tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73093552515460564892011-09-21T10:28:55.688-07:00ZS Art Jewelry & Glass is devoted to my jewelry craft. Here, you'll find my ramblings about ideas I'm working on, things I've tried (and hopefully succeeded at, but failures do happen >_<), and finished projects. I'm always up to something, so be sure to check back often!zerospacenoreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-90740136125931599842011-01-18T09:34:00.000-08:002011-01-18T09:34:54.407-08:00

It's been a few weeks since I posted here ... the holidays do keep me busy, I suppose! Anyways, I have some pretty exciting news to share:  I've listed quite a few new earrings in my Etsy shop, and I've also introduced some new designs. The most exciting new design is a pair of earrings inspired by one of my favorite triangular Celtic knots. I'm quite excited about this one, because not only

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-21952321411709663762010-12-24T08:15:00.000-08:002010-12-24T08:15:38.274-08:00

It's Christmas Eve, and here I sit surfing the Internet, shopping for new supplies, and waiting for my husband to come home from work. I can't ever seem to quit looking for new tools and supplies to play with, even on a day like today. Today is also my older brother's birthday, and though I'm sure he doesn't read my blog, I'll wish him a very happy birthday anyways. ^_^ I'd like to wish you all

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-11170846757317233532010-12-22T08:46:00.000-08:002010-12-22T08:46:36.510-08:00

My chainmaille knot earrings are one of the most popular items in my Etsy shop, and I've made some great improvements to them in recent weeks. I'm going to be listing a new crop of them very soon, with some great news: 1. They're now soldered! I previously used epoxy to bond the knot to the post, mostly due to the irregular surface join. The epoxies I use are self-leveling and generally do a

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-18319438970658374202010-12-08T06:44:00.000-08:002010-12-08T06:44:33.143-08:00

Oh my, my. I tried so very hard to keep up with this blog, but yet again I fail in an epic sort of way. Only one post for November?! Well, I don't suppose it would make you feel any better if I said that most of November was spent designing lots of new jewelry, would it? ^_^ The 95 item count in my shop reflects the rate at which I've been finishing new pieces ^_~. I've been taking care of

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-51635016622046895092010-11-08T07:25:00.000-08:002010-11-08T07:25:28.145-08:00

Here I am again, apologizing for neglecting this blog *sigh*. If only I could find the time to keep up with everything! Well, I may neglect my blog from time to time, but I've been busy with some new jewelry designs in wire. Adjustable braided bronze ring Yesterday, I uploaded quite a few new ring designs in copper, bronze and gold filled wire to my shop. I've actually been quite thrilled

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-53361324487549917822010-10-16T08:37:00.000-07:002010-10-16T08:37:45.283-07:00

I mentioned these awhile ago, and I finally have come up with a finished purse design. I dare say that it's less-than-perfect, but I'm quite pleased with the finished look of it. Originally, I wanted to go with a flat, zippered design, but in the end, the weight of the chainmaille made a drawstring design far more practical and a bit simpler to create. I may eventually attempt a zippered design,

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-45562421011303934812010-10-14T12:12:00.000-07:002010-10-14T12:12:28.724-07:00

Yesterday, I told you that today I was planning to slump those holiday dishes -- what a bonehead I am! My plan was to run the kiln today, but on a full fuse batch. I had about 6 pieces that needed to be fully fused rather than tack fused, as I often do with glass. I did actually get the kiln loaded & running early this morning at about 6:30am (I always start it up early so that I can empty it in

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-39219926858619582532010-10-13T18:02:00.000-07:002010-10-13T18:02:09.775-07:00

I'm not doing a very good job of keeping up with this blog, am I? Well, I have an excuse:  My birthday fell in the middle of last week, and one of my "gifts" was my annual trip to a single San Francisco 49ers football game (and for all you football fans out there, yes, you can laugh, because the 49ers are ... not good so far this year). Let's just say that it's a darn good thing that the SF

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-77938383532489942592010-10-01T09:40:00.000-07:002010-10-01T09:40:43.995-07:00

There's nothing quite like the feeling of fall ... ok, well, in California you don't necessarily get the same feeling as say... in Pennsylvania, but still! It's fall, and it's one of my favorite times of year. I love the cool crisp air, the changing colors of leaves, Halloween, and the anticipation of the holidays. Back when I lived in Massachusetts and even in Pennsylvania, this was also the

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-23381564710673079162010-09-30T11:25:00.000-07:002010-09-30T11:29:13.549-07:00

Well, yesterday I promised not to neglect the blog, and I also promised an upcoming blog post about my other in-reserve chainmaille pieces that I plan to enter in a contest this year. I figure it's about time I at least post a photo (albeit, not a great shot) of it. I dub thee: Celtic Dreams This necklace was inspired by my love for Celtic design. I've long been a fan of Celtic knotwork, and

