Sunday, January 29, 2006

FSOJ - Week 19 - Off Theme


Well, it's not on theme, but I like it anyway! The blue ovals are gorgeous blue kyanite, with freshwater pearls and handmade sterling silver beads. The links are of course handmade, which for some reason took longer than usual on this necklace. The kyanite is a bit funny to work with, it scratches easily, so you have to pay attention where the ends of the wires are waving. The clasp in the back that you can't see is a sterling s-hook.

Shy Violet

Saturday, January 28, 2006

More Time Wasting








Your SAT Score of 1510 Means:



You Scored Higher Than Howard Stern

You Scored Higher Than George W. Bush

You Scored Higher Than Al Gore

You Scored Higher Than David Duchovny

You Scored Higher Than Natalie Portman

You Scored Lower Than Bill Gates

Your IQ is most likely in the 140-150 range

Equivalent ACT score: 34

Schools that Fit Your SAT Score:

California Institute of Technology

Stanford University

Princeton University

Yale University

Harvard University


Blogthings - A New Way to Procrastinate!

You Have a Melancholic Temperament

Introspective and reflective, you think about everything and anything.
You are a soft-hearted daydreamer. You long for your ideal life.
You love silence and solitude. Everyday life is usually too chaotic for you.

Given enough time alone, it's easy for you to find inner peace.
You tend to be spiritual, having found your own meaning of life.
Wise and patient, you can help people through difficult times.

At your worst, you brood and sulk. Your negative thoughts can trap you.
You are reserved and withdrawn. This makes it hard to connect to others.
You tend to over think small things, making decisions difficult.

Monday, January 23, 2006

FSOJ - Week 18 - Oriental Express


The theme this week was Oriental Express. This necklace is large white freshwater pearls and black barrel-shaped cloisonne beads. Simple, but dramatic... I think so, anyway! All comments welcome.

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 17 - Leaves


It's a bit late, but better than never. Here's my take on the Leaves theme. The pendant is Thai hilltribe silver, accented by freshwater pearls dyed green and gold. It also has matching earrings, not pictured because the bust/neck seems to not work with French hooks. The holes for the earrings are photoshopped out because I thought it looked silly for there to be holes with no earrings in them! All comments welcome, as usual.

Shy Violet

Friday, January 13, 2006

FSOJ - Week 16 - Spring Maiden

And I'm finally caught up! This is Spring Maiden in the Seasons Collection, sold over Christmas break while visiting family. It is an 18 gauge sterling wire frame coiled with 28 gauge fine silver - accent swirls are 22 gauge sterling with 28 gauge fine silver coiled over it. Beads are pink Peruvian opal, rhodolite garnet rounds, white opal chips, and sterling 2mm rounds. It's pretty substantial, about 2 inches from top to bottom. There's also some criss-crossing fine silver wire on the back to stabilize the Peruvian opals a bit more (they're held in through holes, but they just seemed a bit loose). It's quite stable now, even though it looks very lacy. I'm very pleased with how this turned out.

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 15 - Shadow

The theme this week was Art Nouveau. This obviously is not Art Nouveau - It's a pretty simple strung necklace: sardonyx, black onyx, and sterling accent beads. It has matching earrings that are not pictured because the neck/bust doesn't seem to like french wires very well at all.

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 14 - Saisons

The theme this week was Hint of Winter - This necklace is actually the original piece in my Seasons Collection, so it's a little bit of every season! Freshwater pearls (potato and rice), garnets (faceted rondelles and diamonds), citrine (buttons and chips), and peridot (chips). It doesn't look quite as lopsided in real life as it does in the picture - the color changes are asymmetrical, but the pearl section doesn't really look so thin in comparison to the peridot section.

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 13 - Willow


The theme this time was Second Thoughts - The pendant is an 18 gauge sterling wire frame coiled with 28 gauge fine silver and sterling beads. Then I made the necklace to go with it - african jade and golden jade (both probably really serpentine - those are trade names, but I don't know what they really are, serpentine is a guess). Now I'm not sure if the pendant and the necklace even look okay together at all!

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 12 - Regal


The theme was Simple Yet Elegant - This lariat is faceted rhodolite garnets, faceted onyx, faceted sterling silver beads, and a handmade sterling drop accented with two little rhodolite garnet cabs. The closeup shows the faceting much better.

FSOJ - Week 11 - Rio

The theme was Native Spirit - Peruvian ceramic beads (painted round, red and blue tubes), turquoise, onyx, sterling silver wire and accent beads. The ceramic beads are from a local bead store, and although their other prices are decent (not great, but decent), the ceramic bead prices are a steal - I'll definitely be back! All comments welcome, as usual.

