A happy customer!

I love hearing back from my customers.  I customized a dog talk for a lady north of me (one day for USPS to deliver!) and she sent me pictures of the tag out of the box and the tag on her dog buddy.

Here's the tag:

Well she had a picture of her dog Buddy wearing it, but it seems to have disappeared from the web.  He was a cutie!

Fusing fun for the season!

Some fun snowman earrings I made!  These were a happy accident.  I was fusing for my earring drops and kind of overfired one of the rings so it shrank a bit.  When I looked at it I thought - SNOWMAN!  And here they are!

Available for sale in my Etsy store

Fusing fun!

I'm going to do a wire fusing demo at the Urban Emporium at 98 Bottles in San Diego. To prepare for it I practiced fusing tonight. I made some figure 8's and circles with my bail making pliers, made sure all the cut edges touched, hit them with the torch and, VOILA, fused finedings! Here is a picture of the various parts of the process - from bare wire to finished earrings.

 

As you can see in the "after fusing" parts - one got a little too hot and the middle ring melted open.  I still like the look so I'll have to melt another one to match! 

Here's a closeup of the earrings:

The earwires were also handmade - heat up the wire until it balls at the end, form the shape, heat them in the oven to harden and run through the tumbler to get them nice and shiny.

It's already October!

Wow - time does fly when you're having fun!  I was working like crazy to come up with some new designs for a juried show application.  I've been in the show at the Fallbrook Art Center for the last two years and wanted some new stuff to make sure I'm accepted again this year.  I decided to make some more torch enameled earrings designs.  This time I cut out some copper circles, domed them, enameled them in one color and then added some glass stringer bits in another color.  I think they came out pretty nice!



I also made this wonderful set for fall.

All of these are available for sale in either my ArtFire or Etsy studios - for now.  They'll all be heading off to consignment or shows shortly.  So if you like them - get them now!  Of course I'm making more variations - but the patterns of glass on the enameled designs is one of a kind.  The glass starts acting on its own once it starts melting!



Fun with torch enameling!

I shared some of my initial enameling results in an earlier blog post (http://cserpentdesigns.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-new-endeavor-revealed.html).  I've been working at it some more and had a productive weekend enameling beads and caps.  Here is what I started with

And here are the results!

I just love the flower drops! I'll be selling these (and more) at the Senior Classic Women's soccer tournament this weekend in Mira Mesa.  I'll be playing and selling again this year.  Fortunately my wonderful hubby will be helping out since normal helper (mom) is recovering from surgery right now.

We'll be at Hourglass Field in Mira Mesa (just south of Miramar College). Park in the Miramar College parking lot. We'll be there from 9-3 on Saturday and Sunday. Here's a mapquest link if you need it: Hourglass Field. Hope to see some of you there!

A Beachy Set!

One of my customers wanted a set in peridot and teal. I started off the preliminary design with an eclectic combination of lampwork beads from several different artists. All had some peridot green, some teal and a white base, but each had different patterns and different shapes.  When I showed her the mockup she wanted me to add something to give it a beachy feel. I had fun making this set and it turned out great!

Bracelet

Eclectic and fun earrings!

Necklace

Beautiful pearls!

Wow - I've been neglecting my blog!  I'm cross promoting on the web with Lynn of Urban Pearl Studio.  She has absolutely gorgeous pearl jewelry in her Etsy studio.  If you're looking for wedding jewelry or some sweet pearls to go with that little black dress check out her studio! I'll share some of her beautiful pearl designs and some of my own as well.

A gorgeous triple strand pearl bracelet by Lynn of Urban Pearl Studio



AA white freshwater pearl and twisted sterling silver post earrings by Susan of cserpentDesigns



Natural light blue chalcedony and white pearls necklace by Susan of cserpentDesigns



White coin pearl necklace by Lynn of Urban Pearl Studio

My new endeavor - revealed!

All my supplies arrived and I was in the garage practicing enameling!  That's my new endeavor.  I'm starting off with enamel over copper since my practice pieces definitely show that I'll need some time to do it well.  Here is a picture of some domed copper pieces I enameled. 

My attempts to enamel copper washers was quite a flop.  In all cases the enamel would flake off.  I may need to do washers in the standard way - bring the torch to the piece.  I did these domed pieces using the method Joseph Spencer started - bring the piece to the torch.  I learned more about this technique by reading Barbara Lewis' book - torch-fired enamel jewelry. So I'm starting off simple though I am going to try headpins tomorrow ...  With these disks and some equally bright headpins I could make some cute little flowers.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can actually enamel some pieces to use in designs.  I'm looking forward to using the glass threads and millifiori disks I got in the designs.

A couple of new designs

I've been reading up on a new design medium and gathering together supplies so I can start making things. I haven't yet gotten everything so I'll hold back on telling you what I'm up to until I can share the beginning creations with you! In the meantime I did make a few new things ...

Black agate, onyx and substantial basketweave sterling silver earrings

 

Hammered, textured and shaped copper, turquoise and sterling silver earrings



Just found out about a cool giveaway!

