to add more pictures…This necklace was made as part of a set:

I made the chain for the bracelet. It is a simple, but one of my favorite, chainmail weave called Helm Chain. Stone combination and Asian style dragon & phoenix charms tie the set together.

When it comes to making jewelry, I am primarily self-taught. I like to use books as references when I’m learning new techniques. Usually the books are broken down into two main sections: the authors lead in with tools, supplies, & techniques, then include several projects. I typically enjoy and learn more from the first section, and find the project section filled with items that look like a five year-old made them at summer camp.

I recently bought Candie Cooper’s Metalworking 101 for Beaders: Create Custom Findings, Pendants & Projects. I love this book. I wish all of my instructional books were this informative, relevant, and contained such pretty pictures. I’m determined to complete all of the projects, which is a first for me.

My first attempt was the Graceful “S” Clasp multi-strand necklace. I like idea of arranging the strands as you wish; wearing one, two or all three at time, or twisting them together. 

I got into it, spent time filing and grinding away until the clasp and catch rings were, indeed, graceful and smooth. My silver soldering improved as I applied the advice from the book’s techniques section. I fed my pearl addiction, using white rice-shaped freshwater pearls and champagne zircon faceted rondelles. The metal is rich, dark, blackened sterling silver. Here it is:

Also, I arranged the beads so you can wear the clasp in back or on the side:

I would like to thank Candie Cooper for helping me grow. I’ll keep going and post new projects as I finish them.

This quote has a way of picking me up and knocking me down at the same time:

This hour I tell things in confidence,
I might not tell everybody but I will tell you.
[20]
Who goes there! Hankering, gross, mystical, nude?
How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
What is a man anyhow? What am I? and what are you?
All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own,
Else it were time lost listening to me.
I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
That months are vacuums and the ground but wallow and filth,
That life is a suck and a sell, and nothing remains at the end but
   threadbare crape and tears.
Whimpering and truckling fold with powders for
   invalids…conformity goes to the fourth removed,
I cock my hat as I please indoors or out.
 
Shall I pray? Shall I venerate and be ceremonious?
I have pried through the strata and analyzed to a hair,
And counselled with doctors and calculated close and
   found no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
In all people I see myself, none more and not one a
   barleycorn less,
And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
And I know I am solid and sound,
To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
And I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by the carpenter’s compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child’s carlacue cut with a burnt stick at night.
 
I know I am august,
I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by after all.
I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
One world is aware, and by far the largest to me, and that is myself,
And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
My foothold is tenoned and mortised in granite,
I laugh at what you call dissolution,
And I know the amplitude of time.