I love the puns that people use in naming a beach house

Each necklace has a piece of sea glass or chalcedony, a sealife charm, and stamped phrase like "beach babe" or "by the sea." 


I used my newest set of letter stamps which are tiny lowercase letters.  They're especially hard to stamp perfectly straight, so I am embracing the whimsical look that results.  These are headed to the shop downtown, but feel free to email me if you'd like something similar.  I can customize the phrase I stamp if you prefer your kids' names or (ahem) the name of *your* beach house.

I have made hundreds of necklaces for moms and grandmothers representing their families.  Stamped discs and other shapes, one tag per name or all the names on one like this grandmother's tag. (This is her son's family and her daughter's family was on a second tag.)


I really like the look of initials with a dot border...


... so I decided to make one for myself now that we have Bowen.  Except if I do my children's initials it's either a type of tampon (OB) or body odor (BO - also that looks like just Bowen's name).  So I thought I'd add Steve's initials to make an odd number, but if I put them in order of appearance in my life it makes SOB.  Add in my own initials and people are going to think I'm really into Japanese noodles.


So back to square one with just my kids' names...  I could collectively refer to them as Bolivia.  Or oboe.  And so it goes... The cobbler's kids remain barefoot and I don't have a stamped name necklace to wear.

Mother's Day is coming up, so please don't wait until May to request a personalized necklace for a mom in your life.

So after I wrote about the 800th earrings it took me another day before I started wondering how many necklaces I was up to.  (Seriously. I don't have time to notice stuff like this.)  Here is a necklace in the current grouping I'm prepping for the shop, N900. 


That's right, the nine HUNDREDTH necklace I have inventoried.  This just blows my mind because it doesn't even count the dozens (hundreds?) of stamped personalized necklaces, like this one I did last week with my new handprint and footprint tags.


My daughter has been bringing home sweet little handprint artwork from preschool, and the little foot reminds me of the "fingerprinting" they did on my son as a newborn.  This necklace is for someone else, but that reminds me I still need to add a "Bowen" tag to my "Olivia" necklace.  What is that saying about the cobbler's kids having no shoes?

I like to share when I have a project that touches my heart.  This time it was for a woman named Debbie who, with her husband, started an orphanage in Haiti that has helped save the lives of countless children since it opened in 2008. Watching this informational video absolutely brought me to tears, and I am so proud of the work they are doing.

Debbie commissioned me to make special thank-you gifts for the volunteers who have traveled multiple times to Haiti to help out with the orphanage.  Together we designed these pendants (with angel wing charms) for the ladies and keychains for the guys that read the name of the orphanage, Helping Hatian Angels.

I like to share about custom orders that have a story behind them. A few years ago my friend Josh suggested I make jewelry from tattoo images.  I pshaw-ed him at the time, picturing skulls and dragons, until I discovered henna tattoos.  I never did anything with that (the idea is still filed away for a rainy day!) but I was recently contacted to design a piece for a woman whose husband's tribal-style tattoo bears the initials of their children: K, G, and W.  Their friend who commissioned the piece sent me this picture of the tattoo to use.  No problem, right?

After playing around with the image in Photoshop I created a Custom Texture Sheet (tutorial here) and rolled my PMC over the top.  Bada bing, bada boom:


If you want to hear more "Behind the Jewelry" stories, click here or on the "Custom" label below. 

Custom Texture Sheets for Metal Clay or Polymer Clay

You can read about my initial foray into etching in earlier posts, saltwater and acid.  I finally had the time to do the real commissioned piece, and my customer chose the chiseled font (which we agreed looks better with her initials than a script).  However, that also meant I needed to find a way to transfer the image from my computer onto the surface of the copper to act as a resist.  Because I have known how to etch in theory for years, I also have a collection of websites with helpful info.  This one explains how to use a printer or photocopier for image transfer, and it worked successfully.  This piece looks pretty on its new owner with her beautiful red hair.  Copper is so perfect for fall, and this is a unique monogram pendant that is not available in stores.

