14K GF Boulder Opal Pendant

This lovely, flashes little bits of fire as you move around the room.
A stunning piece for natural boulder opal lovers! It's a one-of-a-kind natural stone (1 1/4" x 3/4", total wrapped length is 2 1/4"). The pendant was hand cut at a perfect angle to maxamize the little ribbons of illusive fire, caused by the unique distribution of the minerals inside of the natural stone.
Made for those who adore handmade & wear unusual gemstones. 

Wrapped Crystal

Really nice looking crystal in 14KGF and Sterling. Just uploaded it to the new website.

Gold Wire, Silver Wire, wrapping it, curling it..........

 Oh, yes. It's a pretty one. I like wearing them with the latch up or down, Doesn't matter.

Just put this up on the new website. (surfandsandjewelry.com)

Back Again

Been gone awhile. Don't really know why, and don't know if I'll stay. But.....
I've been making Jewelry.....woo hooo
photos to follow.

Also, have to redo my blurb, there on the side. I am alone at Surf and Sand Jewelry, now, the only artist. I am working on a new website that is nowhere near done, but lots of possibilities when finished. It will include a new text logo to modernize it, but I will have the Seabird painting featured somewhere.

All for now.

Leslie

Ft. Lauderdale

One of my absolute favorite places to dine. The view from inside is remarkable. After a visit to the East Coast of Florida, I find myself energized, and brimming with ideas for new stone combinations and designs.

A Masterpiece

It is listed among Smithsonian's Life List of 28 places "to visit before you die".

At the Beach with Gunner

Gunners' footprints at the beach. Three months old.

I spent the day with Gunner today, and we went to the park. This park has a charming little wooden bridge. that spans the playground area to the beach. So an hour at the playground, then over the bridge to the beach. Gunner has a facinating little mind, in that he finds beauty in symmetry, and in what others would call grotesque.

He spent all his energy dragging a craggy, waterlogged piece of driftwood out of the water, through the sand, and up to me. I showed him what barnicles were, and sea worms, and he said "this is cool isn't it"? I quickly agreed with him that yes it was cool.

A little later, he brought me a shell, shining with pink and hints of purple, sand encrusted, but totally beautiful, totally perfect, "this is cool isn't it"? Yes, I agreed with him that it was. I hope his definition of cool never changes.

Mangrove at E.G. Simmons Park - Tampa Bay, FL by philippietri

Muslim Woman at the Mall

Blue robes flowing
Glowing eyes showing
Subjugated, her chains hidden.

Detested from afar
Emancipated and free thinking
Broken chains at my feet.

Ladies Please......

if you insist on wearing a ring on every finger and thumb you have, could you at least buy rings that compliment each other? Lately, I have seen women with such a mish-mash on their hands, it is truly laughable; and I know that is not the reaction they're going for. Besides, it is passe´.  Out of fashion for a while now.

Update: 4/19/11
This excerpt from the editors of Lucky Magazine for Home Shopping Network:

Silver Destinations Hammered Bypass Ring Item: 118-147

There’s something so delicate and feminine—yet super cool—about piling on multiple rings on several fingers. Don’t worry about matching metals—the more uncalculated the approach, the bigger the appeal. Don’t worry if it feels a little haphazard—the ultimate effect will look appealingly unstudied.

I guess my OP is off the mark, and outdated and just plain wrong, NOT. Since they are accepting advertising monies to sell multiple items, I find the above paragraph to be extremly self serving. Appealingly unstudied equals it's attractive because you didn't put any effort into it. NOT.

"Don't worry if it feels a little haphazard?"

 I guess I could be wrong......wait for it......NOT.
Leslie

Visitors

Every morning, early, these visitors wake us with their warbling chatter. They are quite loud, and seem to like making a racket. They disappear during the day, foraging, I imagine, and then return in the early evening. They roost in the pine trees out back.

Chanel No. 5

Another year. Down to the dregs. Don't you think things like Chanel No. 5 should automatically replenish themselves? Blink twice and the bottle magically refills?

The first bottle I had, was a present from my Mother on, I think I remember, my Thirteenth Birthday, and I have been a Number 5 since. And, Chanel has always been a word we use interchangably with fashion, so I have followed the House of Chanel since then, as the benchmark for what to wear.

