A visit to Qurindi, a pearl and gem torsade and a tagging game!

I'm running a bit late with my blogpost this week...so much to do (as usual) and so little time to do it in (even MORE usual)! One day I'll be organised....HA!

I've had quite a social week this week, even though I couldn't really spare the time. But some things just have to go on the backburner for a little while don't they!? Of course I'm rushing around like a 'headless chook' now (one of my Dad's favourite sayings lol).

I am attending the Christimas in July market in the main street of Quirindi this Sunday 27 July. Not having been to Quirindi (apart from driving through it once or twice) it will be a whole new experience, with lots of new people to meet and show my jewellery to. It will be an INCREDIBLY early start as the market opens at 8am - and I am two hours drive away! But it finishes at 3pm so I will be home at a decent hour at least. Of course I always feel the compulsion to make new things for a show, so I have been busy at the bench for the last couple of weeks in readiness. Naturally, being a new 'crowd' everything I have will be new to them, but I like the 'fresh' feeling of having new things even if I am the only one who knows!

Today's picture is one of the new necklace - isn't it absolutely GORGEOUS? (Detail pic up the top)! I'm always deeply enamoured of my new pieces - only slightly biaised, promise ;). A beautiful torsade of three strands of deep lime & bronze-green freshwater pearls, deep mint green keshi pearls, faceted smoky quartz rounds and labradorite wheels and little nuggets of peridot. Scrumptious!!



On other notes, I must thank all those people who commented on my bridal necklace shown recently - such wonderful comments and obviously lots of people like bridal! I admit I do too, even though my wedding was almost 20 years ago (!) and so I thought I would share Michabella Creations bridal earrings page - she has some lovely designs that would look very chic and elegant.

I have mentioned the wonderful Mom Bloggers Club before. Well, through this site I met Celeste, who has 'tagged' me. I am supposed to list six of my quirks and then tag six other people. Well here we go on the quirks.

1. Although my mind is organised my studio rarely is!
2. I have to have a deadline or things won't get done.
3. I love to make lists.
4. I love to cross things off lists, even if it means I have to add on things that WEREN'T on it(but I've done anyway) so that I can cross them off *snicker*
5. I still haven't mastered the URGENT vs. the IMPORTANT (i.e.from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that I read well over a decade ago).
6. I stay in my PJs far too late in the morning in the effort to get something done first!

Here are the rules:

1. link the person(s) who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

OK, guys, consider yourselves TAGGED:

1. Jennifer - Happily Ever After Land
2. Cindi - Moomettesmagnificents
3. Regina - Margarita Bloom
4. Sarah - In the Trenches of Motherhood
5. Angie - Seven Clown Circus
6. Rebecca - Musings of a Mum of 4

Till next!

The wonders revealed by macro and micro photography

We have had some wet, wintry days the last week although today we have one of those brilliant blue skies that Australia is renowned for! With hardly a breath of air, the temperature is brisk it would be a beautiful day for flying. It definitely makes you want to get outside and DO things :) Of course, I could feel especially like that as I have been concentrating so hard on my computer screen working on my new website - I'll show it all to you soon, still some work to go!

I often encourage people to look closer at gemstones and to see the intricate colour play, patterns and so on. Consequently I'm pretty enamoured of macro and micro photography. Well this gallery on the Discover Magazine site, has me glued to the screen. I want to keep returning to look at the beautiful pictures. What are the pictures you ask? Is it worthwhile having a look? My word it is! Entitled, Each Grain of Sand is a Work of Art is intruiging enough by itself. They are photos taken by the book A Grain of Sand by Dr. Gary Greenberg. With photographs typically 80x magnification and above you see a minature world of shells and coral, minerals and gemstones that you never knew existed and will make you look at sand in a completely different way. Bet you add the book to your wish list (it's added to mine!)

Cruising around looking at more pictures I also found this gorgeous pendant made by Tulips Treasure Box on Etsy. It reminds me of the sea, the sky and the stars.

