Laura Hunter Jewelry - Jewelry for your Everyday Sparkle✩

FRIDAY, NOV 19 Help Raise Money for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse at ChildHelp's 24th Annual Holiday Fantasia. A shopping Boutique will be held at the PARK HYATT, 7100 Four Seasons Point in Carlsbad. It's open to the Public. Shop for your Holiday Gifts and raise m oney for this wonderful organization. Childhelp.org SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21 is the TALMADGE ART SHOW with over 50 artists attending - it's a great opportunity to shop for unique and meaningful holiday gifts. Talmadge Art Show

The Lariat Necklace - The Dazzler Lariat isn't as long as the Galaxy Lariat in the previous post, however, there are still many ways this lariat can be worn. These are just a few ideas. If you have any additional ideas please post them here. You can simply tie it any place you like and let the pendants fall where they please you most. Or you can just lasso the black garnet though the hoop.

B lue Druzy Necklace - Azurite Lariat - Gold Dipped Leaf Lariat - Galaxy Lariat Extra long lariat made from 14k gold filled flat cable chain can be worn as many ways as your imagination wonders. So far, I've found four great looks. All are posted below. Yes, the sparkling Azurite pendant is really that blue. Bright electric blue with natural sparkle. It's amazing. I just can't stop staring at. The leaf is an extra long natural (real) leaf with a 24k gold heavy overlay. The leaf and azurite are attached with 14k gold filled wire and a sparkling gold tundra sapphire. The two interlocking links are handcrafted from 14k gold fill. The chain measures 37 1/2 inches (approx 95 cm) The Azurite is 27 x 19mm The leaf is 87 mm long Total length is 43.5 " long (approx 111 cm) Two Ways to Wear as a medium length necklace: Top Photo: Wrap twice around neck. Slightly uneven so that the links and azurite rest higher than the leaf. Thread leaf though lin...

Making a wire coil quickly using a wire as the mandrel.... ON THE CHEAP. If you are like me you have probably been making your coils by hand - wrapping one wire around another. After a day, your hands become stiff and tired. I would like to keep using my hands for a long time, so I started to look for new methods. The first thing I came across was the coiling gizmo deluxe . It's $200 and quite large. I then browsed the other coiling gizmo products, but they didn't do what I needed them to do. I wanted a wire to be the mandrel - the "rod" another wire is wrapped around. In these kits you use an actual rod/mandrel to wrap the wire around. (hang in there with me) All this research and price tags got me thinking about ways to make a coil using a plain old drill. I am sure I am not the first person to make this discovery but there isn't a lot of information out there on how to do this. For this particular project I used 12" of 24 gauge wire and 10" o...

I am so excited to show off my new banner (Look Up) and logo designs! I worked with a former colleague and friend, Sami Wallingford , to come up with the design concept. We used to work together in the publishing industry - I was sales, she was graphic design. I think it's wonderful to work with former co-workers who have branched out on our own. Let me know what you think of the new look!

On Sunday morning I realized that I had the most traffic - EVER- to my Etsy shop. Thank you ChristiaLP for the awesome exposure. She spent time looking for artists with nice products and great photography AND had never been on the front page of Etsy. Consider me tickled pink.

My earrings - Top Row Far Right My latest reading topic is about SEO - Search Engine Optimization. It took me a long - long - long time to start connecting the dots about how all of this works. (And I still have many dots to go) What I really want to do is make jewelry - however - if no one sees it, no one buys it - and then I get featured on TLC's Buried Alive. Shudder. Well, I read tidbits from all over. I read on the Esty Forums, Blogs, web sites... any advice that was easy to follow. I slowly began making tweaks to help my odds of being searchable. One of the biggest and best tweaks I've started making is changing the titles of my jewelry. For example, I like to give names to my jewelry like Hot Hoops , Breathless and Glitz because that they way them make me feel. After I began connecting the dots better, I found out this is not how to name items when selling them on-line. I found out one has to name their items how one searches for them. My task of rena...

