And Another Hurricane Season Begins...

The Atlantic hurricane season runs (roughly) from June 1st through November 30th.  It can seem to run longer some years because of the early or late formation of storms that are tropical in nature.  That is the case this Atlantic hurricane season due to the formation of tropical storm Alberto off the coast of South Carolina.   http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#ALBERTO

Plan ahead before a storm threatens your area.  Get your kits in gear and evacuation plans made for evacuations along several paths.  Talk with friends and family so that you have possible evacuation destinations should they become necessary at some point during this hurricane season because it's best to be prepared well-ahead of the official orders from emergency management.

So, enough of the preparedness preaching...  How 'bout some fun:

 

http://www.paulsanchez.com/

Etching & Patinas

Yesterday was our first Metalsmithing Intersession class.  Intersession is a five week class that runs right up to the point that the studio space would become a bit unbearable from the heat (it's an unconditioned space).   But, we're going to accomplish a lot in those five weeks.  We're learning about etching using ferric chloride and cupric chloride.  This will be new to me because I've done all my etching electrolytically using salt water and battery packs.  It will be interesting to see the differences in how long the methods take and the outcomes.  We'll also be exploring patinas a bit more.  So, I'm looking forward to posting some photos as we go along.

I learned about electrolytic etching from Alison Lesniak's blog.  http://copperheartdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/01/electrolytic-copper-etching.html.  She makes beautiful etched jewelry and I've purchased her beads for use in my own jewelry designs.

 Necklace made with one of Alison's beads

Check out her lovely shop:  copperheart.etsy.com.

My banner for my blog & the related shop is, in fact, a photo of a copper etching that my husband made.  It features a female widow skimmer.  The widow skimmer is in the family Libellulidae and Genus of dragonflies that are called Libellula.

I'll post some photos soon!

Cicada Silver is Now Open

 CicadaSilver.etsy.com

I have finally started listing items in Cicada Silver, my newest Etsy shop.  Cicada Silver features my sterling and fine silver jewelry--silversmithing and PMC work.  Stocking a shop is a slow process and it will likely take a while before I'm satisfied with the number of items that I have listed.

My shop is named to commemorate the May 2011 re-emergence of Brood XIX of the 13-year cicadas in Nashville. The cicadas had started to emerge just days before I arrived in Nashville to take my first (of many!) PMC classes with Teva Chaffin.  yandtbyteva.com  As a lifelong Southerner who adores most of our creepy crawly insects, this was a treat for me!  I think cicadas are beautiful insects but the wonderful sound they make functions like a calming, white noise for me.  So, naming my shop after cicadas made perfect sense to me but I know that those of you who are bug-phobic may not agree! ;)

Please check out the new shop and tell me what you think!

Online Auction--We Have A Winner!

Congratulations to Vivian for placing the winning bid!  I'll email you on Sunday.  Thanks for bidding on my Gypsy-inspired earrings.  100% of your bid will go to Douriean Fletcher of Eklektic Ekhos eklektikekhos.com to help get her to Paris to show her work at Labo Ethnik. 

A big thank you goes out to everyone who mentioned this auction on their blogs, Facebook, or tweeted about it.  I appreciate your help.

Winning Bid:  $40

A New Necklace

I decided to go through my bead stash and force myself to make something with beads that have sat unused.  You know, the kind of beads that are waiting for just the right inspiration or just the right moment. 

While looking through my beads, I came across a set of beautiful millefiori polymer clay beads that were made by Nathalie of polymerclaybox.etsy.com.  The colors were too warm for silver and too Spring-like for copper so I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I realized that they were calling out for brass--but I rarely use brass.  I don't usually like shiny brass and usually choose to hammer it to break up the light reflections but I knew that it wouldn't look right with these beads.  Millefiori and hammered brass would be too busy.  These beads needed simple, plain bead caps like the ones that I usually make from copper sheet.  I made a variety of sizes of bead caps from a sheet of 24 gauge brass so that they would suit all the sizes of beads I intended to use.  Not only did I have the set of five polymer clay beads but I also planned to include two sizes of faceted stone rondelles in pink quartz and green dyed quartz.  Everything was assembled using raw brass wire and the jump rings which I had my husband make.  I'm actually pretty happy with the way it came together.  I think that the brass really matches the soft yellow and accents the pink in the beads.

All in all, I think I succeeded in putting those lovely beads to use.  I'll list the necklace on LibellulaJewelry.etsy.com on the 11th or 12th.

Please be sure to check out Nathalie's shop:  polymerclaybox.etsy.com.  She has a wonderful selection of buttons right now!

Mother's Day Shipping Upgrade

All domestic orders $50+ will be automatically upgraded to Priority Mail until Mother's Day.  I'd like to make sure moms receive their gifts on time!  And, don't fret about gift wrapping; I always gift wrap all jewelry orders.  Just leave me a message in the "note to seller" at checkout if your mom prefers certain colors or dislikes others.  I'll be sure to wrap her package to suit her tastes.

libellulajewelry.etsy.com