Jet and jade

As I mentioned in the last entry, the black beads that I put in my watch weren't jet (but some sort of not-quite-jade, instead):

Interestingly, I was calling these jet beads but it turns out they're not. I did buy some jet, but this is not jet, it's "black jade" - which is actually some other stone treated to make it black. It just shows how easy it is to get mixed up - I got it in my head that it was jet, and jet it became. I wasn't intending to sell it anyway, so it doesn't matter for this particular piece, but if I make any more to sell I have to decide if I want to use this same material, or get real jet, or what. I just know I don't want to be the kind of jewelry-seller that sells pseudo-black-jade mislabeled as jet!

I only had one string of these, anyway, and there's not enough to do another one. And for that matter, I don't have another watch face at the moment. I did do a new Fire Mountain order and it has a couple more of a different style in it. I found some that were quite a bit cheaper than this that had Seiko movements in them, so I assume that means they will run ok, and I thought I would try those out. On the other hand, I like this face quite a lot - it has a nice "vintage" feel to it - so I won't rule out buying another one in the future, either. It doesn't have a brand-name on it at all, but so far it runs just fine.

(And that watch is still running fine, a year and a half later. Quartz watches are an amazing thing.)

To sell or not to sell

More of my first flurry of jewelry-making, from back in the dawn of 2008:

I made some more jewelry, but you may be happy to hear that I haven't taken any pictures yet! The latest is a silver(-colored) bracelet made out of these beads. (That site calls those beads spacers, but I made a whole bracelet out of them anyway - I did stick little teeny saucer spacers in between them, but that's it.) It came out really cute - I'm wearing it at this very moment. Actually I was rather pleased with myself because I didn't have a toggle closure that matched the beads at all, and then I had a silver lobster claw that would do, but nothing to fasten it to, and I made my own little split-ring connector to fasten the lobster claw to. It's the first time I've tried that, but it came out okay. It works, anyway, and it doesn't look bad at all.

Then the next day, this:

As I have said, I started making jewelry mostly so I could make it for myself, but I took this to a new height this morning - I actually made a pair of earrings to match my outfit. I put on a turquoise-colored shirt, and then I put on the bracelet that Rob gave me for Valentine's, which is turquoise enamel and silver, and then I thought, "I don't have any earrings that match!" I had already made one pair of turquoise-colored earrings, but they had antique-gold findings so they wouldn't do. But I had a couple more of the Czech glass beads that were the right color and in less than 10 minutes I had a silver pair, too. Luckily I was running early, for once.

I did find that bracelet that Rob gave me - I had a whole little bowl full of stretchy bracelets, and it was in there. It's cute - it's alternating squares of silver and turquoise enamel. Rob always picks out pretty cute jewelry, left to himself. (Usually when he picks out a gift for me, it's either jewelry or a DVD of some movie he knows I liked a lot. And sometimes flowers. I have a nice husband!)

Then a couple of weeks later, this longish bit - which is all jewelry-related so I'm going to give you the whole thing.

Wanna know why I am getting so much into jewelry? It's all Elise's fault. God, I love that necklace. I want to be able to make something like that someday. (And I also would like to be able to sell things that cost $700 and change, incidentally!)

I had a watchface I hadn't made up my mind what to do with, so I made a watchband out of jet beads for that, finally - which I keep forgetting to take pictures of - and last night I made two more bracelets and some earrings. My sister thinks that we should try to get accepted to sell at the Nutcracker Market this fall (big, big gift show held in Houston every November) so obviously I need to get to work. I'm watching very closely about what items I wear that people admire, and so forth. Doing something big like Nutcracker Market is going to be scary when I'm not entirely sure what's going to sell. I really think the little short dangly earrings that I've been making out of Czech beads will sell well to that sort of crowd, though. I guess I just need to make a lot of those in wintry colors and cross my fingers. (Which is not to say that that's all I will make, anyway. I will try out a number of things.)

Incidentally, I was telling my friend Col about my watch with the jet beads and we ended up discussing the Wikipedia entry on jet. (Jet is actually a petrified wood - sort of similar in composition to high-grade coal, oddly.) We is geeks.

Speaking of geeky, I am fascinated by stuff like this: Dino-Era Feathers Found Encased in Amber

Here's the watch, although I noted later that these beads were not actually jet:

I still really like it, jet or not - I had it on today, as a matter of fact.

My sister never did sign us up for the Nutcracker Market, for which I am profoundly thankful. I think it would have been far more stress than I could bear. I had just started making jewelry, for goodness sake - I think it would have been premature to try to sell to an market like that one.