Lost my blogroll in this "url move" :-(

I had such a nice list of blogroll here, but in changing the url, I seem to have lost my list :-(. Will need to make it again, and I hope I will remember all the links I had. And I hope I'll remember everyone who has given my link in their blogs, so I can do the same for them. I hope I still have the other list (blogs I "follow") intact. Will go check now.

Amethyst, sterling silver, wire wrapped prong ring

To buy this ring, go to my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25176190

I have a few of these really pretty emerald cut Amethysts that I bought at Intergem show a couple of years back. Its been a while since I have worked with this particular wire working technique. I had learnt making wire prongs of this kind from Robbie Ward. And when I first learnt it, I was so in love with itthat I made many pieces with prongs of this kind. Then I moved on to weaving wire. A few days back when I was uploading pictures to my facebook account, I saw some of my pieces which were made using this technique and I wanted to make more. Also, I got an order through Facebook from a very sweet lady to make a similar ring in Blue Topaz (a design I have sold before). So while I was waiting for her ring size, I made this ring. My daughter was very happy to see me use this technique again.

The shank is made from square and half-round wires. The ring is "open" and adjustable between sizes 6 and 8.

If you want to a similar ring in another stone, please contact me.

Garnet and Gold-Filled Wire earrings.

Got sold today itself! :-)) I wrote this blog entry this morning, wrote about it on Facebook and Twitter, and a wonderful gentleman on Facebook bought these and my bio-lemon drop earrings :-)). Thank you Andrew! :-))

I was going to make hoops, but then 1/4 way (yes, exactly 0.25 of the way ;-) ) I decided I wanted to try a spiral earring instead. So I first made these spiral earrings in 14k Gold-filled wire, hammered it, and was going to leave it at that. It looked pretty good that way. But 2 days later I changed my mind (of course), and now we have Garnet beads woven/coiled on the spiral frame. These are beads that I totally fell in love with. They are absolutely gorgeous, and one of those things I went over my budget to buy.

AMETHYST: physical, chemical and metaphysical properties

Description & lore:

This is a transparent stone, mostly purple/violet in color. Its crystals are pointed, and they can be found as cluster, as geodes or as single points in various sizes. They are found in a few different colors like various shades of Purple and Violet. Some are pink in color, and then there are green ones too. The name Amethyst means "not drunken" in Greek :-). It used to be thought of as an antidote for drunkenness.

There are many variations of the mythical story of Amethyst. Here is one. The story goes that the Greek God Dionysus was really upset with a mortal. So he got very revengeful (as Gods in stories are supposed to get often! lol!), and swore that the next mortal he sees has had it! That poor mortal would be eaten up by his tigers. I wonder though, why he didn't go after the guy who made him angry in the first place. Anyway, back to the story. The next mortal who came in his path happened to be a lovely damsel called "Amethyst". She was on her way to pay her respects to the Greek Goddess Diana. Now Diana, being the smart woman she was (or is?), knew the damsel Amethyst was going to be in much distress if she didn't help. So she turned Amethyst
into pure crystalline quartz. When Dionysus saw this absolutely gorgeous crystalline statue of a very lovely damsel, he cried...and he cried tears of...WINE! Cool, isn't it? ;-) So this wine he wept was purple in color, and all his tears flowed all over Amethyst's statue...turning Amethyst completely purple. And that's how my friends we have Amethyst to make jewelry with ;-).

I wonder...did Diana ever change the poor damsel back into human?

Physical & Chemical properties:

Amethyst is the most valuable variety of Quartz, and it occurs in crystal form. The color purple of Amethyst is due to the presence of Manganese and the variation in the coloration is due the Iron content. It has a specific gravity of 2.65, and its hardness is 7 at Mohs' scale. The chemical formula is SiO2 (Silicon Dioxide), the crystal system is Tetrahedral. If you heat Amethyst, it turns colorless or yellow. Most commercial Citrine is made by heating Amethyst to yellow color.

Metaphysical properties:

It is the birthstone of people born in February. Amethyst is said to raise consciousness and intuitive abilities. It is a powerful stone to use in healing and protection. It opens, clears, balances and stimulates the throat & the heart chakras. It clears auras. It is protective and transmutes all lower energies like anger, fear etc. Amethyst inspires creativity. It gives rise to divine, selfless love, love for God, and promotes loyalty in relationships.

It helps relieve one of physical and emotional pain. And it is said to balance the production of hormones. If you have trouble sleeping, keeping an Amethyst crystal under your pillow is said to aid in having a good restful sleep. Keeping Amethyst around when you sleep also helps in having out of body experiences. You might also get intuitive dreams.

If you are injured, it is said to help reduce bruising. It heals hearing disorders, digestive problems, and headaches.

Amethyst opens a conscious channel between your earthly self and your spiritual self. It calms you down and makes you more at peace. It makes you compassionate and heals troubles from this life as well as the past lives.

It aids in contacting your spirit guides and angels, and helps in channeling divine messages.

This stone also helpful for people who are about to cross over to the other side. Amethyst is said to help with mental disorders, but it should not be used in cases of schizophrenia and paranoia.

Amethyst is a great stone for using in jewelry because of its strong healing powers and high vibration. It is especially helpful as a pendant that hangs over the throat chakra or the heart chakra.

Sources of Amethyst:

Brazil, Canada, East Africa, USA, UK, India, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Siberia, Uruguay.

