Latest Projects

I found this Butterfly at Confetti Beads, locally last year and didn't know what I was going to do with it, I just liked it. In January I found these delicate glass beads at Gem World in Quartzsite so thought they would look together. I made individual bead units and connected them for the necklace. I made earrings to match.



I also found this copper chain at Quartzsite at a gem show and saved it for this charm bracelet made from pure copper beads and silver. I love making dangly little charms like these!



After helping with a kitchen plumbing job recently, I was inspired by the unused brass compression washers that were left. I thought they would look good to make bead units paired with some carnelian beads I had in two sizes so I made a necklace and bracelet set. I love the look of copper and brass together!



I have been wanting to make a fan necklace but hadn't found the fan beads I wanted until I saw these. I paired them with silver-toned cubes, nice look I think.

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Eyeglass Chain 2

This is another eyeglass chain I made for a friend's approval. I like making the eyeglass chains with wired bead components instead of out of beads strung on beading wire, I think they are stronger, which is important with eyeglass chains.

Copper Blossom 2

This is another of my copper blossoms necklaces. I so enjoy hammering and shaping these discs I cut out from the flamed sheets of copper. I am also enjoying making more necklaces with hand-twisted links, forming bead components. I feel they are stronger and I just like the look over that of beads on beading wire.

Deming Stone - Polished

This is one of the stones I found while rock-hounding near Deming, NM. It was tumbled and polished and I wire wrapped it in copper wire with brass half-round wraps. I love this stone and found quite a bit of it while at this place. I will start another tumbler full of stones later this month. I wore this all day yesterday and most of today, road testing it, and found it to be not very heavy and was comfortable.

Turquoise and Copper Eyeglass Holder

I made this pending the approval of a friend who requested a turquoise and copper eyeglass holder and wanted a finer touch than the copper tubes and turquoise beads shown before. We'll see if she likes this one. I do like to do the connected bead units for eyeglass holders, they are much more secure than those beaded on wire.


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Earrings for Carol

Last year a good friend, Carol, purchased one of my copper and calsilica bead necklaces from me and now wanted earrings to go with them. I was able to match the coils and washers and designed these for her. Both the necklace and earrings were oxidized using Liver of Sulfur.

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Latest Fun

I have spent the last few days working on these two projects. I want to work on designs for eyeglass holders. I know many people who wear their "readers" hanging round their necks and I think I should design some funky and interesting designs that will be sturdy and worn well. This is my first one.

While I was cutting copper tubing for the eyeglass chain, I decided I would also work that idea into a necklace design. I used calsilica beads for the necklace and like those a lot.

I am so pleased to announce that these two necklaces were among the many of my pieces that sold during the Art Faire at Sun City Grand on Saturday. They went to good homes!


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Green stone Cross and Beads

I was asked to restring a friend's necklace since it originally came on a wire neck ring that was too small. I wanted to keep with the simplicity of the nice green stone beads and cross and make it a simple, yet longer necklace. I like this look, pending approval from my friend.


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Copper Rectangle

This is a another copper pendant I finished this morning. I am having fun with the dapping and doming set and my hammer! I added a macro shot of the pendant for a closer view.

I wore the Copper and Brass pendant (below)to the Arizona Artists Guild meeting last night and the pendant was noticed quite a bit. I think I am on to something with these copper pieces, I know I sure enjoy wearing them when I road-test and market-test them!



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Artisan Jewelry Sale

Last Saturday I participated for one day in an art sale at the Sun City Grand Art Club. I was pleasantly surprised with my successful sales that day and even more that I sold more of the mid to high end pieces than the less expensive line of jewelry I had on display also. I met so many people who were interested in hand made jewelry, and interested in the process of how it is created. It was a good day!

The Valentine's Bear was one of my presents from my honey for Valentine's. I thought he added such a fun air to the scene!

Copper Blossoms

This is one of the pair of earrings I made yesterday to go with the copper and brass pendant made earlier this week. The other one did not show the colors well and was in shadow and, rather than retake the photo, I decided to just show this one. I do love the colors that the torch brought out on this sheet of copper.

I road-tested these yesterday afternoon and they are comfy and have lots of movement; which I like for earrings.

Note the almost rough edges on the bell, I am inspired to make them more so to suggest petals of a blossom next time. These are filed smooth on the edges and I like the dips and flares, for some reason, instead of hammering them smooth in the doming block. Next time, I think I will make the disks larger and just hammer the center of them and let the edges be what they want to be. Interesting!

Copper and Torched Brass

Wow, this one was fun! I cut out a rectangular shape from the torched copper sheet from before, then cut out a smaller rectangle from a torched brass sheet I had played with. I cold-fused them together with a copper grommet and then added a dangle of copper and brass. I loved doing this, it was great fun and seemed to speak to me while I was making it. I love it when that happens!

First Domed Piece

About a month ago, I purchased a doming and dapping set at Harbor Freight. I knew I wanted this but hadn't thought through just what I would do with it. Well, I found out what! A few days ago, assisted by my husband, I torched (yes, I was trusted with my handy-dandy butane torch) a sheet of copper. I brought out the lovely reds, greens and gold from the copper and dropped it immediately into a cold water bath. I loved it. I got out my Harbor Freight tin snips and cut out an approximately round shape. I domed it with the tool set and it formed this lovely, petal shape. I paired it, today, with some pure copper beads from A2Z Beads and...wa-la! I love this piece! This is such fun! What do you think?


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When I found this lovely leaves chain in copper at A2Z Beads I loved it and imagined it in flowing earring dangles or something like that. In taking it apart in this endeavor, I found that the individual leaves were with rings that would make them lovely on their own, albeit tiny. So, these are the dangles I made from this chain as well as the simple, small earrings...maybe for a young girl?

This is a bracelet I have been working on for months, literally! I made the original bead components from 1/4-inch copper tubing with spiral silver wire, but hadn't quite decided how to finish it. It is finished now and I like it!

This is a bracelet I formed using charms formed from the beads bought at A2Z Beads. I had thought, originally, of making only earring dangles from these beautiful beads, but saved five of them for this bracelet....I am glad I did!

While at the Quartzsite show, I found a great deal on beautiful turquoise beads so indulged myself and bought quite a few strands. One cannot have too much turquoise, especially when one lives in the Southwest! I like this design for its simplicity.


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Quartz and Jasper Pendant

I found this stone while out rockhounding near Deming, New Mexico. I suspect it is quartz with jasper inclusions. I tumbled and polished it and think it is such a pretty color. I wrapped it with twisted copper wire and suspended it from a copper neck ring.


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Cloisonne Earrings Again

I wanted to show you a close-up of these earrings. I have now used all of these special beads I bought. I will miss them! Aren't they beauties?

Turquoise and Copper Swirl

This turquoise pendant is another I found at the Quartzsite show. I thought its simple shape demanded a simple swirl of copper. I still love these neck wires, they keep things securely simple.


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