Beads, Bangles, and Turquoise

I love bangle bracelets; I always have. There are sorts I like better than others of course; I prefer the thicker ones to thin - although I have had some thin ones I like. I love my David Yurman bracelets that so effortlessly combine gold with sterling silver that even I don't feel like I'm clashing (I'm Ms. Monochromatic when it comes to clothing). I'm really fond of these large rectangles. I first got the gemstone rectangles in carnelian, then jade, and now these blue quartz (not glass). This is really a heavenly shade of blue. I had to put some of Burt Gumeson's lampwork beads with it to make a bangle that really looked put together. I'm fairly happy with the result. It's not for everyone, but it is an especially pretty bracelet.

These lampwork beads were such a peculiar colour that I kept looking at them and wanting to use them. I don't really use copper (the metal) in my designs, but if I did, I think these would have done well with copper. The beads are a rather muted metallic coppery colour with orange and pink "bumps." Now I love orange and pink together (shades of the 'sixties) so maybe that's what drew me to these. One thing that I like about this bangle is that there is no disputing that the lampwork beads are the focal point of this piece of jewelry.


Summer just screams coral and turquoise to me - not necessarily together, but they do work together. I really like this coral and turquoise bracelet and am very happy with the way that it turned out! That probably means that it won't sell because half the time the pieces I am delighted with are not always the ones that are a hit with buyers. C'est la vie!
You can find the bracelets here at my website:Bangle Bracelets or here: Turquoise Bracelets, and both are on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.


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Nights in Babylon

I've been working with my favorite for jewelry this week: gold. Or in this case, vermeil (24 karat gold layered over sterling silver) or 14 karat goldfilled.
The bracelet that you see above is from my "Babylonian" collection. I call it that because of the bright gold, lapis, turquoise, and carnelian which all remind me of the Mesopotamian art from Biblical times. The gold used in those works of art, artifacts, and jewelry is as pure as it can be and still retain its shape so that it is a dark bright colour like vermeil. I also used a bit of wirework with 14 karat goldfilled wire for something just a bit different. I love the look of gold with gemstones although I know that sterling silver is what is currently in vogue. Of course, I've had to incorporate some of my favorite lampwork beads as well.

Another Babylon bracelet mixes just lapis and carnelian together. I love the colours in this carnelian, and the lapis I've gotten lately is of good quality with just the right sprinkling of pyrite (fool's gold) throughout so that it has the glittery look in the light that I admire.

I also love sunstone - what's not to love. It's a peachy to coral colour and it GLITTERS because of chatoyancy or Schiller effect. Very good sunstone is so expensive, but I got some okay sunstone (it has chatoyancy) and had to play with it a bit.

To see this jewelry and more, go to Cluny Grey Jewelry or check for some on auction on Ebay under user id: chloemarie99 or do a search for Cluny Grey.

Another jewelry blog: If you are interested in Jewelry (yes, with a capital "J") check out Zsolt Balla's blog Modern Jewelry from Budapest, Hungary. It has lots of information on jewelry and jewelry styles and fashions.

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Tourmaline, Turquoise, and My Bracelets de La Semaine

I've been trying to work with different gemstones, since I am so bad about getting onto one and using and reusing it (I've been doing that with turquoise). In an effort to be a bit different, I've used tourmaline - not my favorite gemstone because good tourmaline is just too expensive, and I seldom see it cut in a way that I want to use and that I can afford to use as well. But I did get some pretty tourmaline from Spain with lots of pink in it, green, and very little black. I threw in some of the highest quality labradorite rondelles that I had (tons of blue flash) and used one of my labradorite nuggets with good blue flash, made three strands, braided them, and I'm pretty happy with the result.

I've been playing with turquoise as you can see, and here are some of the results of my play. I tried it with pearls (above) and lampwork beads, muscovite and lampwork beads, and even green quartz and lampwork beads. The lampwork beads are by Burt Gumeson and James Derrick Reeves, two of my favorite lampworkers. The pearls are freshwater, and the metal components, charms, clasps, beads, are all sterling silver. Hmmm, I'm going to have to put a picture of a turquoise bracelet with gold (or vermeil) because I think that while turquoise and sterling silver are classic, gold is fantastic with turquoise and gives it a richness that reminds me of ancient romantic places, Babylon, Sumer, Ur, Egypt.

