Gather & Make

Gifty Bling ~ I have been in a blingy mood lately, making all kinds of fun sparklies for relatives, friends, and I couldn't help but make a few things for myself.

First up are a trio of earrings for Mother's Day.

Amazonite, apatite, and moonstone on sterling and aluminum.

Tourmaline (don't you love all the colors?) and sterling.

Green garnet and gold vermiel.

With lots of birthdays coming up, I was into using sterling and Karen Hilltribe silver, leather, and some pearls.

This leather wrap can be worn as a bracelet or single/double/ or triple strand necklace. The leather was a bit too bright and shiny for me, so I used some sandpaper to distress it. I started with 60" of leather, and with all the knots and 21 pearls, the final necklace is 41".

Ancient Roman glass, pearls, sterling and leather.

I was beyond ecstatic to find another cache of this amazing ancient Roman glass. Each piece is unique, the patina luminescent, rustic, gorgeous.

Trio of necklaces in tarnished sterling, gold, pearls, moonstone, and raw diamonds.

The top necklace is really a longer necklace, 38", wrapped twice.

This second necklace is 21" long. I've strung pearls and gold, and used a pendant that I had made many years ago using PMC in a reverse mold that I had made from an impression of a button. It feels good to finally have it made up into a wearable piece of jewelry.

The bottom 30" necklace is rosary style, each tiny pearl or stone is linked together. I love mixing gold and silver together, especially using tarnished and bright silver. In this necklace I've linked different colored cultured pearls, moonstone, a few gold vermiel hex beads, and silver together. The longer necklaces could also be wrapped multiple times to form bracelets.

I've put my pliers, wire, and stones away for a while, until I feel inspired to go on my next blingy binge.

Introducing - Jackie O ~

I was recently in Jackson Hole for a girls' trip. Amidst the skiing and eating, and biking and eating, and hot tubing and eating, and just hanging out and eating, we did get a wee bit of poking around and shopping in. We mostly hit the "op" shops or thrift stores, but we did meander past a boutique that happened to be selling some mannequins, the same type of mannequin that I had been wistfully dreaming of purchasing online. Lucky me, for they were less than half the price, just the right size, in tip-top shape, and yes, we did have room in the car to bring her home. So I purchased her, strapped her in the back seat next to me, and we became best buddies on the 12-hour drive home. Since she hailed from Jackson Hole, we appropriately named her Jackie O.

When weather and lighting permit, I will bring Jackie O outside and snap a few pics of her attired in my newest projects.

This is the fitted dress in ochre. I used the Angie's Fall stencil, brown paint, maroon thread, in negative reverse applique. I wasn't sure which color thread I wanted to use, so I stitched up a little sample to see what I liked best.

I felt the burgundy gave me a little color pop without looking too busy.

Here is the same fitted short dress pattern, also in Angie's Fall stencil, reverse applique, tan paint, gray thread. I used the organic cotton that I indigo dyed last summer (read about it here) for the bottom layer, and Alabama Chanin hand-dyed indigo organic cotton on top.

The paint was so subtle that I had a really difficult time seeing it when working the pattern. Note for next time, use a darker shade of tan!

Here's the same dress with the indigo skirt I made here. I like the extra layer in the cooler weather, and it looks pretty too. I paired this outfit with my brown cowboy boots and brown leather moto jacket. The A. Chanin wrap cardi in black with my black wedges will look nice as the weather warms; and white flip flops with no skirt in the summer.