 You might be familiar with one of my favorite collections, the Daisy Chain (AKA Clover Chain) Collection - you can see photos below of the jewelry (or go here to see the bracelet in my online store or here to see the short silver daisy chain earrings online). This little clover flower was the inspiration for this collection. In some parts of the country, kids made daisy chains or dandelion chains & used them as necklaces, bracelets or crowns but where I grew up, in Arkansas, it was clover chains all day long, every carefree summer day!
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 Earlier this summer the pears got ripe! We have lived in this house for so many years and, except for the first year we lived here, we have never had more than one pear on the tree. Suddenly, this year, we had several dozen pears - he natural world is a mystery!
But. The truth? Neither of us really like pears. Oh, we like to look at them and wonder at the fact that we suddenly have so many pears on our little tree. But eat them? Not so much. So we enjoyed watching the birds have a bird party with pears for the main course. It's been a good summer! Those bracelets are both available in my online store - click here to see the fun, frilly, charm style bracelet and click HERE to see the thin sterling silver bangle bracelets!  Today is our anniversary - 30+ years ago today, we got married in a quiet ceremony in Bar Harbor, Maine, of all places! We were both transplants to Louisiana (he from Tennessee and me from Arkansas) and decided to get married then decided (on a lark, really) to take a trip to Maine and get married while we were there. Seems kind of crazy looking back on it but it has all worked out for us!
In honor of all sorts of anniversaries and celebrations, I wanted to share these dramatic black and gold earrings. I love freshwater pearls of all sizes and I think these little oval ones set of the gold and black in the earrings perfectly! They are available in my online store, so click here if you want to see details & shop! Click here to sign up for me email list so that you don't miss any new jewelry design announcements!  Last weekend I was on vacation in Arkansas and one of the most wonderful things we did was find a farm where we could pick our own peaches. We were lucky enough to have a little bit of cooler weather so it was really great and the peaches are so sweet! (We picked 80 pounds of peaches - that's a lot of smoothies and a lot of jam!
Go here to get a closer look at the silver bracelet - inspired by the childhood game of jacks! Click the button below if you need a silver thumb ring of your very own!  Last week I was on vacation in my home state of Arkansas, doing a little rockhounding for crystals in Hot Springs, visiting with family, eating barbeque and lots of other fun things.
I needed a few photos of my jewelry on real people so I grabbed one of my sister-in-laws (sisters-in-law?) and asked if I could take a few photos of her wearing a couple of pairs of my earrings. She was happy to oblige! (The reason for doing this was that earrings are EXTREMELY hard to get good photos on my own ears.....extremely.) Go here to see these sterling silver dangle earrings from the "jacks" collection!  Since I don't have an art show scheduled right away, I have a little time to get ready (although it is almost August...yikes).
These silver earrings are thrown into this tray because they all need a little extra cleaning....and, you can see my Sunshine polishing cloth there in the background. That Sunshine cloth cleans anything - silver, gold, glass, anything! Go here if you need one of those! Want to know more about cleaning silver jewelry? Go here to read more.  There is nothing like a freshwater watermelon from a farmer's market in the summertime!
Last week, I was on vacation in my home state, Arkansas and we happened across a farmer's market in downtown Little Rock. Of course, we had to stop & take a look! LOTS of good things there (including some wonderful art by local artists) but my favorites were these lovely fresh watermelons! Takes me back to my childhood, hot days, cold watermelon on a picnic table! It was a wonderful market (a combination of artists, fresh produce, honey and other delicious things) set up at The Bernice Garden. Click here if you want to see details for my silver "jacks" bracelet - lightweight and easy to wear on a hot summer day!
This artist is a painter who paints what she sees around her home in Lakeland, Louisiana. I am so fortunate to now own two of her lovely paintings and several prints.
The artist's name is Lauren Clark - check out all her available artwork at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaurenJHClark You can click here if you want to see my sterling silver necklaces in my online store. Go HERE to see details for the sterling silver chain link bracelet pictured. The necklace pictured is not in the store yet - click the button below to sign my email list so you'll be first to know when it hits the website!
