Oldies but Goodies - Sapphire blue

While sapphires come in all kinds of colors, white, green, pink, yellow, orange, most people will probably think of blue first.
Sapphires are our Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge's topic today - the color, not necessarily the stone, though. Have fun with my selection!

1 and 8 The Crafty Chimp
2 and 7 Cat's Wire
3 and 5 RioRita
4 and 6 MC Stoneworks

Once upon a time ...

... there was a necklace. It was finished, but then the artist saw that the pendant wasn't sitting perfectly, and the necklace got put away for the time being. From time to time it was taken out, but always put back until a better moment would come. The moment didn't come and the necklace lay in a drawer for a long time.

The waiting is over now which kind of makes my other WIPs hope that they have a chance to resurface again, too ;-)

This necklace with the sapphire pendant is crocheted and spool knitted from fine silver wire.
It is available in my Zibbet shop now.

Mabel is back!

It seems as if Mabel is back from her vacation.
Today I felt like making something larger than usual. Not just a pendant or a pair of earrings, but something a little more fancy. Probably the upcoming holidays are already affecting my brain ...

This is still a WIP. Looking at the pictures I took I'm pretty sure I like the length the way it is now, but at the moment there is a chain without clasp in the back which for this picture I had to tie into a small knot, so the collier wouldn't be too long for a picture. Other opinions are more than welcome.

There's black and green onyx, faceted blue sapphire, lots of fine and sterling silver and the bottom piece has tiny silver beads all over.

Chaos spirit

First of all I want to complain. What problem does Google Base have with the word "muse", so it has to block it?? Yes, it bugs me. Mabel has become a dear friend to me and I won't let Google Base treat her like that *lol*

I don't know if any of you remember the crochet ring I made quite a while ago. I was never really happy with it, with the edges, with the way it felt on and I kept squishing it and looking what else it could be good for.
My muse (ha, take that, Google Base!) finally showed me the way.
You know how sometimes you feel you are drowning in chaos? Too much work maybe, too much stress, things happening that you have a hard time dealing with, family, health, your car won't start, you keep dropping things - often those small things add up and one day you'll start crying because a glass falls over and breaks. No, the last thing didn't happen to me, but to a friend and her talking about it made me feel I knew exactly what she was going through. You can handle so much and then an ordinary glass breaks and you feel you can't handle this.

My life is been somewhat chaotic lately, I'll spare you the details.
And suddenly I took this poor squished ring and started weaving silver wire through it, randomly, chaotic. I took my pliers and distressed the silver and added a freeform bail. So that was what the ring was good for. And I was finally really happy with it.
You can find this one of a kind pendant in my ArtFire studio.

The big ones

Last night I was at a friend's house. It was time for a girly chat once again. Granted, those girls are not exactly teenagers anymore, but who cares? So when I came home in the afternoon today, I was tired. The laundry basket was full, but I walked around it very careful in case it would try to catch me. I also ignored the laundry upstairs that needed folding. I ignored the fact that the fridge was almost empty as I had bought some bread on the way home and this household is rarely without Nutella which means we can survive for at least two days. In case it goes faster than I think, I'll just go and raid my Mom ;-)

I checked my email, but I was even too tired to do much at the computer. Finally I turned on the TV and watched cartoons. Then I got up again to get my hooks and wire. I have a project I am working on the moment, but I didn't even feel like that. Under strict supervision of Esme I put some beads on the wire, took them back off, put others on there, played around with an idea I had had a long time ago, and wondered if the little hoops I had bought also long ago were sterling silver at all (I have to check on that tomorrow in the daylight), managed three stitches, cut the wire again - if you used a small hook, it's next to impossible to "unravel" wire - and did a lot of sighing. Then finally the moment had arrived when I gave myself one more chance before throwing in the towel. And like so often something started out as something totally different than it ended up as.

Fine silver, sterling silver (for the back) and garnet beads

Fine silber and multi-colored sapphires (the back is crocheted as well)


I am not sure yet what to do with these rings. They are prototypes and not perfect, but still I kind of like them. Keep them and try to go for better, maybe even planned versions? ;-) Offer them at a reduced price for the modern and adventurous woman? Put them on my cat's ears? Ouch, no - he is giving me the look of "Not funny, Mom. If you want some more scars, just go ahead and try."

P.S. Excuse my chubby hands in the pictures, they were the only ones I had handy at the moment ;-)

Playing with sapphires

Quite a while ago I bought half a strand of tiny faceted sapphires in all colors of the fall, orange, yellow, greenish, almost everything but blue. At that time I had no idea what to do with them. Every, now and then I took them out and waited for the muse to tell me what she wanted me to use them for.
You know my muse by now. If she is not in the mood she just stays quiet, and if she is she gets violent easy ;-)
So the last time I took a peek at the stones she told me to put them on the wire and then let her take over (she hates the part of stringing the beads first, I guess it's too boring for her). And boy, did she suddenly take over!
I had had a vague idea when I reached out for the marquise shaped closed form of silver wire and I thought about giving it some sparkle, but suddenly there was sparkle all over.

Then I remembered I still had a silver spool knit necklace and although I hadn't been happy with the last pendant I had teamed it with, in this case it gave just the right extra kick.



Now there were still a few sapphires on the wire, so when I took it out a few days later I wondered about something little that I could do with it.
Here's the result - a fine silver wire ball with polka dots. Not quite what you let your children play with. Also I doubt it'll jump very well.


This is a night picture, I hope you can imagine what it will look like in the light ....