Decolletage Busters...New Bib Necklaces

I have been working on several ew Decolletage bib necklaces made from old and antique brooches, parts and pieces, dress clips, sterling, gold-filled wire, rhinestones, dreamy finds and a lot of whimsy. Each one is completely unique. Life IS better decorated.

Rare Pendants - brass, crystals and keys

Sunshine Assemblages: Keys, crystals, Czech glass and olde chains.









A working timepice of crystal finished a tigers' eye, brass and Swarovski crystal handbeaded chain:

Origami...Rice Paper Rings

Japanese rice paper to go. new rings made from origami paper, glass gems and beautiful and completely adjustable ring shanks. summery and happy little gardens to go!

Honey Homesteading

A central brass Art Nouveau floral finding is flanked by two worker bees. And falling below is the drizzling coppery amber? Treasures of soft Czech briolettes. Delicious. This necklace is 17" around with a 2" extender. Something sweet for the season.

Our honeybees here at the city homestead are buzzing around in the oddly warm Vermont early-spring sunshine. The hive made it through the winter and the little worker girls are coming home with pollen from some early blooming crocus. We do love our girls - especially now that the sap has stopped running.

Red, Red, Red

These days when I see red - instead of just feeling all fiery and irrational - I feel inspired and excited. My favorite way to work with red is to keep it in it's element, meaning: undiluted and the star of the show. I think red stands alone better than any color. When I do combine it I do it with something simple...

My Ming Tower is a demi-parure of earrings and pendant necklace: oxidized sterling with red bamboo roundels and simple handmade sterling silver wire. Red and gunmetal gray.

Leather designs - jewelry and clothes - are edgy, sexy and a little tough: my handmade red leather cuffs are handcut italian leather and finished with a simple button of mother of pearl. My red Corset Ring is the same leather that is cross-stitched with waxed twine (made to size and very sexy) and comfortable. Wearing leather - any time of year - shows you're a little different than the rest of the crowd. A little more cool.

Last week you saw our eggs, the nests, the boiling sap, the Vermont Spring and this week...a little more springiness: Male Cardinals. The lampworked glass bright Red Cardinal earrings hang from brass earwires...and are about an inch long. Pretty - but even more importantly - a lot of fun. I love the spring. Are you interested in bird earrings but not a fan of cardinals (or red)? I have blue-birds, doves and a flock of brass sparrows all ready for flight.

By the way - the geese are finally flying north - I see them flying over the lake and hear them at night - far away and very high, but distinct. I don't have any geese earrings, by the way. That would be...weird. They are pretty - and sometimes haunting - in the sky, but not very graceful hanging from the ear. Looking for something more sedentary?...Here's another little nest ring. Red glass pearls...made to order in your size in sterling silver. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42877829

Ripe, red, spring. Life is better decorated.

Skeleton's in the closet...are open for business

I do feel a bit selfish about how often I gobble up skeleton keys when it suits my whimsy. That is because feel that whimsy almost without end. As I write this I am sitting with a pile of about 40 vintage skeleton and door latch keys on my lap. I just poured them out of the Ebay box that some happy soul just sent to me. I am trying to be quiet because my two young sons are sleeping next to me (my husband has been forced out of the bed and anyway, I hear him charging around the kitchen mastering maple syrup-making. He's watching sap boil). But anyway, I AM being quiet.

The keys! The possibilities! I like opening secrets, packages, doors to buldings that are vacant or locked...peering in, you know? It makes me positively giddy to anticipate that unlocking of what I don't know. So when I use keys in my designs I am - I hope - sharing that anticipation http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42108692 . Out of necessity I am also sharing the keys. Because I have too many. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42345438

Some of those designs that have been stirred out of me. You see, I am also trying to distill out my sweetness. How is it to watch me boil?

I feel pretty giddy about buttons, too. You may hear more about that soon.

Feeling the Spring

I have been - for some time now - enraptured with the nest form. Around this time of year when the Northeast (where I live) begins to wake up and become fertile again this interest of mine brings an even deeper poignancy. The cool air starts to have a warm teasing undercurrent and we are tapping both of our freakishly over-producing sugar maples and making caramel-tasting syrup. We also have a small flock of organic laying hens living in our garage-converted-to-a-henhouse. Their laying dwindles to once/week for each of the "ladies" but around the time change the laying picks up. We found a quiet rooster a few months back (we live in what qualifies as a "city" in Vermont - 40,000 people - and roosters are not very welcome) and my ever-fertile husband has started hatching chicks with great success. The one shown is named "Kyrk" after a neighborhood boy with a penchant for dressing in black. My nest jewelry - always popular this time of year with spring, mother's day and Easter - has recently morphed into little baskets. At least I thought I would give it a try. The nests - and now baskets, too - are such treasured reminders of our homes, bounty and family. Rebirth! Awakening! Creativity!

Vogue Earrings

A new design featuring my newest earwires in hammered sterling silver (oxidized using the eggs from our organic chickens!) and gold-filed wire. The base of the earwire holds a wire wrapped Swarovski uber-faceted roundelle which in turn holds a careful selection of vintage and antique chains. From three to 6 and a half inches in length. Stunning on the catwalk, runway or at your favorie hole in the wall italian haunt. They catch every bit of light and make you wonder if you can wear them every day. You can. Just get a few different colors. Life is better decorated.