Adventures in Handmade Jewelry

Since I'm going to be gone during the last part of April, I'm running a Mother's Day Sale now! While supplies last, I'm giving away free jewelry items from my secret stash. Things I've had for a while that I liked and didn't put up for sale, but hadn't worn either. It's the way of it with making jewelry. And now you benefit! Head over to www.thewiresmith.etsy.com before your favorites slip away. Oh and take a look at my latest shipment! Starting on the left, the straight up and down bracelet is made of some gorgeous barrel boro beads, handmade by an artist in Texas. The design is one I'm tinkering with and it's just done in craft wire to test how wearable it is. Not especially so I'll be remaking it in a different way. Still with those double hinge links though, just not as many of them. Moving on and taking it from the top I got - faceted peridot (5 mm) faceted iolite (5 mm) star cut agate (6 mm) tumbled aqu...

There must be a torch! UPDATE - this baby is sold! Gone. Woo hoo! Spent a few hours at the bench today. For a while now I've been wanting to fire up my torch and see if I could still wield it with any skill at all. Before I went on hiatus I had just begun fine silver fusing and found I really liked it. But I was hesitant. I hate wasting wire and I hate disappointing myself. I finally got my butt in gear and here's the result! Amazonite & fine silver bracelet I'm sort of amazed at how well it turned out. Oh sure, I have a few goofed links, but not as many as I feared. With each dud I learned what I did wrong and fixed it though, so it wasn't a total waste. The ones I used are nearly all perfect. One or two have a bit thicker side to them, but not so awful that I pitched them. That's the beauty of handmade, right? It's the thing we're all going for. At least what I'm going for. Quality pieces, even fine pieces, but without that assembly lin...