We interrupt this blog’s usual fiber-related content…

… for a detour into another of my hobbies, jewelry-making.

I love browsing on Etsy, and I’ve noticed a number of interesting pieces of jewelry incorporating a twig motif. So I decided to create one of my own.



The twig is made from precious metal clay. If you’re not familiar with it, PMC is an amazing product. Fine silver particles are bound together with a clay-like substance. While it’s soft, you can work with it just like any other type of clay. Roll it, shape it, texture it. But then when you fire it in a kiln, or with a torch, the binder burns away, the silver particles fuse together, and you’re left with a slightly smaller piece of pure silver that retains all of the shape and texture it had in its clay form. The pure silver isn’t as strong as sterling, but because it’s not alloyed with copper, it has a beautiful whiteness in color as compared with sterling.

Back to the twig – for this piece, I used PMC in paste form, thinned with water to a consistency that can be painted onto things. I painted ten thin coats of PMC onto a dry twig that I found in the woods, allowing the paste to dry thoroughly after each coat. Then I fired it in a kiln at 1650 degrees for two hours. When it had cooled, I soldered a jump ring onto each end and then gave it a slightly matte finish with a stainless steel brush. I prepared some silver chain, jump rings, and a handmade clasp, by oxidizing them with liver of sulphur. I attached the pieces of chain to either side of the twig, and added the hook and eye closure. Then, as a finishing touch I suspended a faceted tourmaline briolette from one end of the chain.




I haven’t done much jewelry-making lately, although I’d been thinking about it for the last couple of weeks. My new twig necklace has definitely inspired me to try to design some more pieces!

The fall issue of Knitty is online . . .

. . . and I'm so excited! Back in June, I sent off a necklace and a set of stitch markers to the product review folks at Knitty magazine, hoping that they might put them into the "Cool Stuff" section of the fall issue. I've been obsessively checking for the new issue since Labor Day, and it finally went online this afternoon. And there they are -- my "knit" pendant and a set of "I (heart) yarn" stitch markers. Click here to see the Knitty column, and on this link to go to my shop.

And now I have to get back to reading Knitty!

jewelry for your knitting . . . and for you

I haven’t posted in awhile, because I haven’t managed to get anything finished in weeks. One of the things that has been taking up my time is the launch of my Etsy shop:


My last post was about some sterling silver stitch markers that I made for my Secret Pal from the Knitty board. If you make handcrafted items, I’m sure you’ve heard your friends say “you should sell those!” This time, when my knitting group friends said that, I decided to follow up on it.

My shop is at Etsy.com, “your place to buy and sell all things handmade.” Etsy is a great site that lets handcrafters set up individual shops, and allows buyers to interact directly with the artisans. My shop, which is still small but growing, features stitch markers, pendants, earrings, pins, and charms. There’s a sampling of items over there to the left – click on any of the pictures, or on “acraftylawyer” below the pictures, to be routed to my shop. (If you click on “Etsy” or “Buy handmade,” that will take you to the Etsy home page, rather than to my shop.)

These pieces reflect my love of bright colors and simple shapes. Maybe I’m crazy to be selling stitch markers when there are so many others out there, but I think these are special, and I hope they find an audience. So please check out my shop, and read my profile there. And while you’re there, take a look at some of the other amazing Etsy shops, too.

New Stitch Markers -- posted at last

A few weeks ago, I made some stitch markers for my Secret Pal from the Knitty board Spring Fling. I decided not to post a photo here until she had received them, to be sure she didn't stumble across the photo before the package arrived. Well, the post office sent the package into limbo for nearly three weeks, eventually returning it to me a couple of days ago with my flawlessly correct address overwritten with an incorrect one. In the meantime, though, I made her another set, and at long last, they've been delivered. So here's the photo I've been waiting to post:



It was the Secret Pal exchange that inspired me to design a set of stitch markers -- I'd never made any before, but thought it would be fun to combine two hobbies, knitting and jewelry making. The markers are made of printed paper set into sterling silver bezels, and coated with clear resin. They hang from the needles on sterling silver split rings. Here's another set that I made for myself: