I’m Back: Hingham Farmer’s Market May – Oct. 2011

After going through a major life change which involved changes at home and in my work life I’ve figured out a way to balance my love of sea glass and jewelry making with the rest of my personal and professional responsibilities. I am happy to say I will be showing my work at the Hingham Farmer’s Market at least once a month starting in May of 2011. This time, my aunt will be joining me and adding an entire new dimension to the sea glass. While all of our pieces will have sea glass and I still focus on wire wrapping using recycled sterling silver, my aunt has a great sense of color and uses beads to compliment the wire wrapped sea glass. I’ll be posting pictures again soon as well as sharing more about the hunt. It’s a warm spring day and the sea glass is calling!

WHERE:

Hingham Farmers Market

WHEN:

MAY: 5/14 
JUNE: 6/11                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    JULY: 7/23 
AUGUST: 8/13                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        SEPTEMBER: 9/10                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        OCTOBER: 10/1    & 10/15   & 10/29 

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Sea Glass Ornaments and Jewelry at the Holly Hill Farm, Sat. Dec. 4, 2010

My aunt is a wonderful jewelry and will be displaying her work this Sat. I’ll have my sea glass ornaments and bookmarks for sale. My aunt will have her necklaces, many with sea glass pendants and some without. We’re calling ourselves “The Family Jewels” and hope to see you this Sat. Here are some pictures of our work and at the bottom there’s a link so you can get information about the Holly Hill Farm Fair.

Holly-Day Fair, December 4 from 11 am to 3pm

In addition to featuring local artists, there will be activities for children, live music, yummy food all in a historic New England farm setting.  The fair is being held inside the greenhouse and admission is free. A portion of all proceeds goes to support the farm’s mission and work.  Here are some pictures of the jewelry and the ornaments and bookmarks we’ll be selling on Saturday below. To see more of my aunt’s work check out this site which is under construction but has some nice pictures: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze15h0al/ Holly Hill Farm is located at 236 Jerusalem Road, Cohasset, MA http://www.hollyhillfarm.org/hhf/f?p=hhf:hhfhome:3724031665690030 Hope to see you Saturday!

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Returning to the Sea

I sorted through pounds of sea glass in the last few months.

It has been a time of transition in my personal life. I have d-cluttered with the same energy I nested with when I became a mother. Now though I am pairing down. Everywhere I seem to see where I have collected, held, saved and clung to so much. Too much. More than I want or need.

I cleared the closet of the white blouse I wore at dinner the night before I was married as well as the pink sandals I wore. I got rid of the platform sandals I wore with my wedding dress. I even gave away the red and gray flannel shirt I wore the day my Nana died. It always made me think of the day she died and not of her or her life. So, with so much clearing and with new eyes I looked at my collection.

In my early days of collecting I picked up every piece of teal or aqua or purple I found regardless of how rough the edges were or how clear the glass was. At first I held on to every piece saying, “I can use these to show the difference between ready and uncooked sea glass.” Then I thought these less than jewelry quality pieces could be used for mosaics or wind chimes.

But, years later, I have decided I need not hold to what if. If what if happens I will find what I need. So, I went to beach with a full bucket of sea glass. There were bottle necks that were sharp and bottle tops and clear glass with letters or numbers that made them seem as though I must grab them.

And in truth, there was the hunger, the type which can’t be filled unless it is overfed. Instead of waiting, trusting and knowing I’ll find the pieces that are ready when they and I are ready, I rushed and filled my hands too soon with junk that wasn’t quite what I wanted or needed.

So, there will be more sea glass in future years for me and other hunters. Maybe I will recognize an old piece or two. My daughter who was with me wants to check the beach daily to see how much the glass has transformed and how far the ocean will pull each piece. We will let the ocean do her magic and appreciate the clear space where there is enough room to figure what is needed next.

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My Aunt’s Amazing Work

Check this out!!!!

My aunt has only been beading for a few months and has incredible talent. And she’s only been sea glass wire wrapping for weeks and has made a few wire wraps. But, can you see how pretty the sea glass is and how nice it looks against a pale palette? There are no two ways to make art. There are lots of similar styles and people certainly borrow ideas from each other. But, the act of creation makes each and every piece unique and when someone adds their own flair it just shines. I love this!

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Sea Glass Wire Wrapped on a Shell

My aunt came for a visit the week before last. I showed her some basic wire wrapping techniques. She’s been making incredible jewelry with beads. She has an eye for color and detail and I’m sure this is because she is a painter. Anyhow, she found an ivory pendant that had a shell shine. She wire wrapped a piece of sea glass and the teal color looked incredible against the off-white background. It was so pretty. She made a necklace with the same off-white tones as well as adding more color. It was a stand-out piece.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to making sea glass jewelry. I’ll ask her to take a picture of her necklace and see if I can post it here.

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Playing with Sea Glass in the Winter

There are small bits of pottery shards in one bowl. There are light blue, purple and white pieces of milk glass in a vase. In tiny candle holders are my prized bits of red sea glass as well as a larger bowl with all of the dark blue glass. On the fireplace mantle there is a collection of bottle necks in mostly thick white (all sizes) as well as some blue, brown and green and one turquoise one as well).

