Pretty Pictures!

Well... mediocre pictures, at any rate. Yesterday afternoon, I took snapshots of recently made jewelry. I'm especially pleased by the way the coins turned out! Definitely worth the trouble. I'll label the stones I used for each piece. If you're interested in purchasing any of these, just contact me and we can work out the details. All of the jewelry is affordable, since I don't use super expensive materials. These are priced between eight and fifteen dollars, depending on the stones and manpower I used :)
Also, sorry about the formatting. I'm having a spot of trouble. I hope it doesn't make the captions hard to read!

Pendant super-above left: Grey backyard stone, peach backyard stone, copper freshwater pearl.

Pendant regular-above left: Dark grey pearlized backyard shell, grey glass, elephant jasper, ...some other type of jasper. Possibly porcelain jasper, but I'm not sure.

Earrings left: Black backyard stone (which I think is some sort of mica), seed bead (I just had some laying around, so I figured I'd stick it on), red jasper, Mystery Stone (these are absolutely beautiful. They're not exactly iridescent... they're more of a polished surface, but they have colors from deep brown to aqua. They must be semi-precious based on the strand price - $39! Yikes! I got em on sale, though :)

Earrings below: Beautiful green feathers, Carnelian

Earrings left: Two pennies, hammered flat on a rock then shaped, glass, turquoise jasper

Earrings below: Two pennies hammered and shaped, australian jasper, amethyst

Earrings left: Pretty, smooth, dark backyard stones, red jasper, lime green transparent mystery stone. I'm pretty sure these are semi-precious too, cause I got em at New Moon.
Earrings below: Two pennies, hammered, shaped, and aged with vinegar and salt, Blue-brown mystery stone, red jasper

Earrings left: Two dimes, hammered and shaped, australian jasper, tiger eye, red jasper
Earrings below: Two dimes, hammered and shaped, discolored with vinegar and salt (They have sort of gold smudges on them. It's quite pretty, really. And I promise it won't rub off on you!), Australian Jasper, ...and I can't remember the name of the top ones. Something about a zebra, maybe? I didn't have many of those.

Earrings left: Two dimes, shaped and hammered, turquoise jasper, goldstone

Earrings below: Two pennies, hammered and shaped, amethyst, light...something. I'll let you know if I remember! It looks a bit like Jade, though... it's just a semi precious version.

(If you couldn't tell... I'm in a jasper phase.)
So. That's a sampling of the type of thing I make. When I make new things, I'll probably post them up for you to see. If your interested in anything, you can post on my blog, or message me, or email me at bellumestmallum@hotmail.com.

Finally, a blog.

It's taken me awhile to catch onto this blogspot business. I'm an avid facebooker, but I was a bit wary of a new addiction. (Although I did have a Xanga back in the day. Have you ever delved back a few years and read old blog entries? Embarassing!)

So, anyway. The purpose of this blog, I think, is mainly to get my name out there as a jewelry maker. I'm a bit new at this, really. In the past, I've mainly done portrait work. However, I've found that taking commissions is really quite stressful. I admit it - I'm a people pleaser. This summer, I've taken a step away from paint, and a step toward jewelry. I really, really enjoy it so far.

Here's a bit about my process - Just like in my childhood, I'm venturing outside and returning with a bunch of pebbles, rocks, shells, feathers.... whatever I find. I then scrub them up in the sink with an old toothbrush, then accent them with recycled or reclaimed metals, found objects, and semi-precious stones. Voila! Beautiful, natural jewelry.

This afternoon, I decided to see if coins were soft enough to hammer. As it turns out, they are. I found a nice flat (ish) rock in my backyard and hammered the stuffing out of them. It took a bit of manpower, but eventually I hammered them flat enough for use. I'm hoping I can drill holes in them with a hand drill so I don't have to use wire-wrapping.

Soon, I'll upload some pictures of some things I've made. Have a lovely day!