Friday is Tree Day-This is Parade!

Occasionally I like to declare tree day so I can share my latest tree creations.  I have a few trees and other items I love and can't wait to share with you.  Let's take a look.

 This cherry quartz tree is a stunner.  I wasn't sure if the color would photograph well because it is so pretty in person.  I am glad the pictures turned out well, you can really see the beauty of the quartz.

The kids are not sure about this blue tree, but I love the color.  It is like cloud blue and smurf blue were mixed and made into glass bead chips.  I am going to call it our smurfy tree (I am kidding, I liked the smurfs but not that much).

 The curly leaves on these all wire tree pendants just draws my eye.  Each one has it's own charm and sparkle.  Which one do you like best?  I think the gold one is my favorite, but I change my mind every day or so.

This tiny purple tree pendant is just larger than a penny.  It looks like a sprig of lavender to me.

I am so excited to share these tiny owls.  I made them with metal beads and wire.  They are tiny pendants that I think are super cute.  I have the fever for them, so will be making more owls for sure.

 Here is a closer look at the silver one. The toes make me smile.  Who?

Here is my brass owl buddy up close.  The body bead I used looks like it has feathers to me.  These are as fun to make as they look.

Thank you for taking a look at my newest wire work.  We are adding all of the items to our shop.

I am gathering our Halloween photos and will post a few this weekend.

Have a Grimmtastic Friday!

I Wrote a Tiny Article

I found a great online community for jewelry makers called the Jewelry Making Journal.  The site is full of tutorials, articles and photos of interesting and amazing jewelry.
I am sometimes shy about my work and not sure how to share my passion.  While looking around the Jewelry Making Journal I saw an opportunity to share and went for it.  The article is now the first in the "Your Jewelry Stories" section.

Here is the link if you would like to take a look:

http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/full-moon-tree-of-life-pendants/

I write about my recent fever for making full moon pendants, I just love them.  I felt so proud to see my work with some of the most amazing jewelry artists.

This piece is in the article.  When I make these I start with the roots and then twist the trunk, it always feels so exciting to see how the tree will turn out.

This silver one is also pictured in the article and was one of my first attempts.  I like how gnarly the tree looks.


If you have never seen Jewelry Making Journal before, I suggest taking a look.  The site is about jewelry makers sharing their ideas, work and excitement for creating.

Thanks for stopping by on the wonderful autumn Monday.

Thursday is Tree Day!

I declare that each Thursday is Tree Day.  What happens on Tree Day?  A Tiny Tree parade.  I will parade the trees I made this week for your viewing pleasure.

I made two new Tiny Trees in new colors and a Tree & Full Moon pendant too.  Let's take a look.

This color just blows me away.  The glass chips have a deep blue color that looks so lovely in the light.

This is the other side.  I like the trunk, it is unique and twisty and almost looks like it defies gravity.  Is it too much?

This new tree is made of blue green Adventurine chips.  Adventurine is one of my favorite semi precious stones, and the chips I bought have such a beautiful and creamy light blue green color.  I do not like this trunk, so I will replace it today.

 I tried a new wire brand and it was different to work with, now that I am familiar I will have no problem producing a new trunk I like.  I am working on a Birthstone collection so every color or stone is represented.  It has been fun researching and finding the right colors and stones.

 This is my newest Tree and Full Moon Tree of Life pendant.  I like the black wire on the silver ring, it makes the tree stand out.

I love making these.  The moon is made of black Mother of Pearl and has a great shine. The moon moves side by side a bit inside the pendant.

That's what wire work I have been up to this week.  Isabel and I are working on a few new projects we can't wait to share next Thursday.


Have a treerific Thursday!

Thursday is Tree Day!

Today is the day I parade my latest Tiny Trees for your viewing pleasure.  I am going to include a few non-tree things I've made this week as well.  Here we go.

