Told you I liked earrings!

 For the longest time, I couldn't really wear earrings, but my ears have gotten better. However, I never got into the habit of making earrings for myself, so even though I can wear them I only have one or two pairs that I've made for myself, and everything else was purchased. Well, it's time for that to change! Today I made myself this awesome pair of shoulder-dusters, with jewel beetle elytra and fern green Swarovski crystals.

What say you, customers... Is this a product that you'd like to see me offer at Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs? Is it worthwhile for me to order more elytra? I would of course make sure to buy ones from a supplier that harvests them after the beetles have lived out a natural lifespan. I love insects too much to have them wantonly killed for my jewelry supplies!

Upcycled Taxco Necklace

Well, I got this done sooner than I expected! That's right, my project to upcycle this broken necklace is complete.

I originally thought that I was dealing with some sort of Afghani nickel silver, but while removing the drops, I found that what I thought was a decorative design on the back of the central drop was actually a stamp for Sterling Silver from Taxco, Mexico. Some quick internet research showed that the eagle logo in the stamp had been used from around 1955 to sometime in the late 60s or early 70s, so I was dealing with a vintage piece.

Before continuing on with the project, I did some poking around the internet, trying to find out if this was a valuable necklace that I should be trying to repair, or if I could continue with my original plan. After finding a cleaner, undamaged version of the necklace for 99 cents on eBay, I decided that I could pretty much do whatever I wanted to the necklace and not worry that I was ruining some priceless artifact.
And so I did! My first step was to remove all of the drops, then I attacked the darkened silver with a polishing cloth. I do like the natural patina, it gives it a more tribal feel, but I wanted to clean it up a bit so the new silver wire wouldn't stand out quite so much. Then I set to replacing the old silver drops with new green beads.

These beads are some sort of Chinese pressed glass from Michael's. I don't buy craft store beads very often, but I really liked this unusual drop shape and the variegated green glass is a favorite of mine. They don't quite look like something that belongs at Ren Faire, but they really go perfect with this top...
... which is why I chose them. The greens of the beads are the perfect compliment to the greens of the tie-dye! Later I'll get a picture of the full costume, with my floofy green skirt and teal veil. I'm thinking of making some earrings and a bracelet or two to round it out as well.

In completely unrelated news, Aviatrix is today's Daily Special.

A little something for me

I was feeling a little annoyed yesterday, so I made this necklace for myself. It features the carved green stone insect pendant that I bought at gem show, some gorgeous kambaba jasper coins, and green turmaline Swarovski crystals. That's all. Nice and simple. I'm very pleased with it, though, because it looks neat and I did a great job wire-wrapping the bail to hang the bug from the strand. Wire-wrapping is not my strong suit, you know!

The background in this image is scrapbook paper! Last night we went to JoAnn's and I bought a whole bunch of decorative papers to use in my photography. The scattersheet that I picked up for the BFAC photos is nice, but it starts to get drab after a while. I wanted some color and texture to punch up my Etsy images.

I took a bunch more photos tonight before my tripod broke, and it looks like a decent amount of them actually turned out, so look forward to lots of eye candy over the next few days.