These bits of sea glass hanging around my living room as the wind chills through a closed window and the snow accumulates warm my spirit. It’s a harsh feeling winter and the light and bright colors are a boost. I haven’t been creating much jewelry but I’ve been touching and moving around sea glass and it feels good. There’s a pile of sea glass and huge shells together on what I think was originally meant to be a cake display plate.

I LOVE SEA GLASS!!!!!!!!

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Mosaics

I love sea glass. But as most beach combers do, I admire the funky shaped and colored rocks, the huge or unusual shells and the pottery shards I find when sea glass hunting. I’ve kept my pottery shards in bowls. I don’t have the same desire to wire wrap them as I do the sea glass. They often capture an amazing color and other times have wonderful graphics of houses, flowers or scenes once on tea cups or plates. I’ve added pottery shard pieces to wind chimes and jewelry but I’ve been considering making a colorful mosaic table top. Most of the pieces are not completely flat though. Anyhow, I’ve browsed the web looking at what work is out there and what captured me most was the mosaic work done by many artists. Some of these are glass pieces cut by hand and made into paintings. See what you think. It’s inspired me to look at my pottery shard collection with fresh eyes and if I go from brainstorming to actual creation stage I’ll post photos.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37018520 Treasure Chest

 http://ucmmuseum.com/shards2.htm

 http://www.mozaicdesigns.com/

 http://www.mosaicsphere.com/gallery.html

 http://www.mosaicsphere.com/gallery_tables.html

 http://www.mosaic-witsend.com/WE_Featured_artist.htm

 http://flowersoup.com/works/267997

 http://tallerperdomo.com.mx/Public%20Art.html

 http://www.truemosaics.com/forsale.html

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Sea Glass: My Christmas Tree Ornaments

O.k., so these ornaments have been a blast to make. They are fun and fairly simple but require some chunky pieces of sea glass. So far, the triangle shapes work best. I know some trees are more round but they don’t seem to translate that shape and look winterish when I attempt a rounder shape. you’ll see one or two photos below where I’ve tried.

Also, for many of the trees I did use some gold coated copper wire which is a departure from my usual recycled sterling silver. These are so fun because they can be hung on a tree, in a window, attached to a pin and worn on a coat and I’ve left a bale for those who want to wear them as necklaces. They are fun and unique gifts and I’ve enjoyed making them. Here are my recent creations. At this time of year, I get bogged down in the crafting and have trouble maintaining my blog. I apologize to those of you who check my site regularly. I like to post weekly at least and it seems monthly is what I’m getting to do.

Here are some photos of the trees.

I sell my trees from $9.99 to $14.99 depending on the size/shape of the sea glass and color as well as the sterling silver used and the beads/crystals. I want them to be affordable as the economy is hitting people so hard this year.

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Sea Glass Ornaments: Trees, Angels and Glass in Glass

I usually despise holiday shopping and music and decorations before Thanksgiving so you can imagine how I feel doing it BEFORE  Halloween. But this year, people are shopping EXTRA early, spreading out costs and already buying holiday stuff.

So, if you are a craft person you also know you have to start making items early. Holiday fairs (for selling or buying) come earlier and earlier. This year, I am making several styles of holiday trees than ever as well as my traditional angels and glass ornaments. 

What’s fun about these is you can use gold coated copper or colorful craft wire. That can be fun. While I try to use recycled sterling silver almost exclusively in my jewelry it is fun to play with other colors of wire when making ornaments. It’s also fun to see how the trees look with different glass and crystal beads. I love how the white milk glass below looks too but I’m not sure I can part with these precious pieces.

What are your favorite handmade and unusual ornaments?

Here are some trees.

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Sea Glass Crafts: Bookmarks

An easy and fun sea glass craft is the making of book marks. One reason I like them so much is that they are practical and make great gifts. Almost everyone reads something. Plus, they use smaller pieces of sea glass and look nice with beads or charms. They are not always easier than pendants to make because you are using small glass. However, they are more forgiving than pendants because if the wire doesn’t end up EXACTLY at the center when finishing off the bale it doesn’t ruin the look the way it can with a pendant.

What you need:

book mark finding (the ones with jump rings already on them are handy)

craft wire

sea glass

(beads are optional)

You wire wrap your sea glass and can hang it from craft wire to the jump ring on the bookmark or coil the wire, twist it, add beads or some charms. See below for some samples. The best way is to practice and get comfortable bending the wire, figuring out which gauge (thickness of wire) you like working with (I like 22 gauge some people like thicker or thinner). Here are some samples of recent work available at the Hingham Farmers Market on Saturdays and/or the Coop in Hingham during the week.

You can see that sometimes I hammer the sterling silver wire at the bottom and other times add a small peace charm. Sometimes I use more than one piece of sea glass in a bookmark. The wire, I find, can be more expensive than the actual bookmark finding if I use too much. So, for me, learning to use less wire is one of my crafting goals for the fall and winter and 2010. I am a huge fan of recycled sterling silver (like the green aspect, the cost and the texture of the wire) and I need to conserve how much I actually need in any piece.

 

Anyhow, have fun making your own sea glass bookmarks. Mine sell for $7.99 to $12.99 depending on how much silver I use, the color of the sea glass and the condition it is in, if I add crystal or sterling silver charms. It’s nice to have one item at least at a reasonable price point for customers who like sea glass but can’t afford or don’t know what color/style the sea glass lover in their life enjoys.

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