Awesome

Wow

A Hamilton inspired Funky Bracelet!

I made a few of these bracelets by special order and they went crazy fast so I thought I would add it to my website. 

The earrings I have several of, but I only had enough of the vintage German star beads to make 2 Funky Bracelets.   So if you like it then you better order it right away since I will have to completely redesign the bracelet once these 2 sell and who knows when I'll have the time.

Hope you love this new bracelet design.  If you are not familiar with the Musical then I recommend heading over to Wikipedia and learning then finding the music and getting swept away.

         

        

What kind of Archeologist carries a gun?

Oh wait that would be most of them....  Never mind.

Okay so you all know that I am just a big old nerd and love to geek out with my jewelry on a very regular basis....  humm is it just me or did that last statement sound kind of wrong.  Oh well.

This week I am introducing a fun bracelet inspired by one of my all time favorite Sci-Fi shows, Stargate SG1.  This bracelet had been on my to make list for about forever, but I'm easily distracted and to be honest I was kind of stuck on what to do.  So Shanna from FL (one of my Awesome Customers) came to my rescue.  She was really wonderful and helped me brain storm ideas for charms and the colors needed for the bracelet.  There was a flurry of emails and some wonderful suggestions (2 of witch I just out right copied) and in the end I think we came up with a great bracelet. 

The bracelet has a charm for each of the main 4 characters and the symbol for Tara (earth).  The colors are to represent the great nothingness of space and the wormhole that cut through it, so blacks and gray for space and blue and white for the wormhole.  As many of you know I really do over think these things.

The charms are....

 - Jack O'Neill:  "For Crying out Loud" he said this in almost every episode

- Daniel Jackson: "Dr. Jackson he finds the book in a room full of jewels".  My favorite character and the hardiest one to choose a charm quote/theme for. 

- Samantha Carter:  "Keep Calm and Let Charter Figure It Out".  Really the I think that 50% of the episodes could have been named this, she was one smart and capable woman, and one of the reasons I think Sci-Fi has all the best female roles.

- Teal'c: The symbol of Apophis with the word "INDEED" under.  A man of few words and noble character.  I know I'm crazy, but I always wanted to go up to him and just give him a big hug.

Hope you love this bracelet as much as we do.  If you want to see something new added just drop me a line, but don't be surprised if I put you to work.

         

        

The Princess Bride

According to google it is a fairy tale adventure about a beautiful young woman and her one true love.  But if you are like me it is so much more than that.  It is a movie about courage, facing amazing obstacles and overcoming them, never giving up, and making friends. 

But What really gets me with the movie are the amazing quotes.  As one of my friends said last week.  "Oh you like The Princess Bride do you?  Quote the whole movie."  And it's true I could almost have a conversations that was nothing, but Princess Bride quotes.  So in honer of my obsession.  I have added More amazing and Fun earrings inspired by my favorite movie.

...

...And the only thing Westley ever said was "As You Wish"  Really If there was a guy that was that hot in my life and the only thing he ever said to me was "As You Wish" I would not be wasting my commands on something as silly as getting a pitcher down for me.  Oh Buttercup you silly girl.

A quote that I use on a weekly basis. 

Hope You are just as amused my these earrings as I am.

Pentacle Earrings

I know some of you are looking at these earrings and thinking to yourself  "She's a Witch.  Burn Her!" and if you changed out the W for a B it might be a true statement.  However the former would not be true.  It's just that for the longest time I have felt sad for this truly wonderful and spiritual symbol that much like the "Evil Eye" gets a bad rap. 

Etymology:    The word is first recorded in English usage in 1561, from earlier French use, in turn from post-classical Latin pentaculum (from penta- "fivefold" + -culum diminutive suffix). The French word had a meaning of "talisman".   

The symbol itself goes back to the time of Solomon and was considered something like a protective talisman much like the "Evil Eye" today.  I know that like anything it can be perverted to the bad, but I prefer to dwell on the good aspects of life.  So for all my customers that like to look back to the past and live in the spiritual, I have made these Pentacle Earrings.  May blessings be upon you.

Purple Moon Bracelet

One of my friends is a BIG "My Little Pony" fan and because of that and a few other things I ended up spending over 6 months trying to make a Nightmare Moon/Princess Luna pendant (and succeeding with resounding success too...finally).  All that being said I had Nightmare Moon on my head when I was making some bracelets and this one just kind of happened.   Weather you are a big MLP fan or not hopefully you'll enjoy the purple and black/gray combination.  My favorite thing about this bracelet besides having a ton of purple hues so I will go with most purple things with a dash of black and dark gray to dress it up, is that none of the beads match.  Fun and artsy that me. 

