Wedding Gift Necklace

This one is special...

A sweet friend of mine got married and I made this necklace for her so she can "wear" her new last name with her...

 The copper oval has the date and name and each of the sterling tags has their first initial...

 I need a model so I can take photos of our things on a person.  My husband does a great job but I'm not exactly model material ---I'd rather be behind the camera taking the photos.  

But I know, as a shopper, I want to get an idea of how it looks while someone is wearing it.  

Still working on that...

I try to be extra careful not to share photos of things that are gifts until they've been "given" but then sometimes it's hard to remember to share it once it's ok....
The date on this one gives it away ---
I've been sitting on this one awhile and it needs to go in the Etsy shop as well.  
Working on that too!

Mother's Necklace

 One of the many versions of the Mother's Necklaces I make...

 I also realized I had to do a separate "action" for watermarking the vertical photos so this was a good time to practice...

 I typically end up using mostly horizontal style photos I think mostly because they fit a little better in the blog postings but it's nice to have a variety of image styles....

 I also discovered how to use my original camera lens to get better photos...

I love the 50mm lens but sometimes I have trouble getting a sharp focus with the jewelry just because it's so small...

Leather Belt with Hand Forged Belt Buckle

This belt went to my Father-in-Law for Father's Day....

we were just a little late getting it to him....

Hit a couple of snags along the way.

My husband decided to try to blacksmith the belt buckle...

I think it turned out really cool...

I love that you can see all the hammer marks and that it has all that texture....

Then he added it to a leather belt that he finished with Tan dye and finishing wax. 

The buckle gets handstitched on with some waxed linen thread....

I think his Dad was really surprised by it and liked it alot...

Not sure if we'll offer this on Etsy or not....

But I made my husband model it anyways and for those of you who know him well you'll get a kick out of that--

Leather Couple's bracelet

 We made a trip to Tandy leather to buy some supplies we wanted to try with our Etsy goods...

 My new dye color is this dandelion yellow...

oooo & ahhhh right????

It's actually called "Sunshine Yellow"

 And I bought a couple of these cool clasps that snap down like a watch band closure....

love these too so far.

I'll be testing out the macaroni prototype to see how they hold up.  

A little 1/4" x 1/2" sterling silver plate with our initials stamped on it...

Handstitched on with some waxed linen thread...

The possiblities are endless....

Five Name Mother's Necklace

A new necklace I made for an Etsy customer....

I think due to Mother's Day I had a few sales...

This customer requested two names on the largest pendant so five names total....

I hope that whomever will be wearing this will enjoy wearing their family close to their heart....

Mother's Leather Wrap bracelet

Mother's day is coming....fast and furious...

I made up this bracelet for my sister to give as a gift....

I am still trying to find my way around Etsy...

And figure out how best to do photos that show all the right details.

I love to shop on Etsy so it helps to think about what I like to see when I'm shopping since you're online and not holding the product in your hands...

I think I need to start adding links to this blog so I can offer additional photos for people to see...

We've sold a couple of things and the booth has been fun for it's first month too--

Flea marketed yesterday at one of our favorite spots and found some fun treasures....

I'll share some photos soon...

Thin Leather Wrap Bracelet

I did a post a few weeks ago with a new style of leather bracelet I made.  

See that post here...

I added two 1/2" letter charms (one sterling and one copper) to that one...

This is another version and I love this too...

I cut a strip of tooling leather about 1/8" wide then added a small, metal fold-over crimped end cap to each end...

and a magnetic closure.

This bracelet I used a copper washer with the initials "A" and "L"
The brass and sterling washers would look really sharp too with the tan colored leather dye---
a nice personalized gift...
This is available in our Etsy store (link at the top on the right)

4 Name Mother's Necklace New style

A new style mother's necklace and I'm thrilled with how it turned out....I have been holding this post back until the necklace was given as a gift and now I can finally share!

 Four charms is usually about the limit that I can fit on without compromising the design...

It starts to look "crowded" and it's harder to see or read the information. 

 I also really like the idea of representing the marriage along with the kids.  

Just a personal preference really....

I think it is all too easy as a mom to forget sometimes that your marriage comes first...

Four children's names and their anniversary date on just 3 charms...

and it still has a very simple design...

I love it!
This necklace will now be available in our Etsy shop (see the link back at the top on the right) to personalize and purchase....

Wedding Gift Bracelet

 We spent this past week end in Atlanta, GA for a wedding...

My husband's cousin had a very beautiful, simple outdoor wedding...

 So I made her this simple, thin, leather wrap bracelet with their initials in hammered copper and sterling silver....
I have been messing around with this thin style bracelet and have a few more ideas I'll be sharing here soon....

A nice magnetic closure at the back.  

Which is great for getting it on by yourself--when the ends get close to each other they snap together on their own.

Grandmother's Necklace

 A hand stamped sterling, brass, and copper necklace with the names of her grand kids....

 A little seed pearl for some added interest...

Another personalized gift item made for a Grandmother----

Hand Stitched Leather Wallet

 A young man we know just graduated from firefighting academy. 
His parents wanted one of our hand stitched leather wallets to give him as a gift....

 My husband made this one, and it turned out much nicer than our first attempt I think....  

Working out some of the kinks....

 He didn't mold this one as much as he did the first.  Just used a stack of several cards to shape it instead of using the wood mold .....

This is a smaller version of the cell phone wallet we make....
A nice "Guy" gift for the man in your life...