Look for Eclectic Design Choices at Olde Town Christmas

Friday, November 30 from noon through 7pm and Saturday, December 1 from 9am until 3pm you will be able to find me at Olde Town Christmas inside the Dottie Lynn Recreation Center in Arlington. I will have a large selection of my jewelry, accessories and photographic art creations with me to

help you check people off your holiday shopping list. Look for my Eclectic Design Choices sign.

If you miss me this weekend, my creations will be at the Happy Holidays Pop-Up Market starting December 8. I will have more information about that next week.

New Jewelry Themed for AMA's Upcoming Hiroshige Exhibit

I am looking forward to seeing the upcoming exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art. The exhibit will feature colored wood-block prints by Hiroshige, a prominent 19th century Japanese artist. The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, December 1, 2018 with a member's reception on Friday, November 30. Unfortunately I might be too worn out to attend the reception after manning my booth at Olde Town Christmas at the Dottie Lynn recreation center that day. Once again I was able to locate some supplies

to help me create jewelry for their gift shop to complement the museum's exhibit. These are small batch, handmade items so if you see something you like you need to grab it before it is gone. I purchased some of the supplies in a very limited quantity.

The necklaces are made from gold or silver plated brass ginko leaf charms. I paired the silver ginko leaf with a sodalite teardrop which reminded me of some blue and white Japanese vases I have seen. I added a silver plated sliding bail to a navy blue silken cord to hang the pendant from. Jade seemed like a natural to pair with the gold plated ginko leaf pendant, which I hung from a gold plated traveling bail on a black silken cord.

Cranes and fans are also popular Japanese motifs. You may recall that I used these fan charms to craft an artistic interpretation of the some of the dresses on display during the film costume exhibit this past summer. This time I used them for what they are, fans, and paired them with jade beads to make fairly large dangle earrings. The hourglass jade beads remind me of sections of bamboo. I made smaller dangle earrings from some crane charms that I recently picked up. I paired them with peacock colored synthetic hematite, rounded bicone beads. Stop by the gift shop to see these and other Japanese themed items when you visit the Hiroshige exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art.

Fall Colors and Spring Promise

If it was not for the pretty colors leaves take on before they drop from the trees, I might have more trouble enjoying the mild fall temperatures since falling leaves signal winter approaching right around the corner. Here in North Texas we seem to have jumped this year from just beginning to experience fall temps, which I will admit can be pleasant, to full on winter. Our high temp for the day occurred at midnight and the reinforcing cold front will put us in the upper 30s shortly (relative to when I am typing this). The wind chill already is in the lower 30s and gray skies make it feel even colder to me.

We are expecting our first freeze of the year tonight. Any tender in ground plants will need to be covered and any tender potted plants need to be moved inside. The majority of the trees I can see from my office window are actually still green. If the freeze is strong enough their leaves might just fall without changing color. Going straight from green to bare without a pretty change in color would be a shock to my system, so I am glad I got some pictures a week ago of the pretty reds showing on my dogwood and red oak. I am sharing a couple of them here to brighten the tone of my post. The dogwood tree even shows promise of the spring to come in its swollen flower buds nestled among its crimson leaves.

Design This - Amethyst Earrings

After putting on my dark amethyst colored sweater and accessorizing it with a light and dark amethyst chip necklace a couple of days ago like I often do, I looked in the mirror and once again wished I had a pair of amethyst earrings to go with this outfit. I looked at my clock and had some time before I needed to leave for my meeting, so I decided to do something about that wish.

I pulled out some strands of faceted amethyst beads to see which ones might do the trick, along with some silver findings. I picked a pair of the larger, faceted teardrops and used triangle jump

rings to turn them into dangles. I decided I wanted longer earrings than just that dangle however so I picked out a pair of faceted square amethyst beads too. I decided the design still needed a pop of something else. Instead of using a small, lighter colored amethyst bead with the dark square ones, I picked out a pair of small pearls. I liked their shape and color contrast better in the overall design. Now that I had the design complete, I had just enough time to put it all together and wear my new earrings to my meeting.

My amethyst and pearl earrings are a welcome addition to my jewelry collection. Do you have a wish to match an outfit or other jewelry component of yours? I might just have the right supplies to help you out. Contact me to discuss custom earrings, necklaces or bracelets to fit your needs.