ByMyHandsJewelry's Blog

It's All Happening Now
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Valentine's Day

Published: 01-18-2013 06:54pm
Oh goodie!My favorite holiday is right around the corner.A holiday that celebrates love. This we should do more often, in my mind.Sure it does get into the syrupy, smoochy, cuddly love but hey, love is love.And there are no set rules....like your don't need to belong to a certain church or belief system.You can tell your dog or cat you love them and buy them a special treat and then they lay at your feet or on your computer and everything is just a little finer for it.... » Read More

Dear Santa

Published: 12-15-2012 05:35pm
I figure every one could be a santa so to all you would-be santa's out there here is what I need....*one thread burner*flatnose pliers*extra big flatnose pliers*a fancy hole puncher with its own case*sterling silver wire in 18g, 20g, 24g, 26g- 100' rolls please.*gold filled of same*a torch burner with refills*many, many spike beads in all colors*some vintage buttons from the Czech RebuplicOK that's a start, check back Santa(s).  I will have more tomorrow!... » Read More

Timey-Whimeyhttp://www.artfire.com/css/images/emoticons/Shocked.png

Published: 11-30-2012 06:24pm
How would it be if no one had started this whole time-whimy way of relating to the world?Where is The Doctor when I need him?Perhaps he could shed some light.I seem to have gone to sleep in August and have just woken up in December!AAAAAHHHHHH!The post office is shutting down and my favorite EVER post man is retiring.Google is doing something weird-I don't know what, but it's weird.The net used to be fun.  Now you need a degree in spatial geometry and chaos theory to be able to sell whatever craft you are making.You also, it seems, have to tell everybody everything about every thing ; what you like,  what you don't like ; where you eat, where yo... » Read More

The Muse #5 Copper and Green Opals

Published: 08-16-2012 08:16pm
She wanted to talk turqouise but he pulled out a very unusual string of beads for her to look at next.  They were opals.  Copper and green opals.  She knew there are four types of opals: water, black, fire and white.  She had never seen green opals before.  But he saw her confusion and explained that black opals can also be blue, green or gray.Opals are just a form of jelly and hardened over time in cracks and fissures in the surrounding rock.  And so it could indeed be mixed up with copper.  These were cut into teardrop shapes and had lovely shades of greenish blues, green, copper and rusty veins.  She loved them.  The did not flash colo... » Read More

The Muse #4 Turquoise

Published: 07-05-2012 12:33am
She finally put down the lemon quartz and looked around.  The forest was empty except for the blanket with thousands of gems on it sparkling in the rays of sun.  She didn't know where The Traveler was.  But when she happened to look down, there at her feet where huge turquoise stones.  And that meant he'd been to Egypt.  She could tell just by the color of the stone.  It was not the color of the stones being mined in the US.  It could be Iranian turquoise but she still thought Egypt.  Of course she would hear the story as soon a The Traveler returned.... » Read More

Colors And Color And No Color

Published: 06-02-2012 02:27am
Colors terrify me.  They have cost me a lot of money too.  I'm skitterish around them but at the same time I immediately know what colors I like when I see them.  To get to that point makes me a nervous wreck.Say I walk into a store to find a scarf.....get to the scarf rack, which is always a jumble of riotous color because nobody can seem to put back a scarf that has just pissed them off because it is the wrong color!  Anyway, I see that riotous rumble of jumbled scarfs and there is no way I am staying in that store for a minute more.  Annnddd so it goes until I reach my door and fall inside and stumble to my room where I see my own jumble a... » Read More

The Muse #3 Lemon Quartz

Published: 05-26-2012 11:01pm
The Traveler is here and he has brought with him all the colors of the world.  Or so it seems to her.  She does not know where to start but he does.He starts light by pulling out an amazing string of lemon quartz crystal rectangles, each almost 2"/50mm long.  A ray of sun sneaks through the tangle of branches and catches a corner of the rectangle and it's like a light show. When she looks at the stones later she sees whole ocean streams in them and above are faint clouds moving joyfully, captured in this little bit of time and space that she holds in her hands.  The beads are from Brazil.  And she wonders who tread the earth at the time when... » Read More

