I do believe spring is on the way.  A series of warm days is bringing out the evidence.   I have crocuses blooming near the front porch and the insects are waking up.  I had a small bug crawl on me just last night, while watching TV.  It startled us all, but none more so than Pipi the cat.

Unfortunately, Nora  is sporting enormous scratches down her leg, because that is what Pipi used to propel himself off the sofa.  She is blaming me for the scratches, because I became alarmed and tried to remove the bug by jumping around while brushing wildly at my arm and hollering.   It was dark and I couldn’t tell what kind of bug it was!

It could have been a spider.

It wasn’t, but it could have been.

And I’m really, really sorry about the bloody gashes on your leg!

Anyway, on to the original purpose of the blog:  Spring!  Time for hope, rebirth, a new beginning… eggs.

Beautiful sterling silver egg pendants with sparkly yolks.  I have added disco chicken, flamingo and bluejay to the traditional mix.  I kiln-formed the dichroic glass cabs myself.

The backs are stamped “SUNNY  SIDE UP”, because sunny side down is grouchy darkness, and who want’s that?

What do you do with your beloved metal lunchbox when it can no longer carry your PB&J to school?  Send it your favorite art jeweler for recycling!  Cass loved her Robot lunchbox and was sad when it needed to be replaced.  Her mom thought it would be cool if we crafted a monster pendant out it.  She was right.

I designed a small, cute monster for Cass and stamped her name on the back.  I put it on a leather cord to keep the monster casual.

This is Cass wearing her monster.  What a cutie!!

This is Cass wearing her monster.

A paper pattern is taped to the argentium sterling silver sheet.  I use a jewelers saw with a very thin blade to cut out the bracelet blank.

Tiny holes are drilled allowing me to insert the saw blade into the middle of bracelet to remove the “spaces”.

Inside and outside edges are filed smooth.

The cuff is hammered for texture and shaped on a bracelet mandrel.

The bracelet is polished and cleaned.

A finished spaces cuff on a wrist, where it looks best!

I was recently asked to make my sterling silver hammered rings pendant with an orange stone, the customer’s favorite color.  We decided to go with an 8mm reddish-orange cubic zirconia to get the color, size and price she wanted.   We also brought the scale down a bit, to suit her small frame and make it more casual.  I was very excited to make this one, because I also love orange and don’t get to work with it very often.  CZ’s really sparkle, so it competes well with the highly reflective hammered surface of the silver.  I love how it came out.

Surprise!  I live in the Denver metro area.  So does the customer.  We are both huge Denver Bronco’s fans.   (If you were a recipient of our 2011 Christmas card, you have seen my family Tebowing.)   When she came to pick up the necklace, she was wearing a blue Bronco’s t-shirt.  Boy oh boy, that pendant looks good with navy.  So good, in fact, I’m going to make one for myself to wear on Sundays with my Bronco’s shirt.