Designing Jewelry with Irene

This morning, as I look at pictures of Irene's destruction in the newspaper and on TV, I'm so grateful that the worst of the storm missed my section of town.  We were as prepared as we could be having purchased water and battery powered lights, pulling out the portable sump pump and wet vac, and getting everything I could off the floor.  Ours is a raised ranch so the basement is a finished room, part of which is my workshop.

So what do you do as you wait for the inevitable storm and possible flooding?   I created jewelry...all day.

Using some of the watch movements and findings I snagged in NYC, I made some new necklaces for the shows coming up in September.  For those who like their steampunk with a little bling (and a spider or 2) I designed these 2--

For those who like the heavy metal, industrial look I made this necklace and bracelet--

Last week I managed to find a few hours to make some silver clay pieces and get them fired.  They were cleaned and polished and just waiting for me to do something with them.

Jansjems now has a few new pairs of fine silver earrings and
some of our popular pendants many of which I oxidized.






And 3 new larger pieces (I love to make these) that I've hung with gemstone beads.  Oxidizing can be hit or miss for me no matter whose recipe I use.   This large focal piece picked up some nice color.  I added it to a strand of pyrite faceted rectangles.

 It's dark and powerful and I think I'll name it Irene.