An "Oooops" is saved

I had to come up with a piece for the St. Lawrence NYSARC Art Benefit recently and, as the deadline was fast approaching, decided on pearls. I've still got several strands of these "marine teak" pearls, and they're perfect for this time of year; I just needed to knot a strand and pop a clasp on it. As it happened, I had this little piece of 16 gauge squiggle left over from a fibula pin I had inadvertently destroyed with a misplaced snip (see "The Same .. Yet Different" post), and it was the perfect size for the pearls. After finishing the necklace, I thought I might throw in some earrings to go with it and found myself struggling over making a pair spare and simple or a bit more funky. So I did both. The simple pair is just a pearl on gold-filled leverbacks; the funky ones echo the clasp. I liked THEM so much, I may have to pound out a few more!! One thing often does lead to another ...

One Thing Leads to Another ...

Sorry for the delay in posting folks, but in between custom orders, pounding out new things for shows and coming up with those "single piece show stoppers" for auction donations (oh, and cleaning, eating, sleeping and walking the dog), I have been a bit busy. Already looking forward to January .. I'm a lot more together than I was last year at this time. Got some interesting roads to follow, and am chompin' at the bit to get to it. But .. gotta get through these next three months first.

OK, so here we go with the purpose of THIS post! These pieces go with the Athena necklace I made for my husband's friend back in Albany. She couldn't decide on the earrings, so I sent 'em both .. still waiting to hear back. And the bracelet is what I came up with after wasting several days agonizing over it with false starts.




































It was such a bear to create .. very tricky around those little loops that capture the jump rings from which the beads dangle .. that I was afraid I was going to aggravate my finally recovering wrist inflammation.

But I was so very pleased with the way it turned out, I promptly set out to create one with a different color scheme in sterling. And, of course, practice makes perfect - so I then felt inclined to warm it up a bit and do that same Autumn color combo I'd just completed in silver in 14k gold-filled wire .. and THAT version is what I've posted here. I just love it! I'm now thinkin' about doing an Athena necklace to go with it. Right now I'm working on a few pair of earrings in both the sterling and gold-filled versions to match the bracelets .. one thing at a time is all I can handle until I grow a couple more hands.














I've been thinking about a sterling version in cool aquamarine and soft green shades with cream colored pearls. A bit more "Spring" to be sure, but who cares; it's the color combos that are fun to work with. And there are SO many wonderful color combos I can imagine! It's incredibly energizing when the cogs are well greased and turning smoothly and the whole mechanism just hums!