New Online Marketplace - Great Lakes Made

Trying out a new online marketplace for my jewelry, Great Lakes Made.  Check it out!  They have lots of cool items for sale, made by makers in the Great Lakes area.

They also interviewed me for their blog.

A few of the items in the shop:

My New Dremel 4000

My latest project, drilling some glass and stones with my new Dremel 4000 I got for my birthday. 

Learned two things today:

 1. Petoskey stones are softer than beach glass.

 2. Hold on tight or they become tiny projectiles! 

Not sure if I will be selling these as supplies or making into jewelry.  Probably both!  

Ready for the Beach?

Some new beachy necklaces in my shop:

Having lots of fun trying out props in my photos!  This conch shell was from my Great Aunt's estate.  Wish I knew where it came from!

Homemade "Beach Glass"

One of my completed pendants

So I was playing with my glass scraps the other day, made up some fused glass pendants in my mini kiln.  I got out the etching cream to etch some designs on a couple of dichroic glass scraps. While I was waiting for the pendants to fuse, I surfed the internet for some inspiration.  I came across a site that said you could use etching cream to make glass scraps look like beach glass. What a great idea!  I had some broken up pieces of wine bottles in a container as I wanted to fuse them in my kiln as an experiment, so I grabbed a couple and dipped them in the etching cream.  I fused one of the pieces with a few other pendants to see how it turned out.

Glass on the left is untouched, glass on the right is fused and etched

After fusing, the glass lost its sharp edges, but it also lost its etched look, so I dipped it in the etching cream again.   Now I have another piece of "beach glass" to wire wrap and make into a pendant.  What a fun way to recycle my wine bottles!

And some more beachy items.....

I think I need to move near the beach!

Dreaming of the Sea......

More new beach themed items in my shop:

Beach Glass Love

I love beach glass - any kind of beach glass.  Real beach glass, recycled glass, cultured beach glass.  I am currently OBSESSED with it.  I love the soft colors, and of course it reminds me of the beach and summer.  It is supposedly spring here in Michigan, but I am still waiting for the warmer weather.  A few new recycled/beach glass items in my shop:

And I just ordered some more recycled glass pieces, so be on the lookout for more new items!

Beach Glass

Just in time for summer, here are a couple of beach glass items I made. I found a great shop on Etsy that sells beach glass from Lake Superior, Riverstone Gallery.