Art Challenge Day 4: Heat

To represent the theme, heat, I chose some red hot glass beads to make some lovely jewelry pieces. The first two are leather wraps, the first one 7 inch, and the second one 6 inch with white glass pearls. Both have an angel wing charm dangle. The third is a wire wrapped ring done with brown craft wire, and accenting white glass pearls. It is a size 4 1/2. To see all of these pieces, please visit my Etsy store.   Don't forget to check out my clearance section while there.  Some great deals!

 I have also completed the challenges for cold, upcycle, and zentangle flower with ladybug. I just have not had time to upload and list them yet. So, they will be in a future post, maybe tomorrow.

I have discovered my new love, besides the wrap bracelets, painting with paint pens and sharpies on glass, and ceramic plates. Ooh what fun, and they set so nice and are permanent. Not so much of a pain as acrylics.

Neon Colored Handmade Gift Ideas

Happy Sunday, everyone! This week, from Team Support and Promote, I am featuring some handmade gift ideas, done in neon colors. Each item is from a different shop. To visit the shop, click on the highlighted shop name under each item.

First from Shelleyscrochetole a beautiful neon blue wall clock. 

Second from, Sticksnstonesgifts, are these adorable frog cloth napkins for kids. 

Third from MspdesignsUSA, this adorable pdf quilt pattern of woodland animals. 

Finally, from missy69, this lovely wire wrapped ring done with neon blue Apatite gemstones. 

Amber an Organic Gemstone

I love Amber!  I think I have said that about every gemstone I have featured, lol.  Amber is an organic gemstone, because it is formed from once living matter.  It is really an awesome thing.  Amber is formed when a specific kind of tree sap, hardens and once living creatures are trapped in the resin, and then fossilize over many many years.  They say Baltic Amber is the number one source, but actually Russia has the largest source of Amber.  Baltic Amber is favored because of its lovely orange hues.  Amber is very light, and has a very low density.  Because of its low density it can float in salt water, but sink in fresh water.  This is one of the ways to identify Amber.  There is faux Amber in the jewelry market.  Enhancements of Amber, are not common, but do occur.  Watch the very cool video below, to help you identify Amber.  If you do a search on this blog, for the living gemstone, you will see a video series I posted a while ago, that talks a lot about Amber, and why it is the living gemstone.    The ring shown at the bottom, is not Amber, but it is a vintage Amber colored glass bead, with leaf inclusions, that I wire wrapped into a ring. It is a nice piece for anyone who loves unique jewelry.  You can see it by clicking  this link 

Learn To Make Wire Wrap Rings

For the record let me just state, I have tried this twice, and I stink. It is not as easy as it looks. I will keep trying until I get it right. I am always amazed how hard wire wrapping really is, compared to what I already know how to do which is traditional settings. Check it out, it is free, and fun.