The Mohawk - Back by Popular Demand

Makin' Stuff

Here are a few things I've made during my last several days of silence - nothing too earth shattering - it's tough to find the time to make the intricate stuff I really love between being buried in beads and being a mommy!

Bali silver & Swarovski pearl earrings

Green garnet, Bali silver, & Swarovski pearl bracelet

Labradorite, Bali silver, & aquamarine bracelet

Ornate Beaded Earrings - Sterling silver, Swarovski crystal, & Swarovski pearl

Ball & Chain Necklace - sterling silver

New Rectangular Cabs for Wire Wrapped Rings

Well, here I go again - posting three times in one day... now you can plan on not hearing from me for ages (actually that's probably true since I'm going out of town this week). Anyhoo - I have to show off some new rectangular cabochons that I bought to make more of this style of wire wrapped ring with. I know I've mentioned a few times how popular they have been for me, and in the past I've only done them with labradorite, but now I'm branching out! Take a look...

Charoite, which I've never worked with before - it's so pretty!

More labradorite, always a favorite

Rainbow Moonstone

Turquoise with lots of dark matrix - just how I like it!

Vasonite!!! Can you believe it? I was shocked to find these; vasonite is so rare, and I love it so much I have a feeling one of these is going to become a ring for me.

Let me know if you'd like to commission a ring from any of these gorgeous cabs. I really prefer to make them as custom orders so the sizes are right and you can pick out your own stone. I have another order in with a new supplier for some more rectangular cabs in Peruvian blue opal, pink opal, denim lapis, and rhodochrosite, and I'll be sure to post pictures again when those arrive.

Here's a picture of a finished ring:

Or if you're the crafty type yourself, you can find a tutorial for making this style of ring on Eni Oken's jewelry site.

PS - we gave Carlos a mohawk again tonight. Stay tuned for pictures...

Gemstone Pendants

When I met with my supplier yesterday, I also picked up a few beautiful gemstone and sterling silver pendants. I won't be listing them on Etsy since they aren't handmade (by me, anyway), but if you want to buy one, email me and I can invoice you through Paypal.

Amethyst & Sterling Silver Pendant

{ gemstone measures 12mm x 14mm; entire piece (including bail) is 14mm x 30mm }

$18 alone or $28 with sterling silver snake chain

Huge Labradorite & Sterling Silver Pendant
{ gemstone measures 35mm x 45mm; entire piece (including bail) is 46mm x 50mm }
$34 alone or $44 with sterling silver snake chain

Large Labradorite & Sterling Silver Pendant
{ gemstone measures 35mm x 45mm; entire piece (including bail) is 46mm x 50mm }
$28 alone or $38 with sterling silver snake chain

Prehnite & Sterling Silver Pendant
{ gemstone measures 20mm x 20mm; entire piece (including bail) is 24mm x 36mm }
$24 alone or $34 with sterling silver snake chain

Aquamarine & Sterling Silver Pendant
{ gemstone measures 12mm x 16mm; entire piece (including bail) is 16mm x 31mm }
$22 alone or $32 with sterling silver snake chain

Have You Missed Me?

Sorry for the long-ish silence... I seem to be getting into a habit of posting multiple times in one day and then going MIA for days at a time. Oh well. My excuse is that I am up to my eyeballs in new beads, all of which needed to be fondled excessively (done), photographed (done), and listed in my bead shop (not done yet). Here's a sneek peak for you, my loyal blog readers.

Tourmaline - I have 4mm and 5mm.

Turquoise briolettes

More turquoise briolettes.

Big turquoise nuggets.

Huge lemon quartz pear briolettes.

Awesome Peruvian blue opal marquis briolettes.

Gorgeous ruby rondelles.

My new favorite - spinel (not a cheap habit to take on!)

Here are the 4mm tourmaline.

Enormous faceted labradorite briolette drops.

Smooth labradorite nuggets.

Smooth labradorite rondelles.

Lemon quartz cushion briolettes.

Lemon quartz briolette drops.

Smooth green garnet ovals.

Faceted green garnet rondelles.

Iolite briolettes.

Kyanite, 20mm (also have 10mm).

Ametrine marquis briolettes.

Andalusite marquis briolettes.

Andalusite rondelles.

Aquamarine briolettes - very big!

Green garnet briolette drops.

Even More Bridal Jewelry

The fun just never stops with vegan_noodle's wedding jewelry! After she received her original order, she contacted me to commission two sets of junior bridesmaids' earrings and a few hairpins for herself. Here's the latest.

July Jewelry for Charity Recap & August Kick-Off!

