Adventures In Jewelry Land

I have been working heartily on making jewelry the past few weeks. As I mentioned earlier, I notice with my artsy endeavors that I go in phases. I may be very involved in paper arts today and tomorrow the jewelry findings and stones will call my name. The process for jewelry is much the same as for any other undertaking except for one thing-when I am creating a piece of jewelry, I nearly always have someone in mind when I start. Many times I end up with something that I will make more than once, but the original thought is usually for one particular person. These pieces were made for my Mom last Christmas when I was feeling especially sentimental and missing my Grandparents

I was very fortunate to know my Grandparents from both sides while growing up. In fact, my Maternal Grandparents were alive well into my 30s. This little ornament was made with a photo of them, taken in the 1970s. This is a soldered piece accented with flat-backed crystals and topped with a bow. I pictured it on my Mom's Christmas tree.This is my Maternal Great-Grandfather, Virgil. I was 3 years old when he passed away, but I have a very slight memory of him. Handsome guy???

Here he is again. And meet my Maternal Great-Grandmother, Ethel. She was alive until I was 20 years old. Grandma was quite a spirited woman with many wonderful stories about her heartiness. She actually built a house from the foundation up and had an article about the undertaking in the newspaper of the town they lived in. While this was an amazing feat, it was just one of many, many stories about Grandma. You hear it said that certain people are ahead of their time, and I believe she truly was one of those people. She was an advocate for equality long before it was fashionable to be such and she promoted it not by being loud and all-knowing, but by living her life with passion and not allowing others to determine her ability.

This is a two-sided pendant which was made the same as above and finished off with some wire-wrapping techniques. I had just taken my first wire-wrapping class and I see now that all things improve with time! LOL!!!! I finished it by building a necklace with copper and bronze colored beads.