My friend Trice, who sews and will monogram anything that isn't nailed down (and does a great job), sent me this picture and asked if I could make her one.  I could tell it is a copper pendant, most likely etched.  In theory I can do copper etching, and I have the bookmarked web pages to prove it, but in reality I had never tried it.  Most of my customers want this type of look in silver, so I normally use PMC with a custom texture sheet.  (Note to self: write a tutorial for that.)

I wanted to try salt water etching because I aim to be The Lazy Etcher, so I'd prefer to just pour the solution in the sink when I'm finished and "chase it down with plenty of water," as my organic chem professor used to say.  I dragged my husband, whom I met in that o-chem lab, to Radio Shack to obtain a single D cell battery holder and a couple of alligator clips.  I noted that The Shack also carries ferric chloride in case this method didn't work.  (Ferric chloride just needs baking soda to neutralize it anyway, not that bad.)  I also noted the irony that it's usually the husband dragging the wife to Radio Shack.  Thank you for not being an electronics geek, sweetie.

Which of these does not belong? 

$30 Pendant necklaces

Fresh snow blankets the ground.  A sparrow perches nearby on a crab apple branch, waiting for the blue jay to leave so she can have a turn at the feeder.

I love twigs.  I love berries.  I love birds.  Is it any surprise that my newest option in stamped jewelry is a combination of those things? 

These bird & branch tags can be personalized with your children's names along the edge, and I can apply the design to most of the shapes and materials listed on this page.

Steve and I just visited the Outer Banks, and for a couple days it poured down rain. So I was on the sofa with my laptop, doing a little web surfing and, more notably, writing the Spinning Wheel Pendant Tutorial.

Riveting is fun, especially tube-riveting (because I find it easier than wire-riveting). It may seem like a long list of tools and supplies, but many of them are basic jeweler's tools or items you can find at a hardware store, and you can buy the kit ($20 including the tutorial) if you want to skip the drill, saw, and file steps. It's a great way to dress up a basic stamped name necklace for a new level of cool Mom Jewelry.

I have other *riveting* tutorial projects up my sleeve, including one with PMC and another that covers wire rivets, so stay tuned!

Mother's Day is right around the corner, so I've been a busy bee making stamped pendants for gift-giving. Oh, and that little full-time job of being a mom. But, I've also started getting orders for graduation gifts.

This set is for a French IV class, the first group of kids this young teacher has had through the whole set of French classes. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day the teacher had the students write in their journals about their thoughts as they face graduation and life beyond. The title of the journal entry was to be Mon rêve, which means 'my dream', so the teacher had me stamp sterling tags with this phrase -- pendants for the girls and keychains for the guys. Hopefully the students will remember both their dreams and their beloved teacher.

I'm slowly emerging from the fog of new-parenthood to tackle the pile of orders on my desk and tell you about my new set of lowercase alphabet stamps in a fun, whimsical typeface called Kismet.

I also added a new tag shape (this copper washer) and a keychain option under chains.

Mother's Day will be here before you know it, and a creative gift idea for moms (or grandmothers) is personalized jewelry bearing the kids' names.

You can read about the options for my stamped jewelry here and other personalized jewelry here.

I wish you all a happy weekend full of spring-like weather like we're having here in Virginia. No offense to February, but good riddance to winter!

Website update: I created a new page for stamped jewelry, accessible from the Custom Jewelry page or by clicking here. I figured it would be a better way to give people an idea about pricing and options before emailing me for a quote.

This piece is made from rich low brass, which is an economical alternative to gold (currently trading at $918.50). Coulson and Charlie are my friend Val's kids.

Speaking of Charlies, if you haven't seen the "Charlie Bit Me" video, you owe it to yourself to watch it.

"Mom" isn't the only word appropriate for Mother's Day (May 11). Don't forget the other gals in your life who are also mothers!

These are customizable, so I can add a crystal birthstone on the bottom or stamp a leaf/spiral/flower below the letters.

One of my clients wanted me to come up with samples for personalization, so I thought I'd share them with you as well.

This is not limited to names, of course. I've seen everything from "Bad Hair Day" to a pet tag that says "Queen of Farts."

More information is available on my Custom Jewelry page.