Jewels From The Sea

I finished 2 new necklaces. I made a necklace around the sea glass that I punched the oh so cool hole in! :) I also made one using the awesome pewter piece Lynn Davis made of the Chinese Goddess Guan Yin oh and I added a small mermaid's tear to it. :)

On the whole I'm rather pleased the way they both turned out. This first one was a true learning process. The easy part: I made the chain with a small length of brass chain I roasted over the fire on the burner of our stove. :) I burned off the tarnish protection and ended up with some nice caramelization. Oye sounds like I'm sauteing dinner huh?? :) The rest of the chain is part of a rosary.

I used copper (cuz I don't have brass) wire (need to get some) to make the circle thingy. I then stretched a thin piece of copper wire and threaded a fresh water pearl in the center of the "thingy" Gads it's these technical words, they can be so overwhelming!! Off the circle I hung the ever so cool piece of mermaid tear (which looks a lot like a piece of Coke bottle bottom), that I wired on a mutated fresh water pearl. Maybe it started out to be identical twin stick pearls but ended up as conjoined twins????? The other is a piece of , I believe Lynn D refers to it as "Potmetal" and LW calls it sludge metal. Whatever it is it's nasty and evil!! I took apart an old necklace from one of those expensive women's career clothing stores. You know the ones. I figured as much as their jewelry cost the it would be at least tin???? Nope but it was painted to look like patina gold over copper/brass. Fooled me so I stuck a piece in the flames to roast it only to watch it lump up and crumble on the burner!!!! EEERRR. Back to the Dremel tool (have I told you how much I love my gift from LW) with the other pieces, sanded off the protective finished down to the copper color the added some patina magic potion back on it. I glued a shell on it and stamped the Spanish word concha (sea shell) There's another first stamping letters on metal. Not to bad huh??? Letters are in a straight line and all in their right places!!

Now for another first. I've had this sea urchin for a long time it sat in my kitchen window waiting for a divine vision to strike. The problem with using it is how fragile they are.So how do you keep from crushing it???? Well, I had one of those middle of the night AH HAs Fill the inside with something light weight, firm & with some give to it. I thought Liquid Nails clear silicon!!! It worked perfect!! I glue a little glass heart over the top hole to cover the super secret protective agent.

SO now how to incorporate it into a necklace but keep it from swinging all over the place and risk it breaking?? I decided to place it up on the chain and use it as the closure. Why yes that is a big ol brass paper clip :) it really works perfect to stabilize and provide a closure for the hook. But it looked so bugly when the glue dried so I glued a few embroidered flowers over the bugly part.

I will admit I really am not liking the whole paperclip look on the back side. Because this isn't going to be mine (it's a little just cuz gift) I really would like to pretty it up a bit. Soooooo what would you guys do???? Please suggestions are badly needed. The divine visions must be in need of stronger glasses, cuz I can't see "nuffin"!!!!! Help!!!



This other necklace is pretty much straight forward. I made it to wear with my new fall "wardrobe" ;) I used amber chips and blue tumbled glass beads, and at the ends I place 2 beautiful green peridots. I made the piece short but I added ribbons as the closure so I can very the length

The focal is the Goddess Guan Yin made out of poured pewter by Lynn Davis. She also made the Mermaid I used in a necklace, remember????? I just love her work!!!! She does such an amazing job of adding hundreds of years of age on her pieces. She really puts a lot of time and thought in her aging processes. This is one of her Fauxtique pieces. If you haven't been over to her blog and ESTY stores you really need to take a little trip!! One thing she does is solders jump rings in places so you can attach beads or charms. I wired on a small mermaid tear and tiny freshwater pearl. And if you squint your eyes just so and tip your head you can see that the little pearl is shaped a lot like a heart! :)

Have a most audacious tonight or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)

PS. Is anyone out there interested in how I drilled the holes in the sea glass??? If so I could post it next time if you'd like me to???