So, what to wear next year? On a cruise, at the beach or in the Tropics?
Briefly, 70's and See Thru.
Chanel "Cruise 2010/11

I found the line delightfully femine.

Interestingly, Chanels' line of jewelry in Mothers' time was primarily, high end costume, and my Mother would have none of it. Costume in the Forties, and Fiftes, (now called Hollywood Regency) was fabulously glitzy, and ultimately feminine. But, if it wasn't real, she wasn't wearing it.  She was the most important influence in my life, then and now, so that really is why I only work with authentic gemstone beads, Sterling or Gold findings.

The Painted Desert

The Painted Desert in Arizona called to my parents, often, and I visited the area many times with them. Then, when we had children, we took them there as well.

We drove the “loop” of Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and then back through Grand Canyon to get home, with the inevitable cries of “are we there yet?” from the backseat. I don’t really remember the sibling squabbles from the backseat, (and I know there must have been many), because the vistas took my breath away and kept my mind busy. There was an occasional “Knock it off!” from me, directed toward the back, as we waited for the next turn in the road to show us something new. No matter how many times we did the loop, there was always something new.

There are those that do not see beauty in the desert, and only observe the land swathed in dry yellow weed, brown sage and sand. My painterly eyes see citrine colors and yellow jade, reds, the color of pomegranates; the ochres of landscape, imbued with an orange, 4 o’clock, atmospheric haze. Gorgeous.

Home Page vs Blog

Who remembers when you had to have a Home Page in order to be au currant? , with it?, cool? Was it the forerunner to the blog? An ancient ancestor that ultimately became the cut & paste parent of the dreaded, Holiday Newsletter?

Developers then added Guest Book as a feature, where the relatively few other denizens of the WWW could add a name and a comment. Not exactly interactive, but a big advance for the time.

Home Page was replaced by myriad personal websites, (most boring) recording the minutia of everyday lives, recipes, etc., and then the big push, as America realized the commercial opportunity labeled “e-commerce.“
Now comes the blog; an interactive area where an individual can record anything and have complete strangers comment about it. The Web Log, or…. Blog.

I had a Home Page, of course. For about 10 minutes. It was one of those Free Home Page services, offered by companies trolling for website customers, and used by folks who did not know HTML coding, and were not about to buy a program to do it for them, and then pay for all the add-ons the Hosting company charged. After making my Home Page, I remember thinking, “OK, now what?” From there, I went on to my first website; e-commerce, of course.

OMG, who remembers the GUI? If you did not have to Telnet data to your Internet files, you were just about the coolest thing ever! Where are we now? Thirteenth Gen? Even more? It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Those of you out there who remember “Information needs to be free” are invited to comment.
Leslie

I have fallen in love with Memory Wire......Look for new work.

I have fallen in love with Memory Wire......Look for new work.

Why haven't I ever used this stuff? It's faboluss. Next photo will be Sterling and Garnet bracelet on Memory wire. I have designs in my head for small bracelets, and chunky ones. Oh, my! Off to work.
Leslie
Surf & Sand Jewelry

I have decided to edit this post to show the bracelets. I am very happy with the way they turned out.

Jewel Tones

As part of our business, we went on road trips every year in our dear departed van, and I saw America in my 30's and 40's from the passenger seat of a Ford Econoline. We always took the roads that ran along the Interstates, meandering through the little dying towns, turning a corner into a Wal-Mart Super Center in the middle of nowhere, and always avoiding the giant macadam, concrete snake of a road that blasted through mountains, and ripped along the creeks, in the straightest line possible.

I mention it now, because I have been remeniscing, musing about the sights, and colors I remember. The colors of emeralds, and there are a lot of them;  new fields, moss, grass, spriggy leaves, palms and pines. Then, as the air runs a bit cooler, and the trees start to turn, those emeralds morph into rubies and citrines.

Lately, all my work has been in jewel tones, over the beachy, ocean colors, I adore. And, lately, I have been pining for the mountains. We have not been there for several years, and last time we were in the Catskills, we left early because I was homesick for the Bay. Fickle, yes!, and blonde.

We stayed at the Breezy Hill Inn and I am constantly returning there in my work, alas, not in the flesh. I think the next piece shall have to be named for the lovely old house on Breezy Hill. A multitude of colored gems, and gold, I think, to set them off.

Leslie
Surf & Sand Jewelry