A little sunshine on this dreary day ..

I don't make nearly enough pieces in gold, but when I do they're nearly always eye catching. Not that my sterling and fine silver pieces aren't eye catching as well, there's just something so sunny and bright about this metal! I call this one Southwest Summer .. it just oozes the colors of sage, adobe and dry heat - with a few fluffy white clouds and a blindingly bright orange ball in the sky.

This burst of color is one of the things I love about lampwork glass beads .. that and the infinite creativity the artisans who make them seem to harbor in their bosoms. It's difficult not to feel a sense of fun in a piece full of lampwork beads!

While I have several pieces that are solid metal, I think I will always include pieces that speak to me of a place or an emotion or a time which can be expressed with color. Some color combinations are like a song .. or a smell .. that invoke a wealth of thoughts or memories. A sort of sensory placeholder that just sort of pops up when the right combo is put in place. These memories or thoughts most often reveal themselves in the names I choose to give my pieces .. some are obvious, others not so much.

This one seems rather obvious, doesn't it? Despite the fact that the design is based on a similar silver version called Twilight .. which used pale blue/violet color- changing lampwork glass beads .. Southwest Summer seems to fit the piece well. And if I hadn't told you of the design similarities, you might never had made the connection.

OK .. I'm off to begin piecing together a commission for a grandmother's bracelet containing natural stones representing 17 grandchildren! While I've got a basic idea of the design features, I've yet to lay out the individual stones and decide what goes where just yet. And I'm thinking I'd like to make as much of it as I can out of fine rather than sterling silver, which will require a bit more care in keeping connecting pieces sturdy. Stay tuned ..