I got a gorgeous piece of linen fabric from Nauvoo Quilt and made some new jewelry pouches, in addition to the one's that are made with natural muslin.

I love the subtle texture and the grey/beige color of the linen. I think I will soon need to buy more fabric!!

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If you happen to read the latest March issue of Art Jewelry Magazine, you'll find an article that I've written about making a hollow form silver ring. I just received my copy and I was thrilled to finally see it in print! Also another one of my rings, which is a variation of the same design -round and filled with felt- is featured on the magazine's cover.

The article is a complete step-by-step tutorial with lots of photos that will guide you through the making of my hollow form moss ring. I first made this ring for Ring-a-Day and back then I decided to fill it with fresh moss that I had collected from the woods.

It was also super fun to see all the creative ways that the editors of Art Jewelry have found to use my ring and display all sorts of interesting materials. Check out the editors' gallery and the relevant blog post for more details and photos of the rings. They're all amazing but I'm think I'm in love with The Great Escape and the Funeral!

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Winter is here and these last days have been really cold. But we did manage to see a little bit of snow in our small town!

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The pod shape on the left is my first attempt to make a metal version of the dried seedpod, pictured in the middle. I still need to work on the basic form and also find a way to capture the fragility of the original specimen.

I have also made a wire pod structure out of copper, which I plan to incorporate into a brooch design.

My attempts to fire gold foil over a coat of enamel finally succeeded and I can see so much potential in this technique! As I was playing with different arrangements of enameled samples, I felt like being adventurous with color and tried this combination of colors and shapes:

Then I used an old pierced brass piece as a stencil, sifted enamel over it, fired the piece again and made another sample:

Last, an attempt to create a sugar-coat texture. I should probably have fired this one a bit less.

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Today I'm putting the finishing touches to an order that I'm making for Made by Hand.

Made by hand is a new online shop based in Hungary. Since I can't read any hungarian, so far I can only see the photos that the lovely owner has taken of my jewelry. Soon the website is also going to be available in english and german.

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In between finishing orders and making new pieces with gold plated sterling silver hearts.

I'm especially happy with the tiny, textured heart pendant which was made accidentally as I was melting scrap pieces of silver. While the metal was still hot, I manipulated it with a steel rod and it changed into a heart shape!

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Tender leaves, just emerging...

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Having fun with clay, kneading, rolling and cutting it into shape, while I'm helping my boyfriend who is constructing a birdhouse.

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This is an exercise that I started in my jewelry class last week.

So far, I have chosen a favorite photo, traced the black, white and grey areas and started adding colors that correspond to the black, white and grey of the original image.

I can't say much about it yet because I don't know where it's going to lead me or how it's going to be translated into a jewelry piece. I have a few ideas that keep popping in my head while I'm drawing but still it's too early to tell.

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As I have mentioned before, I tend to make more short necklaces or pendants and never seem to have enough longer necklaces.

I recently started experimenting with longer lengths and trying to combine different materials, like metal, gemstones, crystals, fabric or hand woven cords.

Choosing colors, shapes and textures that work together is not as easy as it may seem. Another challenge was to find ways to finish the ends of the ribbons or cords.

These ribbon caps may be time consuming but I like them much more that the pre-made ones. After all, one of the joys of metasmithing is being able to make your own custom findings and components.

"Coral velvet necklace", sterling silver, coral, crystals, velvet ribbon.

For this necklace, I went with a coral pink / olive green colors scheme with black accent crystals. Two lengths of velvet ribbon were stitched together and inserted into the handmade caps.

For the second necklace, I used deep red coral and lava beads, I made a sterling silver rectangle and finished the necklace with a hand woven cord.

"Coral & lava long necklace", sterling silver, coral, lava, hand woven cord.

I hope that you like them because I certainly want to make more!

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