I showed the red tree yesterday, but I love it so much I had to show it again.  Isabel says this is her favorite tree I've made so far.  The red glass beads look like garnets and garnets are the birthstone for January.  I am trying to produce a tree for each birthstone and am almost done. I think the red glass and gold wire look so pretty together.

This tree is so hard to photo, but it is made out of Semi Precious Opalite bead chips.  I was so excited to find real opal chips, Opal is the birthstone for October.

This is the opal tree again.  I thought a textured background would show off the chips a bit better, but at least you can see some of the cloudiness that opals are famous for.

This tree is actually very interesting.  Real turquoise is expensive, I have not been able to find any beads in my price range until now.  The chips are still listed as Semi Precious but they are synthetic turquoise made in Japan.  I was able to compare them side by side to real turquoise and couldn't tell the difference.  Pretty cool.

This is a branch and moon pendant.  The moon is an Opalite bead.  I love how twisted the branches are.  I think it is missing something.  I am working on a tiny wire figure to go in the center.  It will be an owl or a wolf.

A small Opalite pendant.  So simple but beautiful and sparkly.

This pendant is made with mother of pearl beads.  I like the tear drop shape and the two tone color variation.


Thanks for taking a look at my latest creations.

Have a terrific Thursday.

Thursday is Tree Day!

Sometimes I declare Thursday tree day and share the latest trees I've made.  This week I have a few trees and then a tiny spider.  Let's get started.

I had my first custom order, it is the larger tree in the picture.  The nice person wanted a tree just like the small one in the photo, but a few inches bigger.  This is the photo I sent when it was done. The nice person liked it and the tree is now on it's way to the post office.  Pretty cool.

I like the way this black tiny tree came out.   It stands just over two inches tall.

This is a tiny branch and moon pendant in silver.

This is a black tree pendant that turned out better than I expected.  It has a really nice weight to it.

I really like this little tree pendant.  It is about the size of a quarter and the stones are citrine chips.

I will end with a funny little bead spider.

Thanks for taking a look at my tree parade.

I am joining the Under 300 Followers Link Party:

Tree Day is Finally Here!

Happy Friday And Tree Day!

On tree day I like to parade the trees I've made that you have not seen yet.

Here we go:

This first one is made of semi precious Citrine chip beads and gold colored brass wire.  This photo is in direct sunlight so the stones look clear.

This is the same Citrine Tree, but in darker indirect light so the stones look amber.  Real life light produces a color somewhere in the middle.

The next tree is made of white stone chips and gold colored brass wire.  This brass wire is 26 gauge, which means it is pretty thin, I am experimenting with slimmer trunks.

The white stones are tough to photograph well.  I do like the gold trunk though.

Next is a bare tree with no leaves.  What do you think of naked trees?

This one was a bit of an experiment, but I really like the way it turned out.  The kids are not sure, they say it looks a little sad without leaves.  I think that is the point, this is a tree in winter.  What do you think?

The next tree was made for a friend to incorporate the birthstone colors of her family.  Initially I could not find a turquoise equivalent so I dyed the clear chips blue.  The dye did not take well and kept turning my finger blue whenever I would touch the tree.  Yikes.  Luckily, I was able to find a nice blue glass that will work instead, the tree on the bottom is the replacement with the new blue chips.  I like the combination, and am so glad she suggested mixing birthstone colors for a custom tree.  What a bright idea.

This last photo is of my latest tree of life pendants.  I completed the smallest one during our errands.  I find that if I take a pouch of craft supplies when I know I have to wait, the time just flies.

I am excited that I was able to make the pendant so small.  The smallest is just a bit larger than a quarter.  Now that I have the right size, I am experimenting with color and bead type. 

That is Tree Day!  Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.  Hope your Friday is the best ever.

Tomorrow is Top 10 Movie Day.  Hint:  There is a large moon in the movie.

Blog Oops?!? and More Trees!

So I think I nearly crashed the Internet yesterday.  I accidentally left my blog open to the place where you enter a new post.  I think it was about 10 hours later that I was alerted to the problem.  My blog actually said that it was "removed".  I am still really new to blogging and I admit I did panic a bit when I saw that.  I am definitely going to be more careful in the future.  I am not sure what happened, but it was easily fixed with a few clicks.  So maybe not a complete crash of the Internet, but you never know;).