It's Classic Movie Monster Time

The movie monsters from 40's and 50's are some of my all time favorite in the horror genre, so in honer of terrors of the Silver Screen I have put together this Funky Bracelet.  I piked from some of my favorite movies for the charms... The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, and Wolfman.  Then dressed in up in black, white, and gray since they are all black and white films.  The silver is for the "silver screen" and of course a drop of red because they are horror films after all.

I have also made 2 pairs of earrings to match Frankenstein's Monster and and The Wolfman.  I was a bad girl and did not get the 2 pictures for the earrings cleaned up in time for this blog post, but I will have them up later on Thursday.  I'll update this post once they are up on the website.

Simple Tortoise Earrings

Sometimes I just like simple and these earrings qualify.  They are lightweight because I don't like heavy earrings and are just a simple rectangular amber glass drop with accent beads above and below.  The name  comes about because they remind me of tortoise colored sunglasses.  I know, I know not as romantic or turtle filled as it could be, but I think I use up a good chunk of my loquaciousness last week. 

You might be asking "Why are you putting brown earrings up at the beginning of August instead of the end?" and that would show that you are far more thoughtful and conscious of the seasons than I am.  Go You!   Really my thought process this week went along the lines of..... ooh pretty little earrings... cool.  Hope you all love them.

Green Sea Bracelet

This originally started out as a new product post, but I went on and on about the differences in Sea Glass so, first.  Look!  A cool new thing.  Then some interesting information you never knew you needed to know about sea glass.

I Love walking on the beach and finding a treasure laying there in the sand with the waves crashing beside me, the wind wiping my hair and the gulls calling above, it's the ideal picture of summer that stays with me all year long.

This bracelet is comprised of small (8mm x3mm) square sea glass beads separated by small (3mm) silver plate round beads.  The sea glass makes for a soft feeling bracelet that flows over your skin like gently caressing waves. The light bluish-green color in a moving variety of shades (AKA: Hurricane) mimic the shades you would see in the water (yes we like to pretend that water is blue, but for a lot of places the water is mostly shades of bluish green).

Let me tell you a little bit about Sea Glass when it is referenced in jewelry.  Genuine sea glass is created when some glass falls into a large body of salt water and over a period of 20-50 years is crashed around in the sea and is naturally frosted and all the corners and sharp points are rounded, this gives it it's well known soft texture.  Most sea glass you find on the beach will be from broken bottles or other glassware, it is extremely rare to find beads this way and even more rare to find 2 pieces that match in size, color, and shape since it's all a natural process. 

In jewelry when someone calls something Sea Glass they don't mean that it was actually found on the beach there is not enough genuine sea glass in the world to satisfy the demand.  These days (in Jewelry terms) Sea Glass means that it is a mat-glass where all the corners and edges are smooth, this is achieved by either immersion in an acid bath or tumbled in a tumbler with water and some kind of abrasion.  20 years ago this process would have been referred to as Frosted (today frosted and sea glass have slightly different meanings), much like 10 years or more ago Ombre would have been referred to as gradiation of color (I have to admit it's nice to have one word that is easy to understand).   The good thing about man-made sea glass also know as Cultured Seaglass is that you can make a batch of matching beads and you can create them in large quantity.  Your also not limited by anything as far as color, size, or shape  which can not be said for genuine sea glass.  Most genuine sea glass has to be wrapped, either with wire or some type of fiber.  Unless you happen to find an extremely rare bead, if you want your genuine sea glass to be a bead you'll need to drill the hole.  As you might imagine you need a fairly sturdy piece to do this so all delicate beads are right out the door.  This brings us back to the greatness of man-made since the beads can be made in the normal way then they are dipped or tumbled depending on who's doing it and the item being turned into sea glass.

I truly love sea glass both the man-made and natural.  The feel of the glass is just all soft and wonderful, and to make glass soft is a neat trick.  They both have there place and I love them both for there strengths and weaknesses. 

