I come to you today with my new, ‘stepped up’ pieces of jewelry which now I actually think of as being more ‘stepped out’.

They kind of happened when I wasn’t paying attention.

Which I highly recommend.

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I’m a very anal creative.

With the pottery, with the quilt making, and with the jewelry making, I like to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s, and will often go back, even when something’s finished to fix something that, in my opinion, is just not quite right.

Can be annoying.

Also, I don’t think it’s necessarily always a good thing.

Sometimes you’ve just got to let yourself go.

It all started with a ring that a lady had asked me to make for her, but which we could never really decide on.

She liked this, but I couldn’t find a similar stone.

I also thought that perhaps all the little leaf things would catch on other non-leaf things when she wore it.

Looking at it now I’m not so sure.

So I cut quite a lot of stones and made up a few settings, which I consequently made into necklaces.

I didn’t mind doing this as I’ve been needing some help getting into the studio.

I really like this setting. It’s clean with a little interest and it highlights the stone nicely.

India Black Skin and Larsonite are now two of my favourite stones.

I next cut a nice piece of dendritic opal.

And this is where it all went wrong.

And right.

I admit I was at a loss for making the ring and when I feel that I’m not able to do something I tend to self sabotage.

It’s not going to work anyway, right? So why pay attention.

This happened while I wasn’t paying attention.

I had made a cuff the day before, but I didn’t like it. I did like the melted edges, however, so I decided to make my favourite setting with the same edges.

And as I’m a slow learner I soldered the bezel collar to the sheet first.

Not smart.

I managed to melt the edges of the sheet o.k.

Along with the collar.

Frustrated I just decided to leave it and make the most of it.

I was kind of liking the rough and ready, Capt’n Jack Sparrow look to it anyway.

Don’t ask.

It just reminds me of him.

Pirates in general really.

So I improvised around the collar, in the back of my mind thinking that it might turn out o.k. after all, but at the same time not holding my breath.

I knew it wasn’t going to be a ring as it was just too big, so a brainwave later, I decided to put the whole darn thing on the ugly cuff.

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Still on a bit of a downer after dad.

Everything’s ugly.

Or dark.

In-between nice shiny bits of lovely.

It’s a work in progress.

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Bottom line is that I kind of liked it.

It’s funky and statementy and more out there than what I’m used to, but it may just be exactly what I need right now.

Not that anal isn’t necessary at times, but I need a change.

So I made it a friend.

And then decided to make it some cousins.

Here’s a ring.

And another ring.

Seen here at their group photo op.

Pretty darn big rings really.

And here’s their second cousin once removed.

Which isn’t as deep, dark and seductive as it is in this photo.

See.

For some reason certain stones just want to mess up the whole show.

So in a sense I think I have stepped it up.

In that out of the box way.

Although I do tend to suspect that my inside self is more big, bold and colourful than my outside self gives up.

And so I’ll leave you here to go out to make more.

After I’ve cleaned the cat litter.

Bloody cats pooh anytime they want to…

😉

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