I made these earrings with sterling silver wire and gorgeous lampwork beads from April at Sharpline Designs.  Her beads are little works of art and she is a pleasure to do business with.  Tomorrow I'll show you this great design I made for hanging all my earrings.

Mail Art

This is a postcard I made using Roben Marie's Garden Shapes.  All her art work is gorgeous and she has some very inspiring postcards for sale in her Art Goods Shop.  Wouldn't anyone want to receive a bit of beautiful mail from a friend?  Be sure you go to her blog and read about mail art.  It's very cool--fun to send and receive!

Dream...

This is the picture that Lisa commented on in the previous post.  Because I'm just learning this blogging skill, I will often post and then decide it doesn't quite suit me.  So I changed the photo in the previous post before I saw her comment.   This is a photo of the most beautiful bed; one I would love to do some dreaming in.  I used photoshop filters to make it a little more dreamy and added some--what else?--Rhonna Farrer brushes from twopeasinabucket.  Thanks for looking, Lisa.

Dwell in Possibility

"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.”  ~ Dale E. Turner

I made this design using Rhonna Farrer brushes from twopeasinabucket.

Spring is Coming...

A reminder that spring is coming...I took this photo of a plant on my front porch, to which I added some Rhonna Farrer brushes from twopeasinabucket.  I hope it warms you up.

A caution about imported jewelry

I love to make jewelry and I especially love working with wire and metal.  I am very careful about products that I purchase for the my jewelry, and I always try to avoid anything manufactured in China.  I have nothing against the Chinese people, but their standards have proven to be very poor and I don't feel safe wearing ornaments made with dangerous metals.  After all, chemicals are easily transmitted through the skin, which is why medicinal patches are so effective. 

Today one of my favorite bloggers, Cynthia Deis, who also owns a jewelry supply business,  quoted a  story in the News & Observer, reporting that China now manufactures jewelry with dangerous amounts of cadmium.  The US has cracked down on imports with lead in them, so China has simply substituted a different, though just as hazardous, metal in their exported jewelry. 

According to the news story, cadmium can hinder brain development in children.  You can read Cynthia's blog here  and the entire news story here.

My daughter and I were in Macy's yesterday, looking at some very cute Lucky Brand bracelets.  The young sales person, who was visibly pregnant, joined us in reading the tags.   One warned, "Not to be used by people under the age of 12."  I mentioned that it probably contained lead or some other dangerous chemical, and the sales person looked horrified.  Just a guess, but it might be something that I will check out about Lucky Brand jewelry.

Party Invite I made for my friend's 50th

I took a photo of my friend blowing kisses, then used the threshold filter in Photoshop Elements to get this sihouette.  I used a brush for the hearts/kisses and added all the pertinent info.  She was very happy with how it all turned out, and so was I.  The party was loads of fun too!