My Great Not-a-Valentine's-Day Gift

Have I ever mentioned how wonderful my husband is?  Because he is, truly.  I could gush on and on about how supportive he is, or what a great cook he is, or what an amazing father he is...And don't even get me started on how he always knows exactly what I'm thinking, even when I do my best to hide it.

For example, I like to rearrange/redecorate/re-paint my house frequently.  Our house has the worst floor plan ever known to man, so I try to compensate for this by changing the decor frequently.  I will sit in a corner of the living room and gaze out at the rest of the house dreaming of new furniture arrangements, or paint colors, or of knocking down walls.  Mike will look at me and just know what I'm thinking because he knows that look on my face all too well.  And he'll just say, "No, honey, we can't move the staircase."  Just like that - he knows. 

But what you should really know about my husband is that he is a great gift-giver.  He should write a book on gift-giving.  Or at least teach a class on it.  Try as I may to come up with something creative and unexpected for him at holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, he always puts me to shame.

Despite all of these wonderful things, my husband has one flaw.  On several occasions, we have agreed to NOT buy gifts for each other, and for some reason, he can not hold up his end of the bargain.  Being the trustworthy person that I am, I don't buy him a gift and he'll show up with something fabulous for me and I'm left feeling like a schmuck.  Given that this has happened on more than one occasion, you would think that I would catch on and just buy him a gift.  But, I always think that this will be the one time that he keeps our agreement.  Sigh.

This Valentine's Day was no exception.  We agreed that we were NOT going to exchange gifts for the made-up Hallmark holiday.  I bought him a lovely card that told him that he was the center of my universe or something sentimental like that, and, you guessed it, he gave me a gift.  A really thoughtful one.  He bought me a mannequin/bodice thing that I had mentioned I wanted ,and a gift certificate to the local bead store where I purchase a lot of my supplies.  We had the usual conversation where I get all upset with him and he pretends to be apologetic.  Then he told me that it wasn't a Valentine's Day gift.  It was a "happiness gift" because he wanted to make me happy, and he just happened to be giving it to me on Valentine's Day.  A happiness gift.  See why I love the guy so much?

I promptly went to the bead store that day to spend my gift certificate.  The owners are so cool that they even let me come in after hours on a Sunday because they happened to still be there.  I was able to buy some supplies to make more necklaces like this multi-strand fancy jasper necklace.

I receive a lot of compliments on this necklace when I wear it, so I need to make more.  And that is my new mannequin modeling the necklace.  Mannequin is such an odd word.  Let's call her Val. 

Moving on...
I generally work with silver and gunmetal, as you may have noticed.  However, I recently purchased some lovely antique copper chain and decided that it just needed a simple charm.  I made a little spiral out of copper wire, then hammered it to give it some texture.  I love the simplicity.

And then, of course, I needed matching earrings.

I made the earring wires for these as well, thanks to my cup bur tool, which was also a gift from my hubby (Christmas).  My first couple of attempts at earring wires didn't go so well

but I got the hang of it after a few tries.  Here is a snapshot of some of my great tools.  From left to right: steel block (for hammering and texturizing), hammer mallet, cup burr (for smoothing and rounding the sharp wire ends), and of course, a ball peen hammer.

 

More projects of this nature to come, as I have some new antique brass and gunmetal to work with. 

 Happiness, indeed. 

Gifts in Gunmetal

I'm sure you've been holding your breath waiting for me to add some pictures of the Christmas gifts I made, just like I promised I would.  I apologize that it has taken so long for me to get to this.  The beginning of the year has been a bit chaotic and I haven't done anything with my jewelry since Christmas.  Well, until last night, that is.  But I'll tell you more about that later.

I have discovered that it is very difficult to photograph jewelry.  It's tough to capture the lustre of the metals and the color and sparkle of the beads, especially if I'm using a flash...which I often have to do because I live in New England where winter lasts ten months and there is a significant shortage of daylight.  OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but I live in the woods, so even when it's sunny, I don't get much natural light in my house and I don't like taking photos outdoors when the temperatures are in the teens or when I have to shovel my way to a backdrop.  And let's face it - I feel fortunate enough when I simply have the time to make jewelry.  Having an extra 30 minutes to take great photos of the jewelry would be a luxury I could only dream of having.

All of this whining serves a purpose.  I tell you this to preface the pictures below.  I really couldn't do these pieces justice with my flash and poorly lit kitchen and dining room, but this is what happens when you finish making Christmas presents late at night and must photograph them at midnight so they can be wrapped the next morning.  So please forgive the lighting and try to imagine how they would sparkle in real life.  I really had fun making these pieces, and I'll admit, I wanted to keep a few of them. 

They were all made with gunmetal, which is lightweight and easy to work with.  I love that it is so versatile, and can be used with delicate and funky beads. 

The first necklace is long, which you would be able to tell if I had a model at my disposal.  At a minimum, I think I need to invest in one of those manequin/bodice displays.

And here are the matching earrings.  I think they suit the gift recipient quite well.

Multi-strand Jasper necklace

And the matching earrings

And finally, these fun, flirty, amber and pearl earrings

So, as I mentioned, until yesterday, I hadn't made any jewelry since Christmas.  Yes, we have been very busy, but the biggest problem was not time...It was my workspace.  Or lack thereof.  I often dream of having a large, spacious, well-lit studio in which to design and craft to my heart's content.  But alas, due to lack of space and the aforementioned natural light issue, my dining room is my workspace.  I use the term "dining room" loosely, because in the six years that we've lived in this house, I think we have dined in there twenty times.  (If my son sees me heading into the dining room, he says "I want to go make jewelry with Mommy!"  He never says "I want to eat dinner!")  Sometime after Thanksgiving, my dining room becomes Gift-wrap Central, and it usually stays that way until early February when I get around to organizing it again.  Or sooner, if my sister comes to visit and helps me with this overwhelming task.  

Since my sister didn't come to visit and it just couldn't be delayed any longer, I had to set out and put all the Christmas crap away about a week ago.  Now that my lovely studio, I mean dining room, is back, I can once again make jewelry without fear of the beads disappearing into a pile of wrapping paper.  (I just have to worry about them falling between the glass top and the wooden edges of my dining room table.)  I made a lovely necklace last night, and I really want to share it with you, but this necklace deserves to be photographed in natural light.  It could be my favorite necklace so far.  So it will have to wait for the weekend, when I will hopefully have time, natural light, warm temperatures, and no snow in which to photograph it.