I'm subscribed to Melissa Muir's blog and just read about the giveaway she's having. She's giving away some cool tools! Since I'm always on the lookout for new tools and free ones are even better I'm getting as many entries to the giveaway as I can. One way is to share her giveaway on my blog - so here it is - I'm sharing! You can read all the details on the giveaway here - Giveaway!. Now if you are going to enter - please let her know that you heard about it from my blog post! You'll get an entry and I'll get one more entry! And while you're over there reading about the giveaway check out all the beautiful designs Melissa makes!

Just a little bit of wire here and there ...

A friend of mine gave me a picture of some earrings she liked, could no longer buy (they aren't made anymore) and she wanted some changes made in the designs anyway ....  So from the picture she gave me I initially made an example in copper with the same size beads that I would use in the final design.  Here's the mockup I made

She approved the mock up design so I then did the final design in gold fill with turquoise seed beads and salmon pink coral drops.  Here's the final design.

I think they turned out pretty nice!  I think I'll make a pair in copper too - since I have half the design mostly done already!

Random new things to start out June

I decided to set some of the pretty opals I bought in Tucson (so it takes me months to get around to things - what can I say!).  Here's a pretty pair in sterling silver.

It is very hard to catch the flash with the camera.  This pair has nice red (actually orange) and green flash in them.  These beautiful opal earrings are available in my Etsy studio.

And I finally got some decent pictures of this pen.  I love the organic look of the handmade lampwork beads!

This organic purple and silver pen is available in my Etsy studio.

And I made these pretty earrings with these gorgeous mint green lampwork beads with little cameo looking roses all around them.

These mint and pearl earrings are available in my ArtFire studio.

Happy June!

More Murano glass beauty!

I just finished up necklace and earrings using some of the gorgeous Murano beads I got in Venice in February.  I just LOVE the cobalt blue in these!  I used both sterling and gold filled so you can wear it with silver or gold accessories.

Both are available in my Etsy studio - just click on the pictures!

For the bride!

I was excited to get a custom request to make earrings and a bracelet for a bride to wear on her wedding day!  I just finished the set and love the bracelet design.  I'll have to make some variations on this for my online studios.  I used AAA aqua chalcedony, AAA pearls and sterling silver for this set.  Enjoy!

More stamping fun!

A friend needed stamped keychains made when the person who originally agreed to make them couldn't due to a family emergency.  Here's the heart keychain I made for her.  I sawed out the heart, drilled the hole, stamped the phrase and background decorations and used the torch to give it some flame coloring.  It turned out pretty well!  

I'm waiting on some new font stamps to arrive before I can finish up the second keychain.  I did an initial try with the fonts I have and it just doesn't look right.

Fun with cluster earrings!

I've been in the mood to make earrings with clusters of gems.  I don't know why - that's just where my muse has taken me.  Here are my 3 most recent creations ...

            
Amethyst and peridot available on Artfire      Onyx, turquoise and artisan lampwork available on Etsy

Beautiful pink topaz!

Fun at the Westie Rescue picnic!

Every year Westie Rescue of Orange County has a picnic/fundraiser.  We got our Westie, Max, from WROC and I always love seeing a park full of Westies (and their adopted brothers and sisters) so I join in the fun and festivities and bring Gino and Max with me.  This year my mom and her rescued Westie, Becka, and my visiting college roomie joined me at the picnic. Part of the fun at this event is the dog race fundraiser.  Westies and their friends get to chase a "critter".  Here's a movie of Gino chasing the critter.  And here's a picture of little Max ignoring the critter and only running down the "track" because I'm encouraging him to follow me.  Here's my college roomie getting some loving from Gino!

Here's a video of the entire race that Gino ran and Max and Becka wandered ...

And, for the dog lovers out there I'm making stamped, brass dog tags - for your dog - or you if you want something special.  Here's one I make to order: 





Mother's Day is near!

Mother's day is fast approaching.  I'll share a few things that might be nice for your mom (or yourself) from my shops. 

Beautiful chocolate pearls - necklace and earrings !

Beautiful venetian glass bracelet and earrings ....

And classic black pearl earrings and white pearl necklace ...



And for even more choices check out this post written by Bob of  Jewelry24Seven - Mother's Day Gift Ideas from the Jewelry on Etsy Team.   I'm a member of this team of handcrafted jewelry designers and we all try to help each other out in the promotions and advertising area.

For chocolate lovers!

I recently listed this gorgeous, chocolate inspired bracelet in my ArtFire studio.

The chocolate bracelet sent me searching in ArtFire to see what other luscious, chocolatey things I could find.  I made a collection with all these other wonderful, chocolatey designs. I was so excited when I saw my collection in the ArtFire email with their daily collection. Here it is!

Isn't that cool!?

4/19/2012 update - and my collection made to ArtFire's front page today!  Whoopie!

New earrings!

I just added new earrings to both my Etsy and Artfire shops. More spring colors!

Lavendar Czech glass cones

Gorgeous Murano glass with 24K gold leaf!

Spring has sprung - some lovely designs in spring colors!

I'm still working my way through custom orders.  Here are 2 bracelets I finished recently. 

I made this pen as a special request and sold these earrings before I had time to list them online.

And I did list a couple of new earrings ...