I'm late!  Due to my own procrastination, combined with my technical issues & being in the car 90% of the past 2 weeks, I missed Saturday's deadline for revealing what I created with the soup my partner, Rebecca Sirevaag (http://www.godsartistinresidence.blogspot.com/) sent to me.  So without further ado, I present to you the pictures you have been waiting for! 

 The soup Rebecca sent me was awesome!  She included some copper chain, lapis rounds, blue glass, spirals, bicones, triangles, sari silk, 2 sizes of copper pearls, 15/0 seedies, and....

 

these amazing copper focals that she herself made. 

 

It took me a month of these beautiful components sitting on my work table before I decided what I was going to do with them.  They both demanded attention, so I decided to do separate pieces for them. 

 

I didn't want the support beads to overwhelm the focal.  I made it have a dual purpose as both focal and clasp. 

 

The sari silk perplexed me, until I thought of pairing it with the enameled component to form a very organic bracelet.

 

Last but not least, I had to use these together to create a long, simple but elegant necklace.

 

 

I hope you like what I created!  So sorry for the delay in posting.  I had so much fun with this soup swap!!!  

 



Sorry I have not posted in a while, although up until 3 days ago I was still making things, because I am sick.  For the fourth time this winter.  I am sick of being sick!  Unfortunately, it is par for the course when you have an autoimmune disease like I have.  Hopefully I will be back to myself by Friday & I will show you what I have been working on. 

Yesterday I told you guys that I would show you how the orange baby's breath cabochons turned out.  Here they are: 

I left one of them clear, & if I use it for bead embroidery, whatever color that goes behind it will change the look also:

I also poured some resin with paper yesterday, but they did not turn out:

It's more visible in the one on the right-hand side of the picture, but I did not seal the paper well enough & the resin bled into the paper.  If it had bled throughout the entire paper & not just the edges, I would not have to throw them out, they would just be darker.  That's okay though, I have more of that same paper & I will try again, this time sealing it better. 

Thanks for reading!  Today I will be working on some polymer clay projects.  Stay tuned!

Dear Blogger, It's been 26 days since I've posted.  I'm so sorry, I had such good intentions.  I have been up to some good projects, really.  Not as many as I had hoped, but quality over quantity & all that.  I have been trying to work on something every day, but life happens & before you know it a month has gone by.

So let me tell you what I have been up to.  Resin!!!  I am almost out of the kind of resin I can use indoors, so future resin projects will have to wait for warmer weather when I can use the smelly resin outside.  I am quite proud of this piece that I made the past 3 days:

I cannot draw to save my life, so I have to write notes for my ideas instead, or I have to just make them before I forget.  This baby's breath cabochon is one of those instances.  My daughter received a rose for Valentine's Day from a complete stranger while she was at work.  This rose came with baby's breath, so the moment she brought it home & put it in a vase I had dibs on the baby's breath.  I waited for 2 weeks before the rose finally became a wilted blob & I could safely make the baby's breath disappear.  I dried it over the woodstove for 2 days & then cut it up.

It's a long process, one that takes about 5 days to complete.  First, I put a thin layer of clear resin in a mold.  After that sets up for a couple of hours & becomes tacky, I added a few pieces of baby's breath, & then added more clear resin, just enough to cover the flowers.  Then I let that cure over night.  I left it in the mold, & then mixed up more resin, this time adding a tiny amount of acrylic paint.  For the first piece I used red paint, & for these 3 small demonstrative pieces I used orange, as per request of my younger daughter. 

This is what it looks like now.  Tomorrow morning I will be able to pop them out of the mold & show you how they turned out.  In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures to show & tell what else I have worked on this week: 

 The cheetah print are fabric scraps, & then there are a few solid colors that I will dress up with beads, & I also did 2 rectangles with tiny stones in them.  Once I glaze them & use seed beads on them I will update again.

Rose ear plugs!!!  This was a longer process which included a mold which I made myself, plain surgical steel ear tunnels, & black acrylic paint.  This is a project I will detail at a later date, so stay tuned! 

Thanks for reading my updates!  I still have not decided on a new name for my business, so the purple pendant is still up for grabs.  Maybe I should use one of those silly name generators you find on FB...  ;)

Rename My Business!!!

I have been in the handmade jewelry/beadwork business for a long time.  Years.  I chose my name when we were living in KS & I missed my NJ roots.  Now that I am back in NJ, it seems like the true meaning of "Jersey Girl" is not what I knew it as.  Also, I want to increase my client base, network, & of course sales.  I don't think that my business name really portrays who I am or what my beadwork is any more.  Plus I need to have a new sign created for my vendor table as my contact information has changed.  So I want to take this opportunity to ask for your help with a new business name.  

I am taking suggestions for new business name.  If you suggest the name I choose I will send you a beautiful bead embroidered pendant, pictured below. 

Please forgive my poor quality picture, as we are getting ready to move & I do not have my photo area set up.  This is a resin cabochon in purple, pink, & gold, embroidered with beads in shades of purple, retail value $40. 

So get your creative juices flowing & post your suggestions!  I will allow one week beginning tonight, 2/6/14.  On 2/13/14, if one of you has posted a new name I choose, I will send you this pendant.

By the way, my name is RaMona, but I can't use it in my business name as believe it or not it is already taken.