Moving!

Good news, everyone! We’re moving! WordPress has been great and all, but it’s high time I get my own place. Moving on up and all that. You can now find me at likealightbulb.org.

This move wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my amazing boyfriend, so I’d like to take a moment to say thank you to him. He did all the technical work with…installing stuff, and changing settings and…I dunno what exactly he had to do, but he did it and it works! I would have been completely clueless. He’s awesome.

As of right now the new site is the same as the old. Same template, same look and feel. I’ll use it for the same purpose – blogging my creations. But now I have more flexibility with what I’m able to do with my blog. I’ll have room to expand if I want. Maybe set up a store, or a gallery. I’m a big fan of having many options at my disposal, so it’s perfect.

Well, that’s it for this place. Come on over to the new site!

likealightbulb.org

Felicity

In naming these earrings it was a toss-up between “Felicity” and “Steel Magnolia.” As you can see, “Felicity” won in the end, for reasons too subliminal for me to understand.

Various definitions of felicity:

…pleasing and appropriate manner or style…
…great happiness; bliss…
…a skillful faculty…

So these earrings, hopefully, will fill the wearer with “great happiness” because they are constructed in a “pleasing and appropriate manner or style.” With any luck it will even make her (or him – let’s not be biased) more skilled with her/his faculties. In fact, it would bring me a measure of felicity to know that the owner of these earrings liked them. So yes. Felicity.

Materials used were: sterling silver wire, dyed freshwater coin pearls, Swarovski crystals, Czech fire-polished crystals, and two unknown pale pink teardrop beads. They could be rose quartz, glass, or anything in between. I got them while I was traveling in Thailand and never bothered writing down exactly what kind of stone they were, so now I’m left clueless. They’re still pretty though, and ultimately that’s all that matters!

Victorian Melange

These earrings were a bit of an experiment. I sketched out what looked like a very promising design, but in practice it turned out to be… not so stunning. They are much more busy than I had expected, with silver wire and sparkling crystal catching the light in too many places. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sucker for sparkles, but I do have a limit.

The other problem I have with these earrings is that I didn’t make them well. As in, I used low quality craftsmanship. The materials are good quality – sterling silver and Swarovski crystals. But I didn’t do my best in putting them together. I was downright sloppy!

So, I’m not going to be putting these up for sale, just because I don’t think it would be fair to the buyer, or to myself. These earrings just aren’t truly indicative of my work.

That’s not to say you won’t possibly see these badboys again in the future, though. I might rework them a bit; clean them up and see what I can come up with. Who knows!

Demeter’s Memoir

These earrings are similar in design to my Audra’s Memoir earrings, hence the “Memoir” in the name. However, these one’s are named after the Greek goddess of the harvest, Demeter.

Why her, you ask? Well, the earthy reds, greens, and yellows of the tourmaline and garnet are very reminiscent of autumn. And the large rutilated quartz teardrops are almost the color of freshly dried grain. Demeter is all about both of those things. She was also associated with fertility, so if you really wanted to, you could go so far as to say that the quartz is like an infant enclosed in a womb of oxidized sterling silver. I won’t make that claim, though. Just saying that you could if you wanted.

So there you have it – a tribute to Demeter and the Fall season, despite the fact that it is only March. I think I’m just dreading the upcoming summer heat… I dream instead of November when the average temperature is 85°F instead of April’s 98°F. Wishful thinking is all I have.

Cinderella’s Vengeance

This new pair of earrings has a darker theme than the sort of jewelry I usually make. I find it’s more difficult for me to come up with a piece that uses darker colors. My mind seems to be stuck in a “bright” place, even though I love jewelry with that antiqued, tarnished look. This is an attempt at playing with the darker side of the spectrum! I quite like them, actually.

This is also an attempt to expand my use of wire. I’ve used some simple loops as a sort of frame for the garnet teardrop that’s dangling in the center of the wire circle there. My comfort zone lies with just tightly coiling the wire and making a simple shape out of it (a circle, teardrop, diamond, etc), but I’m working towards expanding my comfort zone and trying new things. I’ve been having fun!

These earrings remind me of Cinderella. Not prim-and-pretty Cinderella, but dark-and-angry Cinderella. Like she just found out that her Prince Charming is snogging her evil step-sisters on the side. Or that her Fairy Godmother is only using her to get a tax break for owning a “non profit organization.” Or that her step-mother offed her father. Something like that. I can see her standing there in a tattered black ball gown, her skirts and hair whipping about wildly in a gale force wind that was born in the fury of her indignation. Her eyes are all red and glowing and angry, and lighting flashes all around her. Yeah. That’s what these earrings bring to mind. Perhaps I’m just letting my imagination run away with me… What do you think?

How Nice – A Treasury Inclusion

I’m happy to be able to tell you that my Cerulean Trifle earrings have been featured in an Etsy treasury! RandomOrder included them in her blue themed treasury as a tribute to the upcoming spring season. My favorite items from her list are the Burlesque Corset by OlgaItaly and the cute Cottage Mosaic Teapot Vase by Rush Creek Mosaics. That vase is very cute…

If you wanna check out some of the other inclusions, here you go! The Blue Splash into Spring! Treasury by RandomOrder.

lulunjay $12.49	IntentionalGla… $12.00	SoulRole $40.00	augustmooncrea… $14.00
NancyvdBoom $52.00	LikeALightBulb $27.00	Stephography $10.00	SimplySarafina $40.00
DollyRockerCan… $5.00	SassyGlassStud… $20.00	GreenGypsyChic $18.00	lesperancetile $10.00
rushcreekmosai… $44.00	NorScott $7.00	KilnGoddess $15.00	olgaitaly $180.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Beachcomber’s Sylph

Although I’ve been somewhat quiet for the past week, I’ve actually been kind of busy. I have two – yes, that’s right, two – new pairs of earrings, and one pair on my worktable in the midst of its creation. I would love to post a bunch of pictures, but I’m on a bit of a schedule and I don’t have much time to be sitting around editing photos and all that. I really want to share them though, so I took some time today to photograph and post one of the pairs. The rest will follow in due time.

