More oldies but Goodies from the Past

I am always concerned about weight in especially earrings..these where lite and had a splash of gold zipping across the " bulls eye". ...the funny thing about these is a women in her late 70's at the time is the one who bought them...this is when "Helen's of Course" was turned over to her daughter Gerry Rice who now has a great store in downtown Seattle...I was in the Bellevue store when it opened.

Okay i turned this the right way 3 times and it ended upside down...but it was jewelry for a client that loved the acid etching and wanted to see it at home so I did a few of them in nickle silver and gold fill...sorry about the pic.

This one of my first "not your mother's pearls"series..Lot's of different elements in it including an acid etched SS ball with pearl drops.

I left these earrings more antiqued so the gold would show up and they where going with a charcoal wool dress so I thought the look worked better and the client agreed.


These are pins and are next to a pocket handkerchief
they are a pair to be worn together or separately...again SS,14kt and acid etched.

I made up this design..I called it my "Space Key" like for a space ship...I don't know but when you were raising 5 children "a lone" and had one day a week to think up something fun for your self to have it just explodes out of you ...it was my therapy...I don't know what or how I would have made it with out my strong faith and my art.
This was one of my first pieces I made for a stylish women on Queen Anne hill where I live also...she had some diamonds that I set with the 14kt.gold tube setting(looks more interesting and no worries like with prong settings...the chain i made is gold and silver...I just really liked that look...all gold look too-too and silver just plain and not etched look hummm..less expensive).

I wish I had a side view of this pin I named "Circus Circus" because it was so crazy...or maybe my life was at the time...anyway it's about a half inch in depth,etched,w/tube that had a Garnet set in the end and then the 2 you can see...it was bought by an old beau for his new wife...this is about the time that I had to start selling to pay for my 2 oldest daughters for college..no college loans for them.


This is the piece that when I finished it I knew how to solder very well...my instructor at Pratt in Seattle was a wonderful woman from the Outback ..she was tall and so real...I always felt like I had just had a 4 hour therapy session when I was through with class...she was so talented and generous with her knowledge her name was Michelle Dejong...I still miss talking to her...but back to this piece, in the chain I had to solder 3 little balls on each element (about 30,then times 3=90 solders)the two hanging beads where casted in and old African technique it was a new experience and I went on to make very large( no Giant) hollow hearts this way in the late 90's and early 2000( I will post those at another time so you can see the few I have left).

This last piece is a shoulder pin that has a silver little frog on it and he is sitting at the edge of a pond that has gold May Flies in the water( I'm from Louisiana and we had big mayflies there).The hanging piece is Chinese Turquoise that has it's matrix still in it...more interesting to me than straight stone....a mother of a new friend I met when I went to NYC for 2 weeks to sell my wears(Another story) bought this piece ...she was crazy about the Frog...he was pretty cute.

Oldies but Goodies

These were so fun to wear, and very dramatic...guess who I made these for ...Me...but they live in London,England...a Great Mom bought them for her daughter..silver,acid etched with green jade ,9mm pearls,square crystal and black onyx....

this is another tube pin with acid etching and I love the way the chain hangs..also with 9mm pearls..and I don't remember where this piece lives...but again I would wear this today and it was made at least 15 years ago if not longer....nice to pass down in the family.

These were some of my favorite designs that I did ...they where clip ons and the actual faces hung off the back of your ears...SS with ivory faces of a man and woman.

I found some old findings for Bolos and color tips...this is etched silver with 14 kt. gold half round wire I twisted and soldered on ...the dangles are vintage tear drop crystals...bottom pieces are tubes again that I etched and attached...really fun to wear with my collection of cowboy boots.

I actually had a horse farm in the early 70's with and indoor riding arena that my wonderful late husband built for me and our 3 daughters...so I'm not a fake cowboy boot wearer ...I was real then, and am now...What you see is what you get...nothings hiding here....so freeing...whee.

Old pieces but you can still wear them 15 years later

These are a hoot...they were carved by an 80 year old Alaska Indian
Who was bed ridden and used to carve real totem poles ...I bought a few pieces from his sister and you can tell he was a real artist the colors where so real and the abalone details and eyes so beautiful

this was also Silver and gold. This is SS and Gold ,acid etched and I called it my coin bracelet
.Once again it makes a great sound when you move your arm ...I was raised in the Air Force so my Dad traveled alot and he had a coin bracelet made for me from coins he had collect from his travels and I just loved wearing it and making a racket..what fun.

