More Floral Scarf Pins

I've been making more floral scarf pins for the summer.  Other than the sunflower pin, these have the Rivoli Swarovski crystals embedded in the center.

I've also been experimenting with different backings.  I like the clay back with the embedded metal strip but I found that part to be so labor intensive.

This pin has a heavy wire that I embedded into the clay and seems to work rather well.  The way I make my metal wire button shanks (see my Making Beautiful Buttons tutorial) gave me the idea on how to do make and embed these rings.

A few more pieces finished

I normally like to use my own clay spacers with our pieces but I had discovered these new Czech beads with a sort of pearlescent finish and look like frosted glass.  We happened to have colors that went beautifully with both pieces and seemed to liven them up a bit for summer.  It is nice to have them finished and ready to sell.

My New Present

I have to show you the wonderful present Dave bought for me the other day.  It is this beautiful shawl that was hand knitted by Donna at Donna's Yarn & Craft Center.  She sells our beads, buttons and shawl pins and I was admiring this shawl she had for sale.  Dave had me try it on and decided I should have it.  Isn't that so sweet?  It is just my color and is knit from a gorgeous linen yarn.

The shawl pin I had made for myself some time ago looks like it was made just for it.

More Spring Flowers

The earring demo at The Sewing Basket went really well today and I am scheduled to teach another Beginner's Jewelry Making Class in July.

The weather has been nice and warm here lately and we not only have flowers in our garden but they are sprouting up in our studio as well.  These two necklaces are 24" long excluding the 4" chain tassel.  I created these in the Pantone Spring colors of Sodalite Blue and Cockatoo shown here.  The one below is a combo of Tangerine Tango, Cabaret and Solar Power.

Easy Hoop Earring Demo

Tomorrow I will be giving a free demo at The Sewing Basket in Salmon Arm on how to make some easy hoop style earrings.  Here are some of the  designs I created all using my rondelle spacer beads.

Tea Cup Buttons

A friend of mine, Joan Tayler, just created some texture plates that are available in her Etsy shop.  Since I love playing around with textures I wanted to give them a try.  I used the Teapot Tempest texture to create these antiqued tea cup buttons for a custom order request.  

I really like creating with this type of texture sheet as you can use many parts of it and come up with a different look each time.  I think they will work great for mokume gane as well and will have to try that next.

Blind Bay Show

We were invited to sell our work at the Blind Bay craft fair today.  It was a little quieter than expected but had a good time and met some great people as usual.

I remembered to take a photo of part of our display this time.

We had the privilege of meeting Ruth and her daughter that were set up next to us.  She makes these awesome "stone" sculptures.  I was even more impressed when I discovered they were not stone at all but actually made from styrofoam.

She also makes these beautiful statues for the garden that are made from other recycled materials.

The coolest thing is that Ruth is holding workshops on how to make these.  I find them both totally fascinating and decided I might take her up on it and learn something new just for the fun of it and possibly there is a way I can combine it with the polymer.