Went and forgot about my blog...again. I just don't know if I'm cut out for this blogging stuff :)
Is anyone reading it anyway? Just in case, how bout a coupon? In honor of fall, I'm offering %15 off my new Leaves earrings. Just enter code "fall" at checkout.
Did I mention I have a new website that actually allows me to do these awesome coupon codes? Yay! So excited. Now I just have to get some orders...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Show some Etsy love
Hiya folks, I just joined a new network of Etsy artists--head on over to Etsy Handmade Network and show those links some love!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Cleaning your sterling silver jewelry
(From my post at Haute Mama's blog)
Today’s post will hopefully be useful—how to clean your sterling silver jewelry. When I make jewelry for others, I tell them to store it carefully in a plastic bag to avoid tarnish that naturally occurs with sterling silver.
I, on the other hand, throw most of my jewelry in a heap either next to the shower (okay, on the toilet lid) or on my dresser. Such a hypocrite, I know :)
About once a month or when I notice my once bright sterling has become brown and gross, I decide it’s time to clean. For jewelry that’s not too intricate, I use my silver polishing cloth to wipe the tarnish off—these things work great and you can find them at Kmart and Walmart.
For more detailed pieces, especially my crochet wirework that I can’t get a cloth into, I use plain old baking soda, hot water and aluminum foil. There’s a bunch of science behind how the tarnish attaches to the foil, etc., but I won’t bore you with all that. It just works.
Of course I have to add that this method is at your own risk—if you’re worried about damaging your great-great-grandmother’s antique ring, maybe just to be safe you should go to a jeweler. I’ve heard you should be careful with pearls or fragile gemstones with this method, but I’ve used this technique for a long time and so far, so good. I haven’t used it on pearls, but I have used it with soft gemstones, like fluorite.
Here’s how:
1. Put about 2 cups of water on to boil.
2. Find a pan, dish or bowl that’s big enough to lay whatever you want cleaned flat on the bottom, and can hold up to boiling water. I don’t clean more than a few items at a time.
3. Line the pan with aluminum foil making sure to cover all the sides. You want to create a foil liner.
4. Place your jewelry in the pan making sure it’s completely flat and touching the foil.
5. Cover the jewelry with an adequate layer of baking soda. Make sure your pan isn’t too shallow because when you add water to baking soda, it foams up quite a bit.
6. Slowly pour the boiling water over your jewelry. Swish your jewelry around a bit with some sort of utensil, then add some more hot water and keep foaming it until you either have no more room for water, or the foaming stops.
7. Carefully take your jewelry out of the hot water and rinse with water until no residue remains.
8. Gently towel dry your jewelry and enjoy!
Hopefully that works as well for you as it does for me. This technique is GREAT for sterling chains, though you might need to repeat it for really bad tarnish. This is a pretty common technique, so if you find yourself needing pictures or more info, just search for ‘cleaning jewelry with baking soda’ in Google—you’ll get lots of results.
Today’s post will hopefully be useful—how to clean your sterling silver jewelry. When I make jewelry for others, I tell them to store it carefully in a plastic bag to avoid tarnish that naturally occurs with sterling silver.
I, on the other hand, throw most of my jewelry in a heap either next to the shower (okay, on the toilet lid) or on my dresser. Such a hypocrite, I know :)
About once a month or when I notice my once bright sterling has become brown and gross, I decide it’s time to clean. For jewelry that’s not too intricate, I use my silver polishing cloth to wipe the tarnish off—these things work great and you can find them at Kmart and Walmart.
For more detailed pieces, especially my crochet wirework that I can’t get a cloth into, I use plain old baking soda, hot water and aluminum foil. There’s a bunch of science behind how the tarnish attaches to the foil, etc., but I won’t bore you with all that. It just works.
Of course I have to add that this method is at your own risk—if you’re worried about damaging your great-great-grandmother’s antique ring, maybe just to be safe you should go to a jeweler. I’ve heard you should be careful with pearls or fragile gemstones with this method, but I’ve used this technique for a long time and so far, so good. I haven’t used it on pearls, but I have used it with soft gemstones, like fluorite.
Here’s how:
1. Put about 2 cups of water on to boil.
2. Find a pan, dish or bowl that’s big enough to lay whatever you want cleaned flat on the bottom, and can hold up to boiling water. I don’t clean more than a few items at a time.
3. Line the pan with aluminum foil making sure to cover all the sides. You want to create a foil liner.
4. Place your jewelry in the pan making sure it’s completely flat and touching the foil.
5. Cover the jewelry with an adequate layer of baking soda. Make sure your pan isn’t too shallow because when you add water to baking soda, it foams up quite a bit.
6. Slowly pour the boiling water over your jewelry. Swish your jewelry around a bit with some sort of utensil, then add some more hot water and keep foaming it until you either have no more room for water, or the foaming stops.
7. Carefully take your jewelry out of the hot water and rinse with water until no residue remains.
8. Gently towel dry your jewelry and enjoy!
Hopefully that works as well for you as it does for me. This technique is GREAT for sterling chains, though you might need to repeat it for really bad tarnish. This is a pretty common technique, so if you find yourself needing pictures or more info, just search for ‘cleaning jewelry with baking soda’ in Google—you’ll get lots of results.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Can't Tell Which
I honestly can't tell whether it's because I'm lazy or just too busy, but since I've started guess blogging over at the Haute Mamas blog, I keep neglecting my own blog...duh.
So I'm gonna kill two birds here and just link to my posts I'm doing over there--genius!
Course since I didn't think of this sooner, I now have to play catchup.
Here's last week's post.
And the week before that.
And finally, my first post over there.
So I'm gonna kill two birds here and just link to my posts I'm doing over there--genius!
Course since I didn't think of this sooner, I now have to play catchup.
Here's last week's post.
And the week before that.
And finally, my first post over there.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
New Challenge
A few weeks ago I was asked by a some friends of mine from the band Riveter to design them some necklaces. They wanted the name 'Riveter' in wire...of course I said yes, even though I'd never done name necklaces before.
I was very pleased with how they came out, and so were they--yay!
The whole thing is sterling silver, and finished with sterling cable chain:
I was very pleased with how they came out, and so were they--yay!
The whole thing is sterling silver, and finished with sterling cable chain:
Thursday, June 5, 2008
New transportation
And here's the bike! Not a very good shot of the bike, really, but there's the aforementioned sweet guy who was nice enough to fix my flat. He also got me a bitchin basket--have to get a new shot of that. Just look at that
Saturday, May 31, 2008
..and she's back!
That was a little longer absence than I had intended..oops. Been having serious motivation issues, and some other fun things, which include getting food poisoning last Monday and having nausea ever since. Very fun indeed.
Feeling better now, though and ready to conquer! My sweet guy fixed the flat on my bike so now I can be healthier and ride to work (plus save about $20 a minute in gasoline).
Here are some pics from my Vegas trip--the first is my hotel room view--you can see the Luxor and Paris in the background. The others are from the Shark Reef Aquarium we visited on our last day--note the claws on that alligator..yikes!
And of course the fabulous jellyfish. I took a ton of pictures, and never managed to get a great shot, but still cool.
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