Newbie Doobie Do ...

I've been wanting to pull a few of these tender gems together since people began asking me about the little three-charm necklace I almost always wear. I made the original back when Thai silver was 50 cents a gram. It's now a whopping 110 cents a gram .. and that's at wholesale pricing! I protested somewhat at the cost (it'd been awhile since I'd purchased Thai silver), considering that the current price for silver was about $4 less than the last time I purchased from these folks almost two years ago. I was unable to confirm the explanation .. something about the Hill Tribe people not getting a break from their Asian silver brokers when the price of silver goes down. Whaddya gonna do?

Anyway .. the little three-charm version on the right of the grouping here is as close as I could come to my original .. I had the other three designs in my Thai drawer from previous purchases. They're all strung on itsy bitsy teeny weeny little pure silver beads .. I mean, put your magnifiers on to string these kinda tiny! And, of course, the charms/pendants are all pure silver as well (well, .996 to .998 - much closer to pure than sterling silver). The only sterling in the whole piece is the little sterling Bali toggle. I tried several other clasps, but this one provided the best overall balance to the piece. Despite their delicate nature, they have a nice heft to them!! Delicate but substantial.


I'm sort of delighted, sort of disappointed to report that this one sold at the first show to which I brought it. I may have to make another one!! I called it Gaia, as it's all pretty much "of the earth"... the two little dotted balls are handmade by me out of metal clay; the two mottled gray and white wheel-shaped beads are granite from a strand of ancient trade beads; the large black item is lava rock; and the red rondelle is coral. I hand wrapped and twisted all those wire segments. I think it was one of the first times I was hesitant to see a piece go. I put a lot of time into this one! A very elegant woman bought it, along with another funky piece, to give to her daughter, who lives in NYC. It was a bit of a consolation to know that it'll be bouncing along on the streets of such a cosmopolitan home.

These are the last three of this design I have left .. they're made of solid sterling using "liquid silver" tubes and intricately handmade Bali beads. They're all about 22" long, but each is comprised of slightly different components. Another really elegant piece with a comforting weightiness. I sold three of them for between $265 and $275 each by just wearing one at a show.

If you're scrolling along on my blog, and not just reading this in an email, you should be able to click on any of the three photos here and see the pieces up close.

Not an awful lot of time left to shop for the holidays, but you can reach me any time between now and a couple days before Christmas if any of these appeal to you (or someone you love (grin). I'm at thewildinside at aol dot com (make sure you put it together in the traditional fashion before clicking the SEND button!).