Wednesday Ramblings

Hey girls!  I guess I've been MIA for the past couple of days on the blog.  Not much to show here since I'm patiently waiting for supplies to roll in.  I did manage to practice stamping and put together a few earrings sets.  Nothing too exciting.  Here's the first attempt at stamping.

Not great but it's a start.  I started the metal stamping on a piece of wood.  How dumb was that?  Let's just say that piece of wood has seen better days.  And I was first trying to stamp with a soft rubber mallet.  I guess you live and learn.  Jeanette at Fundametals.net sent me several helpful hints to help me out with this process.  I love her advice on using several layers of tape to create a lip to line your stamps up on to create straight letters.  She covered everything from what type of hammer to use to how hard to hit the stamps.  Those art stamps are little stinkers.  It's tough to get all those details in.  Anyway, this is a "practice makes perfect" project that I will hope to perfect.

The spotlight item for this week on my website is the "My Copper Penny" bracelet.  Whenever an item is put up as a spotlight item I will offer an extra 10% off along with free shipping.  That brings this little gem down to $17.99!

These are the little earrings sets I made recently.  I'll put one on Etsy and one in the Bei Mondi shop.

Isabella's Secret Swarovski Earrings 

Lots of Swarovski crystals to gleam and sparkle.  I left the sterling silver alone and didn't worry about oxidizing since I thought it might take away from the shine.  This matches perfectly with the Isabella's Secret Skeleton Key necklace. 

Pretty in Pink (in Bei Mondi.com later today)

Tourmalines again but this time in a pretty soft pink.  Lots of these babies dangling everywhere with one tiny Swarovski crystal in the middle.  Sterling silver has been oxidized and polished.  Well, that's all for me today.  I hope you ladies enjoy your Wednesday!  :0)

To Oxidize or Not to Oxidize. That is the Question!

Ok, slacking a little today. I guess staying up till 3am last night might have something to do with it. It's 3pm and I'm looking for another cup of coffee. Terrible habit! But I love the smell of coffee brewing and when it brews I just have to have a cup. Anyway, I wanted you gals to take a look at this piece I was working on. This is my first attempt at a wire wrapped pendant (I guess that's what you call it). Not too shabby, not perfect but I don't think perfect is in my vocabulary any way. So, the question now is whether to oxidize this little guy or not. Any suggestions? It's made with sterling wire which almost looks cheap in a way because I think there is too much shine to it. The clasp on this is a first attempt as well. I love Sharilyn Miller's "Bead on a Wire". I think I should be her spokesperson with as much as I've been mentioning her lately.

Petit Four Dangles
Well, I have one pair of earrings so far for the shop. Moving slowly today! Smoky quartz marquises with pink opal chips. Pink opal seems to be a challenge for me to match other stones with but I did notice the brown and black flecks throughout the stone so hopefully the smokey quartz will compliment it well.

Oh, and here's Lauren's art project for today. She knows I love octopi so look what she made me. And the angel is too cute so I had to include that as well. Get out in that sunshine and make the best of the day! One more day left till the weekend!

Today's Little Pretty Things

Carribean Chic Earrings
I bought some amazing carribean blue chalcedony recently and just had to make pretty little dangle earrings with them. They are just like the sea. What a brilliant blue! I paired these with peridot chips and some freshwater pearls. I love these colors together.

Pyramids of Giza
This bracelet is so simple but I've had the most compliments on it than any other piece. Neutral browns in picture jasper help highlight all the sterling Bali spacers and the large dotted focal bead.

Have a great sunny day!