Simply Shiny Life

Although it took me several tries, I finally figured out how to braid sterling into some pretty fab earrings.

Killer on the fingers though. I didn’t accomplish as much jewelry making experimentation as I would have liked this weekend, but did accomplish quite a bit of son time. And really, when it comes right down to it, I am more than fine with that.

I added some information about jewelry care. Both sterling silver and copper will tarnish. However, its pretty simple to keep them looking like new.

A note about the materials used: Unless stated otherwise, I use sterling silver wire and components. Sterling and bali silver contain at least 92.5% silver. Most ear wires are surgical steel as I find it more comfortable than sterling.  However, I can replace the surgical steel with sterling if you prefer. I try my best to identify the types of stones and glass beads I use, and also identify when beads are vintage. By the way, my definition of vintage is more than 40 years old. So I guess I am vintage too. 

I used some vacation time and will spend 6 glorious days at home ie: AWAY FROM WORK. Took a trip to Lowe’s and purchased some storage containers to hold my ever expanding inventory of stones and beads. The shear volume is kind of embarrassing given the fact that I really only became interested in wirework and beading in June. And now I am trying to determine how I am going to store all this stuff.