And yet another pair of sterling silver hoop earrings! Hey, I'm on a roll folks. I made these with the last bit of square cross section wire and made the top part out of round cross section. Then this time I put sterling silver ear wires on the hanger. Now this hanger is pretty unique, its sterling silver plated and its got a really neet scroll. I clipped off most of the pin part and used it to attach the ear wire. The beads are solid brass and sterling silver with a stone fish in the center. Now I gotta admit, I totally forgot what stone that fish is made of *smacks head*. I remember they cost $1 a piece haha but what kind? Shoot! Oh well, I can find out next week, I bought them from Terra Reflections in Grand Rapids, MN, that's where my doctor is and my thesis adviser.

Anyway, here they are!

Taa Daaah!  I finally figured out how I was going to make hoop earrings and keep the hoop!  They're 18 and 16 gauge sterling silver wire, deadsoft.  That means that they are easily bendable.  Good for me but you'll need to make sure you don't smash 'em around or they'll bend. 

Far left ~ African wooden beads, 18g round sterling silver wire, two free-moving sterling silver plated paddle pins with jasper barrel beads hanging on either side of the wooden beads and gold glass seed beads and surgical steel ear wires.  Very light weight for their size which is 3 cm in diameter (yes, I'm going to take you kicking and screaming into metric)

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What I really like about these is the movement of the dangles, creates interest in a subtle and creative way and not simply through a lot of sparkle.  Not saying I don't like sparkle, check out all of the crystal and glass on some of my bracelets, but its nice to be more sophisticated now and again.

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Middle ~ Here we have the sparkle with one 6mm Swarovski crystal (did I spell that right?  I know I can't pronounce it) and two Bali silver spacer beads.  These beads are able to slide on the 18g square sterling silver wire formed into a tear drop shape hoop.  The hoop is 3.5mm wide at its widest part and 4mm long.  I can't really tell you what color the crystal is because depending upon how the light hits it, it looks purple, red or a golden-brassy black.  Again I used surgical steel for the ear wire to promise that its hypoallergenic

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Far right ~ My favorites... so far. 16g round sterling silver wire 4.3cm in diameter with one freely moving sterling silver plated paddle pin holding two 3 mm sterling silver beads on either side of one 6mm adventurine beauty.  Again, very light weight for their size, cool and soft to the touch and elegant to wear.  These will go with any outfit, jeans and a tshirt or an evening gown.  Simply, understated quality.  Hmmm... now how does that suit me?!  I don't know, but I do know I like 'em!

Hoop Earrings?!  I think I can, I think I can ; - )

I made these for myself

The earrings are sterling silver filigre with little loops for attaching the blue glass beads strung on sterling silver plated headpins where the head part is a flat paddle shape.  I love those things LOL

The bracelet is made of jaspers dyed blue and called kiwi beads.  Then the pink and light turquoise along with the silvery beads are glass.

If you'd like me to make a custom piece for you, its not a problem at all.  Simply sketch it or describe it and send me an email at version1955@hotmail.com and I'll give you a quote.  And if you promise to tell folks about this website or have a nonprofit that's looking for a fundraising opportunity, I'll give you a discount on your purchase.  The more folks you talk to, the larger the discount.  Can't beat that, huh?

Here are a few of my new creations.

The bottom row show six bracelets.  From the far left and the two on the far right are made of glass beads and leaded crystal (this lead isn't hazardous) memory wire bracelets.  The middle three are single strand bracelets with sterling silver plated lobster clasps.  The beads are fresh water cultured pearls (rice shape) and citrines.  The earrings are hung on surgical steel ear wires to be 100% hypoallergenic.  The single beaded earrings on the left are magnesite, the matrix is turquoise with strands of gold and a bit of white.  The middle pair are blueish colored turquoise and the pair on the far right are freshwater cultured pearls (potato shape) and citrines. 

After showing my jewelry to some friends of mine, telling 'em my idea about using it for fundraising, I asked for ideas for names for the business.  What can I say?  They know me, Sonya suggested "Off Kilter Designs".  Its a fit.  And now you know the resssst of the story :-)

Thursday, August 27th and I'm still pluggin' away on my thesis.  And while I do I'm listening to Kerri Miller on MPR who is talking to a paleontology professor who'd I'd guess is in her 30s, married with a daugher and whose husband is also a paleontologist or archeologist.

*sigh*

I'm struck again how my mind doesn't work in the same way as hers.  And I wonder again if I'm just too stubborn to learn that way of thinking or if I'm simply barking up the wrong tree.  I know that having a doctorate isn't the romance that I thought it was.  In fact, the kinds of work that they do is quite unappealing.  But to me the esteem of it is alluring and means to anyone, "Intelligent" or at the very least, "Well educated".

Maybe I should simply talk to a doctorate... in psychology :-(

Howdy! Another beautiful morning and another day sitting on my bottom at the computer typing my thesis. LSD versus a Tukey, decisions, decisions. Talk atcha later!

Hellol! It's me :-) Of Kilter Designs is open for business

Hi, how ya doin'?

I make jewelry and horse tack and there's so much interest in it that I figured, what the hey, let's get it on the web. Hopefully you're interested in making jewelry and we can chat about which materials we like working with, what good deals we've found and even what stuff we've tried that well... probably won't try again. Or at least not in that application.

My favorite stuff are semiprecious gem stones and I'm gonna put cultured freshwater pearls in that category even though they aren't stones, but so what its my blog :-) I don't use coral as coral beds have enough problems with bleaching they don't need an increased demand for more pillaging. I also don't use ivory, but then I don't think they sell that above board anyway. I do have an ivory bracelet from my grandmother but that's a keepsake and we'll leave it at that.

CHARITABLE FUNDRAISING

One of the things that I love to do with my jewelry is to donate it to folks who then turn around and sell it for fundraising. I've helped folks raise money to buy personal care items for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and no kill animal shelters in IA. I also know of folks who all by themselves put on trail rides or fun runs to raise money for St. Jude's and they use the jewelry as incentives for their fundraisers.

Now obviously there is one little catch to all of this, having a tax deduction on my part doesn't help pay for the materials. So now what? Well, I did leave some of my jewelry on consignment at Cinderella's Closet in Deer River. The owner seemed to think that they'd sell, sure hope so. Another idea I had was to give it to my friends to wear and "spread the word". Thankfully my friends love it and have gotten some really nice compliments. Not to mention a new favorite pair of earrings. Earrings are my favorite thing to make... well, those and memory wire bracelets

Val and Pat Gann at G Bar Ranch in Tennessee, http://home.earthlink.net/~vpgann/index.html

and Chris Tornow, custom saddle maker

http://horseandmulegear.com/index.php

are two happy campers sporting turquoise and silver when they're out and about.

I'm going to get them to send me pictures to show you how good you'll look wearing my jewelry. And if you promise to be a spokesmodel, maybe I'll cut ya a good deal on the price?! Ya never know, its happened before ;-)