Credits:

Over the years I have read many books, internet articles on gemstones because I just LOVE gemstones. And I have collected points that I found interesting, in my notebook. I don't remember all of these sources because there are so many. But some of my favorite books on crystals and gemstones are "Love is in the Earth", "Gems and Astrology", "The Crystal Bible".

Tourmaline, Green Gold, sterling silver, gold filled, woven, wire wrapped earrings

To buy these or to see more pictures, go to http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24908216 I am offering free shipping during May and June for celebrating the opening of my new Etsy shop for wire jewelry.

These earrings are 3" long from the top of the ear wires to the bottom of the green gold drops. They are 1.1" wide at their widest part. The green gold drops are 15mm long, and beautifully faceted. The tourmaline beads that border the frame are micro-faceted and glitter in light. I have blacked the sterling silver wire, and used 14K gold-filled wire for design inside, and for the hand made ear wires. The combination of black and gold looks very dramatic.

The stones are so beautifully faceted and of such high quality that when you wear them, they catch and reflect light absolutely divinely! To me this is very important when buying most faceted stones. They should reflect light really nicely.

I have tried them on with regular dresses for the day time, and really "dressy" party dresses for night time, and strangely they look perfectly great on both kinds of outfits. They give a very feminine and elegant look.

PLEASE NOTE:
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I always change the ear wires to new ones before selling them.

I am still learning how to photograph gemstones properly so my photographs really don't show how remarkable all these stones are.

Healing properties:
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Tourmalines are said to enhance understanding, increase self-confidence and amplify psychic energies. It is also said to dispel negative energies, fear and grief. They help with concentration and communication. They energize you, and also relax your body and mind, and relieve you of anxiety. It is said that Tourmalines help with arthitis pain and heart disease.

I won an award at a juried art show!!

Yep! I'm on cloud 9. At school they have a juried art show going on for the entire arts department (jewelry, painting, drawing, sculpting, digital media, photography...and I don't know what else is under "Arts" here at school). I submitted my prayer box pendant from last semester's "Fabrication Jewelry" course. It was my final project...quite tough for me to do, and I almost melted the entire thing down while making it. LOL! My teacher was Theresa Vu. After I submitted my entry, I dreamt that my entry was rejected by the jury. And when I woke up I thought...yeah...maybe...there were mistakes in it. And many times I've had very prophetic dreams, so I took this one seriously too.

However, I was very happily surprised when last Tuesday the head of the jewelry department walked into our class (casting class) and said that I had won an award! I didn't know till then that it was even accepted in the show! LOL!! So this was a huge surprise and a huge honor too. The pictures above are of course that of the winner.

To read the whole story behind this piece, what it means, what it stands for, what it is made to be, please read: http://fleurviolettejewelry.blogspot.com/2008/12/prayer-box-pendant.html

Signature/Handwriting rings

I got the idea from the book "500 Wedding Rings". These are also made through lost wax casting. In the book, the rings were made from additive process (adding wax). But I don't have the expensive equipment to do that, so I used my good old hands and a needle and made these through reductive process (carving out wax). My ring has my hubby's signature on it, and hubby's ring has my signature on it. Quite pleased with it :-))).

When I finally buy casting equipment, I would love to offer jewelry with things written in people's own handwriting, or making jewelry with finger prints...I feel this kind of jewelry will be close to people's hearts. Having jewelry with words written in your own handwriting, or in the handwriting of someone you love or admire, or wearing jewelry with finger prints of the ones you love...these things can have sentimental value for people...I know it does for me.

Of course, I can always etch these on copper and then roller print on silver (because I hate to etch away silver). Might try that too one of these days.

Wooohooo!! My Upper Case Kismet Stamps are ALMOST here!

Sometime back I had received my lowercase Kismet stamps, and have been making stamped jewelry with those fonts. Today I received a notification from Beaducation that my upper case stamps have arrived as well! I'm so happy!! LOVE this font!!! It should be in my hands in a few days now :-))))))).

New blog name and url, new Etsy shop etc

Yes, I am FLEUR VIOLETTE JEWELRY now :-). I will be changing the url of this blog too very soon. So if you have been following my blog, the url of my blog is soon going to be:

http://FleurVioletteJewelry.Blogspot.com

I have a new Etsy shop as well:

Fleur Violette Jewelry at http://FleurVioletteJewelry.Etsy.com

Why did I change everything? A very very long story. I am sure you do not want to know ;-). Anyway, the important thing is jewelry. What's in the name after all? :-P

My First Lost Wax Casting Piece

This is the very first piece, a sterling silver ring, I made through the lost wax casting process. I highly recommend the books: Basic Wax Modeling - An Adventure in Creativity by Hiroshi Tsuyuki, and Practical Wax Modeling Advanced Techniques for the Wax Modeler by Hiroshi Tsuyuki and Yoko Ohba for learning how to carve wax. The books are project based, and each chapter is a project. The projects are explained step by step, with pictures. Haven't yet seen any other book like these! My ring was made following one of the chapters from the first book. Mine has a tiny "twist" of its own...lol...but mostly I have made it following the steps given in the book. I know, I should have taken pictures of the wax model too. But I am mostly in such a hurry that I never got around to doing that for all my lost wax pieces so far. For my next one I will take pictures of each step as far as possible.