Purple Majesty

New pieces in gemstones - don't you love the cool, smooth feel of these stones? I used jade in many colors, pink crazy lace agate, amazonite and turquoise, enhanced by brass and copper. I'm thinking of keeping the grape jade necklace for myself!

Tea or Coffee?

I'm a coffee drinker here - have to cut down to one cup a day, but I do love a rich cup. I brew my own and take it with me or have it at home before I leave, so I don't spend unnecessarily at overpriced coffee bars. My local grocery just raised the price of beans to $8.99 a pound, which is high for this neighborhood. I used to love to buy coffee at Zabar's, but I don't live nearby there anymore, and I'm never at The Fairway, either, so I usually get it at my local. Maybe it's time to try out the cans in the supermarket like Martinson's?

There's no caffeine in these earrings, just an antique linen button, the kind that you'd find sewn on in rows on Victorian and Edwardian dresses a hundred years ago. They're epoxied inside sweet embossed brass and copper tea cups and hang from shiny copper handmade ear wires. A matching necklace features the same cup sitting atop another antique button, a gorgeously large, luminous mother of pearl. I think these pieces would be great for lovers of literature and British culture, as well as caffeine!

Gone Fishin'

A friend and neighbor brought home a trove of these vintage fishing lures. I don't know how vintage they are, or where they were made, but they're not new, and were part of a display in a fishing supply store on Long Island. I washed my lure booty and wondered how I'd use my fish stash in a necklace. Several months later, I made this, the first version. It's fantastic for summer in all of its hot, tropical, colorful goodness, combined with hammered copper rings, dyed coral beads, jade, chrysoprase, Peking and Czech glass beads.

The BEST PART of this piece is that it's CONVERTIBLE! Yep, it detaches to make a shorter necklace (from 32 to 24 inches) and bracelet - so you have complete versatility. It's the first piece that I've made that can do this, and I think it makes it even more interesting. It's so perfect for summer, on a hot summer night at a party, with a colorful and flirty outfit....