Switching Hats

I was invited to show my jewelry at the Deblois Gallery in Newport during their upcoming show Anything Goes! March 3-25th.

The only catch is that I didn’t have anything left.  It has been well over a year since I made any new jewelry.   But…But… I am ONLY PAINTING this year right??? World don’t you hear me??? … Yeah, I couldn’t resist. I said yes and took a couple of weeks off from painting.

I went to Providence and dug through my favorite mills and came out with the coolest beads, rhinestones and cabachons to create mosaics with.  I had a women tell me this week she didn’t know what a cabachon was.  So, in case you didn’t know – rhinestones are cut and faceted and cabachons are smooth and round.  However, when I’m in the mills talking, it seems anything that isn’t cut and faceted gets labeled a cabachon.  I found cats, pharaohs and dragonfly glass stones and they all got called cabachons.  So loosely,  -cabachons are the little glass, crystal and stone pieces I put in my jewelry.

I hope these photos give you an idea of what I mean by “digging around”.  Every single tiny cardboard box is filled with a different jewelry component.  Up to the ceiling and down at least 18 aisles. It takes hours and hours to sift through, but you come out with jewelry components no one has seen in 50 years.

In the upcoming days I will share some of the mosaic pendants I’ve created.  I wish I could convey just how much they sparkle, but cameras just can’t capture it!

I had a lot of fun and feel pretty good about just how funky this new line of work turned out.  After many years, I finally feel like I have something polished and unique to offer.

That feels pretty good.