All this being said it's important to know the difference when your shopping.  Genuine sea glass in much more rare these days because of dumping regulations (don't use the ocean as a trash heap please), so each piece should be valued for the wonderful treasure it is.  because of this and the fact that finding even one bead is hard, much less finding enough for a bracelet,  most jewelry will be made with man-made sea glass.  Most Jewelers will use the term Sea Glass because this the term used to describe the treatment the bead has undergone to give it that particular look expecting their customers to know that it is not the genuine thing.  However some jewelers just don't understand that the frosted bead or unwrapped pendant they have is man-made and not genuine sea glass so they will claim it to be genuine, because they think it is.

If you find a piece of jewelry that is labeled genuine sea glass go down this mental check list to determine if it's the real thing.  If it is the real thing it is most likely going to be expensive so you want to be careful, if you are paying a lot of money you want it make sure it is what the vendor is telling you it is.

1)  Is it a free form shape or a regular shape?  Most genuine sea glass has a free form shape.  This comes from the glass being bounced around at the bottom of the ocean for 20-50 years or longer.  It takes 20-50 years to get the frosted soft look, but it could take much longer to wash ashore, the piece of sea glass you found on the beach could be 400 years old, probably not, but it could be.

2)  What color is it?  Since the largest portion of genuine sea glass is made from bottles the most common colors will be Green, Brown, and Frosted Clear.  What I'm saying is that the bottle tossed overboard by a drunken fisher is the most likely thing to come back ashore.  Sea glass can come in different colors it's just less common.  The next most common color is blue, dragging behind that is red with yellow and orange even further down the list is purple and pink in dead last.

3)  Are all the pieces different shapes or is there a twin sitting right next to it?  Since genuine sea glass has been tumbling around at the bottom of the sea for a very long time the shapes will be very irregular, it would be like finding 2 identical rocks.  It's possible but not very likely.

4)  How much are they asking for the item?  This is only a weak indication so you'll need to take into account lots of factors.  Are you at the beach in an area know for sea glass washing ashore?  If so the person could be picking the glass up each day on their morning walk so the value is low for them.  Is it clear, green, or brown?  Well that's fairly common so it could be cheep.  Is the person new to selling jewelry?  If so they might just not know what they have or how rare it is.  If you find the genuine article and it's cheep bless your good luck and enjoy the trill of finding a good deal.  However for the most part the item having a higher price tag is what you would expect if they are using genuine sea glass.

5)  Can the artist/crafter tell you how or were they found the piece or did they buy it?  You can buy sea glass.  There are people that live at the beach in areas that get a lot washed up on shore and they will sell it on etsy or Ebay or even at their local bead shop or gallery.  However glass bought from a company online is almost certainty man-made.

After asking yourself all these questions there is one more you need to ask.  Weather it is genuine sea glass or not, is it worth to you what they are asking.  If yes then buy it and love the item.  If not then if you are at a craft show or in a gallery tell the sales person or crafter to have a wonderful day and go on.  If you are online keep looking till you find that thing that makes you happy.  Jewelry should make you smile not stress you out.

One thing I have noticed recently is a trend to call man-made sea glass Cultured  Seaglass.   Don't know if they are trying to trick people or just trying to make it sound cooler, either way it's still man-made.

Princess Death Earrings

They say "it's good to be the Queen", but I would say that being a princess is better.  You get most of the benefits and only a quarter of the work.   Since I am really into the happy skull theme and love being treated like a princess (by my honey-bunny); OK I really like being treated like a Goddess, but I'm trying to not be to picky, I figured that a skull with a crown was a very happy thing. 

Free! Eternal Summer Inspired Earrings

With Summer officially coming to a close and only a few weeks or months (if you live in the south like me) left to go swimming I thought I would bring you some fun swimming earrings. 

Admittedly this is not obvious, unless your a complete Otaku (look left, look right, look in mirror, oh there's one).   But they are perfect for your last great hurrah at the pool.  These earrings are inspired by the Anime "Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club"  (the manga has a different name) or as one of my friends calls it "That swimming manga".   It's all about a group of boys that are completely obsessed with swimming.  I watched the anime because my Father went to collage on a swimming diving scholarship (go Dad) so I was moved to watch it and I enjoyed it quite a bit, because I like a nice and sweet story. 

The Free! stands for Freestyle a type of swimming and the aqua blue bead at top is to represent the water simple, blue, different. 

Ok now it's time for a bad joke...

What Dose Haruka order at McDonald's?

Water,   because it's free.

Your welcome.