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.

MAY EcoChic Designs Earrings-of-the-Month

It's that time again...earrings are packaged up and ready to go, a few days early because my husband's and my birthdays are only a week apart and our next two weekends are jam-packed. It's all fun stuff, to be sure, but it doesn't leave much time for much else, especially not a trip to the post office. So, I am sending the earrings out a little bit early because I will be swamped for the next ten days and don't want to leave earlobes naked for too long.

This month, I picked HONEY as my theme for a couple of reasons - I love honey; I love bees; and I've been reading a book called Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey.

Many countries celebrate women this month. In this country, it's Mothers' Day; in Italy, it's Festa Della Donna (Festival of the Woman). While not all of my club members are mothers, all are women. For my mothers' day/festa della donna offering, I decided to make creations in all the shades of honey because motherhood, for me, has been a sweet - and sometimes sticky - journey. Sticky because, well, I have two boys eighteen months apart.

The pieces were made with faceted honey quartz, lemon quartz, recycled glass in pale and bright yellow, and amber. All one-of-a-kind, all handwired with sterling silver. So, whether the gals are mothers, grandmothers, or beloved aunties - or all of the above - I hope they will wear these and feel celebrated and appreciated.

Bit O'Honey

I've, sadly, never had a Bit O'Honey candy bar. My mom was a sugar Nazi; so there's no mystery why I am the way I am with my boys - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right? But of all the candies I watched my friends eat, the Bit O'Honey intrigued me the most. I liked the name. I love honey.

When I came across these voluptuous citrine nuggets, they reminded me of bits of honey. So I made a necklace-earring set with them.

This set is comprised of an assymetrical necklace and earrings made with organically-shaped gemstones that remind me of bits of honey.

Citrine nuggets, onyx, recycled clear glass and calcite are handwired with sterling silver to create this one-of-a-kind necklace that closes in the front with a sterling silver lobster clasp; the earrings are made with citrine nuggets and recycled glass and hang from sterling silver French wires.

 

Click here to purchase the piece from my etsy site, or to see more photographs.

Celebrating Spring with a Golden Glow

This piece glows like the sun in various shades of yellow and gold.

Recycled glass in different shades of yellow are handwired with clear recycled glass, citrine, lemon quartz, and raw Peruvian opals to form this piece that closes in the rear with a sterling silver lobster clasp. A delicate, lightly oxidized sterling silver filigree piece is juxtaposed with all of the elements in this chunky one-of-a-kind choker.

Click here to purchase it from my etsy site.

Tulipmania - Tulipa 'Sweetheart'

I have been afflicted with tulipmania since I was a child, lived in Holland, and visited the Keukenhof Garden in Lisse with my parents.  Granted, I had this false vision that tulips were gigantic - skewed by the fact that I was only five-years-old and a petite five-year-old at that - but their elegance and beauty are unmistakable; I have loved them for years.  I love the textures, the colors, even the names:

'Aperitif'

'Apricot Beauty'

'Flaming Parrot'

'Oriental Splendor'

'Pink Diamond'

'Pink Impression'

'Salmon Parrot'

'Scarlet Pimpernel'

I've had a bunch of these tulip bead caps for awhile, but was waiting for inspiration to strike. It did. So finally, I went to work, creating these completely unique pieces.

Here's the first one...

A heavily-plated sterling silver (over brass) tulip bead cap is handwired with bronze freshwater pearls, chocolate jade, recycled yellow glass, smoky quartz, and citrine chunks to form this one-of-a-kind necklace. It closes in the rear with a sterling silver lobster clasp.

Click here to purchase this necklace on etsy.com.