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-29454835146807056062010-09-29T10:01:00.000-07:002010-09-29T10:07:23.055-07:00

Pardon my long absence from this blog! I suppose I could offer some excuse, but that's what it would be. An excuse. So, let's just forget the fact that I've neglected to post anything for awhile and move on. ^_^ A few days ago, I started pawing through my box of jewelry created during a long period of learning new techniques and just generally getting back into jewelry design after a long

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-60137190182637761202010-09-15T09:59:00.000-07:002010-09-15T13:10:32.857-07:00

This is going to be more of a "here's what I've been working on" blog post, rather than about one specific project in general. I have plans to upload some new items to my Etsy shop today, as well. You may even see one of the experiments go up if I have a chance to photograph it. Ongoing short-term project: Chainmaille purses I don't mean to lead anyone on, but one of the projects I'm currently

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-48398694800853395872010-09-13T06:49:00.000-07:002010-09-13T06:49:35.245-07:00

If you're a fellow crafter or artist, have you ever felt inspired by something that seems totally unrelated to what you do? Well, I guess by both the title of this post and by the question I started out asking, you can imagine that I have. In fact, I've been trying to come up with a design inspired by my new favorite sport, baseball. I always regarded baseball as totally boring, and yet somehow I

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-18655122580501140932010-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:002010-09-11T09:09:17.256-07:00

So, I've been making a lot of my chainmaille knotted earrings, as my last blog post suggests. Well, yesterday I managed to torque a pair of them enough (sometimes I think I'm harder on my work than anyone else ever would be) to actually snap the adhesive I used on them. Ack! Granted, the pair I torqued was probably not fully cured yet, but still. It concerned me greatly, as I was about to pack up

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-25171832969831161642010-09-09T13:09:00.000-07:002010-09-09T13:09:49.447-07:00

So, it turns out that one of the most interesting things I've posted to my Etsy shop are my 'knotted' earring styles. I've made them in a variety of metals, but all generally are based on a spiral chainmaille weave. In this jewelry maker's humble opinion, they are probably one of the most simple things I make. Isn't it funny sometimes, how simple ideas are often the best? I love it! 18k gold

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-13510699114219524922010-09-08T06:44:00.000-07:002010-09-08T06:46:12.449-07:00

I had no idea how much interest there would be in simple strands of hand-knotted pearls until I uploaded a few to my Etsy shop. I'll admit, despite having worked in marketing for a few years of my writing career, I am positively awful at marketing myself. So, as you can well imagine, there has been little of me marketing these pearl strands I've listed. But, this leads me to the question, are

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-59397087223727909522010-08-30T08:23:00.000-07:002010-08-30T08:26:11.772-07:00

It's really hard to work when your workspace perpetually looks as though a tornado just ripped through the room. At least, that's how I feel. This past weekend turned into an impromptu adventure in re-designing my entire office! Did I know it when the weekend began? Nope! But hey, sometimes you just can't fight the urge to organize. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, I turned into a

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-77164842699889587892010-08-27T08:13:00.000-07:002010-08-27T08:13:14.306-07:00

Well, even though I've been fusing and slumping glass for 3+ years (thanks to a great teacher at a local class), I'm still experimenting with new ways to accomplish my sometimes rather lofty goals. One of my former accomplishments was finally finding success in making a pair of glass chopsticks, something I had long wanted to do. Creating a pair of glass chopsticks presented an interesting

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-46143317951795437942010-08-16T13:23:00.000-07:002010-08-16T13:23:17.399-07:00

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Well, even though it's been awhile, I've certainly been busy enough creating new pieces for my shop. This next piece is one I'm calling Pearl-dipped fans. How does one "dip" something into pearls? Well, let's not get technical about it ^_~. Anyways, this particular necklace started out with the idea of creating a chain that would hold its shape, but still have the

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-85446868346934901202010-02-07T11:28:00.000-08:002010-02-07T11:28:35.855-08:00

This piece started the other day as a great experiment with weaving beads into a piece of chain. It seems like a pretty simple idea, no? I thought so. I'd imagine that it's been done many times over by other jewelry artists, but, I had this vision of a strand of caged-looking pearls in my mind's eye when I started--something that a bride could wear to her wedding, even if that wedding would need

zerospacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309355251546056489.post-7676299404554235762010-01-29T08:34:00.000-08:002010-01-29T14:05:23.603-08:00

Last year I began weaving a chainmaille necklace in copper, and like most of my designs, it began in my head with just one section of the finished piece. I constructed several "flower" designs that use the helm (parallel chain) weave as a base, and then proceeded to connect them to one another such that they formed this lovely triangular shape. After that, I couldn't decide how to proceed, so I

zerospacenoreply@blogger.com