Handmade amethyst earrings with silver wire

Hello all… it’s been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. It’s been a busy month, really! So I am here today to share a few handmade jewelry items I made a while back with silver wire and gemstones.

This amethyst earring pair is one of my favorites.

I made this earring as part of a silver wire collection, here’s a group photo:

I love amethyst, its purple/lavender color is surprisingly a neutral that goes with so many other color combinations.

There is something quite majestic about amethyst; you feel it’s very much suited to sit on Royal Crowns, due to the way it reflects wisdom, nobility, royalty, and leadership. The fact that amethyst shades are usually darkish and subtle, I feel people who love this gemstone are usually the wise, deep type. They’re not flashy, since amethyst is a mediator between earth and sky, with colors that can very much be found at dawn, or on the surface of the ocean – in a degree or two of amethyst.

I leave you with amethyst today; more gemstones to come in the future hopefully,

take care…

Handmade Wire Rings: My first attempt at silver & gemstone jewelry

I have finally arrived to my Silver Stage. When I started making jewelry a little bit more than a year ago, I was mostly training to arrive to the real thing. Here are my first attempts.

All my life I have never been a patient person. My first craft attempts were all so ugly because I did them in haste. I have always dreamt of designing/making silver & antique jewelry rings, necklaces & bracelets, but I knew I wasn’t ready. I was basically waiting to reach a stage where I was patient enough to sit & work.

Early last year I bought these amethyst beads, but I knew I wasn’t ready to put them into use. I was still uncertain about the steps I was taking and my style wasn’t mature enough yet. So, I basically opted to learn so many handmade techniques –  including decoupaging, glittering, stationary-making, and packaging – to basically nurture a good artisan in me.

I nagged my mom to give me a few beads from her collection of all the scattered antique silver beads & gemstones she has collected over the years. I nagged and nagged to no avail (I guess she was worried I would create childish stuff with them – like the rest of my past creations). But then a few months ago when I wasn’t nagging at all, she gave me everything!

But I still didn’t feel I was ready. I felt heavy and confused sitting in front of those beads; hoping to come up with something spectacular but unable to quite imagine it. I lacked the self-confidence, and I’m thankful for that: it was a good hunch, because I knew that I lacked the skill & the vision for undertaking authentic jewelry-making.

Yesterday without thinking, and after finishing a few craft projects that had nothing to do with immediate jewelry-making, I grabbed the silver wire mom gave me, my treasured amethyst beads, a few of her antiqued silver beads, turquoise & coral, and I started working on these rings. I followed a strong urge to start making rings.

One of them gave me a hard time since I was totally unclear about the design. I kept twisting and twisting until I snapped the wire. But then I relaxed, stepped back a bit,  thought about what I wanted to do and created a nice ring. It’s the one in the middle (up).