Latest Projects (Knitting and Jewelry)

Well, just a week into my new "schedule" and i am liking it! I decided i needed to be more productive with my work and have decided that Mondays are jewelry making days, Wednesdays are fiber days, and Fridays are dedicated to painting. I wish this meant that i could lock myself up in my studio first thing in the morning and emerge hours later with a few new masterpieces on these days, but hey, i gotta save some time for life too! So i am making sure i dedicate at least one hour a day to these aspects of my creative life. It sounds like it should be easy, but...

Anyway, here is the latest in the jewelry and knitting department....

My newest serpentine bracelet nestles in Buddha's hand. The colors are deep and rich mossy greens, greys and ochers. The clasp is sterling silver

Here are a few pair of earrings. More chalcedony with sterling silver wires, and some green peacock fresh water pearls, and tiger iron beads, hung on gold filled lever back ear wires...

Mixed turquoise nuggets, some real rough and some more polished, are hand chained together and held with an oversized sterling silver lobster claw clasp.

More of those peacock green fresh water pearls strung with a sliced shell centerpiece, and sterling silver fish hook clasp. The necklace and matching earrings sit on a bed of amethyst...

here is a picture of the back of the centerpiece, which can be worn either way...

i really like the sheen on that piece of shell...

In the knitting department...LOOK WHAT I MADE! I still have to sew the seam together , but you can actually tell it is a baby hat! The wonderful world of knitting has opened up for me! And i could never have done this without my wonderful knitting teacher, Linda Lange, who teaches knitting classes at The Paper Sparrow This may not look like much to you, but it is the first time i have actually been able to read a pattern, and make something in knitting with needles other than a square or rectangle! Thank You Linda!

And for my latest project and one of my goals for the year...make a baby sweater. This one is all in garter stitch and is the easiest pasttern i could find on the internet. Once i get this one done and put together, i'm going to try to make a fancier sweater for Lola and then one for Seth. Wish me luck!

Art Auction for the Animals

Here is the finished set i made for the Art Saves Animals Auction for the

Mohawk and Hudson River Animal Shelter. This animal shelter had blessed me with so many wonderful and loving animals to share my life with over the years, so this is the least i can do. The stones are faceted chalcedony, hand chained, with sterling silver clasps and wires. The little statue the jewelry rests on is Ganesh, who it is said, is the remover of all obstacles... He sits on my modest little altar next to Kwan Yin, Mother Mary, Jesus and Saint Francis...The altar is a little sacred space in the middle of our home. Hopefully the beads will soak up some sunshine and good energy before they are packed up and sent off to the shelter!

New Jewelry...(in between a rock and a hard place...)

Specifically, between staying at the hotel, and staying at home during the construction. We are here at home during the day, and then i pack everything up and off we go to the hotel for the night. Pokey, our contractor says he should be done with the bathroom by Friday, and then he will do some work in the master bedroom, which should take a few more days...Not sure if this means we can move back into the house for the night as of Saturday, but that is when we have the hotel room rented until.... So, in honor of that "hard place", all jewelry created so far this week has been photographed on some of my favorite native rocks that live out on my deck....

These are tiger iron beads, hand chained, and the center piece is soo joo jade. The carved piece has little animals running around the center circle...

The oval beads in this bracelet are called Raj jasper (i suspect they are just better quality rhyolite specimens) and the round beads are rhyolite...one of my favorite stones...No matter how many pictures i took, i could not capture the richness of the color in these beads...

This bracelet is made of purple fluorite and amazonite...

And this necklace is made of jade and rhyolite, with a jade centerpiece carved into a gold fish...The matching earrings are jade too. I am almost finished chaining together a chalcedony faceted necklace with matching earrings, as a donation to The Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society's Art Saves Animals Auction It was an honor to be asked to contribute to this cause as i have always supported this organization and have adopted many of the animals that have made my life happier and richer from this place. For more information visit their website here... I'll post a photo of the finished piece before i wrap it up and bring it to the shelter...Hope everyone is doing fine and being as creative as your surroundings allow you to be!