ethora

2010-07-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to announce that three of my tree designs will be featured on the cover of the Uncommon Goods fall catalog! Please visit www.uncommongoods.com to order a copy of this catalog, or to see these trees online.

The trees are:

"Renewal"

"Abundance"

"Seasons"

Have a beautiful day,
Ellen

2010-06-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

I've been searching for two years for rainbow moonstone beads like this, and I finally found some - YAY! This is exactly the tree that I have been dreaming about for two years. It feels magical to behold.

This is why moonstone is called moonstone!

The beautiful patina that you see in the tree above is from oxidizing with black salt and hand polishing. This is the first tree pedant that I have oxidized, and I'm loving it! Here is what this tree looked like before being oxidized:

Normally I craft my moon trees with mother of pearl, which is generally not safe to oxidize, but now that I have this wonderful moonstone I do believe I will be using a lot more black salt in the future.

How to Oxidize Silver Using Black Salt:

1. fill an old coffee mug 3/4 with water,
2. microwave until boiling,
3. dump about a tablespoon of black salt into the hot water and stir,
4. dip your clean silver piece/s into the hot solution,
5. keep dipping and soaking until the desired color is achieved,
6. clean and polish your piece.

* Use in a well ventilated and use gloves.

Sweet Dreams,
Ethora

2010-05-31T21:38:00.001-07:00

All you need is...

What other words would look nice stuck in a tree?

2010-05-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

I love the combination of peridot and labradorite. I see morning light peering trough fresh spring leaves:

2010-04-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

I do believe that this is my favorite moon tree so far:

Recycled silver and mother of pearl - crafted during this week's full moon.

I wish that I could keep it for myself, but it is already spoken for. I do, however, get to keep the picture. :)

Sometimes I get so attached to a piece that I feel sad about saying goodbye to it, and I realize that this is silly. How much jewelry can one woman keep for herself? Anyway, here are a few more pieces that I found difficult to let go:

My favorite tree spirit - petrified wood and recycled silver.

My favorite autumn tree - amber and recycled silver.

My favorite four seasons tree.

But alas, I'll survive and strive to create more trees that meet my standards.

Thanks for looking, and have a beautiful day!

2010-01-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

Recent Prototypes:

I crafted this Tree of Life pendant from recycled sterling silver wire, a faceted garnet bead, creativity, and love. Can you see the word "Love" in its branches? The next tree that I make like this will have an E with its own set of branches (rather than joined with the V).

I purchased this awesome seahorse tutorial because I had to try making a sun out of its spikes! Next time I will add a stone to the middle, and I want to create a more graceful bail.

I've had a sketch for a wire owl up in my studio for over three years, but I'm only now getting around to working on it. He needs embellishments, don't you think?

I was wondering how my trees would look as a bracelet with an Egyptian coil, and I am pleased with the results.

Thanks for stopping by!
Love,
Ellen

2010-01-02T02:26:00.001-08:00

I try to make a full moon tree pendant during each full moon, and this month I got to make TWO of them! YAY! Happy New Year!

Crafted during the first full moon of December 2009
Recycled sterling silver & Mother of Pearl

Crafted during the second full moon of December 2009
"A Blue Moon"
Recycled sterling silver & Amazonite

2010-01-02T02:00:00.000-08:00

2009-07-09T14:11:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of fair trade and Earth friendly rings I recently made. The green is botryoidal jade that was found and cut by a local rock hound, and the gray is a smoky quartz bead made from crystal that was found at a construction site. All stones are wrapped up in recycled sterling silver wire:

More info at my Etsy shop: http://ethora.etsy.com

2009-06-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

My latest custom order tree of life, made of recycled sterling silver, peridot, amethyst, tourmaline, and rose quartz, turned out rather well, if I do say so myself:

And here's a few more recent trees:

The last one is tiny, even smaller than a nickel. I plan to make a tiny tree for each of the seasons. The second to last tree is wire wrapped around a piece of petrified wood. I call these pendants, when I make them, "tree spirits." The third to last trees are repeats of my moon tree and nest tree ideas. You can find them, as well, as some of my other trees, at my Etsy shop: ethora.etsy.com

Thanks for stopping by, now go climb a tree!

2009-06-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

For this year's summer Solstice, I gathered the silver suns that I crafted five summers ago and finally turned them into necklaces! Of course I was wearing my favorite "sun mirror" pendant while doing so:

The first necklace I put together features a substantial chunk of fine silver (PMC) that I stamped with a sun tarot card pattern while it was wet clay. The bead dangling from the extender chain is a sunstone briolette. I'm wondering if I should add some more dangle beads near the card or leave it alone...

The second necklace that I finally finished features a sun with a dark tigereye face surrounded by eight moonstone cabs. I baked these stones in with the PMC! The beads in the chain portion of this necklace are raindbow moonstone and fossilzed whale bone:

Happy Summer, everyone!

2009-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

I call this tree my "Moon Tree," and so far I've made three of them.

2009-05-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

What I did this month:

- opened my Etsy shop
- added 60+ items to my Etsy shop
- finally made a banner I like
- made most of these 60+ items (about 45 or so)
- learned as much as I could about Etsy by immersing myself into the culture (lots of fun!)
- tagged the photos in my flickr account that I wish to be found in searches
- locked the pictures that I do not wish to be seen by customers in my flickr account
- researched marketing (among other things)
- started Facebook page for my jewelry
- started blog (that I've been neglecting, sadly)

Goals for next month:

- figure out how to get noticed on google search
- try out projectwonderful.com
- place ads at craftcult and craftopolis...anywhere else?
- work on my blog
- work on logo art
- renew biz license
- continue adding new items
- and, of course, make more jewelry. I have several new ideas I wish to try out...

2009-05-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished the tree you see here. It's made of reclaimed sterling silver wire (18g, 24g, and 28g) and moss agate beads. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out...especially since it was an experimental tree. Do you see what is different about it?

Take a close look...

I wonder if I can now just breed my own beads?

2009-05-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

Look what fell out of my silver tree:

2009-05-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

I'm laughing because the last time I posted here was three years ago! It's the same thing with Etsy. I opened my Etsy account several years ago but only just opened my store. I'm nearly almost behind the times, but I think I can catch up.

So here I am launching my business full throttle at a time when everyone's sales are slow. I'm not going to let this small fact discourage me, however. It is true that the market is saturated with jewelry, but it is not saturated with *my* jewelry. It is not saturated with lovingly crafted reclaimed precious metal with hand selected natural stones. It is not saturated with jewelry that has inner as well as outer beauty. It is not saturated with my love.

My plan from here on out is to use this blog as a place to chronicle my adventures with metal and stone. I may write up some tutorials. I may feature other artisans. We'll see how it goes. I'm also on Facebook, where I will share pictures of completed pieces, but this is the place where I will let my true jewelry geek shine. Welcome.

Love,
Ellen

2006-01-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

testing 1...1...2...3...5...8...13...21...34...55...89...144...