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Monday, June 21, 2010

New Amethyst Earrings and New Sterling Silver Pins

 

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Today I took these pictures and added these Tiny Amethyst Sterling Silver Wirewrapped Bead Earrings.

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I also these two new Sterling Silver shawl pins.

Circle With A Twist Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

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Double Crossed Loops Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

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I also decided to add a photo of my small chubby man hand (a “Sienfeld” reference to those who know what I mean by “man hand”) holding the pin to get more of a sense of scale with these sweet little pins. These two pins used a little less silver wire than the others and take a little less time to make so they are a little less expensive than the first 5 ones I put in our shop.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

New Sterling Silver Shawl Pins


Celtic Infinity Loops Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
Well I finally took the plunge and invested in 12 gauge sterling silver so I could start making my shawl pins in sterling silver along with super awesome aluminum. It's dramatically more expensive than aluminum. The 9 gauge aluminum costs about $.15 a foot and 12 gauge sterling silver costs about $7 a foot. That doesn't leave a lot of room for mistakes.Hence the significantly higher price for them.The silver is also a lot harder and more difficult to bend and hammer.

Looping Celtic Crossed Knots Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
So I've started out by making the most popular aluminum shawl pin designs.

Celtic Heart and Swirls Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
They've been tricky to photograph too.I think it's because they are shinier than the aluminum.

Celtic Budding Spiral Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch


Fleur De Lis Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch


Celtic Knot Infinite Swirl Cross Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
This is one of my most difficult and complex designs and uses a little more wire than the others.Although not uncomfortably heavy, it is amazing the weight difference between aluminum and sterling silver. The silver has a different look and feel than the aluminum that I hope will appeal to some knitters looking for something a little special. But I really appreciate and love my aluminum.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

First Grade trip to the Portland Zoo


Last Friday I chaperoned Henry's First Grade class trip to the zoo. It was a crazy 2 hour bus ride. Luckily we had lots and lots of parents who came on the trip to help.About a half hour before we arrived Henry started to feel sick and it started raining.I was not in the best of moods. But once we got off the bus he felt better. Must have been car sickness.And miraculously the rain stopped after a little while.We spent the day with his 3 best friends and another set of parents.

We all brought our own lunch and found a great spot inside the lion viewing area. And then suddenly from cross the field this large and lovely lioness spotted us and came trotting intensely over to the window like she was ready to eat us for lunch.

It was pretty exciting and terrifying. I'm so glad that glass was strong.
This polar bear was hilarious. He was really enjoying himself and showing off for us while the one in the background was having some sort of OCD weird caged animal moment. He kept walking backwards about 3 steps and then forwards 3 steps like he was doing the cha cha cha. The picture below the video of the bears is of Max and his super awesome preschool teacher Sara Melahnik.(I couldn't figure out how to move the picture below on blogger. Anyway...) It was the next to last day of preschool for him. We'll really miss her and I can't believe my baby will be starting kindergarten in the Fall.