Charm Necklaces

Usually around the winter, since my garage is not heated like in Alaska, I take a break from making glass and jewelry all together and try to spend time on other projects and art works or take classes online. This year I was unfortunately a bit unmotivated due to my lampwork artist being gone. He left me a couple sets to work with but it just didn't seem the same to finish it and not be able to share it with him. I dragged my laptop and table out of my art room into my room so I can hear the skype calls at 1am and put another table in there just to keep up with my other projects. My bead table, I left as is.

As March rolled around and I was busy with a painting class and visual journaling, I really wanted to finally make my charm necklaces. But I always found a way to put it to the side. Then the news of my Mother in law passing came and the the anxiety and nervousness of my husband making an emergency trip out of Afghanistan cost nights of no sleep. Well I couldn't really paint, well I could, but then I would be cleaning up a mess every 2am so I thought well I can quietly sit in my room and bead.

Since I make my own jewelry. I usually do not buy jewelry, but I could not pass up a sale in American Eagle of these long necklaces that mimic the charm necklaces I wanted to make. So I bought two of them with the chains I wanted and some pieces in the charms that I liked. I took it home, took it apart and then added my own flair to it. So I cannot really claim the whole necklace as mine since I didn't make the chain and some of the components but I did make it to a point that most of it was mine and that the pieces I incorporated into it meant so much to me.

So here they are:

My first one with charms of thing that remind me of what life is all about for me.



The elements that I incorporated were: The love life pendant, brass leaf, and antique key. The rest were already a part of the necklace.


This is the second necklace:



The elements that I incorporated in this necklace were: The Green Girls Studio pendant of strength with Swarovski crystals,Bo's organic blue glass bead with a sterling seahorse, sterling key, rock, coral beads, and my hand made imprinted dragonfly wing and sterling hoop from metalsmithing class in UAF. The only thing not mine is the chain.

I love how long the chains are and how they dangle and clink. Not a necklace you can wear ALL the time but I feel as if a part of how I express myself is always with me. :)You see all the nature elements and the sea that I long for and my keys. :)

It felt good to put my energy into creating with my hands rather than stressing as my husband made his travel home and all the other anxiety and worry that came with our news. This is when I realized how deeply my creations do affect me and how it will always be a part of my life. No more pushing it to the side because of how others view it as not "being a job". I worked enough my whole life from 11yrs old on. Now as I am given the opportunity to finally tap into what my passion really is and to take the time to raise my boys I will do so with my head up high and knowing that I love life more now, once I have finally dropped others expectations of what my life should be like.

Creating those pieces then gave me even more inspiration to start back up with my jewelry. I probably need to anyway and rotate out my jewelry from Woodland Gallery out for new ones. This summer will be busy for us so I am not sure if I will be doing any art shows or bazaars. We will see maybe an opportunity will pop up that I cannot pass up.

Before heading out of Biloxi, MS when we went down for the funeral, we had to pass by the Bead Shack in Gulfport. My brother in law told us of the place and how the owner makes her own lampwork beads too. So of course Bo had to check it out. :) Her beads are beautiful but larger. Bo likes the simplicity of our beads that look closer to rocks and organic to nature and ours are still different so he was satisfied that our beads are still ours in design. :)But of course I could not leave without some goodies. :)So I picked up some silver components and a beautiful string of blue gemstone beads. I have not made anything with it yet but I am itching to so hopefully I can make myself a Mother's day gift soon. :)




I know time will be ticking but we found out that my husband will not be coming home around the time frame we thought he would be headed back. So once again it is a waiting game for the date. I try to keep my spirits up with being busy with the boys and their activities and my online classes. I am also blessed to have such a supportive group of friends online and here in Kentucky that make sure we are doing okay. Thank you for your friendship. It is greatly appreciated by our whole family.

Well it looks like the sun is finally trying to come out and our half mowed lawn looks really awful now. But Bo kept on telling me to wait until the ground is dry or else I will tear the yard up. So hopefully it does dry so I can finally finish it up and tidy it sometime this weekend.

Have a great Friday...off to a track meet I go this afternoon. :)