I've recently added a useful - and beautiful - accesory to my website store: handmade bracelet helper tools. These handy accessories are ready to help you clasp bracelets with a hook and ring type closure, all by yourself. This includes toggle clasps, hooks and eyes, and lobster or trigger clasps and rings.
I love functional things that are also…
Several years ago when Pebbles At My Feet had a shop and blog on ArtFire (RIP) I published a series of three blogs on drilling tumbled stones to use in jewelry-making. The question has come up recently (June of 2023) in a beading and jewelry-making group on Facebook. I think what I wrote nine years ago is still pertinent, and decided to publish the article(s) here with some updated photos and notes. In general, the text below is what I wrote for the first article those years ago. I've made…
Spring in Colorado is, well, let's just say "different".
After a strange winter of mostly "all blow and no snow" at our South Park home, the moisture machine has chosen now to begin working. Late April, and the forecast is for heavy snow, acumulations around 10 inches or so, and temperatures around 40 degrees F between now and tomorrow morning.
Snow in late April is not unusual, since we live at 9300 feet above sea level. But this year we aren't in the dealing-with-snow-mode…
It’s February and that means purple! At least to me, since I have a February birthday and have big love for Amethyst, February’s birthstone. Another fun purple event this month is a jewelry design challenge in SRAJD, Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design, a membership group of designers and makers. “Something Purple” was the theme and I’m thrilled to share my entry with you.
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Back in June I broke my COVID-19 quarantine “rule” of only using beads, stones, and supplies that I had on hand and I purchased some new beads. In my defense, I needed some copper beads and pearls for a commissioned project, but I didn’t “need” everything I eventually purchased.
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You’ve already read about my love of turquoise. There are some mineral “relatives” of turquoise that rank high in my book as well. One is chrysocolla. Chrysocolla is one of the copper containing minerals that are used as gemstones and as minor copper ores. It’s a “secondary mineral” of copper, like malachite and azurite. In this post, I’d like to share some mineralogical information about chrysocolla and showcase some of my jewelry and that of other makers with this beautiful, not-so-well-…
