Finally!

I decided to hold off on blogging until I had some new work to show you all. I've been keeping plenty busy between life, riding, and trying to turn my apartment into some semblance of organization...which is possibly a battle I'm just not going to win at this rate.

I'm taking a bit of a different approach with jewelry. It's just not possible to make several new items a week with everything else - like my horse who needs MORE WORK. I came to the realization that I don't need to max out my tumbler every time I use it, and I can work at my own pace.

The goods:

"Then he looked right through me, with somniferous almond eyes...It was so real, Like I woke up in Wonderland."

Size 8

(I could not do this stone justice photographically...sigh. coyamito agate & sterling.)

Entomology Ring, size 9 - glass cabochon & sterling


Sailing Posts - 10mm turquoise & sterling


Copper Cup, size 10 - heat oxidized copper on oxidized and brushed sterling shank


Etsy listings will come later, I need to go ride miss sassy and then get ready for a day of boating!

in just

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

-e.e. cummings

The other side.

As swiftly and abruptly as the week of jewelry hell came, it was gone. I just sat down one day to work on stuff and stuff happened and that was that.

It was incredibly anticlimactic.

There were no fires.

And in this, I decided that for the time being I'm going to work on "easy" pieces. Pieces I can make in multiples. Pieces I can make again. Pieces I can work on at the end of the day - start to finish. I need to change how I'm working, I need a little instant gratification.

I love the feeling of finishing a big piece, it's incredibly rewarding. But when all of them just sort of hang out in my shop, the rewarding feeling dwindles.

I'm perfectly ok admitting that sometimes I just need some sales to give me a little extra boost.

Anyway, we'll see how long I last. The very thought of made to order scares me. To have a deadline, to not have the option of sitting at my bench at the end of a work day, to have to make things the same everytime...I've generally considered all of these things NOT my cup of tea.

But I'm going to do it my way and make things that I love and it'll be fine.

To start, we have these earrings, name yet to be determined:

Last week it was cold and raining. Not May weather. I was standing outside, keeping dry under my umbrella, and noticed how vibrantly green everything was with the overcast backdrop. The oak trees were practically neon. My entire neighborhood was lit up with chartreuse, and I wondered how I had never seen this before. How had I come to be 25 years old and never noticed this color green?

And then I remembered the peridot beads I'd bought a few weeks ago and one thing after another lead to those earrings. And I freaking LOVE them. They may be my favorite earrings to date. Like, more favorite than my serpentine drops that I can't find a picture of right now.

I also finished a custom order:




But I secretly really liked it before I set the stone because it looked like a little framed picture:


(I have a feeling I'll be playing with that idea in the future)

Jessi doesn't make jewelry.

Today I am ready to melt everything into a big puddle of metal and set it on fire.




Let's see, in the past week or so:

1. tiny ball of silver kept coming unsoldered when I soldered other things on a pendant. So I resoldered it. Three times. And then after I filed down the bezel base plate to the bezel, I realized the bezel had come unsoldered in some places during my resoldering madness.

I tried resoldering the bezel. It was messy. Easy solder is henceforth banned from my bench. I realized I had to pull the bezel off completely. And then I realized that having filed the baseplate right up to the metal, it was now too small to solder another bezel onto.

So I re-did that whole mess, AND THE BEZEL STILL DID NOT SOLDER COMPLETELY.

At this point, I'm feeling like I should probably just never make jewelry again. I put it aside and probably won't touch it for several months. Apparently all of my poppy jasper pieces are creating an army to destroy me.

2. But...I persevere. And I start on a custom order that's due in a little over a week. It's pretty straight forward and I am excited for this piece. I figure I've given myself a few days off from soldering, so the soldering karma has to be back, right?

Sure isn't!

The hard solder I bought in town last week because I was out? OH IT'S ACTUALLY EXTRA HARD. Do you know how DIFFICULT it is to make that stuff flow? I had to try 3 different times and I'm STILL not even sure that it worked. Note to self: do not ever buy 80% solder. Ever.

3. And then because I just don't know when to quit, I melted a bezel. And promptly turned off my torches and left.

2 more things!

I have GOT to do a big shop update soon. Must.

But it's just so niiiice out and I can't pass up a trail ride on the big black mare. Or making little caramel apple tarts and eating them for dinner. Or just spending a little time unwinding after my big weekend show. !

Anyway. I am going to get back to etsy land this week with my new stuff. Promise.

Here are the last few pieces I made:

Ohhh how I am kicking myself for not buying more of these in Tucson. That is a wonderfully delicious pink peruvian opal. It's big and shiny and I love it. The necklace itself is a combination of my seedling design and the peacock ring curls. Onions. I don't know. I do know that they are a giant pain in the ass.

Moving on.


I just deleted my paragraph about these because you don't really need to know all of my jewelry making issues. But, again, some of my same design elements and some re-worked ear wires because I don't plan ahead very well. They are moooookaite! and I was a little nervous about making such ginormous earrings but mookaite AND dendrites AND a matched pair couldn't really be passed up.

Let me tell you, if you put these on in your sweat pants (or barn clothes) you instantly feel like 50 times more glamorous than you look. I know because I wore them home tonight and I was like "I could probably go out to a club tonight right now with these on."

I guess a lot of things probably do that to a girl, but humor me. I just started wearing earrings like a year ago.