New Work from Old finds

I have had a small stash of pottery shards since childhood.  My family moved from Hunington Beach California to the desert of New Mexico in 74.  This was a quite a culture shock! I went from roller skating with the neighborhood kids to being the only kid for miles on a dirt road.  As skating on dirt is virtually impossible, I had to take up new hobbies!   My playmates were the cows in an adjacent field and my new pass time was "treasure hunting"  We lived along the San Juan River about 1/4 mile from Salmon Ruins.   The ruins were just being excavated at this time and the riverbank was littered with amazing finds.  I would come home everyday with a backpack full of rocks, arrow heads, pottery shards and other amazing items.
My mother, not appreciating my finds, would periodically dump my "collection"  I would be upset for a day or two and then resume my treasure hunting. After several large losses, I began to stash my finds outside of the house where they would not be found.

I have kept these pieces for 35+ years.  I come across them during moves or spring cleaning, wondering what to do with them. I knew I wanted to incorporate them into jewelry, but was never sure how to do this.  Ive never really been a big fan of prong setting, but while I was in Tucson this February, I sat in on SLK'S "capturing uncommon object's" class. SLKs class demo were amazing.  I realized it was not the prong I had an aversion to, but what is commonly trapped within in them that I'm not a fan of!  Susans pieces had interesting items caged within the prongs.  It hit me that this would be the perfect way to display my treasures.  Prongs allow for the majority of the piece to be visible.  I tried bezel setting them years ago and I just did not like the results.  Too much of the piece was obscured.

 So here is my first piece.  

 I used bronze sheet, textured with the rolling mill.  I wanted the texture to mimic some of the designs on the pottery. 

 I used sterling accents for interest.  I love how the prongs allow you to see the side view

I used large raw garnet and Turquoise for the necklace. 

 I think the stones complement the rustic look of the piece

I have next weekend off, so I plan to lock myself in my studio and work on more designs.  Let me know what you think of this one!

I may take a walk along the river for inspiration, and maybe ill get lucky and find another treasure!

go check out BAJ

My bezel set enamel bracelet is in the winter edition of Belle Armore Jewelry!  I am so excited and honored.  This is my very favorite jewelry magazine and I have been blessed to have my jewelry featured twice!  This is a great issue with lots of beautiful projects.  In fact, I'm going to work on KristenRrobinsons beautiful Iced Enamel heart bracelet!

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving!!

Iced Enamel Ring

Check out my new ring on the Ice Resin Blog

Super easy and looks cool

Little House

I have been beyond busy.  Teaching at Bead Fest in Philly, then returning home to do all the work for #craftingfortheemmys, and getting new work for ready for the Durango Art Fair.  Its 11:30PM.  I just got the car packed and ready to go.  I need to leave at around 4AM to finish getting ready and drive to Durango Colorado.  

I wanted to have more cast animals for this show, but I just could not pull it off.  I did make several new pieces with the SLK Art Mechanic blanks.  Im happy with the way they turned out.  I will post more later along with pix of the Art Fair.  But for now...here is one little house.  I used old french text and enamel.  The other side has watercolor adhered to the blank.  It has a gloss finish and I just could not get a good photo. 

If your in the Durango area, stop by and say hi.  If not...Check out all the excitements with the Emmy's!!!

#craftingtheemmys charms

A few charms I made for the Emmys. To keep up with all the excitment go to Ice resin blog.  You will find a link to the twitter chat so you can Hear about tomorrows event and a link to the instagram site to SEE the excitment

Samples for Cold Enamel Philly BeadFest

I will be teaching SLK's Cold Enameling class in Philly PA at Bead Fest this week.  Here are a few examples of what you can do with Ice Resins new Iced Enameling Program.  Available at Hobby Lobby in the jewelry supply department

 Bronze ring with Iced enamel

 Bronze cuff with Iced enamel

 You can even use it on acorns!!!

"the game of life" earrings!!

I think we may have a few seats left in class so if your in the Philly area and want to have some fun, come join us!

#CraftingTheEmmys

what girl doesn't want to go to the Emmy's.  Well here is your chance to follow along.  Ice resin will be strutting there stuff at the Emmy's this year, but even better that that, The Emmy nominees will receive ICE in there SWAG bag.  You know the bags that we all dream of getting.  SWAG stands for Stuff We All Get. but that's not true! only the elite stars will receive a piece of Ice Resin Jewelry!!! The design team is in high gear working hard to ensure that each star get an amazing piece of jewelry designed by us!!  I will be making 5 bracelets and Ill keep you posted.