Well, the results are in and with your help, I raised $266 in July for the Children's Cancer Association. I'm so happy to be able to help with their important work.

August's charity beneficiary is Animal Place, so 5% of anything you spend in either of my shops will go directly towards improving the lives of rescued farm animals. Animal Place, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit sanctuary for abused and discarded farmed animals. Rescued individuals and indigenous wildlife share 60 acres of forest, meadow, pasture, hills and small lake. Animal Place is also a humane education center that works to promote cruelty-free lifestyles and veganism.

Here are some pictures of just a few of the rescued animals who are fortunate enough to live out their lives at Animal Place. You can click here to read their stories.








Click here to read all posts about my Jewelry for Charity project.

And if you're interested in learning more about Animal Place's message (which I wholeheartedly agree with!), here's some information from their website:

Farmed animals are the most exploited and least protected group of animals in the world. 27 million are killed in the United States alone each day, nearly 19,000 per minute – equating to a tragic total of 10 billion animals per year.

Over the past 50 years, animal agriculture has evolved from small, family farms to large corporate factory farming systems. Modern agribusiness corporations are built upon the cutthroat attitude of increasing profit margins at all costs – which has had devastating consequences for the animals in their care.

Farmed animals lead a life of misery from the moment they are born to when they are slaughtered. Every day, everywhere across the globe, millions of these animals are kept in confinement, mutilated as part of routine husbandry practices, mishandled, and deprived of basic necessities.

Isn’t it time we evolve as a society and refuse to condone such needless suffering?

While thousands of animal shelters in the United States are designed for cats and dogs, only a small handful of such facilities is in place for farmed animals.

Animal Place provides this much needed shelter and sanctuary for over 150 chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, turkeys, rabbits, and cows. We allow them to live their life out in peace and to serve as ambassadors for their species. When visitors meet Howie the cow or Brenda the pig firsthand they discover the vitality, depth, and individuality of these animals that are typically only seen as food.

FACTORY FARMING STATISTICS
(To view source information for these statistics, scroll down to the footnotes on this page.)

Vegetarianism and Health

• Vegetarians have blood cholesterol levels that are typically 14% less than non-vegetarians, while vegans are 35% lower.
• A vegetarian’s risk of dying from heart disease is less than half that of a non-vegetarian.
• The annual medical costs in the United States directly attributable to meat consumption total a whopping $60-120 billion.
• Meat eaters have triple the rate of high blood pressure as compared to vegetarians.
• The obesity rate for the general population is 18%, while that of vegans is 2%.
• Men who consume large amounts of dairy products have a 70% increased risk for prostate cancer.
• The Union of Concerned Scientists notes the overuse of antibiotics in intensive animal agriculture is a main contributor to the development of a myriad of new treatment-resistant pathogens afflicting both animals and humans.

Vegetarianism andthe Environment

• Each of us who chooses a plant-based diet personally saves an acre of trees each year.
• Every McDonald's Quarter-Pounder produced equates to the loss of 55-square-feet of forestland.
• Livestock grazing is the leading cause of rainforest loss and species endangerment.
• The production of animal products accounts for half the fresh water used in the U.S.
• In California, you save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for an entire year!
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies agricultural runoff as the primary source of pollution for over 60% of the rivers and streams deemed "impaired".
• For every pound of meat produced, grain-fed animals utilize over 2,464 gallons of water.
• The amount of waste produced by the 1,600 dairies in California’s Central Valley is more than that produced by the entire human population of Texas.
• Animals and their waste combined contribute 27% of global methane production. Animal products' heavy fossil fuel toll makes it a major source of
  CO2, the leading greenhouse gas.

Vegetarianism and World Hunger

• Over 1,400,000,000 human beings could be fed by the grain and soybeans consumed by the livestock just in the United States.
• It would take 12 million tons of grain to adequately feed every person who dies of hunger and hunger-related diseases each year. Americans would have to reduce their beef consumption by just 10% to save that 12 million tons of grain.

The Animals

• 27 million animals are slaughtered each day in the United States to supply consumer demand for meat – that’s 19,000 per minute, and a staggering 10 billion animals annually.
• Farmed animals are exempt from most federal and state anti-cruelty laws.
• Physical mutilations, such as de-beaking, chopping off toes, tails, etc. are routine husbandry practices in modern factory farms.
• Painful surgical procedures such as castration and de-horning are routinely performed without the benefit of anesthesia or a local analgesic on billions of farmed animals each year.
• Farmed animals raised in intensive operations cannot perform even the most basic of behaviors, such as turning around, walking, flapping their wings, etc – due to the small size of their cages and severe overcrowding to maximize profit.