Our community of Creston BC  has a wonderful therapeutic riding program that uses horses as therapists. I’m pleased to help in their on going fun raising efforts and this year chose this pendant to donate.  It’s a Sterling Silver etched medallion with a Sage Amethyst stone.  Sage Amethyst is a healing stone and I cut it specifically because I thought it was appropriate for this particular piece. Taking place on the March 3rd weekend! This was a such fun to make.  The design is by Lexi Erickson, an extraordinary artist and teacher, and this was the result of my taking one of her many courses. We share a common love of rocks and she is a frequent contributor to the Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine, generously sharing her wonderful creations with the world.

The last of a few pieces are finally out the door…the end of 1017!  These are Sterling Silver Ear posts, made from etched sheet metal in a new pattern I just adore.  And in the spirit of cleaning up and purging, I decided to finish off this ring with the stone it’s been waiting forever for- may do more along this design,was a fun piece to do!

According to my  Crystal Bible , the crysoprase stones used in these earrings  “draw out talents and stimulates creativity and promotes hope…”   that just might explain the craziness in my shop lately…I have a large stash of these beautiful stones that just arrived a few weeks ago.  I don’t often see this “lemon” variety, am used to the more green variety.  I love how well the colours work with the Dragon Blood Jasper bead-

The tiny drop charms are Chinese in origin, a nice reminder of my trip there a couple years ago.  The drops are strung together in sterling silver wire and finished with hand crafted sterling ear wires.  Watch for more of this beautiful stone in coming pieces-love how it plays so nice with all the other metals I love to use! These will soon be available for purchase at Legend Logos in Creston BC.

My gorgeous tiny amethyst cabochons arrived today-all the way from India…ordered on February 8th-were here 5 weeks later-Pretty happy with that!  Sure glad I ordered 3, 4 and 5 mm sizes, hoping at least one size would fit this setting…and it did!  Note to self-have the stones ON HAND before designing and cutting out the setting…

Off to the shop tonight to cut some more amethyst cabs -Sage Amethyst to be exact.  Can’t wait to see how they turn out…have some special designs in mind for the shapes I chose-♥♥♥ working with this wonderful stone!

According to one source, silver is indeed a mirror to the soul and is related to the moon and the ebb and flow of the tides – it is fluid, emotional, sensitive and mysterious. It is soothing, calming and purifying. That must be why I like working with it so much in my shop!

This special cuff is headed off to its’ forever home-I will miss it.  The solid silver cuff has been acid etched with one of my most favourite leaf designs, and then enhanced with several silver wire motifs.  Some of those were filled with sterling silver balls-quite the challenge in that soldering process!     Those little suckers travel-all over.                                      

The focal stone is a faceted  Atlantic Black CZ  and the four accent ones are Black Onyx-my newest most favourite rocks! This is a slightly modified design that I’ve taken inspiration from, by the talented Leslie Kail Villarreal, with many thanks for her amazing talent and vision. She is the original creator of this cuff  design.

On to my next project–pretty sure it will involve something with silver–and rocks.

This was the weekend a few pieces came together and were finally finished-I tend to have several projects on the go at any given time and get easily side-tracked…it’s a “bling thing”. This large (and heavy) silver cuff was a challenge with all it’s multiple layers of soldering but it’s almost ready for it’s forever home.I  acid etched the sheet silver with a floral background, then shaped and domed the cuff by hand.  The stones are soldalite,  a beautiful blue with streaks of paler blue and white running through them. Once the cuff was finished, a patina was applied to give it an antique look. I have a nice supply of raw sodalite so will be making more pieces now that I see how well it goes with the antiqued silver.  My pieces are not meant to look anything but hand done, so the wearer will see the “marks of the maker” ,  and hopefully like them just that way. 

One more stone to set, a bit of clean-up and this pendant is ready to go.  Amethyst is a stone I’ve been working a lot with lately, and I love how well it handles when cutting and polishing, and especially how well it looks set in silver…

This stone is veriegated, fading from dark purple to lighter bands that remind me of  rolling hills in fog. I cut out a large part of the back plate to allow light to filter through. 

One of my next projects will be to cut some pieces from this gorgeous slab of Sage Amethyst-full of intriguing patterns and colours, can’t wait to see how it looks all cut and polished!        

The downside of working with these pieces is at some point I need to part with them–probably the hardest part of what I do.  So I’m really excited to have found a local shop that I think is a good fit for us both, and am busy getting some pieces together to “let them go”…. will let you know how that goes ♥

I began a course late last Fall and after months of interruptions, finally have the pendant finished! This was a real learning curve for me, learning how to work with multi levels of silver, bezel setting, and soldering techniques that nearly drove me batty…and  also did some stamping that has opened up some exciting possibilities.  Thanks Leslie Kail Villarreal for guiding us through this session with such spectacular results!