This is probably one of the very first pieces I made using a craved ivory piece that was my great grandmother's(MAMA Vignes was born in New Orleans..her Father was a sea Captain and her maiden name was Kitteringham)I cast the back piece and attached it with long prongs that laid in the carved groves ...I also made the chain.It's fun to take things out of that jewelry box you would never wear but they are too special to throw away and let an Artist like myself create something special you can pass on to the next generation..Recycle at it's best....after 5 kiddos I love the problem solving aspect of it.

This is a fun pin ...it's about 6 inches long and is a square tube with 14kt gold...the stone I bought in Flat Head Lake ,Montana..on a summer vacation with the whole family...in a one room cabin...(that's another whole story)back to the stone; it was like a painting and had so many colors and shapes I just fell in love with it and the little one hanging has a perfect pompom in it....fun piece to wear on winter hats or scarves.

This is definitely the 80's...big earrings were in ...gold and silver and acid etched and diamond tube set...this has what I call "upper body presence" keep everyone looking up as other parts of our body go south,or east or west.
I have lots more from my earlier years that I will be posting because I found the Mother Load of negatives and I have been doing more painting with my pearls and beads in necklaces lately
so it's fun for me to share with you these old friends(I do have an emotional relationship with each piece....it's not done until my eye tells me).

This is from the late 80's

This pair of earring
s are very early pieces from me...I called it the "log jam"..I was trying to get texture and a 3D look...so I reticulated the silver(basically melting it in a controlled way)and added the moon stones....loved these.

This next one is of the acid etched on silver with 14 kt.gold adorned with 9 mm brogue pearls that had little gold and silver cups holding them...this was called the "Wedding Dance" because I had 2 daughters get married in the same week...and the pearls rolled and jumped around as I was doing during this crazy week. These are double pins that the chain can detach easily and the gold and diamond attached are my stud earrings I just screwed into and could also remove ...the top of the pins are cast and then soldered to the etched back...

This is again silver and gold and small
diamonds in tube setting to add a little something special...the silver was a tube that I squashed for easier wearing...all my elements make tinkling noises...love the energy....this is maybe 1989.

These are a pair of my

cowboy boots with reticulated SS heal pieces...again before acid etching started for me and I wanted them to go with the Python skin...I love them to this day although the skin is getting older as mine is also...64 this year...but I think Mom's should get credit for the kids in dog tears .7x5=35 +64=so i look REALLY GOOD 99.

A little more about me and how I started to make my art...5 kids, and it was all about therapy for me.I took classes at a block grant program in the south of Seattle that was run by a P.E. major (Edwin T. Pratt center)
I joke saying the only metal I was buying was for their mouths and if I wanted jewelry I was going to have to make myself....so I learned the basics there and no one told me no and the sky was my limit...so fun.(side note ,I did pay for 2 sets of braces from the chairman of the Orthodontic Dept. at U.W. because his wonderful wife a great doctor in asthma
and allergies already had a nice collection going for her and she love the new pieces I made especially for her(my dear friend Dr. Gail Shapiro and her most kind husband Peter.)

My Zsazsa...looking for a forever lap

Playing with Fifi on studio deck....Z with Benny's (papillion) tail inthe way ...ready to go home after working in the studio all day.

in the studio and of course on my lap...her favorite place to land ...and there are treats there so she likes to be first.

sunning with Fifi again

"Z" is 4 yrs. old and a blue merle deer chihuahua(one blue eye) and has been fixed after two litters ...she was a most excellent mama and has been raised in style and fun with me ...but she has to share my lap with 6 other dogs and I'm looking for a forever new Lap for her with someone who wants a "companion dog" ...they are at times better than the humans in this area ...she has put on a few Lbs. since surgery but still is only 11 #....loves walks ,car rides and just hanging out in the studio and back yard for most of the day but if she see an opportunity to hop in my lap while I'm working she is first to do it...not a barker but has a lovely on when she alerts me to passer bys on the back steps...totally housebroken and crate trained at nite. you can see her last litter on previous blogs...she will do will with calm energy and not little kids and big noises ...but then again me neither.

New pieces in June 2010...

These are beautiful pearls mixed with square crystals and so really fun vintage glass beads. this grey and lavender

pearls with CZ in pink and purple...I'm working with my friend doing a silver mink collar for this piece....can't wait for the cool weather again to sport this Beauty. This is just so classic color to me ...with that flash of black mixed in and a few vintage carved ivory beads....this is working well with my linens...since I get to wear them first before they are sold to check for hanging and weight and flash.

this is the most recent black and white Saint's necklace...I wire wrapped the hanging cross with crystals and seed pearls...I gave it away 3 weeks later to Joyce Meyer...love her Ministry...and her style.

Getting a job at 64?Dear Lord...what am I thinking?

So with all the spider bites and swine flu it took 3 and a half monthe to get my interview with Nieman Marcus...it was last Tuesday