Medallion Pendants

Medallion Pendant

In my Etsy shop.

Adapted from a tutorial by Dustin Tabor, these intricate off-mandrel style pendants

are all one piece, meaning the medallion has its own glass bail so all you need to do

to wear it is add your favorite chain or cord.



Cuteness!!!

"Shake It Up" necklace in my Etsy shop.

Sweet "Valenine" with "Zoofy" the cat.

We are enjoying summer here at the Miller household and also a new addition to our family. Yep, her name is Valentine and she is a 10 week old Chihuahua/terrier puppy we adopted from a puppy rescue facility. She is very tiny and very sweet and we tend to forget how much time and attention puppies need. But we are coming along with the training and housebreaking very nicely.
It's been nearly a year since our dog Dandy passed away and even though my husband and I vowed she would be our last dog, that we couldn't go through that painful loss again, we broke down and decided to re-adopt. We are just die hard dog-lovers and we need that unconditional love connection.



The whole KABOODLE!

"Kitt'n Kaboodle" necklace in my Etsy shop.

The adventures of "Cornella LaBoosh"...

"Cornella LaBoosh"

100's of USPS shipping invoices.

  A very sweet customer of mine requested a "sister" to my original "Carlotta" and "Carmella LaBoosh" pendants. I had forgotten what challenging pieces these pendants are to create on demand. The hollow cone bead, turned into a character, takes at least an hour in the flame in order to apply the detail while keeping all parts of the bead hot enough so that it doesn't crack. The cone is a long bead, (about 1-1/2 inches), and funnel shaped. So that means the skinny end will cool at a much faster rate than the fat end. And of course the fat end has the most detail with all the curly hair and expressive eyes. The first two Cornella cone bead attempts failed. Two mornings in a row I pulled the cone bead from the kiln to find it cracked. Grrrrrr! The third attempt was finally successful and the pendant was completed and shipped to my customer using USPS with, as always, insurance,(thank goodness!). Well Cornella got lost and never made it to my customer.....
Now, in defense of USPS, in all the years I have made and shipped beads all over the world, this is the FIRST time I have ever had a problem with THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE! That's right. You can see the photo of a stack of literally
hundreds of USPS shipping invoices and only ONE problem in over 8 years of shipping! Yay for them!!! NOT, yay for my customer.....
:-(
I have though, made a clone of "Cornella", and she is on her way to my anxious customer along with a nice consolation gift.



Yellow and white and........

I made some big, colorful stacked dot beads today. I can't wait to make them into jewelry. The flat bead is a Dustin Tabor style pendant and it has a clear glass bale. 



It's all good!

Look for new "Watcher" necklaces in my Etsy shop soon!

 Finally...a day of sunshine! I'm not going to waste a minute of it! It's been so dark and dreary here this month I could scream or cry. Summer in the Pacific Northwest doesn't start till after the 4th of July and "Junuary" has been pretty depressing the last couple years. I love Washington but the south is looking better and better.

Well, at least I have some beads to show for it!



Flower Garden

Watercolor floral focal

Set of 5