Technique Tuesday!
This is a project that I filmed for HGTV a couple of years ago. It was filmed in the heat of an early summer day, and didn’t air until mid-December. It was a trip, I’ll tell you that!

Materials:
vintage optical test lens (to purchase lenses)
photo to use on pendant (original will not be harmed)
clear fixative spray (Krylon Clear Acrylic Spray)
drop loop
head pin
assorted beads
Golden’s Polymer Medium or Diamond Glaze
bail or jump ring
Tools:
photo-editing software on computer (colored photocopies can be substituted)
printer
1-1/2 inch hole punch
paintbrush
pliers: chain nose and round wire cutters
Step by step instructions

Make Art Monday!
After years of making these optical lens pendants, I have decided to call it quits.  I actually took what I thought was going to be a brief break from making them at the end of 2008.  They are the only “production pieces” that I’ve ever made (I think), and somehow I just couldn’t ever seem to bring myself to resume when the break was supposed to be over!

I’m perfectly happy to share with you how they’re made, however, and tomorrow for Technique Tuesday, I’ll do just that!

Artist: Sherry Eckert
Website: Moondrops Jewelry
I work with several natural materials and I also work with Precious Metal Clay which is pure silver recycled from the film making process. It is then mixed with an organic binder and water and I can then roll it, cut it, texture it, mold it etc to make rings, pendants, earrings, bracelets etc.

I use concrete and rough cut or raw stones in some of my designs and well as molds of shells and corals, leaves and branches. I do beadwork with semi-precious stones, pearls, wood, glass, recycled jewelry, just about anything I can …read more

Mood Swing Studio has several lines of wonderfully fun and whimsical baubles available at any one time.  Since many of them are made from recycled or one-of-a-kind materials, you shouldn’t wait when you see something you like…and there is a lot to like!

There are sweet pendant necklaces like these, and also lines of more glitzy wearables.

Artist: Andrea Panico
Website: Pico
Little Architecture is a collection of jewelry that references the inspiring work of architects Santiago Calatrava, Luis Barragan, Tadao Ando and others.

Constructed primarily from silver, Indonesian teak and ebony, the pieces illustrate an intimate investigation into scale and form. Select pieces feature unique and irregular semi-precious stones, and gold vermeil is used sparingly to highlight form. The collection is being produced in Indonesia by a team of skilled artisans the designer met while working with a furniture manufacturer in Bali. All wood used in the collection is scrap wood from nearby factories.

Pico founder Andrea Panico believes …read more

Artist: Alisa Michelle
Website: Alisa Michelle
Alisa Michelle Designs has been in business for over 13 years and have sold to hundreds of stores around the country and the world.
Currently the line can be found in stores such as: ICE (Sunset, Brentwood, Fred Segal SM), LF (Various locations in So. Cal), Studio Sebastian, Rosie True, Bodhi Bazaar, Rosebud (Japan), Moda Salon, Galena and many, many more.
We cater to a long list of celebrities such as: Halle Berry, Hilary Duff, Faith Hill, Lindsay Lohan, Christina Milian, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Brooke Burke, Taylor Swift and many more. Currently our jewelry will be featured …read more

Artist: Gayle Friedman
Website: ArtJewelryOnline
I am interested in the stuff that flows in and out of our hands – in my case, it can be a scrap of fur, or fragments of metal that I encounter on my bench. These things are often imbued with unexplored meaning and emotion. I am drawn to relationships, and in making my jewelry, I get to explore the relationships that we have with these materials, the people and places they come from and how they can be understood through the medium of jewelry.

Gayle Friedman lives and works in Washington, DC.  She studied metal
smithing with Anya …read more

Make Art Monday!

Troy

Just after Christmas, a necklace that I made from recycled broken Indian necklaces found its rightful owner! This is how I like to think about it when a customer is as enthusiastic about a piece as T was. Troy was made from a mixture of aventurine, paua, jasper, bloodstone, green onyx, Indian glass, and a few other treats, and I just knew that there was someone special out there who would not be afraid of the bold statement it makes.
Then came the question that I both love and dread: could I make a matching bracelet …read more

Vintage Redux
by Brenda Schweder
Mom’s bizarro bracelets…That “what-was-I-thinking?” necklace… Aunt Bertha’s big glunky brooches. Vintage Redux shows readers everywhere how to take a drawer full of jewelry duds and turn them into dreams. More than 30 projects, from traditional to totally over-the-top, offer readers a wide range of possibilities. Each project is presented in step-by-step instructions and photos so it’s easy to create all-new pieces. Revisit the past and make it better than ever before with Vintage Redux.
After enjoying Brenda’s book Junk to Jewelry, I was anxious to get a hold of her newest venture. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. …read more