 I spent lots of summer hours as a kid making jewelry out of whatever I had available, usually clover flowers or sometime yellow dandelion flowers (although those didn't work nearly as well as the clover flowers). This bracelet (and the entire Clover Collection) reminds me of those sweet times everytime I wear it!
Click here to see the entire Clover Collection & see if you remember, too!
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 I recently became totally in love with knitting - sock knitting to be precise. I decided to start making sterling silver stitch markers using gemstones. More stitch markers are either plastic (no fun at all) or little cutesy things so I wanted to make something different and more elegant that could actually be passed down to the next generation of knitters!!! Here we go!
Want to see jewelry instead of stitch markers? Click here to shop!  The past couple of months have been difficult for a lot of reasons with the result that I was feeling a little "stuck" with design ideas for jewelry. Stress is not anyone's best friends but it is especially no conducive to feeling creative or creating.
In order to get myself unstuck, I decided to get out my toys/tools and play. I started with 4" silver circles and started making shapes with the various pliers I have on hand (I know, I know, I have a lot of pliers....). I think I came up with some pretty interesting shapes, which lead to ideas for new jewelry ideas. I'll be letting these shapes/ideas percolate for a few days, then revisit. Click the button below to join my email list to follow along & catch new jewelry as soon as it hits the website!  I just thought I would share with you my obsession for jewelry making tools. I love tools. Any tool, really, but especially my super special, oh so lovely, jewelry making pliers. There are flat nosed, chain nosed, round nosed, bail making, long tapered, short tapered and everything in between - plenty that I can't think of right now but you can be sure that, I own at least one pair of every possible type. Sigh. I just love tools -what can I say?
I'll be uploading new jewelry designs to the website within the next couple of weeks - be sure to sign up for my email list so you don't miss the new stuff! Click the button to sign up!!  Do you remember those carefree days of childhood, when we felt a sense of joy around the simple things we did for entertainment - like making necklaces from clover or daisy flowers? Those are the days I was thinking about when I designed this jewelry collection - I wanted to put that feeling of joy into jewelry that you could wear everyday and be reminded of another place and time as you go about your day!
Click here to shop the entire collection of daisy chain (aka clover chain) jewelry!  This was one of the first peaches we got from a local market - so beautiful and they smelled wonderful!! I was really looing forward to eating these peaches .....unfortunately, although they looked and smelled great, they didn't much going for them in the taste department. I guess it's really too early in the year for truly awesome fresh peaches! We ended up chopping and freezing all our peaches - they are great in smoothies!!
That silver bracelet is on my website - available now - Click here to shop!  This is literally how I start just about every piece of jewelry I make - I pull out the sterling silver wire. Oh, how I love this wire - so lovely, so many possibilities!!!
All the wire I use is sterlig silver - some of it is "regular" or traditional sterling silver. For some designs I use argentium sterling silver, which is still sterling but it has a touch of germanium which keeps the silver tarnish resistant - a very desirable quality! Click here to sign up for my email list to be kept in the loop when new jewelry designs hit the website!  We LOVE fresh peaches but, then again, who doesn't? We were overjoyed when the first peaches of the season appeared at our local Costco! These are from California and they are kind of slow to ripen fully but I did cut one & have it in a smoothie - so delicious!!
That silver bracelet is available on my website - click here to shop!  With covid and stay-at-home orders, I was getting a little frustrated that I couldn't easily get out to the nursery to get my summer flowers. I'm not much of a gardener but I do love to keep blooming flowers in my pots on the deck. I was finally able to get to the nursery last week and feel safe about it by going as soon as they opened at 8 a.m. That's a little early for me normally but I was glad I did - I had the whole place to myself for at least 15 minutes and I had a list so I zipped in, got my flowers & got out again!
Side note, as I was leaving quite a few people were coming in & guess what? Very few of them were wearing masks...what are people thinking??? Anyway, that silver bracelet is available in my online store - click the button below to shop!  I was looking through a magazine from a friend yesterday and found this incredibly beautiful art and new (to me) artist. Her art is inspired by the galaxy and photos taken by NASA and the Hubble space telescope. I am not a space savvy person at all but I am completely enthralled by the images taken with this telescope. So lush and mystical - amazing! FYI, the artist is BarbaraTakenaga....and my apologies to the artist for the bad photo - it was taken from the magazine.
-------------------------That little silver stacking ring? Available now on my website -------------------------- Click here to shop the rings!  I have to admit that I am a tool junkie when it comes to tools for making or finishing jewelry.....almost anything is fair game: another hammer? Sure! How about another pair of flat nose pliers? Of course! One can (apparently) never have too many pairs of pliers or too many hammers or too many....well, you get the drift. Never. Enough.Tools.
Be well and stay safe - click here to shop the newest silver jewelry!  Big day today! I ordered these fine wheat berries from Palouse Brand in Palouse, Washington and I am ready! I have a grinder that I bought a few months ago so I'll be grinding my own wheat and using it to make sourdough bread!