Gold Dipped Feather Earrings Yes they are real feathers! The feathers go though an electroplating process where a thick layer of 24k gold adheres to a coating of brass over the feather resulting in a real feather with Gold Overlay. I think these feathers are H-O-T! I decided my own jewelry collection was becoming sparse -since I sell what I make- and made a pair just for myself. It must have been great advertising because I received orders for TWO more pairs of earrings. I have one pair of feathers remaining. I am wondering if they will ever make it to my Etsy shop? If you would like to nab the last pair contact me though Etsy click here to contact me. In addition to earrings I am also using the Gold Overlay Feathers in a few necklaces. These feathers are not matched pairs and are longer than the ones I am using for the earrings. Please take a peek on my Facebook Fan Page. Let me know what you think of the feather s. About the wire coiling. I have been twirling these babi...

I had some terrific neighbors at the Talmadge Art Show this weekend. All jewelry designers! Yes, that was an exclamation point. What I find interesting is how we all can use the same materials and turn out jewelry/art that is completely different. Behind me was Miriam Jewels. Miriam crochets 28 gauge sterling silver or 14k gold filled wire. I have seen crocheted jewelry before but NOTHING like this. Just beautiful. She said it's a Peruvian technique. The thinnest gauge wire I use in my work is 26. It's amazing what one can create with wire. Check her out: http://www.miriamjewels.com My neighbor to the right Silver on my Mind, had jewelry that is much bolder than mine and they set stones. Both of us have a thing for blue chalcedony right now and both of us had it in our display, however both of our uses were completely different. Bold vs. Delicate Check Sheila out: http://www.silveronmymind.com My other neighbor was probably the most dramatically different and use...

Here is the progression from the simple Smoky Quartz and Pink Topaz earrings in the picture below. I've decided to make more hoops. I just love hoop earrings! These are formed into an organic diamond shape using my WigJig Centuar. I then hammer the sterling silver with a mallet to harden it. Next I hammer it with a chasing hammer to flatten the silver in just the right spot. What I get are some lovely organic shaped hoops. I added some AAA smoky quartz, Mystic Pink Topaz Birolettes and some AAA micro faceted onion cut Peridot. What's even better --- the gems can easily be taken off and on for versatility. Two earrings in one. I've hammered out four sterling silver and three 14k gold filled hoops for this weekend. I hope to have all the gems attached. Oh this weekend! Talmadge Art Show! Sunday, May 2 I will be there! www.talmadgeartshow.com There will be 52 artists showing this year. It's centrally located in Hillcrest.

I will be making a limited quantity of sliced shell and gem jewelry. My sister in law found these lovely shells in a shop while on vacation and brought them home to me thinking I could make them into jewelry. She was right. Here's my first one. This shell is named Thias. I wrapped the Thias shell with 14k gold filled wire and attached 3 georgous citrine heart shaped briolettes to each shell. The glimmer of blue are tiny facetted rondells of Topaz. This will be listed on Etsy today for $74

A sign that I am busy - more than one project going at once. One idea leads to another. Those earrings are just a start. Perfect, smooth smokey quartz drops, faceted beautiful green tourmaline, and gorgeous micro faceted pink topaz! I am thinking about adding removable hoops to this design. Gotta toy with that. Check out that Citrine over to the right in the bag. OMG! It's perfect and a gorgeous yellow orange. I have to do something special with those. Above the earrings are onion cut peridot. I am thinking pink and green. Why not? Have fun - it's jewelry.

All I need to do is add the clasp to this bracelet. Polished smooth Ruby, Labradorite, Amethyst, and Tundra Sapphire, compliment a sterling silver chain and hand forged sterling silver clasp. The three large links are the beginning part of the clasp. I still need to add the hook.

After one year of neglecting my blog - I have decided to give this a try once again. I had a huge case of artistic block. Finally inspiration hit a few months ago and I have been busy once again. Here is a picture of some of my new materials. Some of my favorites include London Blue Topaz, Swiss Blue Topaz and Aqua Chalcedony. Thank you to all of my friends who supported me though my difficult time.