New sea glass jewelry

I recently sold my last sea glass wire crochet necklace so I figured it was time to make some more! Love working with sea glass - almost as much as I love working with broken china. Sea glass has always been a part of my life. Living on the Jersey Shore, I collected sea glass as a child and then when my daughter was little, we collected it together. I've used it to decorate picture frames, made mosaics with it, displayed it in glass bottles and now love to include it in my jewelry.

Since copper wire is my favorite wire to work with, I really wanted to use it this time. First of all was picking the color of sea glass to use. Blue and copper? White and copper? Green and copper! That was it!

This copper wire crochet necklace has an authentic green sea glass wire wrapped pendant. The pendant is 3/4" x 1-3/4" counting bail. The necklace is 20" long counting clasp. (Can be lengthened or shortened according to your preference - just let me know).
Also available at www.marjoriescracked.com.




















For my second design, I decided to use a lovely shaped brown piece of sea glass. This is a copper wire crochet necklace with authentic brown sea glass wire wrapped pendant. Pendant is 3/4" x 1-3/4" counting bail. Necklace is 22" long counting clasp. (Also can be lengthened or shortened according to your preference - let me know).
Also available at www.marjoriescracked.com.

Let me know what you think!

Loran Scruggs - Recycled Art Toys and Whistles

Meet Loran Scruggs who designs marvelous fun art toys and whistles from tin cans, bottle caps and found objects! Loran is one of the newest merchants in the Reclaimed to Fame Market. Her shop can be found at http://www.1000markets.com/users/loranscruggs.






Loran has been making things since her earliest memory of making a dragonfly out of smartie (candy) wrappers. And to this day she is still using food packaging in her art. She makes whimsical toys, art and whistles from colorful tin cans, bottle caps and found objects. She enjoys how time stops when she is in the ‘flow’ of creation. She says “I’m interested in joy. Color is joyous for me so I use painted tin cans for their color and glint. A lot of my work reference childhood and play, for myself play is a time of being in the moment, no past or future worries, a time of joy. I hope that my work puts an amused smile on peoples faces, for when we smile we are in the moment, engaged, attentive and happy.”

Yet another happy customer. :)

I'm always so pleased when customers take the time to write to me to let me know what they think of my jewelry. Over the months, quite a bond was forged between me and Mary Hutchinson. Mary had contacted me for a custom order that she wanted designed from her beloved Aunt Nellie's Blue Willow china. When Aunt Nellie passed away, she left Mary a lovely Blue Willow platter which unfortunately fell and broke into many pieces. Mary tried to glue the platter back together but it was broken too badly. So she sent the pieces to me. Originally she had intended for the jewelry to be given to her relatives this Christmas. But she sent the china to me well ahead so I'd have plenty of time to work on it. I designed 12 pieces of jewelry for Mary, including pendants, earrings and men's tie tacks. And once it was completed, she didn't want to wait for Christmas for her surprise and decided to give the jewelry to her family when she saw them on the Fourth of July.



It was all quite a success and Mary said she'd be proud to let me share her story with you. I have posted about this china before but I would like to let you know how it all turned out. Here's one of the emails I received when Mary first received the china jewelry. Although she had seen photos that I sent her through email, this was the first time she actually saw the jewelry.

"Hello Marjorie! I am very happy to report that the jewelry has arrived! They are ALL BEAUTIFUL!! And I do like the way you have them in the little bags. Glad your business card is attached, too. Every piece is just perfect and I do so appreciate the obvious care that was put into each one. I feel a special bond and wish you much success as you continue in your creative endeavors. I will be sure to let you know how it goes when I present the gifts. Again, thank you, thank you."



And then I was very pleased to receive this email from Mary shortly after she met with her family on the fourth of July:

"Hello, Marjorie. Well, it was a huge success!! I presented everyone with their special piece of jewelry and there were many emotional tears and sounds of delight and excitement! They could not get over it!! And your workmanship was so appreciated by each person, especially with how individual all the pieces were. It could not have gone better. I felt so good and am so pleased --- again, thank you, thank you, thank you....Your ears must have been ringing - a good sound - for how happy you made everyone over the weekend!!"