The tree obsession continues.  I tried making a few with a moon instead of leaves.  The first one is made of shiny gold colored copper wire with a stone bead moon.

I'm not as happy with the green wire version.  I twisted the wire just a bit too much.  It's ok, I got an inexpensive little kit of colored copper wire to practice with, it has been interesting to learn about wire twisting.

I'm working on this one now, it's almost done.  I like the darker colored copper wire.  I also have red, purple and bright pink wire from that little kit.  I am going to use these to experiment.  If I have time today I want to try to make a little free standing tree with wire and stone leaves just a few inches tall.  It will be super fun to try something new.  I'll share how it goes.

Have a spectacular Monday.

P.S.  Tonight I'll be watching my favorite one two punch- "Hell's Kitchen" and "Masterchef".  On "Masterchef" they are planning a culinary Thunderdome.  Not sure what that is but it sounds exciting.  

Trees of Life and Glee Love

My attraction to the Tree of Life began when I was a small girl.  My mom had one.  It was so many years ago, I was younger than ten, so I don't remember the details of how she got it.  It had a small stone base and the wire wrapped up to a trunk and then to branches.  The stones for the leaves were purplish.  It was so shiny and sparkly.  I just remember thinking it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen.  I looked around on the net and could not find the exact same one, but the one pictured below is similar.  On the one my mom had, the wire was wrapped around the stone base like roots.  And there were more leaves I think.  I may even try to make a free standing tree some day.  Until then, I am making tiny trees.

Photo Courtesy of Bead Works Inc.

Remember a bit ago I showed you the green and black tree pendant I was working on?  Well, here it is, my very first tree of life pendant on the left.  Esteban asked if he could have it.  He is so sweet, and I know he can appreciate the imperfections of a first try;).  I got tree fever yesterday and made the tree on the right.  Isabel asked for that one.  My family makes me feel so good about my crafty projects.  

I wanted to go even a bit smaller so I made the last one pictured.  I like them so much.  I figured out how to make a ring out of thicker wire to give the tree better structure and support.  I added a lot of leaves (stones) and may try one with fewer leaves.  I was also thinking of trying a tree without leaves, like a winter tree.  They are so fun to make I am having a great time.  



The children are so funny, they don't usually hang out together because there is a six year gap in their ages.  So you know when they are together for a long time they are either plotting or fighting boredom.  Yesterday they were watching a season of Glee together.  They didn't exactly swear me to secrecy, but Sebastian would kill me if he knew I was telling about his Glee love.  Don't tell him I told you.  I blame it on NetFlix;).

Have a Batty Friday.

A Great Book and a Tiny Tree of Life

My routine has been a bit off this week, I blame it on Isabel and her exciting camping adventure.  Luckily she comes home today.  I will let you know in the next few days how camp went.

In the mean time, I want to share a book I just LOVE.  I checked it out at the Greater Phoenix Digital Library about six months ago and loved it so much I checked it out two more times since then.  The book is called Paper Cutting, Contemporary Artists Timeless Craft and it is compiled by Laura Heyenga.  So these artists cut paper to produce unexpected beauty.  You have to see the amazing cut work to believe it, I find the detail just fascinating.

I also wanted to share a little (just over two inches around) Tree of Life that I am making out of wire and beads.  It is not done yet, I have to finish wrapping the wire around the outside ring.  I found a pretty basic tutorial online that shows how to make one.  I think it is turning out well for a first try. 

We are also making these cool glass magnets.   I love the off center peacock feather print on this first set.

The smaller magnets below actually have vintage lace in them.  

Stop by on Monday to see our freshly stocked Etsy shop.  We are working this weekend to get the photos posted and descriptions ready.  There will be earrings, magnets, bracelets and more.

I hope your weekend is off to a great start.