Making A Painting From A Photograph

A blogging friend of mine, is a pretty awesome photographer. I contacted her to ask her if I could paint one of her pictures. She said yes, and you can see the results below. The picture is actually of Mono Lake, according to her blog post at The Joys of Simple Life, and is an ancient lake. I might try to paint this one more time, making the rock a little smaller, and the bird with a smaller bill. All in all I am very pleased with the results, and thank you to Betchai for allowing me to paint her beautiful picture. You can purchase my painting rendition, in my Etsy store. 

Treasury Time for Team Support and Promote White Gold

I have been super busy trying to finish up our homeschool portfolios, that I have not been blogging so much. I have created a bunch of new stuff, including two recipes with cherries that I got off of Pinterest. I promise to share everything soon. I am part of a great team on Etsy, Team Support and Promote. I am one of the leaders, and I get featured in a lot of treasuries. This one is one of my favorites. I love the color scheme she chose, and you can see my Padparadscha earrings, and all the other great items by visiting the treasury page. Just click and go.

Rubies In Their Natural Form

If you have never seen how gemstones actually come out of the ground, check out the video below. He shares rubies, sapphires as well as other gemstones. He makes a good point, one I have made several times over the years on this blog, buying jewelry at retail prices is crazy. On average you are charged 6 times as much as is required to make the piece. Gems in their natural form, is something a lot of gemstone collectors want. Not all, some don't mind the treatments that enhance the beauty of the stone. I don't mind enhanced stones, but I refuse to pay the ridiculous prices they ask for the piece. That is the most important reason that I started to make jewelry, with my gemstone collection, to offer affordable beautiful jewelry. Great video, give it a look.

Happy July it is Time For A Blood Red Ruby Pendant

I actually finished this last week, but saved it for July to share. Why? Because, the birth stone for July is the Ruby. Rubies are one of the most precious gemstones known to man. They are a member of the Conundrum family and are really a sapphire. Why rubies got called rubies instead of red sapphires, I have no idea. All other sapphires are called sapphires, except Rubies. Color of course is the main thing to look for when buying a Ruby. You want what they refer to as pigeon blood red color. Rubies are very often loaded with inclusions, making a clean one extremely rare and quite expensive.

 This ruby, shown below, is an opaque blood red fine color Ruby. It is faceted, but it has barely any pavilion to the back, but yet not flat like a cabochon. This made it incredibly difficult to set in any traditional settings. So, one day, when I was messing around with my resin, I placed it in there to see how it would come out. I think it is spectacular. I drilled a hole, and used red wire to make the bail. You just add the necklace, ribbon or cord. It is available for purchase now, in my Etsy store.