By the way, if you are intersted in beading and other crafts, check out Elifce's blog where she demonstrates with video - and even has some video of her hometown in Turkey! Look on my sidebar under Elifce's for her ecraft.blogspot.com.
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Playing with Pearls

This week I've been playing with pearls (if you can't tell). I especially love silver pearls, but except for the silver, I really didn't play with any of the coloured pearls I have. I really wanted to work only with my freshwater white pearls in different shapes and sizes, but as usual I got sidetracked because I think that both navy and black look so good with silver. and these silver freshwater pearls have a beautiful nacre, so it seemed a shame not to use them. The top bracelet features the very special lampwork beads that I don't get to buy that often, but that I love because of the way they are laced with metallic silver. I decided on 3 strands for the bracelet to counteract the delicacy of the pearls and to carry off the lentil lampwork beads, threw in some great "shadow" Swarovski crystal, and a lot of Karen Hill Tribes silver.
I've loved coral since about 1976 when I had a fabulous coral and navy necklace (the coral was a bright peach) that looked fantastic against a tan. Coral and pearls are classic and rather Victorian; throwing in the silver modernizes this bracelet quite a bit. I made a similar version with gold and 4 strands instead of 3.

Great iolite nugget beads inspired this bracelet. Iolite is so hard to get a good picture of! I can never get the depth and translucence of the stones to show through. The iolite looks great with the silver pearls - take my word for it.
And finally, pearls and... genuine sapphires! They are not gem-quality, of course, and they are opaque, but they look wonderful with white pearls and the ornate sterling silver beads and charms. I'm happy with the earrings also.
Some of these are on auction on Ebay this week: user id: chloemarie99 or search for Cluny Grey or check out the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.

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Labradorite: Nature Getting Flashy!

I love good labradorite! When I say good labradorite, I mean labradorite with lots and lots of that gorgeous blue flash! Between the dark colour and the bright flash, I can easily associate labradorite with Labrador, the place where it was first discovered (the Native Indians of Labrador called it "firestone"). The play of colour is known as the Schiller effect.
I got some great labradorite nuggets lately with lots of fire and flash. I especially love the longer nuggets like the one on the chain bracelet, and the chunkier ones (one on the other bracelet; I have more that I haven't made into anything yet).
The chain bracelet ("Unchain the Light") is one of my favorites since it shows the Schiller effect wonderfully, and the chains of oxidised sterling silver (from the Thai Karen Hill Tribes) give it a special look, but one that would work everyday.
The second double strand bracelet also features a silver-laced lampwork bead by Lisa Sharik of Texas.

These and other pieces can be seen in the Ebay store also: Studio G; userid: chloemarie99 or do a simple search for Cluny Grey.
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The Colour of the Week is - PINK!

I am constantly fixing on a colour and getting fixated! This week the colour was pink - or the pink tones. I got some new pink zebra jasper that actually has somewhat of a peachy tone to it, so I decided to match it with some of the pink Peruvian opals that I have that have more of a peach cast also. The real catalyst were these beads from Irene Collier (a lampwork bead artist) that are perfectly made. Then, since I was using pink anyway, I started looking over the lampwork beads and pulled out the rose quartz to go with a fabulous floral bead from James Derrick Reeves that I have been saving. Two strands later, I still was in a pink mood, so I decided to combine the pink Peruvian opal and the rose quartz with some great pink "Jewels" (lampwork beads from Burt Gumeson). Today I made myself go for the Indian agate, ocean jasper and aventurine (mostly greenish gemstones) just to make sure I didn't overdose on the pink!


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Roxo, морав цвят, Opgave,Púrpura, Hensikt, Purpurarauður, Purperrood, It's All PURPLE!!

Once again, I am in the thrall of purple. How did this happen? Easily. Amethysts from Spain. Nice chunky, faceted amethysts from Spain. Dark purple amethysts - very high quality. Wonderfully light purple faceted chunky amethysts, a bit lower in quality, but I think I like them better because of the great depth they have - and because they are a bit bigger. I love faceted, chunky stones that remind me of the fairy tales I read as a child. When I envisioned a Princess having her weight matched in rubies - those rubies were not nicely faceted little round ones. They were big faceted chunks of tranlucent rubies. Emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, all the coloured stones were the most appealing and the richest. So when I got these amethysts from Spain, I had to use them right away. I had some lampwork, too, that was a pretty purple, so what was I waiting for?
The bracelet above is the first result, and the necklace and earrings below the second. I really like the earrings since they have amethyst cabochons set in silver below the big chunks, then little dangles. The necklace is a lariat style with one of the prettiest sterling silver toggle clasps in the form of a swirling leaf; another chunky amethyst dangles from it.
The other purple stones include charoite, sugilite, crazy lace agate, and lepidolite. The sterling silver is from the Thai Karen Hill Tribes and from Bali.
By the way, how many languages in the title can you recognize without looking them up?

Jewelry can be seen at Cluny Grey Jewelry
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