Giveaway!

Hello! Ashley over at Domestic Fashionista is hosting a giveaway today for a pair of my earrings! Head on over to get entered HERE.

 Here are a few designs currently on my Etsy shop.  

 

New Designs

I'm getting ready for an open house next weekend where I'll be displaying some of my jewelry. Here are a few of the items I worked on yesterday.

Ceramic and brass

 Ceramic and brass filigree.

 Ombre Pearls

 Patterned silver 

 Brass filigree chandeliers. (These are up on my Etsy shop.)

 Silver stitch.

 Brass birds and iridescent green seed beads

Kidney ear wires and howlite.

Excited!

 A couple months ago I stumbled across 'Five Days... 5 Ways' blog through WIWW. I loved Abbie's personality, her sense of style (She's a thrifter, like me!), and her great DIY projects.


Last month I won a giveaway through her blog for a Lisa Leonard gift certificate. I was so excited! I have been eyeing Lisa's jewelry for awhile. I ended up picking this beauty:

Lisa's shop

This month Abbie is doing another giveaway (including a pair of my earrings and Lisa Leonard gift certificates) that is also for a great cause. I'll let her explain:


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Hi there, folks! My name is Abbie

from:

…and I’m so excited that Elyssa is having me by for a visit to share with you something I’m passionate about, which could benefit you guys in more ways than one.

Pinky promise.

How so?

Well, I’m hosting a huge giveaway/fundraiser to help build a new classroom for a Christian ministry to orphans in Uganda that is home-grown in East Texas where I live.

There are FIVE prize packages, chock-full of amazing handmade goodies and gift certificates (Lisa Leonard, anyone?) that you can win just by visiting and leaving me a comment.

Here’s just a small taste:

BUT!

If you want extra entries, you can also donate to:

…using a special button on my blog which will track your entries so we can see how much we raise and who wins!

Honestly, folks, these kids are incredibly humble and deserving! (Their idea of a special treat is an apple…I’m not kidding).

So, if you want to help us raise the money to build these precious children a new classroom + have the opportunity to be one of 5 lucky folks to win some awesome loot, please come check out The BIG PCM Fundraiser/Giveaway on my blog.

No amount is too small, and every dollar you give is matched up to our goal of $5,000 (wow!). Which means, if you give up Starbucks just once, you’ll be donating not $10 but $20 (just kidding…but at least $8, right?) to a truly worthy cause.

Hope to see you soon!

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 Be sure to stop by Abbie's blog to get entered in this giveaway and support this worthy cause!
 

New Jewelry

  I've been busy!

 Here's some new designs I've been working on

 Anchors away!

 Pearl cluster necklace.

 Multi glass Necklace

 Boho Sparkle Earrings

 Filigree Dangles

 Pearl Chandeliers

Freshwater pearls, Mother of Pearl, and brass necklace.

 Filigree Puff Heart w/ freshwater pearls

Some of these are listed in my shop

I'll be getting the rest of them up soon!

Jewelry Giveaway @ The Domestic Fashionista!

Ashley over at The Domestic Fashionista is doing a  giveaway for a pair of earrings from my Etsy shop. Head on over to get entered in the drawing!

Giveaway 

Be sure to check out some of her other posts! I recently discovered her blog and love following her life. She's a great writer and I just love her sense of style in how she decorates and dresses.

Feeling creative

A couple days ago I got the bug. The creative bug. So much for housework and laundry, I decided to bead.

Usually my creativity comes in streaks so I just go with it when it comes. I think I made 20 pairs of earrings in one day. One day's worth of nap times, mind you. :)

Here's a sampling of what I was working on:

I'd love your feedback!

What pair (pairs) are you favorite??

Chunky Ceramic Necklace

My MIL loves jewelry, so for Mother's Day we gave her a gift certificate for a necklace/earring set made by me. She was over the other day so we headed down to my ridiculously messy well used jewelry area to put together a piece.

She mentioned that she has been wearing more casual clothes and is wearing more brown than black right now. We opted for antique brass metal and findings since it is more casual and blends well with brown. I just ordered some new ceramic donut focals a couple weeks ago which she liked, so we structured the rest of the necklace around those.

This is the finished product. I'm really pleased with how it came out. 

 Here is a close up of the ceramic donuts. Love these! I had to wire wrap them because they didn't have holes. Guess I should pay more attention when ordering online. :)

And here are the matching earrings:

I personally favor random designs over patterns when it comes to necklaces. The only downside is that random designs are much more difficult to create than a pattern!

I laid this out several times trying not to have too much brass together, have the large beads spaced out, balance square vs. circle shaped elements, and spread out the blue rounds. Finally I thought I had it and put it all together. I went to try it on and realized the two donuts were directly across from each other! I didn't really like how it looked. I moved a bead or two, but still didn't like it.

Suddenly I got a bolt of inspiration. Take off half of the necklace, turn it around and re-attach it! I tried it and it was perfect! Yay!

Design is the most difficult part of jewelry making. People will ask me how long it takes me to make a piece and it's hard for me to answer. Sometimes it can take me an hour to design a piece, but only 15-20 minutes to put it together. A lot of times I lay out a piece, but am unhappy with it, so I'll come back to it another day.

One of these days I'll get up the courage to post pictures of my messy jewelry space....probably when I have tidy 'after' photo's to post with them.

If you're interested in seeing more of my jewelry check out my etsy shop.