The Muse- # 2

Published: 05-07-2012 01:56am
She is walking in the woods and the sun is bright and hot as it filters down through the tree canopies.  She is not thinking at all about jewelry but only about how the hot smell of the trees is so sensual.  There are pines and tamaracs and they both smell wonderful on this day.  She is near a river and so she doesn't hear much beyond that.  But she catches movement out of her left eye and she becomes wary.  There are bears and cougars this far into the woods.  As she makes her way, another movement.  She comes slowly around a huge pine tree and there on the forest floor is a blanket spread on the ground and there are piles of gemstones.  ... » Read More

The Muse

Published: 05-05-2012 02:52am
I have a muse or a sly little person running around in my head.And I let her do whatever she wants.  Why?  Because she is priceless, fearless and good.She also has made a friend she calls The Traveler.  He sees to it that she has endless stores, bushels and baskets of beads.  He sees to it that she is aware of changes going on in the far flung reaches of the known world.She is always discovering interesting connection points between what is considered beautiful and what is practical.  She loves easy and fun to wear jewelry with a classic twist and vintage baubles somewhere in the design.  It always takes her a long time to get dressed and ad... » Read More

Neon Style And Substance

Published: 04-30-2012 03:13am
Hello,I'm writing this about neon because I like it and I'm scared of it at the same time.  Those tall willowy models with their long limbs make it seem like a very cool and delightful trend.  Their tans are perfected and makeup is applied then airbrushed and I love it all.Except for the fact that I'm a 60 something, used to be hippy with a much wider body and bigger boobs than I used to have.How can I have fun with neon that shouts "LOOK AT ME"?I do like that "look at me" stuff just without the capital letters.So I made myself a very neon pendant.  A one of a kind masterpiece in neon orange AND yellow.  With vintage saucer beads of pearly cre... » Read More

If At First You Don't Succeed ..........

Published: 04-03-2012 03:20am
Today I threw away, took apart, looked at from every angle and wasted a LOT of wire and thread and beads.  These are the fallout pieces of a new design that has me stumped. I reworked it from every possible angle and in my head the thing worked but in real time, in this reality no way....So I walked away from my desk many times just to cool off before ripping apart another bead that might have worked (?) out of frustration.  It really does feel good to just decimate the whole thing.  Ripping and tearing and sighing and groaning are some of the perks (?) of trying to design something that has never been used before or that is supposed to work bu... » Read More

Every Metal Is Precious

Published: 04-01-2012 05:39pm
I am a great proponent for mixed metals.  I think that every metal is a precious metal.  If I can use them in a piece then that is what I do.  I particularly like mixing gold-filled with brass and white brass with sterling silver. As the prices skyrocket for gold, gold-filled and silver, people are looking for alternatives.  And luckily there are many. Silver-filled has been a big hit.  The base metal is covered in a thick sterling silver-plate, much thicker than a regular silver-plated metal.  Brass and bronze and copper are being used already and are amazing metals that, depending on the ratio of their mix can look like gold or silver pi... » Read More

The Big Question?

Published: 04-01-2012 02:19am
April 1st, 2012,Many of my friends have asked me how I can create the one of a kind jewelry that I sell here on ArtFire.  It seemed to me that I couldn't answer them with "I don't know".  So I decided to write about it in this blog.There is always something that inspires me.  That something comes easily, hard, out of the blue, through a song, through something somebody said or did for me, by letting my mind race around the room, letting my mind think about anything BUT jewelry, from a dream, well you get the idea.  And that "something" comes, seemingly, from an unlimited source....me. I have a spark of an idea and then I try to imagine it in m... » Read More
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