Red Jade

Until my friend Alicia had a red jade necklace that she gotta compliment on, I didn't know that Jade came in any other color than green. I didn't even know that there was a difference between Jade and something called Jadeite, and that Jadeite was a natural stone.  I thought it was something made up in a lab.

Well, I have learned that Jade is so strong it was once used for weapons and tools.  On a Mohs scale of hardness it rates a 7 which means it is harder than steel.  Jadeite is the higher quality of Jade and it comes in a variety of colors: Red, Green, Blue and Lavender.

My bracelet I call Red Jade but it is surely Red Jadeite.



This might need to have a trip out of the jewelry box today...It is so pretty.

Finally the Tile Debut

Well it is more than a tile debut....

I took the time to make this into a wonderful, crazy, busy, charm necklace.  What do you think?

The focal point Blue Heart

Day of the Dead pendant and flower pendant

Urgggh Tiles

I am still not ready to show you my scrabble tiles.  They are getting better but still have some shrunken middles and some bubbles. But they are getting better.

Maybe I should have made like two at a time till I figured this out. No not me, I had to go ahead and cut out 50 little squares of paper from a gardening catalog then glue them all on tiles, then coat each with glaze.  Now....when you are learning and take this as a lesson is to not get so gungho with your plans and product.  Start small......

What was I thinking?

Hey I am still gonna get there.

On top of all of this crazy tile creativity and slowness I have also landscaped and rebarked my garden....about 1/2 of an acre.  Planted up my veggies....purchased annuals (they still have to go in) and weeded and fertilized my roses.  I have also mowed both back and front lawns, mulched and did 3/4 of my jewelry inventory for my online business: etsy.com/Shop/BluJeanBeads.

Oh....whatelse have I been doing?  Oh yeah, tending to my daughter's sadness, my funky truck that has a starter problem, entertaining family, building greenhouses and driving 3-400 miles a week to sign kids up for a college scholarship (day and evening and night job).  Just that....

But those darned tiles....

More on Scrabble Tile Pendants

I am still working on perfecting scrabble tiles. Oh my goodness. They are so cute but unfortunately some of the pendants have kind of like a sunken middle where I used the Diamond Glaze.  Maybe I should have worked from the middle to to the outside instead of the other way round.

Then tonight....I started a few more....I found another product which is brush on.  I tried that.  It is still wet so I still see the brush strokes in my two trial tiles.  What is this stuff....let me go see to tell you....Oh it is "Triple Thick Brilliant Brush On Gloss Glaze" and it comes in a little pot.  I purchased it at Michaels.

Then I tried on another tile, a Jolly Rogers motif with "Aleene's Paper Glaze" that I found also at Michaels.  I tried putting it on the tile by filling in the middle first and then filling in the edges....I see tiny little bubbles on the edge.

Tomorrow morning I will assess the work and maybe after that I will try a trial of regular two part resin and will let you in on the comparison.

I didn't kow about Diamond Glaze until I met, Christine Hansen at a street fair. She is the co-author of the book "Making Mixed Media Art Charms and Jewelry" with Peggy Krzyzewski.  She told me she used Diamond Glaze because you didn't have to mix resin at the right temperature and it was goof proof.

Well being the want to "know more" person I am....I got on line and researched some more and realized that there were tons of tutorials and videos for making scrabble tile pendants.  All were about pouring on resin to make a rounded, slightly magnified pendant.  Was that what I wanted?  Or does a more flat organic look work more for me?....maybe both.  So tomorrow, when everything dries, I will know more.  These first efforts may meet the landfill - although they are cute...or maybe I will make a first effort charm bracelet just for me so I won't waste product.  But any which way, I will report to you, dear reader.

Learning Old Tricks in New Ways

Making Jewelry in my Jam Jams is one of my favorite blogs. Christine offers such cool tutorials and her techniques will make jewelry making so much easier.

Follow this one for making consistent and nice looking simple loops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVtAps73QSI&feature=g-upl&context=G20b1d7bAUAAAAAAAAAA.


I go in fits and starts with my jewelry making. I haven't done any wire work in a little while. I am so busy thinking about Spring that I have been looking at seed catalogs, working in the yard, etc. It inspired me to create a line of Scrabble tile pendants yesterday.  I have about 20 or 30 drying on the dining room table. They feature flowers, vegetables, gardens, and other cute garden inspired pictures - gnomes.

They are cute.  When I am finished I will take a picture to show you all.

March-ing On

We are moving forward into Spring. We have had a wild ride this month with snow, wind, power outages and whatever. In the middle of it, I placed an order for some beads from Rings&Things in Spokane and they were at more door in a mere three days.

Have you ever ordered from them? They are great.  You can find them at www.rings-things.com. They are relatively local for me...in Spokane, WA which is the eastside of the state; I am on the westside. Their products are good and reasonably priced. I received a kit for making resin pendants with everything I need for the fraction of a price if I was buying the pieces separately.

Being a person of color, I love ethnic jewelry and they have a great selection of African trade beads and that is what I bought. I have made one bracelet so far and can't wait to dive into the other beads.

Check out http://www.rings-things.com.

Colors for Spring

Yesterday it snowed and rained most of the day... and it was cold.  Today I went outside and cut back some trees that were shading my garden spot. I am a jeweler but my first "lust" is gardening...weeding...pruning....clipping and mowing.

I came in and turned on HGTV because decorating is another passion of mine.  And I was cruising around on my email (cleaning up files) and read one of my favorite jewelry blogs. 

Look at the link below:

http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr.aspx?pg=20911&ca=4

Spring colors...how cool is that!  Now I can choose beads in the spring color palette from my stash and get to beading. Wahoo!