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I'm Back with New Pieces of Art Jewelry

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It’s been a while since my last post and while I missed writing them, I hope you also missed sharing my adventures!  Between a road trip to Berkeley and having painful (very painful) shoulder tendonitis my activities really slowed down.  Now I’M BACK!  Ready to explore new techniques and have fun. When I see a good tutorial about something new that catches my fancy, I buy it and eventually the day comes when I just have to try it.  Staci Louise Smith wrote a tutorial “Gold Rush: The Rustic Crackle Technique” for Craft Art Edu.  I loved the pictures of her necklaces and wanted to see what I could do.  If you like the crackle effect  on my pieces or want to try something new, check out her tutorial on   www.CraftArtEdu.com    They have good classes on many subjects. When I started following tutorials, I expected my pieces to look like the instructors.  That just did not happen and it is not the fault of the tutorial or the instructor.  It is that my mind and hands take the

The Value of Restringing Jewelry

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broken pearl strands redone with added jade beads “Oh, my necklace broke.  I’ll just put it in my jewelry box and deal with it later!” and later could be years away.  Why not have it restrung so you can wear it again? There are many reasons to restring necklaces and I offer my services to several jewelers in town.  It seems that many of the jewelers are too busy or don’t want to take someone’s necklace and remake it.   I happen to enjoy doing just that.  A strand of coral to be restrung with added elements Restrung coral in a new design https://www.etsy.com/listing/279669910/red-coral-statement-necklace-with-bronze?ref=shop_home_active_2 another way to restring coral (with silver beads as spacers) When I have the opportunity to look at a necklace that someone else designed, I look at the way the beads are combined, how they are attached to the clasp and figure out why the piece broke.  Usually the string used has shredded from a bead that is rough on th

What WE See When We Really Look

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  During a very brief recent trip to Kansas City Mo. I visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art with my nephew Matt as my guide.  Many years ago, when I lived in that area, my mom and I would spend hours there enjoying the sculptures, paintings and architecture.   We spent several  hours enjoying the architecture and art as well as eating lunch in the cafĂ© next to a fountain. we pretended to be  somewhere in Italy during the 15 th century eating excellent food. Easy to do at that cafe!  The current special exhibit is REFLECTING CLASS IN THE AGE OF REMBRANDT AND VERMEER .  It offers a different way of seeing history as well as appreciating the masters.  http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/ Seeing the actual paintings, the detail of the brush strokes, and the stories was mesmerizing.  I knew how luxurious the laces and fabrics were just by looking.  It was as though I hear the satins moving and the lace fluttering and feel the textures without touching.