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Linda is a  certified crystal healer and she incorporates that along with reiki into each piece that she makes.   Her focus is on creating spiritual jewelry from precious metals and gemstones. Linda loves to find the meaning behind each stone and uses her GIA knowledge to educate her customers about their stones.  Her blog is all about information on stones.

Linda writes:
These first two pieces are Oms.  When I started practicing Yoga I learned about the sound OM and starting wearing one to help me calm myself as it is a holy sound in the universe and often used in meditation.  It means many things to many people which is why I love it.

Both pieces are made in 2 parts the background has a texture and a sapphire is inset.  I always work with real stones and like to inset them into the pieces.  This way they are closer to the skin and their energies work for the wearer.  The top piece is made as a separate piece and they are joined.  One has a patina to bring out a color. Both are strung with beads that represent all the chakras.

The next piece is a meditation bowl.  I definitely feel that meditation is helpful for people so I wanted to make something that represented this.  I set it with amethysts which are a stone for meditation.  I used several pieces to make the texture on the top ala Hadar and then used Liver of Sulfer to get the colors.  I work with liver of silver in layers most of the time using it cold and mixing all sorts of things to get colors.

The last piece is a forget-me-not.  This is the official flower of the Alzheimer’s Association.  My mother lost her battle with Alzheimer’s last year and I wanted to do something in her honor. I piece these flowers together petal by petal and set the middle with genuine sapphires in different colors.  I texture the back and set the stones in a very organic manner.  I also donate a percentage of these sales to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

This collection is called the Organic Series of Naturally Inspired Forms.   It is inspired by nature and natural forms, including Waves, Freeform Organics, Lilies, Habitats, Knife Edge and most recently Twigs. Waves represent the cleansing and regenerating abilities of the sea. Freeform Organics are inspired by the rich shapes found the deep forest and celebrate nature’s embrace. The Lilies are flower inspired forms, beautiful and elegant in their simplicity. Habitats are a representation of tide pools with marine creatures living amongst the nooks and crannies, symbolizing harmony with nature and one’s surroundings. Knife Edge represent the purity of life itself.  And finally, Twigs represent birth and new growth as buds form, grow into leaves and flowers refreshing our world. Each piece in the Organic Series is signed and numbered in a series with no two pieces being alike.

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Ileana earrings – fine silver metal clay plated in 22k gold with green tourmalines.

Carnival Gypsy Ring – fine silver metal clay. Colored resin, with faceted pink sapphire
Carnival Gypsy Earrings – fine silver metal clay, faceted pink sapphires and PMC granulated silver balls.

Etruscan Ring – fine silver textured metal clay with bezel set blue sapphires

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Joe writes:

These are pieces that I have designed and made. Above is a genuine butterfly wing encased in an 18KY gold frame and back with a quartz crystal on front.  Below is a back view showing a removable and interchangeable necklace.

A custom designed silver “Hummingbird”

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Post from: Jewelry and Beading

The leaves that I showed you yesterday are really easy to make, but take quite a bit of time. Plan to do them when you’ve got other projects going on so that you don’t have to sit around waiting for the silver to dry.  Choose fresh leaves with deep veins: you’re going to be applying the paste to the bottom of the leaves, so you want the underside to be textured, but not “fuzzy” the way some leaves can be.  Smooth, but bumpy is good!

Step by step instructions

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

This month, I’m going to be focused on bringing you wonderful work by artists who specialize in metal clay: gold, silver, bronze, and the new copper. To start off, here’s a very simple project that I did with silver clay paste and some teeny tiny new leaves from our maple tree. These are each only about 3/4 inch across:

Tomorrow, I’ll share with you the method that I used to make these.  In the meantime, if you’re interested in working with silver clay, there are two brands available that you can research.  Rings & Things carries Art Clay, and Rio Grande carries PMC.

If you are a metal clay artist and would like to share your work with us, just drop me a line at cyndi @ b5Media.com (remove the spaces).

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The regular conference runs from July 16 to 18, 2009, while the pre-conference classes take place on July 13 to 15.  All information and registration forms can be found at the link above.  One of the teachers will be the talented Lis-el Crowley, whose work is pictured below!

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When the author, Tammy Powley, approached me about creating a project for this book, I was very excited, but also a bit scared! I’ve been involved with a couple other projects with Tammy, and I already knew how much detail and effort she puts into everything that she does. I knew that this was going to be an amazing and very complete book for beginners. And I wasn’t the slightest bit disappointed when I received my copy of Picture Yourself Creating Metal Clay Jewelry. Tammy’s instructions are excellent and very thorough, and the DVD is just the icing on the cake!

Here’s a picture of the project that I made for this book, using a pendant blank from HHH Enterprises. Those little maple leaves on the cover? Those are mine

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