While in Ohio I went to my favorite craft Store, Pat Catan's, and bought a lovely string of Moss Agate polished nuggets. To me they look like you reached into a stream or the Atlantic ocean with a melon baller and took out a scoop of water. They have wonderful shades of green and blue with thready inclusions of brown, grey and black that look like moss, hence the name.

I also found this beading chain, it is called round cable. It is thin enough to string beads on so I thought I would do bead stations every 2 inches around the necklace. I'm very pleased at how the piece turned out. I don't think this first set of pictures I took do the stones justice so I'm going to reshoot them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Weekend. Please remember our veterans in your thoughts. We owe them a huge debit of gratitude.

Happy week! Happy creating!

Hello All ~

I'm traveling this upcoming week to the Cleveland, Ohio area to visit with my mother, friends & family. It will be a long drive but worth it. Hope everyone has a great week and a wonderful & safe Memorial Day weekend. See you when I get back.

Happy day, Happy creating!

Hi All ~ I made a sale yesterday and couldn't be happier. Someone out there likes it ... they really do! :-)

It would be nice to turn my "hobby" in to a full time job but since I don't see that happening in the near future I'm still out there looking for a 9-5 or a 10 -2 ... well anyway a job.

Happy day! Happy creating!

After a brief hiatus from the jewelry making biz I'm back at it. I've added 4 new items for sale in my shop using stabilized turquoise. What's that you say? Well this is what it is: Stabilized turquoise is created by adding a clear resin to soft turquoise to help enhance the color and well as increase the hardness of the stone. Since turquoise is a very porous substance, the resin fills in the tiny holes and crevices to form a firm stabilized turquoise stone.

The harder variety of turquoise is more expensive. For the pieces I have just created I chose to use the stabilized turquoise so that it gives me the color I want and keeps the cost lower so that I can offer good quality jewelry at affordable prices.

Some very fine, high quality turquoise is from the Sleeping Beauty Mine in Globe, Arizona. I have seen some of these stones polished and set into beautiful gold jewelry with diamonds surrounding them. The finer quality of Sleeping Beauty Turquoise has very little to none of the black matrix that you will find in most turquoise stones you see. Some people prefer the matrix in the stones. Turquoise comes in a variety of shades from green blue right through to the beautiful blue of the prized Sleeping Beauty.

Having a December birthday turquoise is my birthstone. I have a number of pieces with the different shades of turquoise. The Native American artists make amazing turquoise and silver jewelry pieces. If you travel to the southwest don't pass by the chance to see their work and if possible watch them create it.

Have a wonderful day! Happy creating!

Hello All ~

I'm pursuing the goal of making and putting up for sale a new item in my Etsy shop everyday. That was the challenge for the Maine Team on Etsy. I'm not doing as well as I had hoped to but I am getting new pieces made so that is half the battle! :-) Here is what I've been working on. To see the rest of my work please go to www.etsy.com/shop/maineladybug