FSOJ - Week 10 - Sun Dew


The theme this week was "critters." Well, there are no critters in this, but it is part of the Garden Collection, so maybe there might be some critters in the garden? This one is called Sun Dew, and it's citrine nuggets and buttons, peridot rounds and chips, bali silver, crystal quartz rondelles, and 28 gauge fine silver wire coiled over an 18 guage sterling wire frame.

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 9 - Glade



It's late, but here it is. It's called Glade, and it's part of my Moonlight Collection. It's an 18 gauge sterling silver wire frame coiled with 28 gauge fine silver, bali silver beads, faceted and round fancy jasper, and round and oval moss agate.

FSOJ - Week 8 - Moss


I'm back! The semester is over, I can finally breathe/eat/sleep/make jewelry/photograph jewelry/etc.! This has been done for a while and is actually already sold, but here it is anyway.

This is Thai Hilltribe silver, bali silver, sterling silver wire, moss opalite, sea green serpentine, and black onyx.

Shy Violet

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

FSOJ - Week 7 - Upstream


Once again not on theme. :-) The fish is Thai Hilltribe silver, the rest is liquid silver and lapis. The necklace is exactly how I envisioned it. However....

I actually completed this necklace a while ago (I am in grad school, and with school-craziness, I can't take pictures every week. I make something every week, but it might be a while before you see it.). In the meantime, the necklace has gotten tarnished, mostly the liquid silver bits. How can it be cleaned? I have tried the baking soda / aluminum foil thing, and it did nothing. I used silver cleaner (which you are specifically not supposed to use on lapis, I know, I know... but I had nothing else, and with lapis I didn't know of any other options). The silver cleaner worked GREAT, and showed no immediate ill effects. I put it in a bag and sealed it up, hoping to prevent future tarnishing. Now (less than a month later) the silver is all blue and purple. It doesn't appear corroded, but heavily tarnished and distinctly blue/purple. Any ideas on what to do? The silver cleaner would work again, but I don't want to sell it if I can't tell the person how to clean it (and have it stay clean for at least some length of time).

Thanks in advance. This is one of my favorite necklaces so far and I'd hate to just chalk it up to an impossible design.

Shy Violet

Meeting 41

I attend The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. We had a special question and answer session with former President George Bush on Sunday. I sat in the second row and although I didn't get to ask a question, I did shake his hand afterwards. How cool is that?!

I believe he is generally in attendance at graduation, too, and he reads the school newsletter that I write for and help edit.

I'm finally going rockclimbing this weekend with some fellow Bushies and my hubby. The wall at the rec center is pretty good, too, so I'm excited about it.

Shy Violet

FSOJ - Week 6 - Forget Me Not



Forget Me Not is made of sterling silver, fine silver, and blue lace agate nuggets. This is one of the bracelets where the clasp worked out pretty well - sometimes they are more difficult than others.

Shy Violet

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

FSOJ - Week 5 - Off-Theme


The theme this week was Something Old is New. The topic didn't really inspire me this week, so I'm off-theme. However, the piece DOES fit into my Garden Collection. It is called Primrose, and also has matching earrings. It is made of pink Peruvian opal, freshwater pearls, and sterling silver.

Shy Violet

Sunday, October 16, 2005

FSOJ - Week 4 - Autumn Colors

Moss I - Moss opalite, onyx, sea green serpentine, Thai Hilltribe butterfly and folded bead, and handmade sterling wire links and clasp. I love the variation of the colors in moss opalite - I got on an earthtone kick while making this bracelet! It's sort of Autumn colors... I like it anyway.

I made a second version of this bracelet, Moss II (oh-so-creatively named!) with a Hilltribe round hammered pillow replacing the butterfly and the order of the stones slightly different. That one sold from my website in just a few days! Yay!

Shy Violet

Sunday, October 09, 2005

FSOJ - Week 3 - Eastern Spice



Well, it's not exactly spicy, but this necklace does have a vaguely Asian feel to me. The necklace is Burmese jade, smoky quartz, and sterling silver. The pendant is handmade Thai silver stamped with a vine motif. The clasp, which you can't see, is a sterling tab-style clasp with the Chinese symbol for "joy."

This is a really simple necklace, but I think it's one of my favorite simple necklace designs ever - the colors just really matched my mood when I made it.

On another note, I finally went back and added the pictures for my week 2 entry in the FSOJ blog, so if you're interested, I would love comments on it as well. Thanks!

ShyViolet