Monopoly on fun...
Every year I work to come up with a new idea as my birthday gift to my friend Susan Meyer. I was late to the party. I got lost 'passing go' a few too many times. Though I arrived frazzled, the 3 necklaces that layer to make a wearable 'get out of jail free card' was a big hit. If I make enough of them maybe I can buy cute yellow Marvin Gardens.
TS Eliot, St. Therese, and shirts of flame...
"The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.”
― T.S. Eliot,
I am reading Heather King's Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Liseux. Therese originated the phrase "shirt of fire." King opens the book with the portion of TS Eliot's poem I have quoted above.
Going, going, gone!
This piece was such a hit it's already gone! I'm loving these long necklaces with a cross bar for added bling. This one has a copper clay coin and architectural pendant along with a chunk of Herkimer quartz, some retro rhinestones, and a vintage clasp. Don't you love this? No worries. I took these pictures so that I could make some more.
What's in your pockets?
These new pieces feel like jewelry collages. I love sitting at my bench and seeing what bits and pieces fall together. That is how I got the idea of tucking the vintage shell into brass filligree. I think of these as 'Natural history of your great aunt's necklace.' A little vintage, stones, minerals, glass, shells, animals, pre-industrial age steampunk. In the 1850's I would put on this necklace to set off my long black/purple tafetta dress with a bustle and my button top boots, then check on my husband in his chemistry lab with all those glass tubes and bubbling liquids.
Museum geek...
Was playing around with these vintage clasps. They reminded me of a necklace I saw in an antiquities collection. It was a ring of fish sort of like this insect inspir
ed necklace at the Metropolitan Museum.
Maybe "museum" is my theme for fall.
Junk drawer necklace in process...
Playing around with some new ideas.
I was imagining pulling out a creaky
old specimen drawer at a natural history
museum,
a little copper, some coral, a quartz cr
ystal, some leather, a dinosaur. Danielle's new mother-in-law has a jar from Weston's childhood with a collection she created from his pockets when she did his laundry. I'd like to make a necklace out of that.
Playing around with some new ideas. I was imagining pulling out a creaky old glass covered wooden specimen drawer at a natural history museum, a little copper, some coral, a quartz crystal, some leather, a dinosaur. Danielle's new mother-in-law has a jar from Weston's childhood with a collection she created from his pockets when she did his laundry. I'd like to make a necklace out of that. 
Grab the brass ring!
Friends and I have been playing around with these new brass ring clasps. What is so nifty is that you can change out the pendant in a snap. I got such a good price on the chain, I can sell a piece like this one for $35. I have two styles of chain and can make them to any length. When you want a new look, pick up a new pendant for $25 and change it up! A chain with 2 pendants makes a nice little gift for $60.
Sea shells...
When I was photographing these I recalled Marcel the Shell on YouTube. Enjoy if you haven't seen it. It's really goofy.
Jewelie sports coin necklace...
James experimented with photographing my jewelry on my dressmaker's form ("Jewelie") so that my web-site can give everyone an idea of scale and how the necklaces fall. It was tricky to get the lighting just right, but this shot gives you an idea of how fun this kinetic piece is. The bead chain is adjustable so you can play with how long to hang each glass coin. In this shot, all the length it to the center.
James suggested we get Natalie in on the act. She's much better looking than Jewelie, but a little mouthier. (Don't tell her I said that or she'll never model for me.) I also have a video project in mind for my film-student son if I can inspire* him. *(I think that means cash.)
Flipping a coin...
I've been intrigued with making coins lately, my own little alchemy going on. I like this version of combining my copper clay coins with my glass versions. The bead chain runs through the glass centers and can be adjusted to create different looks depending on which coin you tug on the hardest! Kinetic, gotta love it. See more images on my etsy site.
