have a problem with the clasp at the back of my neck wandering forward because it's the heaviest part of the entire necklace, and it's not something I particularly like. This puts an end to all that.

And I love garnets. Especially with unoxidized silver. The contrast between the deep wine red and the bright white.

Still I'm planning to make a similar necklace using iolite beads. They do not have the distinct depth of colour as the garnets do, but are lovely in their own right, with their polarizing shift between ink blue and brown.

This is the first time I actually compose a flower from briolettes. I have hesitated because I have suspected it would be uneven, crooked or might even break the briolettes in the making. So I supported the briolette ring with a heavier gague wire flower outline, and wrapped the thin wire that runs through the briolettes around the ring of briolettes and the wire of the flower outline to join them. It worked quite well. I ended that wire by running it through a 4mm sterling round in the center of the flower.

Jeez, it even looks like I planned it!

Two Down - One Million To Go

Making new jewelry is quick, or relatively so. Selling it is slower. A lot slower. But this week I managed to sell two of my signature Autism Awareness puzzlepiece pendants, and both to the same person. That is something of a record in itself. She wanted one smaller (just under 2 inches) and one larger (3 inches) for different occasions.I can see the point in that.

I love my little puzzlepiece design. I hardly know anyone with autism, only a few with Asperger Syndrome, but I still just love the little symbol.

While trying out different sizes, I accidentally came up with a rather large copper puzzlepiece pendant almost by accident. It turned out pretty nice, I think. So now I have to put it up for sale, too. This one will go on Artfire.

My prize: Sterling Wire & a Super Charoite Bead

I got my secret prize for winning a place in the inspiration gallery at Silvergrejs.se yesterday. I cannot imagine a more fitting choice of materials kit! A 10mm super nice charoite bead, some thicker and thinner sterling wire, and some findings. I know exactly what to make from it. If my free tutorial for JewelryLessons.com does not take all of my spare time, I will make it this weekend and post about it here.

Better Late Than Never (and How To Find an Incentive to Update Your Blog)

Sterling silver hoops with indian garnet beads

It's been a long time, I know. There was a time when I felt bad about procrastinating so much, but I've given up on the guilty concience nowadays. And it probably helps. If I were to agonize about it I would probably avoid and procrastinate even worse, and that helps noone. But now my pants are on fire.

I entered a contest with photos of sterling wire jewelry for an inspiration gallery at a web shop. I already had the photos so I just gave it some thought, discussed it with a few people, and then sent the photos off on their merry way. Forgot all about it. Until I got the congratulatory e-mail saying I got in, and do I have a link to a website/blog and so on. Then I realized I REALLY NEEDED to update my blog, because it looks like I died 6 months ago. (Truth is, I got a day job, and that explains some of the inertia, but not all of it.) So now I feel I really need to do some updating. Like, right now.

You will want to know what photo made it into the gallery, I guess. It's my broken paint job from 1982 in the background, and a sterling silver hoop earring with indian garnets and some scrolls and wrapping.

Sterling silver bangle with a sun dial
of .4mm wire and a larvikite bead

I kind of like it myself, but it wasn't the biggest job I've done. I was surprised that my bead woven hematite bangle with the sterling silver sun dial and the larvikite bead didn't make it in place of the hoop, because it looks like so much more work, but that was probably not the point of the photos in the gallery to begin with.

I will dwell no further on the choice of photo, because it's not my prerogative, anyway. But what IS my business is what I put up on this blog and in my Etsy shop. And with a link from the inspiration gallery, maybe I will get some traffic. And possibly some sales. Sales have been kind of slow, really. I sell more to friends and aquaintances, than I do via the web shop, but I'm hoping that will change.

Viking knit bracelet with 2 rose quarts beads in fish bone weave
and a handmade wire toggle

But I need to list items more often on Etsy, so that something happens in the web shop every day. That might draw some attention to it. But the thing is that new ideas on what to make keep popping up to bug me, and I never finish the listing of the item, because I'm off bending and wrapping wire.

Or, I'm off browsing for beads, or pendant stones on eBay or Etsy, and get lost in the amazing multitude of nice stone beads there are to be gotten. And those that look nice in the listing, and then turns out to be purple plastic like I explained in the previous post about charoite. By the way, I have some very nice plum round 14mm charoite beads that I plan to make small dangle pendants from, for discrete people. 

Chevron amethyst necklace

Chevron amethyst necklace

From the charoite jungle I did a 180 and started looking for dog tooth (chevron) amethyst focal beads instead. They seem to be abundant nowadays. It's more a matter of which one to get, than how to get them.I found two really likeable and relatively affordable ones, that I garnished with some sterling silver.

Mmmmm, purple...

Fleur de Lis copper pendant with lab.

Every now and then I also get back to copper. Usually because I need to test something, and a test in sterling silver can be agonizing and costly. And there's also a warm colour to copper that I like during the winter, because white silver looks a bit harsh on my piglet pinkish skin.

And thinkting of the seasons, I need to get some spring jewelry going. Green (peridot, prehnite) and pink (rose quartz, tourmaline) and lilac (amethyst, charoite) and aqua (apatite and aquamarine). Or maybe I'll just buy me one of those wholesale big bags of chinarovski glass crystals in rainbow colours...

Finally! Moving Forward

This very quiet week I have had two major break throughs. One will be glaringly visible in just a few days and the other in a couple of weeks. But at my house things are happening.

Ok, I finally went to the supplier and bought some flux. I have hesitated for so long because I feel it's harmful to both me and the environment. But I have explored all the alternatives, and there's no way to solder without flux. Fusing fine silver gets very expensive and unnecessary to use for frames, and it's also too soft. I want brass!

So now I have test soldered a couple of circular elements in brass, using the "W-flux" that I'm guessing is borax. I don't want to know. It works - I'm happy. I pickle in an environmentally friendly way, though. With citric acid solution in very high concentration. It takes a little longer, but I'm slow to start with, so it doesn't matter, really.

Now I can begin do make the designs I really want, relatively effortlessly. I need to upgrade the solder, though. Why use medium hard solder on a simple element which will be worked on once? Because I want to make things more challenging I suppose.




The other break through is my purple love from russia. I have searched high and low for some affordable charoite beads to use in my latest lavender/green creations, and found everything from amethist, dyed jasper, expensive large irregular chips (which I dislike) and unpolished slabs on eBay. Not to mention the one piece (1!) round 12mm bead from a Swedish bead store for 65 Skr! Or a full strand from the US for $100 and then some. I'm a scavenging container rat for F's sake! I don't buy beads unseen for that kind of money (unless I find a lot of money in some container some day).

But now I've found some hopefully reasonalbly good quality from a dependable source to a price where I can afford to just take a chance. If they're not good, my son can have them to make christmas ornaments or use as marbles...