New skills and a prize

Cindi asked what new skills we've been trying out. While on vacation, I learned ( and I use that term loosely) to make earrings. At our hotel in the Poconos, Catherine, the lovely lady from Cate's Jewelry (see her designs at http://www.catejewelry.com/) taught my daughter and me to make our own earrings. We had the best time rummaging through the gorgeous gems she brought along for us to use, oohing and ahing and pulling out the ones we liked best as we decided which combinations to use.

Here's my first pair which have large mother-of-pearl dangles and pearl accents.

I probably bit off more than I should have with the double dangle on each one but Catherine saved me by suggesting that I insert a tiny bit of chain at the top to give the earrings movement. They're such fun to wear because I get a quiet music everywhere I go as the mother-of-pearl clicks together.

Catherine very graciously let us make a second pair since we had extra time. These are my second design:

Although the amber chunks at the bottom were drilled to support the wire, my daughter gave me the idea of wrapping the wire around the stone for decoration. I liked the chain so much in the first pair that I incorporated it into the design of these. These colors go with just about everything I own so I find myself wearing them a lot. There's something wonderful about having jewelry that suits you personally because you made it yourself.

Making jewelery is a lot harder than it looks. Catherine coached us in the basic techniques of bending, twisting and cutting wire and chain but she had to give us more direct aid with tasks such as attaching the hooks to the earring. I came away with a new appreciation for the jeweler's art.

Since I had so much fun, I decided to give away the earrings below to a lucky RTY visitor.

I'm afraid that these were not made during our session but they're pretty and I bought them in the hotel's gift shop. Send an email to nancy@nancyherkness.com with "earrings" in the subject line and I'll enter you in the contest for these pretty pearl danglies.

Has anyone else tried a new craft recently? Tell us about it!