Great giveaway

I love Dolls and Daydreams. Sarah makes beautiful doll patterns. I especially love the animal patterns. And she is hosting a giveaway. You can find all the information here.

Eva.

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Week 10: For Clemens: The Four Elements

I have a friend that has been very important to me for the last couple of months. He was Barend's best friend and we support each other in our grief. I don't think I would have made it through these past months as good as I'm doing now without him. So I wanted to make something really special for him.

His lucky number is 4. He has a tattoo on his arm that looks like a 4 one way round and if you look at it the other way round it is the Chinese word for Strength. When I started thinking about what I wanted to make for him I immediately thought of the four elements. I did some research and found that the earliest form of the Celtic cross is a circle with a + in it. The four spokes represent the four elements.

While I was thinking about how to make this into a piece of jewelry a male could wear (I always have problems designing for men) I saw one of Iza's crosses for the first time and I just knew what I wanted to make. So when I found Iza's new tutorial I bought it and went to work right away (thanks so much Iza!). I adapted the design so it would just have one bead in the middle. I also made the spokes the same size so it looks more like the symbol for the 4 elements. And I made the little ball ends with my torch. The piece is a combination of Fine Silver and SS. The bead in the middle is a faceted round Amethyst. The Amethyst also has a special meaning to Clemens. I hung it from a simple leather cord.

I worked on it without stopping yesterday and finished just in time so I could give it to Clemens last night. And he loved it. I just had time to make a quick scan of it because he didn't want to leave it with me :). Comments are of course always welcome!

Week 9: Leaf pendant

I made this pendant trying to give it many different textures. Some of them using the basket making technique's I learned. I'm totally liking that and am going to make more pieces using that technique. And I learn each time I make something. I now would have done some things different making this pendant to give it an neater look. All Sterling Silver with Green Quartz (which shows you why you shouldn't dip the piece in LOS with clear stones!).

Week 8: Simple Woven Cabochon Pendant

I never seem to be able to follow the themes. But at least I'm on time for this week. I'm kinda proud of this one. I made it using Robbie's new tutorial: The Simple Woven Cabochon Pendant It was my first try and I have not much experience with wrapping cabochons. I was always to intimidated to try so I made very few and none that I actually liked. I think I'm going to make more of this one using different cabs :). And I like to thank Magda for transforming my totally ordinary picture into something special. The sea and seashells are very special for me since they remind me of my dear Barend. I'm trying to honor him by expending my horizon and trying new things. I'm sure he would love this piece.

Week 7 Large pendant.

This was a real learning experiment for me. I got the idea to make this from a beautiful ornament Robbie sent me. Seeing it up close and in person made me dare to try and make this pendant (with her permission of course!). I have been saving the large faceted Fluorite bead for myself and when I saw Robbie's ornament I knew what to do with it. The piece is made in SS and Fine silver (oxidized) and the beads are Fluorite. I already have some ideas how to do things differently next time so the weaving will be neater and more even.

Week 6: Swirly Pearls

I made these from Robbie's first book Mastering the Basics of Wire Jewelry. I added the coiling round the base and the pearls. I'm not totally happy with these so they are going to stay in my collection. But I'm definately going to try another pair.