Watercolour art is arguably the most ancient of all painting techniques – the cave paintings of paleolithic Europe are fabulous examples. It is one of my favourite painting styles, one which I am utterly hopeless in but I admire the talent of others who can capture landscape and botanical subjects with great delicacy.  One such […]

Exploring color psychology and the color green. Green is the color of many gemstones: emerald, jade and nephrite, serpentine, chrysoprase, variscite, malachite, Tsavorite garnets, tourmalines, green sapphires, green beryl, prehnite, peridot, and others I’m sure I’m forgetting. So let’s talk about green, and how it affects mood, health, behavior, and how it can help you […]

Ohio based wire artisan, Ruby of RubyMoonJewel has a striking and unusual wire jewelry collection. She makes face wire designs. The designs which meander across the face are actually modified extensions of ear cuffs. Most innovative indeed.   Also noteworthy are her faux nose and lip rings. Again, these are adapted from the ear cuff idea. […]

William Congreve, the English Playwright wrote these lines for his 1697 play, The Mourning Bride : Music has Charms to soothe the savage Breast, To soften Rocks and Bend a Knotted Oak Many of us remember the first line which is often misquoted as “Music soothes the savage beast”.  The poet and playwright meant soothing the heart. […]

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, is just 3 weeks away but that is still plenty of time to make some lovely and hopefully lucky jewelry pieces. Having a bit of Irish in me has meant that I have always had a special affinity for this particular holiday. It has always seemed a happy and hopeful […]

Many of you love copper. Others like me prefer brass. Both are wonderful as jewelry supplies. Brass in particular is a good stand-in for gold. Both can take on patinas for beautifully unique results. Then head on over to UrbanroseSupplies for some of the most gorgeous solid copper and brass supplies I have come across. […]

Bead embroidery lends itself to the making of stunning jewelry. Ukrainian bead artist, Maryna of YatsuraBead, turns her talent into making exquisite insects, most notably as brooches out of beads and other materials. Her attention  to detail is noteworthy. She uses crystals such as for the green beetle shown above. Wood and epoxy resin was […]

British polymer clay artist, Fiona Abel-Smith of PolyOriginals, is a fantastic instructor full of ideas. She is also on Youtube. I featured her colorful tutorials before.  This video tutorial of hers shows how to use foil on polymer clay. What’s different is her clever technique of applying two layers of foil with one of them […]

Designing jewelry is so much fun! Coming up with a color scheme, picking out the beads, finding just the right focals—it’s a freeing exercise in creativity. One part of the design process that I sometimes overlook is the findings. I have a nice stash of them and tend to bypass picking out any new ones […]

One of the most popular crafting technique lately is embroidery. It really helps to work with smaller projects like jewelry designs when learning how to embroider. The designs will be faster to make.  The results are simply elegant and beautiful as you can see from the embroidered jewelry tutorials and kits shown here. Please check […]