Time and Tide Wait for No Man - or Woman

Has it been nearly two years since I wrote in my blog?  How boring of me.  What have I been doing in the past couple of years?  Well, I've been making jewelry, of course, and working as a member of FRANK Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC, one of the area's best art galleries. (I'm by no means the only one who thinks so.)  But most important, I've been taking care of my granddaughter, now three years old, one day a week.  Watching her grow and acquire impressive language skills has been a deeply satisfying experience.  This is Clara with me in our Halloween wigs.

Back to jewelry:  In addition to my line of fine silver jewelry, I've been working on pieces using recycled materials - vintage sterling pieces, antique bottle caps and other bits and bobs I find in thrift, consignment and antique stores. I love giving old, neglected pieces a new life. Here are a couple of examples.  The first piece pictured is fashioned from the sterling lid of an antique miniature teapot. One of my FRANK colleagues gave me a box of old sterling silver pieces his mother had collected over many years.  This teapot lid was without its base and its spout was missing, so with a little sawing and filing, I turned it into the centerpiece of the necklace. In its new incarnation, it looks a bit like a sea urchin!

This pair of earrings sports the tines of a sterling serving fork, with my own fine silver post tops.