A Beautiful Necklace by One of My Favorite Etsians!

I had to post about PearlEverlasting, a wonderful jewelry artist on etsy. Emily is one of the sweetest and most helpful sellers! And she makes the most gorgeous pieces! They are one-of-a kind or limited edition items and feature 100% recycled silver and 14 karat gold.

Emily has an eye for beautiful stones and some of the best craftsmanship I have run across on etsy. Her designs are elegant, and I just love them. I have several pieces of hers, but I will post one of my favorites here.

Emily's pieces arrive nicely packaged and always quickly - even from across the country. To me, she represents the best of what etsy can be!

A New Year's Resolution

I know it's not New Year's yet, but one of my resolutions will be to be more organized. To that end, I organized my jewelry today. My mom had given me some racks for jewelry. I put a lot of the silver pieces that I wear most in little plastic bags and organized them by type (necklace, earrings, bracelet) and stone color on my dresser. That way I can find things more easily.

You can also see my two buddhas I found on etsy here.

Next for organizing, my work table and craft area downstairs...

With Winter A New Shop?

Here are some pictures I meant to post from my drought of blogging last month. Winter seems to have arrived all of a sudden here - it was bitterly cold today.

It makes me think about adding scarves to my shop again. But I am inclined to open a second etsy shop rather than dilute the CastalianDesigns feel. I am trying to come up with a name. Most of what I do is crochet, so I feel like I can't honestly call it CastalianKnits, which would be my preferred name.

The alternate route would be to add a scarf or two to the existing shop and see if there's any interest. If you have any advice or even just an opinion about it, let me know!

Gorgeous Earrings from Jo!

Look at these beauties that came from one of my favorite etsians, Jo at Gemheaven!

They are so sparkly and gorgeous.

Jo is one of the sweetest people I have had the pleasure to meet through Etsy. She is so very friendly and super easy to work with. You can check out her shop here. (I love her Bewitched necklace and paranoia cuff.) You can also find her work with Wire Boutique here. (My favorites are the Snow Queen's Bouquet, Apple Blossom, and Amphritite.)

Goodbye, pretty bracelet...

No picture for this post, and here's why...

I bought a pretty silver bracelet over the weekend for $30. I wore it yesterday. I wore it today. I really liked it.

Now I find tonight I am not wearing it. Hmmm. Called Borders, no luck. Other possibilities - Wawa, the doctor's, my Township building. Most likely a parking lot.

This happened to me once about 20 years ago when I lost a bracelet I loved on a train. I guess I will figure what I figured then... At least I lost it before I got more attached to it.

I hope whoever finds it loves it and that it stays on her wrist.

Yet Another Great Etsy Find!

This is a beautiful bracelet I bought from Carol Bradley Designs.

Carol is such a sweet and talented designer. When I requested this bracelet, she pointed out to me that I probably could make it myself. But it's her design and wearing her original work feels so much more special to me than trying to recreate what was her vision.

It's a gorgeous bracelet! The design is fabulous, and the craftsmanship is great. I love it and wear it often.

Some Garden Photos & A Pretty New Ring

(Sedum)

Philip and I spent much of the weekend weeding and mulching, which gave me a chance to appreciate the colors in the flower beds right now. Here are some photos of what's in bloom. (Nasturtiums)

(Snapdragons)

I also wanted to post about a beautiful ring I bought from SYFjoolz on Etsy. It is a beautiful Montana Agate ring. I love the clean lines and great craftsmanship. I'm no hand model, but here I am wearing this gorgeous piece of art!

A is also for Andalusite

Andalusite is a really interesting stone. It is pleochroic, meaning that it when viewed from different directions different colors are evident. When faceted, the stone sparkes with reddish-brown, olive green, and brownish-red. The best colour play is seen in fancy shapes. In round cuts, the colours blend together.

The stone is quite hard with a hardness of 7.5. It is durable and wears well. It quite often features inclusions, among the most common of which are rutiles (or needles). Andalusite is untreated.

First found in Andalusia, Spain (hence its name), this stone is also found in Austria, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Sri Lanka, China, and the US (California).

