Byootiful!

Ahem. I should get to toot my own horn on my blog every now and then. No?

I've been having a lot of fun in my jewelry class recently. After being in a bit of a rut for a while, I've finally started trying some different projects. The one pictured here is a decorated box suspended on snake chain. The sides are connected to each other and the chain with jump rings.

Another project I enjoyed was this necklace of linked circles. Perhaps "circles" isn't quite the precise word, because it's not a precise necklace. The loops are formed by rolling out a clay "snake", mashing the ends together and then squishing the whole thing against a textured surface. Then you have to cut some of the loops in order to be able to link them together. You're supposed to keep the same textured surfaced on hand so you can texture some more clay over the join and disguise it... but of course, the texture I picked went missing. So I went back to my old standby, leaves.

And speaking of leaves, here is an example of my rut. Not that I'm complaining; I think this is probably my most successful project. I've been making lots of these little decorated tube beads. String one on a silver chain, and it's a very simple, subtle accessory.

If you live in the East Bay, I can't recommend Hadar Jacobson's classes enough. Every week, she's come up with something new, and even after the end of a long day at work, her enthusiasm is contagious.