Wire Rings

Oh my! It's been months since I've posted. Sorry! Here are photos of the new rings I made after taking a jewelry class. Need to practice a bit more, and then I'll be able to make them in silver wire.

Some of my favorite things: jewelry, tomatoes, flowers

From top to bottom: jewelry I made for my mom while in Seattle (her design, my labor), my parents' tomatoes (LOVE) and flowers.

Happy birthday, Mom!!!

{My mom's bday is not till June 2nd, but she just opened my present, so I feel like I can post it :) }

My mom is really hard to shop for. I really very rarely know what she'd like. But this year, I lucked out. She's mentioned several times that she'd like earrings with red stones. That's something I could do!!!

I love making jewelry, and so I decided to make my mom a set of red earrings and necklace. I bought a strand of red coral at Beadazzled in Dupont Circle and set out to work. So that I would not waste my time, I decided to call my mom, tell her what I was up to and ask for her approval on the design. With the design approved, I was ready to go.

The result is below:

Earrings for my mom

It's been a very long time since I've updated this blog...maybe because I started posting most of my photos on Facebook?

Here is a pair of earrings I made for my mom: coral and silver (will post it once she receives them in the mail, of course). [My mom received the earrings yesterday and liked them!!! I'm so glad.]

Raspberry Colored Pearl Jewelry

My awesome friend Radha gave me a strand of raspberry colored pearls for my birthday. I decided to make a bracelet and earrings from it. Below is the bracelet. I yet need to decide on the design for earrings. I'll post them once I make them.

Amethyst pendant for Wendy

It was my friend Wendy's bday earlier this month. I decided to make her a pendant with amethyst, her birth stone.

Here comes the funny part: I put wrapped the present into a box of matches from Evening Star Cafe. Wendy actually thought that's where I bought the pendant ;) I guess I make professional looking jewelry :)

My new black pearl necklace

Yesterday I got together with a few of my friends for lunch and then some chatting and crafting. Below is a necklace I made using black pearls, wire and silver crimping beads. I'm in love with it!

The pearls and the crimping beads are not completely stationery, so they'll move from time to time, but I think it makes the necklace more organic. I wish I could say I invented this design myself, but I did not: I saw it at Beadazzled and decided to replicate it. I think I succeeded.

Earrings for me, Anna and Jenny

A while ago Jenny came to DC for a business meeting, and I went shopping with her to help her find a few accessories for an upcoming wedding. She chose beautiful chandelier earrings that I've been meaning to replicate for a while.

Then after our trip to Puerto Rico to visit Laura, Jenny lost her earrings! Oh no!

Below are acquamarine-colored earrings I made for myself, and topaz-colored earrings I made for Jenny and Anna. I'm in LOVE with how they turned out.

Orchids and Jewelry

Hi, All.

Here are a few photos of my once-again-blooming orchid and the new green jade necklace/bracelet set I bought in San Francisco. Toodles for now :)

A necklace redo

A long, long, long time ago I bought a necklace at Ann Taylor Loft. It had pretty beads and a gold-toned chain. I wore it for a bit, but then the chain began to discolor and looked horrible. No more jewelry buying for me from Ann Taylor Loft: sorry, but I do still love their clothes.

here is the photo of the original necklace

Anyway, I decided to redo the necklace using new silver wire and silver chain and the original beads. Here is what I came up with: the necklace can be worn long or doubled up. I'm quite a fan.
Click on images for better detail!

Earrings for my mom

While in Seattle, I made these earrings for my mom from a strand of turquoise beads she bought and the yellow crystal beads I had left over from my other projects. She LOVES them, which makes me super happy!

A little bit of everything

So my Monday dancing nights at Lucky Bar have been anything but lucky lately. Instead of taking a chance of making myself miserable again, I decided to start a mini boycott and spend the next who-knows-how-many Monday nights away from dancing (at least for now).

Instead, I decided to buy some wine and make pasta at home. I was so excited about this! Alas, when I opened my pasta maker, I was horrified to see that the cutting rolls had rust on them. Crap!

I immediately went and tried to research solutions to this problem on Google. Alas, using rubbing alcohol and white vinegar (separately) did not take all of the rust off. (I still managed to make pasta and will post the results on Mango & Tomato later this week.)

It was then that I decided to consult the manual for my pasta machine. Turns out, you are not supposed to wash the machine or let water anywhere near it!

If only I was like my dad...he's an engineer, and doesn't even attempt to start using a new appliance before reading its manual cover to cover! I, on the other hand, just jump into things and hope to figure them out as I go.

You should have seen him teaching Anna and I how to drive: there were diagrams involved, and he even took Misha's toy cars to show us how the wheels worked. As if I cared: I just wanted to drive :)

Anyway, I will try to see if I can return/exchange my pasta machine.

Oh, and the earrings in this post are the ones I made for Jenn's birthday: she looks adorable wearing them :)

Jewelry Re-do

A while ago I made some sunny yellow jewelry.

I've gotten quite a bit of wear from the bracelet, necklace and earrings, but last night decided to re-do the bracelet. Let's face it: I was bored, couped up in my apartment for the last 4 days and did not go dancing. (On the positive note, I'm finally feeling better!).

before

For the after, I used silver tone beads in-between the yellow ones. Alas, I was missing one silver tone bead, so this bracelet is not perfect, but then neither is life.

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned....

Well, maybe sinned is too harsh of a word, but I did break my vow of not buying any jewelry/clothes/shoes for two months!

Yesterday I met Anna's friend from Birmingham, Angela, and some of her friends at Eastern Market. And let me tell you, you cannot go to Eastern Market and not buy anything!

I happened to be wearing a yellow skirt (I actually wore it as a dress) and my turquoise necklace, which took me several years to find (I finally purchased one in Dallas a few years ago). While looking at some jewelry stands, I saw a pair of turquoise earrings for $5!!!!!!!! Now, how could I have passed that by? I could not: so I bought them. I think they match so well!

As far as "What I am Eating," I haven't been writing things down, but I definitely keep track of my food intake in my head. So far I've been doing pretty well. Of course, there was quite a bit of eating at Laura's bbq for the 4th of July, but overall I haven't had any of the let's-eat-everything-in sight episodes!

New Jewelry

Remember a gorgeous silver ring I purchased from a local gallery in Washington DC in October 2007?? I absolutely loved it! I wore it quite often, and even came up with a fun idea of wearing it together with other thin rings.

Then this past February I lost the ring on my way to Savannah and was devastated. I even tried to replicate the ring (without any success) from copper wire.

I was so delighted when over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago I walked into Contemporary Museum of Art and saw that they carried both the ring and the matching bracelet!!! The two purchases were definitely quite a splurge, but the craftsmanship is absolutely beautiful, and it makes me happy to wear this jewelry. I love the fluidity of the pieces and the ability to make the ring wider or narrow by playing with the silver wire.



The artist of this gorgeous jewelry is Pamela Bosco.