Moonstone Special Offer!!!

I'm running a special offer on Moonstone in my Etsy gems shop for a whole week from Saturday 19th-26th June! All Moonstone is up to 20% off, and these are beautiful stones, so grab them while you can! If you want to take a look, go to

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmithGems

Don't miss out!!

Storm Pendant - Black and Silver

I love these; they go with just about everything and they're so interesting to look at that I often find myself just turning the thing round and round and staring at it. Although, I do have a slight tendency towards distractedness, so maybe it's more to do with that...! Anyway, they are fun to make; a simple twisty, a bit of silver foil, and the bead built up in layers, so you can see through in parts to the core of the bead. It's properly 3-D. This was the first style of bead that I felt I 'created' myself. I mean, it's probably been done before, but I came up with it without reading about it in someone else's book or blog or whatever. I think that's called 'second order originality'. Anyway, I think it's great, and if you want it, you can find it in my Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmith

Or on my website of course.

Storm Pendant

I'm showcasing these pendants this week. I love these; they're so fascinating and the colours captured are just amazing. A myriad selection of deep indigo, copper blue and a soft pink encased in a thick layer of pale lavender. I won't say how I made it - but it's actually very simple and contains only two colours of glass. Here's a clue; one of them is reactive!

I call this collection 'Storm' because this looks to me like the whirling vortex of a tornado, with the colours swirling around and then captured in mid-flight. I've made this up into a simple pendant with silver beads to accent and a tiny indigo spacer to complement the bead. If you are interested in buying, you can find these on my website and also in my Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmith

Monday Madness!

Just because it's Monday, and everyone needs a little extra something on a Monday, I'm running a 24 hour 15% off offer in my Etsy gemstone shop. Every order placed between 12 midnight EST (US Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday 6th June and Monday 7th June will receive a fab 15% discount. To participate in this, all you have to do is go to my Etsy gemstone shop - www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmithGems - decide what you would like and convo me with your order. I will then set up a custom order with the 15% discount included!

Little fluffy clouds

That's a song by the Orb, which probably dates me a bit. Anyway, that's what this heart makes me think of, being a mix of blue and creamy-silvery-white frit encased in really pale blue glass. Bullseye pale blue which is a lot paler than Moretti's palest effort. I've got these hearts as pendants in my website shop but this is a bead set so you can let your imagination run wild. So, what we have here is a 2cm heart, nice and plump and even. The centre is rolled in frit and then encased which means there is a really cool paper-weight type effect as you turn the heart in different directions. There are six spacers, 1cm from hole to hole; three frit encased and three in plain, matt pale blue glass (these are Moretti because I find Bullseye does not etch well) decorated with silver nail-heads.

If you want to own this, you can find it in my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmith

Rainbow Layered Bead

This is another layered bead; a nice round sphere. I love the colours in this; it's got a rainbow coloured core, then is built up with layers of very pale pink and lilac glass. Buried within is a streak of dichroic which gives it a lovely bit of sparkle. There are also some delicate plunged flowers and a series of bubble dots on the outside. I do love layered beads; they have so much depth. I think the photo looks great, but the bead in real-life is even more interesting.

This one has now sold but you can find others in my Etsy shop:

www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmith

Pink and Lilac

Pink and lilac are a match made in heaven. Or so I think with my bluey-purpley-pinky palette. This is another one of my 'Saturn' lentils, made with extreme patience and love! These take a long time to make as each one is carefully built up in layers, you have to estimate the exact amount of glass - too much and it overflows the press, too little and it doesn't press to the right shape - and you only get one shot at it!

This one is made up of a core rolled in pinky-lilac frit, gravity swirled, then built up in layers, with each layer enclosing some latticino, some silvered ivory or some silver mesh, and then pressed. Precision and patience is required, but if you get it right, the sense of achievement makes it worthwhile!

This is available at my Etsy shop - www.etsy.com/shop/JoopyAndSmith if you would like to own it.