Katalina Jewelry: salt and pepper shakers

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Jewelry Affaire x 2

I'm so excited to have - not just one - but two articles

published in the summer issue of Jewelry Affaire!

Notice the "from SHOES to JEWELS" caption on the cover?

That's one of my features... not exactly a cover photo

but it's as close as I've ever been!

The "Shoes to Jewels" article features designs from my

"A Girl and Her Shoes" series which include,

Biker Chic, Geometry, Butterfly and Spider.

Remember my salt & pepper shaker necklace?

It also has a feature in the article "Shake It Up".

This is the first time I've had my work featured in Jewelry Affaire

and I have to say I'm pleased with both articles. It's such

a beautiful magazine! I had the good fortune of meeting

Beth Livesay, the managing editor of Jewelry Affaire,

earlier this year at an art camp retreat and she is just the

nicest person! Thanks, Beth, for adding my designs alongside

the beautiful work of so many talented jewelry designers!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Shake It Up!

A couple of weeks ago during one of my thrift store shopping sprees, I spotted these salt and pepper shakers.

I certainly didn't want them as shakers but decided to take a closer look anyway. When I discovered they were sporting the weekly 50% off colored ticket, the bargain hunter in me took over. I placed them in my cart, shopped a little longer and by the time I was through the check out I had created this design in my head!

The process for this pendant was really quite simple. First things first, I needed something solid to support the silver caps. I headed into the garage and was ecstatic to find a wood dowel that fit perfectly - how often does that happen? Hubby was kind enough to cut it to the right length for me before he took off to work. Such a great man!!

I glued the dowel into place with E600 (love that glue!) and then covered it with just the perfect section of a decorative paper (why is the perfect spot always in the middle of the paper?). I glued the rhinestone chain into place and applied ICE resin in three very thin coats. It does run so I had to rotate it quite often as it hardened.

For the final touch I forged a wire into a U-shape, inserted it through the tiny holes in the top cap, finished off the U with decorative curls and wire wrapped a large handmade jump ring to it. Since the pendant is kinda girly-girl, I thought it should be accented by an equal amount of femininity consisting of delicate silver chain, rhinestone chain and sheer ribbon. I knotted all three strands together in a few places and finished them off with a handmade hook clasp.