Now Mary has ordered another pendant and a bracelet to be made from Aunt Nellie's china. I'd post photos of those, too, but I'm not sure if I'd be spoiling a surprise for another of Mary's friends or family member and I wouldn't want to do that!

All in all, it was a complete and total pleasure to be able to bring life back to Aunt Nellie's beautiful Blue Willow china. I'm going to be holding onto the rest of Aunt Nellie's china in case Mary or any other members of her family would like more jewelery designed from it.

P.S. Mary tells me that the bracelet I just made is a present for her so I can post a photo of it. Here it is:

Bags Plus More - Made With Simplicity

And here's Catherine Kaczanowski's bio! She's the owner of Bags Plus More and is a member of the Reclaimed to Fame Market. Thank you, Catherine, for sharing your story with us.



"My sewing bags, etc. all started a few years ago when my nephew's school was having a fund raising bazaar. My sister-in-law (nephew's mother) is an interior decorator and asked if I could sew up some items to sell. Well, the totes, etc. began! The bazaar was a success! This was two years ago. The school no longer has the bazaar, but I have continued sewing and selling at craft shows when I can and online. I also make donations to our local Physically Challenged Developmental Site, Cancer Centers and Nursing Homes.




"I use upcycled interior decorating fabric samples from my sister-in-law's business. Instead of throwing these items to landfills, I reuse them to make useful handmade items. All items are double stitched with a zigzag finish. I keep it simple, durable, washable, and useful!"

Last of the Nippon china pieces

I always feel sad when I come to the last few pieces of a certain pattern of china that I've worked with. This Nippon china was given to me at a craft show and I'm going to miss working with it. It was a broken antique vase and so beautifully hand painted. Here are my last efforts with it.

First is a wire crochet necklace with broken china pendant. It's hand crocheted with gold artist wire. The design of the necklace is a new one for me. The image on the pendant is of a pale pink rosebud with lovely gold outlines. The pendant is 1/2" x 2" and the necklace is 20" long. This necklace can be found on my website.










Next is a gold wire wrapped pendant showing a white flower with green background, again with striking gold outlines. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a photo showing the lush colors of this piece. The pendant measures 1" x 2-1/4" and comes with a black velvet cord. That can also be found on my website.






Finally, there this pendant with gold wire wrap showing part of a white flower with lovely green leaves outlined in gold. The pendant measures 1" x 2-1/2" and also comes with a black velvet cord. Click here to go to my website for that piece.





That's it for my Nippon china pieces. Hopefully someday I'll come across another piece of broken Nippon to work with. I certainly hope so!

"Inside the Artisan's Studio" Interview

I'm pleased to be featured on "Inside the Artisan's Studio" this week! Lisa Currie takes a weekly peek into the creative process of artisans and craftspeople. She's based her questions on those asked by James Lipton during "Inside the Actor's Studio" but with an artistic twist! I've always loved that show and I think Lisa has come up with a unique take on it. It was a pleasure giving this interview. Thanks, Lisa!

Inside the Artisan's Studio

Italian Richard Ginori china makes beautiful jewelry!

One of the most beautiful pieces of china I've found since I began to design broken china jewelry is a Richard Ginori plate from Italy. The plate I bought was cracked badly but was still beautiful. Full of lovely, bold flowers and designs, I'm sure it was absolutely gorgeous in its day. I've made quite a few pieces of jewelry from that one plate. And here's my latest - a charm bracelet with blue crystal beads.



A funny story - the name of the plate on the back was handwritten and I thought it said "Richard Ginon". Since it was such a beautiful plate, I was surprised that I couldn't find out anything about Richard Ginon china on the internet. For the first several months I was talking about the particular pieces made from this china, I was telling everyone it was Richard Ginon china. Until one day someone took pity on me and set me straight, telling me that the correct name was Richard Ginori china! I'm very grateful to him for that. When I looked up Richard Ginori china, there it was all over the web, as it's very well known.

The bracelet is 7" long but I can either lengthen or shorten it, according to your wishes. The pendant measures 1" x 1".



This charm bracelet can be found on my website at Marjorie's Cracked Plate Jewelry.

I have also have a matching necklace available on my website.