My brief career as a photographer - Or...Don't Give Up Your Day Job

New necklace...finally finished with a lot of help from my friends on the About.com forum.  How to take a picture of it was a problem.  The curved sterling tubes need to hang properly to show it properly and the necklace didn't show up well on my black display board. No willing necks available.
No problem - take it outside and use the rough boards as contrast.  Of course it's raining and the rough boards are also wet and muddy. 

This picture does absolutely no justice to the colours.  The orangy stones were labeled as Dragons Veins and they are gorgeous, running the entire yellow to orange spectrum.  Together with the turquoise and mauve (with hints of orange) they just look like summer, which is why I call the necklace Beach Weather.
The colours show up better in this picture, especially the Dragon Veins and the fluorite focal.
The necklace sells for $40 and the photography is free.  I do not do weddings.

Still On The Chain Maille

Well, I took the plunge, and used my Koil Kutter (with the new blade, unsullied by steel) to cut a whole pile of argentium jump rings.  Figuring out the size of the rings needed was very difficult because the required math seems to have taken a holiday.  Carol at Beaded-Baubles .com has created a beautiful pattern that she calls Coda.

This is a variation of her pattern, which, I think, is a variation of the Helm chain. 

I was too anxious to get a picture and did my photography at night.  Not a good idea.  You can't see the sparkle of the argentium silver (92.5% silver, same as sterling, but low tarnish).  Amazingly, every speck of dust on my board, too small to be seen with the naked eye (my naked eye, anyway) shows up in incredible detail.

I call this piece Infinite Seasons because of the obvious circle motif and the gorgeous peridot green Swarovski crystal leaf contrasted by the burnished copper leaf.

This is a better shot of the leaves, showing the beautiful play of colours on the copper and some of the chain detail.  It's also another great shot of the dust.
This necklace is a little over 17 inches long and contains an ounce of argentium silver.  Argentium has 92.5% silver, same as sterling, but where sterling is alloyed with copper, argentium is alloyed with germanium, increasing the resistance to tarnish.
This necklace is sold.

A Small Holiday

I spent two weeks visiting family and, of course, it's taken me two weeks to catch up with everything that piled up while I was away.  I now have a new grandson, named Cian.  He was born a little early and is still in the hospital but God willing, will be home soon.