If you want to have the very first look at all the new jewelry designs that are coming out, click on the button below to join my email list!
 Today was a day for learning new things and getting up close & personal with our local library.
I had to replace my older laptop for several reasons so this has been a real learning curve for me. My last computer was a Chromebook which was great and, before that, a Macbook. So, it's been awhile since I have worked on a Windows computer. Anyway, learning new things here! Here are a few of my silver stacking rings, two of which I use on either side of my wedding ring. They blend, right? If you like these little stacking rings, you can go here for details!  New postcards!! I love these. I designed them to be used for wholesale orders but I think they will be useful for all sorts of things....want a postcard?? :) I typically use them when I am at larger art shows; I put my booth number on the back & give them out so that people can find me again without having to follow the yellow brick road! Do you like the look of those silver drop "waterfall" earrings? Click here to get a closer look and shop!
So.....I decided I needed a "real" camera to take better photos of my jewelry. Here are the things I learned along the way (so far): 1. It won't be cheap. Don't even try. Just do the research and buy the camera. 2. It will take some (significant) amount of time to get good pics. Point & shoot? Not so much. 3. Fstop? Aperture? Shutter speed? ISO? White balance? Exposure compensation? Yes. You have to learn all the things about the camera & how it works. 4. Tiny shiny things are really hard to photograph. Ok, I'll already knew this but I am learning it all over again 5. The number of people you ask about the quality of your new photos will equal the number of different opinions you will get about your photos. 6. EDITING. 7. Keep moving, keep shooting, keep adjusting  Want to follow along as I figure this out and find out about new designs?
Click here to join my list!
Lake Martin, LouisianaOne of our favorite places is Lake Martin, near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Only about 45 minutes from our home, we especially enjoy canoeing the lake this time of year, when egrets and roseate spoonbills make their nests in the cypress trees in the lake. The irises were in full bloom and we topped it all off with a big plate of hot crawfish! A perfect day! On a day like this, there is honestly inspiration everywhere I look!!  Irises in bloom - purple, yellow & copper iris! Do you want another look at a recent Louisiana "mini-vacation"? Go HERE to see! You can see a little nature inspired jewelry here - click here to see!
 We just returned from 10 days in Seattle, visiting our younger son and his girlfriend. Our older son and his wife joined us there for a long weekend - what a special time it was. I love to travel and when I can combine that with a family visit, I am in heaven. Another quote I love about family is from Michael J. Fox: "Family is not an important thing, it's everything." I came home refreshed and energized for creating new jewelry and vowing to be more in touch with each of you, because, after all, you are the next best thing to family!   One of my goals for quite a long time has been to be able to photograph my jewelry on a model and the opportunity finally happened! This beautiful lady agreed to be my "model for a day". A friend volunteered to shoot photos using her 35mm camera and I took photos with my phone. The end results? Hundreds of photos and lots of great ones!
There is already one of my favorite photos from this day on my homepage (go here to see it) and more will be popping up in the next month or so!  One of the most useful tools I use is the torch - used to put two pieces of metal together or to "ball up" wire, as I am doing here. These little balled silver wires are used to make the earwires that come with every pair of silver earrings I make!   Sterling silver jump rings, ready to be made into handmade bracelets and necklaces! Making my own rings to use in designing my silver bracelets and necklaces is something I enjoy doing. It is a tedious task but I like the control I have over the quality of the rings (both in the precision of the sizes and the smoothness of the rings) when I do it myself. It is possible to buy rings pre-made but I have not found rings of the quality that I am looking for. The sizing is especially important - if the rings to even 1 mm too big or too small, the design doesn't work as well (or, sometimes, not at all). So I continue the making from plain round wire to perfect, finished silver rings!  Handmade silver jump rings ready for making handmade bracelets and handmade necklaces |
 Hello!I am Laura Teague and you may as well know right up front that I am obsessed with sterling silver. Categories
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