Hmmm, MUST stop 'surfing'... for now anyway.

Well, what can I show you today? Given my penchant for closeups, I've selected a close up of a piece of ocean jasper - wouldn't it look amazing on even higher magnification - I wonder what secrets it would reveal?

Have a great day!

Diamonds falling from the sky, freecycle and a timeless black necklace.

Yay! Some progress made in the last few days with all those orders and remodelling jobs and I feel quite liberated from my to-do list now! I still have plenty to do of course - I'm starting to get a hankering to create some new things and I really want to re-do my website.

I belong to a huge number of groups and forums some of which I have mentioned before. The wonderful thing is with such a diverse group of places is that you can sometimes find out things that you never would have found for years! One such place for me is a rockhounds group and through there I found the following article "Diamonds Rained Down During Ice Age". The article details claims made by Allen West, a retired geophysicist, that after a 3-mile-wide comet hit eastern Canada about 13,000 years ago, rocks (including diamonds and some precious metals) were blown out of the Candadian earth and rained down over the eastern United States. It's only a theory of course, but wow, what an explosion that would have been. And it's certainly being a nice neighbour sharing your wealth in that way LOL!

On the idea of sharing - have you heard of Freecycle? I had kind of heard of this before but found details on it on the Busy Mommy Product Review site. Freecycle is a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and in this day and age of high pollution, the perils of greenhouse effects and a shortage of natural resources, it's a worthy idea. I did a quick search and found there are 151 freecycle groups in Australia and one is in a neighbouring town! Certainly something to investigate.

A picture of a simply stunning and classical necklace today - the black stones are agate – thick cut slabs in rather soft geometric shapes that have the most wonderful dark gleam. These are enhanced ever so slightly by balls of argentinium sterling silver (tarnish resistant) for some added shine and sparkle. Finished with a gorgeous sterling silver clasp that you may want to wear it on the side as a feature rather than hiding it to the back! These stones sit so beautifully around your neck and feel cool, heavy and smooth. I can see this necklace being worn with a charcoal suit and crisp white shirt for work, or a linen day dress in white or neutrals or even a little black dress at night. Basically it speaks about refinement and pizzaz.

Meanwhile, down here on the farm..... lol. Ah well, if I couldn't live vicariously through my clients, then it wouldn't be nearly as much fun!

Till next!

One step forward, three steps back.

It's been a week of mixed achievements - I finally put aside a day to start completing orders and repairs and felt so wonderful after a day full of finished jobs (and ticks on my list) that I came to a grinding halt.

Oh well.

Plus I have gained a few more orders in the last couple of days so I really need to get into the studio...but the children have just started the school holidays, the house looks like a tornado has been through it (no, just three children feeling footloose and fancy free) and I have a client booked in to visit in about 48hours time! Hmmmm.

A couple of orders in my partially completed and to-do piles are for weddings. I love weddings and all that they entail although it can be a very stressful time for the bride and groom. Stacy, a fellow blogger from Skwiggazine, is preparing for her imminent nuptials and has selected a retro black and white theme which should look great.

Jewellery is just one of the things that the bridal party need/want but I've found brides either take one of two approaches - either they leave it completely up to you or they micromanage the design process. The first can stress me as a designer as I worry that they will like it and it will be "right". The second can also stress me as what they are thinking of may not actually work. Ah well - human nature is a funny thing.

I thought since I've been working on bridal orders I would include a picture from a wedding I did a little while ago. To emphasise the detail of the plunging back on this dress we did a long silver chain from which hung natural peach toned freshwater pearls that alternated with faceted rock crystal topped with a little green peridot. The chain wrapped around the bride's neck once and then hung down the back, glinting, sparkling and swaying when she moved. The great thing with this design is that the bride has been able to wear it just wrapped around her neck as a 'normal' necklace in a multi-strand version with or without a drop. Do you like it?