July's Pieces - The Silver Lining Earrings

Read about my inspiration for this month's pieces. And....they are all finished, wrapped, and ready to go into the mail early next week to the subscribers of my EcoChic Designs' Earrings-of-the-Month club. Enjoy, ladies!

Finding the Silver Lining...

Most of the time I find inspiration for my pieces in something beautiful or happy. But this month has been full of things bittersweet.

A classmate from high school passed away and some dear friends packed up and left the country for a year in Denmark.

It’s given me pause, forcing me to reflect and process…to grieve…and to – most importantly – find a silver lining in the gloom. So the earrings this month for my earrings-of-the-month subscribers are made with that in mind:

  finding the silver lining!

After Matt’s death, my classmates and I reconnected; we realized how important it was that we spent our awkward, adolescent years together. My boys have delved into the meaning of friendship and decided on ways to keep in touch with their friends who will be on a different continent for a year. There you have it. The darkness and the silver linings.

So the pieces this month are made with jet black obsidian beads and upcycled sterling silver finding. I hope the gals enjoy these. And may it remind them to look for the good in all situations. Photos to come.

Like the Reveil Dijonnais

This month's EcoChic Designs's earrings-of-the-month creations are inspired by June's birth flower: the rose.

But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. 

~Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Roses are not my favorite flowers. I think it was too many years, working as a florist, bundling up dozens of roses - with baby's breath and ferns. Ugh. Roses were de rigueur; I longed for the customer who said "Oh, just be creative! What are those odd-looking blossoms?"

But I am a sucker for garden roses. Walking through rows of bushes covered in lacy blooms, I inevitably stick my nose into one of them and inhale the heady scent of the rose. Ahhhh...summer! Enjoy these creations, in the colors of my favorite garden rose - Reveil Dijonnais - with its dramatic yellow, orange, and magenta petals. They will be on their way to my earrings-of-the-month subscribers this week.

Tahoe Treasures {Earrings-of-the-Month}

For my April earrings-of-the-month selections, I drew inspiration from our recent trip to Lake Tahoe. We spent the first week of the boys' Spring Break sledding, hiking, skiing, and just enjoying the alpine environment. I loved the color of the iced-over Cascade Lake, the almost turquoise waters near Logan Shoals, the various evergreen shades from the Ponderosas to the junipers, and the steely grey of fractured granite.

This month I created one-of-a-kind pieces for my subscribers that mirrored those colors of Tahoe, using recycled blue glass, green onyx, green aventurine, milky moonstones, icy aquamarines, and vibrant peridot.

I hope the gals love their Tahoe Treasures!

True Blue. Wild 'Bout Hyacinths.

Having worked as a florist in college, flowers and their meanings are important to me. So, when I got married - 13 years ago this month - the flowers I picked were not random. The guys sported boutonnieres featuring grape hyacinth, a flower whose meaning is 'constancy' and 'sincerity.' True blue seemed a fitting flower for a wedding. Besides, it's one of my favorite flowers and one of the first to herald the coming of Spring. In climates where snow falls, it's a dramatic, gorgeous site - that vibrant bluish purple peeking through stark white ground.

I handwired amethyst, purple chalcedony, violet glass, and blue iolite together to form these one-of-a-kind creations. They'll be in the mail tomorrow to my Earrings-of-the-Month members. Hope they like them... Happy Spring!

'A Little Love' Bracelets

I made some bracelets as Valentine presents for my favorite little girls. Upcycled sterling silver chain, sterling heart motif findings and lobster claps came together with faceted chalcedony briolettes, prehnite rounds, and faceted jade. Hope they like them!

Oh, Honey, Honey!

These are in the mail this week for my earrings-of-the-month club members. I picked HONEY as my theme for February's EcoChic Designs creations for a couple of reasons: I love honey; and I am currently working on an article about honey and beekeepers. I have always told my boys that their job of learning and stretching their minds never ends. So, I have to live up to that goal as well. Last month I went to a butchery seminar for an article. I have never had any illusions that meat just appears in the grocery store, headless, legless, and wrapped in paper or plastic. Many of my friends are hunters or fisherman, so deliveries of homemade sausages, cuts of wild boar, and whole fishes and crabs are not out of the ordinary. However, until EcoFarm's 2013 Butchery Skills Seminar, last week, I have never seen a whole carcass broken down into saleable cuts.

But this isn't about meat. This is about honey. Sweet, golden, delectable honey.

These earrings are one-of-a-kind creations, inspired by HONEY. Golden chalcedony, faceted citrine, lemon quartz, recycled yellow glass, and amber are handwired with sterling silver for this month's pieces. They hang from hammered sterling earwires.