Garden Trellis Necklace

I found a wonderful old casting that I repurposed into a new design. Here is how it looked before I started:










I painted the flowers with alcohol inks and then sprayed a sealer to hold the colors. I then got busy gluing lots of rhinestones and added more porcelain flowers. Pink and purple were my focus colors. I layered the trellis piece onto a filigree finding. I then created a multistrand necklace with rosary and base metal chain. Here's my new design:

Another Brimfield Treasure

Here is the Hollycraft 1958 brooch and bracelet set I got at Brimfield. The epitome of 50's glam.

My Brimfield Creative Treasures

There was not a lot of affordable vintage findings but I did find a few things I can work with. I purchased a lot of wonderful old Pakastani Kuchi pendants that I've started to repurpose (see the pendant on the right) by removing the original cloudy rhinestones and replacing with new stones. It takes a lot of soaking in acetone and scraping of old glue with a dental instrument but the end results are terrific.





I also found Art 1200 Dentelles in a few vibrant colors that will fit beautifully in my jewelry designs.

My Brimfield Treasures

I found two lovely Heidi Daus necklaces for under $100. These will go nicely with my Heid Daus ring. Her pieces are so vintage looking and elegant.

Recycled Jewelry Artist

I met a fabulous jewelry artist at Brimfield. Her name is Roberta Enhus from W. Boylston, MA and she goes by Black Rose Creations. Her jewelry was all made from recycled materials and she too likes to give life to old jewelry in new designs. This is a sample of her creative designs.

Brimfield Sites

Home of the famous "Pilgrim Sandwich"

There were lots of girlie things and other unique items to see at Brimfield

Brimfield Bling

I have been shamefully neglectful of my blog and decided to share my first ever experience at the Brimfield Antique Show. This is a huge event that comes to my area 3 times per year and attracts over 5,000 dealers and 250,000 visitors. I went with the idea of purchasing pretty vintage jewelry pieces and hoping to find vintage jewelry findings for my own creations. I found wonderful designer pieces and dealers were almost always willing to negotiate a price although many collectible pieces were out of my price range. The asking price for Larry Vrba piece was $600 and just to rich for my purse.

Jewelry Glam at the 2009 Oscars

The 2009 Academy Awards were held on 2/22/09 bringing out the best of Hollywood glam!

New Artfire Store

I haven't posted for awhile. I spend today creating a new Artfire store. I'm torn as to where to sell my vintage jewelry supplies. I've had a good year with Etsy and the exposure is great but the selling fees for Artfire are so good. Artfire seems to be growing. We'll see where it goes.

Bail Out Plan

I have lots of pieces that don't have holes or bails that I like to make into pendants such as these gorgeous vintage lucite hearts. Lets add a bail so it can be worn. My favorite is using the double leaf findings (available in jewelry supplies at most craft stores). I wrap the finding around a pencil first so that it fits up and over the heart. I glue the finding in place with just a dab (slightly less than a smidge) of E6000 glue. Make sure no glue squeezes out from under the bail.


Clamp the bail onto the pendant with these cool clamps from the dollar store until the glue dries:

What if you don't have the leaf bails? Just make a spiral with a piece of 28 gage wire:

Book Review-Polymer Clay and Mixed Media

My buddy Christi Friesen has a new book out and she has done it again! Christi shows us how to work art mediums like paper, paint, metal, glass, beads and fiber into our clay designs in terms everyone can understand and pictures that are easy to follow. She shows us how to make those adorable critters and plant life. I've got to make a clay phoenix or griffin soon! Can't wait to see Christi's Birds of a Feather book due out in April, 2009

Helpful Tip-Vaseline Loosens the Glues

We are well into the new year and the bitter cold of winter. Hope you are all getting creative to beat the winter blues. Here's a helpful hint to keep your glue tubes easy to open. You know how the glue gets under the cap and you can never get the cap off again? Wipe a bit of Vaseline around the neck of the tube and you will always be able to unscrew the cap on your E6000 (or any other glue tube or bottle).

Wishing everyone a happy and blingful new year!