A is for Apatite

I've been thinking that I might make some notes about some of the stones I work with and my experiences working with them. I figured I would start with an A - apatite. It is a gorgeous if tempermental stone.

Although it comes in a variety of colors including blue, greenish yellow, greenish blue, soft pink, and violet, I have seen it most often in varying shades of blue. You can see a range of blues - from peacock to London blue - from the photos here.

According to The Jeweler's directory of Gemstones, it's name is from the Greek word for "deceive" because it is often easily confused with other minerals like beryl, topaz, zircon, tourmaline, and sphene. Source countries include: Brazil, Canada, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, and the US (California.) Typical inclusions are black carbon specks, cloudy inclusions, and fibrous inclusions (silk). It may be heat-treated to improve color and lessen inclusions.

A really lovely stone, it can be frustrating to work with because it is extremely brittle. I've had briolettes crack while I was stringing them because of pressure from adjacent stones. The corners also can chip relatively easily. At 5 Mohs, it is also fairly soft.

I've had better luck with more solid forms like teardrop briolettes and rondelles than with more delicate pear-shaped briolettes. In fact, because the necklace below needs delicate adjustment to be worn, I've kept it for myself. I love it, but I couldn't sell it because it does need to be handled in a particular way to make sure the briolettes don't crack.

Sunlight and Shadows Bracelet

Yes, I couldn't resist creating another new bracelet... I love this color palette! I used champagne citrine pear-shaped briolettes, sunny citrine onion briolettes, tanzanite rondelles, iolite twists, and tundra sapphire and tourmaline rondelles in hues of gold and cinnamon. All wrapped with sterling silver. It is listed here.

Thanks Wintergarden!

Lucky me! I was featured in a by hand spotlight by wintergarden



Thanks, Glenda!

Wintergarden has a wonderful shop as well, which you can check out here.

Here's one of my favorite pieces from Wintergarden:

Another new bracelet

Okay. I need my head examined. Why do I keep making bracelets when it's earrings that sell?

I think it's because I make what I would wear, and at heart I am a bracelet person.

This is the latest one - called the Happiness Bracelet - because it makes me happy. It is listed here.

New in Shop

I've been thinking about this one for a while, but work has been keeping me busy. I finally got moving on it on Wednesday night and stayed up until 1:30 in the morning to finish it. I got a chance to photograph it this morning and listed it in the shop here. I love the lemon (chalcedony, quartz, and topaz) and pink (pearls and tourmaline) together!

Listen to your stones...

I've been so busy with work lately I have been neglecting my shop. However, I did find time to finish these earrings. They've been sitting on my table as the beginnings of a bracelet for over a week. I kept trying to rework them into a bracelet design, but wasn't happy with the way it was coming out. Maybe that's because they wanted to be earrings all along & I wasn't listening hard enough.

The Most Wonderful Giveaway...

Check out the talented Lampwork Treasures' Beautiful Giveaway here!

Three gorgeous pendants up for grabs. And three chances to win! What could be better?

Wire wrapping...

I've started to experiment more with wire wrapping. I need to work on my technique, but I've begun practicing with copper and glass. I am trying to develop a few patterns to try out with silver and stone. Here's my first attempt.

A New Record... for me, anyway

I had two sales this week. That's the first time that's happened to me. I feel very lucky!

It's made me start to think about some of the older pieces I have listed. Maybe it's time to take them apart and create something new. Although one of the pairs of earrings that sold this week had been lingering in my shop since last summer. Hmmm...

At any rate, here's a new pair I listed today.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21981103

Another new pair of earrings

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21668726

I have had these tundra sapphires for more than 6 months... Finally got around to using them - they have such a pretty sparkle against the coin pearls.

Two new pairs of earrings

I am still catching up after purchasing silver. Here are two pairs of earrings I finished yesterday.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21625608

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=21621901

Finally got some more silver...

I finally ordered some new toggles and silver so I can finish off a few pieces I've had on the boards for a while. One is this necklace. I have had this briolette (which although I am not a pink person, I love) for what seems like ages. Finally I got to put it to good use and made this necklace.