It's Been A Long Time!

I have been busying making custom orders, but that leaves little time for me to create new pieces for my Etsy shop. I did get this beauty made recently though, and it is in the shop today!

The Beauty In It All

I know it's only January 6th, but a stroll down to La Jolla Coves on a 70 degree day makes my head swirl with springtime images and ideas. I see more ocean themed jewelry coming to my store. Maybe some more hand sawn sea horses, sea stars, and a few shells here and there. In the meantime, enjoy the view!

Photo Book

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Photo Book Tip: Create an adventurous travel photo album at Shutterfly.com.

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