I'm sure there will be a lot of trial & error but making sourdough is not hard so the new thing will be adding my own stone ground wheat. I'm guessing this wheat will be heavier so I'll have to see how much I can add without unintentionally making a doorshop! Anyway, that's the plan - I'll keep you posted - it's a grand experiment! Those silver bracelets (and lots more similar ones) are available in my online store - click here to shop the bracelets now!!  Wow - look at that handful of blackberries! It was a beautiful day for picking berries and my friend wanted me to see 1. the berries and 2. that she is loving her stacking ring!
Silver stacking rings are in my online store - click here to take a look!  Oh, how I love the art of Tara Leaver! (www.taraleaverart.com) I generally don't feel like I can afford art so when Tara introduced these gorgeous notecards, I knew I had to buy. When I got them, they were even more amazing than they looked online.
The problem now? Do I send them out into the world or do I frame them & enjoy them as the little mini artworks they are? Need a closer look at the sterling silver bracelets? They are available in my online store - click here to shop the bracelets!  Covid cooking! I have discovered fresh wheat berries (from www.palousebrand.com) and have been grinding my own flour and using it to make sourdough bread. It's pretty coarse so I do have to use "regular" commercial flour with it but it gives the bread a nice texture and a wonderful taste!
One of the benefits of staying home - more cooking gets done and homemade bread is so yummy. Those silver bracelets and more like them are available in my online store - click here to shop all the bracelets!
 One of the silver linings anytime you are forced to be at home (like in this pandemic, just as an example....) is that you are forced to kind of "dig deep" for inspiration and entertainment.
I was lucky in the fall to have had a friend teach me to knit sock which I was enjoying a lot. Now, during the pandemic/stay-at-home orders, I have been able to devote as much time as I want to this new hobby. WIN! As always, my sterling silver thumb ring (aka, stacking ring) accompanies me everywhere - I literally "never leave home without it" since I never take it off! Want one (or three) for your very own? Click here to see it in the store!  The other day, I was asked to provide photos of my jewelry for a shop to add to their website. I have tons of photos of my jewelry. Most of it is on sort of a gradient black/gray background or a plain white background which didn't seem exactly right in this case.
I have always enjoyed using Canva so decided to delve into using one of their backgrounds & this one presented itself...I think I like it! So - that's what I used for the background of the images I sent to the 1850 House Museum Store in New Orleans for use on their website! Those earrings, inspired by the clover chains (or daisy chains) we made as kids, are available on my online store - click here to buy the earrings!  I posted this photo on Facebook the other day and a friend asked if it was green beans....seriously? I THINK she was kidding but....
Anyway, thrilled to announce that my little housebound airplant it going to BLOOM!! YAY!! Who would have thought it? I put this plant in this little vintage vase until I got around to finding a good spot for it outside and then, before I could do that, I noticed that it is going to bloom! Wow! Pretty exciting stuff!! That little silver "midi" ring (worn here as a thumb ring) is available on my website now - Click here to shop the silver stacking rings! This is one of my favorite tools to use in the studio & here's why it's also one of your favorites! It helps me create smooth edges on every piece of jewelry I make, it cleans off any discoloration on the silver, plus, it shines up EVERYTHING! Magical!
Now, we both love it! That little silver stacking ring (here worn as a thumb ring!) is available over on my online store - click here to go shop now!  All sorts of ways to photograph jewelry! I was trying to see how I could photograph this necklace so that you could actually see the detail in the "jacks" components and decided to try this - getting the front of the necklace closer to the camera seems to help!
That necklace is in my online store now -click here if you want to have a closer look! Several years ago, I visited the amazing aquarium in Monterey, California and there was a huge tank of these wonderfully wiggly jellyfish! I could not get the image of those jellyfish out of my mind so, as soon as I got back to my studio, I made these earrings, in honor of those cool jellyfish!
Who knew that jewelry could be inspired by jellyfish!! These silver "jellyfish" earrings are available in my online store - click here to shop now!  Plus, well, ok a little bit of a chip on the nail polish...but I do love this color!! This is the large size of these silver hoop earrings that are intentionally not exactly round! A nice change from the really really round hoops that everyone has!
And the silver stacking ring (aka thumb ring!) Go here to shop the earrings now! Go here to shop the stacking rings!  I love the silver necklace but, I gotta say, I'm really like the turquoise nail polish, too! So much fun and we are in quarantine, after all so, why not have fancy nails??
Click here if you want to see all the necklaces currently available in my online store!  Thanks, Amazon - I love you! During this pandemic, when I can't easily and safely get out, I know just who to contact when I must have some light gray nail polish!
Yes, it took my quite awhile (maybe over an hour...) to pick out this polish but, hey, I was enjoying the shopping process, ok? Like that little silver thumb ring? Me, too - I love thumb rings! Click here to shop the rings! |
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I am Laura Teague, a metal smith living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Categories
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