Fini Friday! A Rosy Life!

Hello Hello!

Welcome to Fini Friday!

I hope this week (so far) has not been too arduous and that you have many fun things planned for your weekend!

I'm pleased to have two new creations to show you today that grew out of materials that have been languishing far too long (in true Fini Friday fashion!)!

Let's start with the earring creation first!

Working Title: Tree of Life

Ingredients: Bone and wood, Czech glass, lead-free pewter (USA), metal, surgical steel earwires.

The focal pieces of these earrings are bone and wood cunningly fashioned into a tree of life design! I love mixing metals and had fun mixing the shiny silver with a bit of warm copper, mirroring the contrast of bone white (HA!) and dark wood! The Czech glass accent bead is a beautiful combination of shimmering metallic-matte and clear copper! I also love throwing in many different textures into what seems, at first glance, to be a clean and uncomplicated palette! WHEE!!!! The Tree of Life focals have been with me since last Fall and this is the first creation that's grown out of them! 

This next creation grew out of materials that have been lounging about for more than a few years now! 

Let me show you! 

Working Title: The Rose Garden 

Ingredients: hand-carved Jasper rose, Rose Gold-plated brass chain, hand-made brass clasp (Thailand), wood, metal, Jeweler's Bronze.

 

I brought the hand-carved Jasper rose home many years ago.  I selected it because of it's beautiful shape as well as the small streak of yellow at the bottom of the rose!  The chain is has a hefty elegance to it.  It is brass over-layed with Rose Gold.  If you look closely, you can see that there are vines in raised relief twining all along the links of the chain!  I adore creating with fabulous little details such as that!

 

Here is a view of that same necklace on dress-maker's dummy!

 

So that's it for this Fini Friday!

Before I go, I'll mention my first show of 2013!

Burst Into Spring!

It is in Cambridge, MN, USA and details are here! 

It would be grand to see you there! 

In the meantime, I'll see you Monday! 

Ciao!

Whimsy Wednesday! Out of the Cocoon!

Hello Everyone! 

Welcome to Whimsy Wednesday! 

I hope your week has been full of good cheer so far! 

Like many people, I'm turning my thoughts towards Spring and my first show of this year! 

The title of the show is Burst Into Spring, organized by Master Gardeners, and I'm taking that as inspiration for a new batch of creations! 

Let me show you the start of it! 

Title: The Joys of Flight Ingredients: hand-carved and painted wood dragonflies, anodized aluminum, repurposed acrylic butterflies, sterling silver. The hand-painted wooden pieces in these and the necklace I'll show you in a moment are repurposed. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them and knew I had to play with them! I love the colours, the textures, everything!! The idea was to update them with punches of colour. The green jumprings are woven in a mobius-strip pattern and bring out the verdant shades of the leaves behind the dragonfly. The lilac-coloured butterfly softens the colour palette and adds interest and becomes a companion to our dragonfly! These are so lively!!! 

Title: As Yet Unknown 

Ingredients: hand-carved and painted wood dragonflies, hand-dyed fibers (USA), anodized aluminum, Swarovski crystals, sterling silver, lead-free pewter clasp.

Everything that was mentioned above for those fabulous dragonflies holds for this beautiful wooden Monarch butterfly! 

The anodized aluminum is woven in the same chain maille style and the colour themes are along the same lines. The gorgeous fibers that comprise most of the necklace are hand-dyed from an artist in Idaho. 

The tiny butterflies seen here are Swarovski crystals to give a bit of sparkle and additional texture! Also! It is rare to see just one butterfly and so our Monarch gets companions, too! 

This necklace is especially long, roughly 32 inches, as I wanted to give the option of draping and tying it as a scarf. The pretty and petite clasp (with another sparkly butterfly!) will weight the ends and hang beautifully down the back! I've included a view of that lovely, lovely clasp!  

All in all, a post filled with whimsy, wings and definitely a coming out of Winter cocoon! 

My first show of this year, as I previously mentioned, is Burst Into Spring! 

It is in Cambridge, MN, USA and details are here! 

It would be grand to see you there! 

In the meantime, I'll see you Friday! 

Ciao!