You might have noticed my little reference to a schedule. You might have found yourself suddenly curious and thought Hmmm, what sort of a schedule might she be on? Don’t deny it. You were piqued, weren’t you? Yes, well, let me share.

There is a possibility that I might be lucky enough to put some of my pieces in a local art gallery, here in Bangkok. If I can work fast I might be able to get five-or-so pieces finished in time for the gallery opening this weekend. No guarantees of anything yet, but it’s better to be prepared, yes? So I’m busy trying to create pieces that are in just the right price range for the gallery but that still retain my style. I’m excited to see what happens and I will be sure to keep you all updated!

Needless to say, I won’t be posting these earrings in my Etsy shop just yet. However, if you really, really like these earrings and desperately want a pair for yourself, I’m sure we could work something out!

Lem’Ontic

I’ve been working diligently over the past day-and-a-half, trying to create something beautiful with the lemon quartz beads that I bought a few weeks ago. They have such a soft, warm color that I wanted to do something that would leave the lemon quartz as the star of the show.

After coming up with a design that I thought would look nice, I got to work. I did all kinds of wrapping and looping of wire, made ball-headpins (using my handy gas stove), wire wrapped each of my aquamarines and pearls, and then finally attempted to combine all the individual pieces into one fabulous earring. It was at this point that I got so frustrated that I nearly threw my pliers into the wall. Like the knife thrower at the circus. After an hour of failing to get the darned wire to sit right, I was losing my mind.

One half-hour-break later though, and all was right with the world. Or so I thought. Sure, I finally got the wires right and the earring was complete, but as I looked at it I realized that I just didn’t like it. Not to mention that it weighed a ton.

So I took another, longer break and pondered on what to do – leave it as it was, even though I found it unattractive and way too heavy? Or scrap the whole thing and start again?

In the end, I did a bit of both. I scrapped half of it, and used those nice bits in my new design. I am much more pleased with the new, final design. It was definitely worth starting over, in this case. It’s amazing how strongly an unloved creation can nag at your conscience. It will nag, nag, nag until you do something to make yourself love it again. And that’s what I did!

So, the final earrings you see here were created using large lemon quartz briolettes, finely faceted aquamarine beads, and a few cultured freshwater pearls, all wire wrapped in sterling silver wire. They’re very elegant and dramatic, but in a soft romantic way. I love the blue and yellow color scheme – it’s an oldie, but a goodie.

Click here for my Etsy listing.

Confectionary Burst

I have a new pair of earrings for ya’ll – fresh off the press. Instead of Swarovski crystals, I used natural gemstones in this design. I don’t often work with natural stones, but I’m finding myself more and more enticed by them lately. I like that each stone is just a bit different from the next, and that they usually have a depth of color that is hard to mimic in the man-made crystals. So these earrings are like a first step into a new world for me.

The earrings consist of large green garnet teardrops hung below clusters of faceted ametrine, tourmaline, and iolite. I love how all the smaller stones seem to pop out of the top of the green garnet. As for the garnets themselves, they give off a very pretty opalescent glow when you hold them up against the light. The whole collection of stones is held together by oxidized sterling silver wire, all hand wrapped by yours truly.

I’m really digging these earrings, personally. I love the colorful gemstones against the darkened silver. I think it makes for a great juxtaposition of “bright and playful” meets “old and bitter.” Unfortunately, the photos weren’t quite able capture the true look and feel of the earrings. In the pictures the colors come across as being very separate from each other, but in my hands they blend together nicely.

For some reason, the color scheme reminds me of bubblegum and cotton candy. I have no idea why, but that’s what pops into my head when I look at these earrings – tasty candy served up at an old, cobwebbed carnival.

Click here for my Etsy listing.

I was Featured In a Treasury

I’m a little bit excited today because my Valentine’s Revolution earrings were included in an Etsy Treasury, put together by ArtsyAly. This is my first Treasury inclusion on Etsy, so I’m more excited than I should be. It’s just really nice to know that someone out there thinks that something I created was lovely enough to single out and include in their list of “Amazingly Undiscovered” finds.

I particularly like the Golden Compass Pendant she included. Not only does it have that steampunk feel – it’s inspired by one of my favorite series of books: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Those are such great books.

And without further adieu – here is the Amazingly “Undiscovered” Treasury by ArtsyAly.

LikeALightBulb $75.00	MySecretFace $25.00	oohprettyshiny $30.00	OpheliaJean $45.00
cierrasaurus $55.00	MelBethRose $30.00	theoldsoul $7.77	cdkastler $25.00
cogdellphotogr… $30.00	AnneKapor $64.00	curiousdeer $18.00	sunkae $18.00
SteeleNewVinta… $20.00	JewelBallade $165.00	KipHolmPhotogr… $45.00	chrysanthemums… $12.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.