Pretty Good Jewelry

Rose quartz rondelle necklace + earrings

This rose quartz is a lovely, subtle shade of pink, perfect for the new silver beads I bought from Thailand.  These beads are 99% pure silver (sterling silver is 92.5% silver), and they look fabulous!  They are flat pleated disks, with a bumpy beaded edge.  The silver and the rose quartz beads are 8mm in diameter.

I finished with a Bali (sterling) silver heart hook & eye clasp.  The necklace is 18.75 inches long, and weighs 1.8 oz.
I made matching earrings with Bali sterling silver chandelier drops.  The dangles are about 1.5 inches long, and weigh about 0.2 oz.

Price: $72 (shipping is free)

Tree agate flat rectangle bead-link necklace

Tree agate is so named because the green patterns on the white background are reminiscent of tree branches against the sky.  These particular beads are flat rectangles measuring 20x15mm.  I joined them with gold-filled wire, and finished with a vermeil hook & eye clasp.

The necklace is 23.5 inches long, but I made the loops large enough so that you can hook the clasp at any bead.

The weight of the necklace is 2.1 oz.

Price: $33.60 (shipping is free)

SOLD

Argentium silver Byzantine chain maille bracelet + earrings

The Byzantine weave is rapidly becoming one of my favorite chain maille weaves: it looks insanely complicated, but once learned it's not that bad at all.

The rings I used for this bracelet are made from 18 gauge Argentium™ silver wire.  (In a nutshell: Argentium™ silver is highly tarnish resistant plus the same purity as sterling silver.)  I finished with a sterling silver toggle clasp.

The bracelet is 7 1/4 inches long, with a weight of 0.7 oz.

The matching earrings are about 1 1/4 inches long, and weigh 0.3 oz.

Price: $78 (shipping is free)

Amazonite flat rectangle bead-link necklace

This amazonite is a wonderful sea blue-green, the color of amazonite that I like best.  (You can see my other amazonite necklaces here, here, here, and here.)

The beads are flat rectangles, measuring 18x13mm.  I joined each with sterling silver wire, and finished with a Bali silver s-clasp.

The necklace is just a hair under 23 inches (can be worn shorter by hooking the clasp between two beads as shown), and weighs 1.9 oz.

Price: $31 (shipping is free)

SOLD

Fossilized wood jasper ovals bead-link necklace + earrings

These beads are so cool!  They're a lovely chocolate brown with darker brown grain-like streaks, looking just like a very dark wood that's been turned to stone.  The name is a bit of an amalgam--one vendor calls these "fossilized wood", and another vendor calls them "wood picture jasper".  They certainly seem to be some form of jasper, and the "fossilized wood" moniker describes them perfectly.

The beads measure 18x13mm.  I joined each with gold-filled wire, and finished with a vermeil hook & eye clasp from India.

The necklace is about 21.5 inches long (can be worn shorter by hooking the clasp between two beads as shown), with a weight of 1.8 oz.

I strung a jasper bead plus a 2mm gold-filled bead on a gold-filled headpin to make the inch-long earring dangles.  The French hooks are gold-filled as well, and the earrings' total weight is 0.2 oz.

Price: $43 (shipping is free)

SOLD

The perils of kitty assistance

We are blessed with four cats, all of whom have curious natures.  Sometimes when I'm photographing jewelry they stop by to supervise and lend a paw.

First, Quizzie cast a shadow over the proceedings:

Since Quizzie didn't actually appear in that picture, here's what she looks like (photo snagged from Tom's blog):

Next, Random jumped up to see what was going on:

Here's another photo from Tom's blog that shows Random's face:
Isn't he a cute little guy?

Then Pumpkin notices that something is going on (you can see her tail in the background):

She jumps up to study the situation:

After I shoo her off, she looks back as if to say, I am very hurt that you would yell at an innocent kitty!

Pumpkin pretending to be an innocent kitty (photo from Tom's blog):

I wouldn't want to leave out Ace, especially since she didn't spoil any of my pictures (again, from Tom's blog):
She's a pretty cool cat who likes to hang out and do her own thing.