As if that was not exciting enough, we are making tons of charms and bezels for the stars to have as "Make and Takes".  


Hear is  a peak at what I will be spending my nights doing over the next few weeks!

 so many beautiful bezels, blanks and paper

and of course lots of Ice Resin

You can also make jewelry like the Stars will have because all of this can be found at Hobby lobby and Ice Resin!!

Jackrabbit Marketplace

I went looking for this old post from 2011 but it was gone.  I love these colors so Im going to make this piece again and keep it for myself.  The original is at jackrabbit marketplace.  Cool site...Check it out

painting on cement

I wanted to be able to paint in a bezel but I did not just want to paint on paper and cover it in resin.  So I gave Cement a shot.  I pored cement into a bezel and allowed it to dry.

I then drew my design with a fine tip sharpie and colored it with prizmacolor.  I used a but of gilders paste to jazz it up.  I was really happy with the results, but I was bummed to find that s soon as i added the resin, the dark color of the cement came back.  I will need to practice with this to keep the clean white color.  

I added a large carnelian briloette to the bottom.  I need to finish beading the rest of the necklace.

I am happy with the results and I like how the painting turned out.  The bezel is not really heavy.  It doesn't weigh any more that it would if it were full of resin.  

ice enamels earrings

 metal, iced enamels. ice resin paper, some gilders paste and muslin.  Quick and easy fashion statement.....well it depends on what statement you want to make. hehe

I made some new iced enamel earrings tonight,  I always to present my jewelry in a cool display box, so im currently working on an iced enamel metal case for them to live in!! check back soon to see the jewelry box. directions for these earrings will be on Iceresin.com  so keep checking there site

Ice Resin Blog

My Ice resin necklace on the ice queen blog today.  Go visit the blog, lots of great ideas and projects from the ice resin design teams!!

Tech Tuesday

Check out my video on Ice Resin  for  Tech Tuesday.  It is my first video and it  has some problems.  I need to get a new camera and a new computer  (and some new knowledge on video editing!!)  Hopefully my next video will look a bit better.

I haven't posted for some time because I have been busy, busy busy.  I have been working(of course) but I have also been creating.  I have been hard at work on some new mixed media pieces like the one in the previous post.  I have lots of pieces in various stages of completion!  I hope to spend the weekend getting them all put together and then I will have lots to post.

In the mean time, here is a fun rabbit pendant I am working on.  I cast the rabbit in Ice Resin.  I made the mold from a beautiful piece of hardware lent to me by Jen Cushman.  Once the Rabbit was cast and dry, I set him in a half filled Bezel with an image.  I used Ice Resin to fill the rest of the bezel and secure him in place.  I used acrylic paint to distress the rabbit then used renaissance wax to add some shine and seal the color. 

casting in France

In France, All of the homes in Defort have wooden shutters with beautiful hardware. Most have these cool metal heads/bodies to hold the shutters open. Late one chilly night I decided to attempt to cast one of the shutter holders.

Putty sets quickly, so I was confident i could cast the neighbors hardware without being caught. I did not take in to consideration the cold weather. I passed back and forth attempting to be inconspicuous. going back often to blow warm breath on the putty! Mt first attempt failed because I was to anxious about being caught and it was not set. My second attempt was more successful. I cast the piece in Ice resin

I used gilders paste to alter the resin. I used resin to glue rhinestones in place. The cool green/blue glass piece at the bottom was a flea market find from Claire. It was originally part of a lamp shade with hundreds of these glass "blobs" They are beautiful..Thanks Claire for the cool piece I painted a thin coat of resin to give it a shine

I used bronze chain and garnet. I added a SLK bezel with resin to finish the piece off. I poured the bezel 1/2 way and painted it red and rubbed some gold gilders paste. once it was dry, I poured the bezel full and added a piece of torn french paper.

I love how this bezel turned out. Many people have asked me "what kind of stone is that!" The layers of resin and gilders paste give it a depth you cant achieve with one pour.

slide in resin

Here are the samples of what I came up with for the slides.

Here is what they look like in the "original state"

Here is the slide taken apart

Here is the slide set in an open back bezel with Ice resin

And a another

Like I said, they look cool with a light source. Here is a sample with a piece of paper behind it. You can see through the entire image. Its cool that the image is translucent, but not practical for jewelry. When wearing it, it just looks like a dark empty bezel. Maybe I will make a lamp shade of chandelier with them. It would be cool to figure out how to place a small LED light behind the piece....HUM...maybe it can still be jewelry. Come on My French friends, you can help come up with some great ideas!