ICE resin pendant "Worry about nothing, pray about everything"

New year.  New challenges.  The desire for greater peace & joy.  Knowing that if I can increase that for myself, I can share it with others.  This little pendant is for me.

Side view.

And the back.  Words are powerful.  I will focus on words of trust and encouragement.

It's crazy busy right now.  Has been for a month!   Good busy.  Full of family, jewelry projects and an article I hope to publish.  :-)  

May your New Year be a year of hope.  A year of greater calm & peace.  I pray that for you my friends!

Wooo Hoooo!! Published in Belle Armoire Jewelry Autumn 2011!!!!!

"Tokens of Encouragement"

Resin, Paper, Copper & Brass Pendants

The directions for these pieces and lovely pictures were published in the Autumn 2011 Belle Armoire Jewelry!!  I'm sooooo excited!! The article looks so wonderful and I'm so proud to have my "babies" published.  BAJ is an amazing magazine, and I'm so very honored to be included.  

 Here's a link to their website:  ( I hope I linked this correctly)

http://www.stampington.com/html/ba_jewelry_autumn11.html
Look in the table of contents~~page 26.  My article!  My name!  I'm hyperventilating!  I made all of my coworkers read the article~lol~and I'm taking it to my nephew's birthday party to make my Mom and other relatives enjoy it too.  Heck, I'll tie 'em down!  :-)
Yes, there are other artists' work in the magazine too.  Lots of amazing artists, amazing jewelry.  So the honor is real and my smile is wide.  Thank you Belle Armoire Jewelry!!!

LOTS of Family Time~~Tired but Happy

Since my blog is called "chriskerrjewelry" I'm gonna show you these earrings first~~My beautiful stepdaughter's future MIL loves jewelry.  Every time my DSD (dear step daughter) visits from Spain, I try to make earrings for her to take back home.  "Calm" & "Peace" is not what we've had this last month!  But it's what I always wish for my loved ones.

My hubby has spent months planning a family reunion with cousins from his mother's family.  We all camped at Huntington Lake, Upper Billy Creek .  It was 7,000 feet above sea level, tent camping, only one flush toilet area, no showers (!).  I must humbly admit that I'm not a camper.  I've been tent camping only a few times and NEVER without showers!  I was nervous.  4 nights.  Could I do it? 

The flush toilet structure.  No hot water.  I became an expert at washing in freezing water and dealing with it.  And I LOVE Huggie's wipes for personal cleanliness when one can't take a shower!  I could write a commercial for them!

It was BEAUTIFUL!  The air was so clean.  Even though I gasped a bit while hiking (7,000 feet up kicked my butt!), I felt alive and happy.  God's beauty heals.  It fills up the weary spaces with peace....

Huntington Lake, me and my sweet sweet man.  Blessings and beauty.

Then back home for more family~~

 Home again, unpacking and fitting in more relatives' visits.

So we had the reunion.  The kids from Spain stayed two weeks.  My middle little brother and three of his kids spent a couple nights.  My littlest brother and his new bride visited too.....Wonderful visits! 

But we are tired. 

Tired and full of amazing memories.

So it's time to recharge.  Time to lay low for a bit. 

I hope your summer is a good one.  I pray your life is full of simple blessings!  And a daily hug or two.

More Ice Resin~~Serenity, Joy Resilience Pendant

New resin piece.  It's so fun to create  a piece with positive thoughts encased in clear hardness.  To be able to hold and reread encouraging words throughout the day.  Blessings!

"Dream & Grow" my friend.  Summer dreams can encourage love, encourage peace. 

Have a lovely Thursday!  Savor the present moment~~find the bits of goodness. 

Resin~Fill your mind with thoughts of faith, hope & courage

 Finished a pendant today.  Been plugging away for a few weeks, a bit at a time.  Resin is a medium that still holds challenges for me, but the ability to encase a message is wonderful!  This piece consists of resin, paper, copper, brass, nickel, a quartz bead, silk ribbon and steel wire. 

 I don't know if you can read the back easily.  It says, "your life will be filled with joy". 

The side view shows more stamping and how I connected the piece.  All cold-connections, all pondered and slowly assembled.  Lots of humming, smiling to myself, listening to Christian music and an old chick flick or two.  Don't think I ever get enough of "You've Got Mail"~~lol!  Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are such a fun combination. 

It's Wednesday, and June is almost gone.  Astonishing how fast the time rushes by.   May the rest of your week be blessed and joyfully start the new month. 

Ice Resin "Peace" "Hope" Earrings for Kate

Trying a new Ice Resin project.  I made these teeny little cups of copper, glued in teensy words of encouragement and filled them with resin.  I made a bit of a mess, with resin all over the cups, which had to be peeled off by yours truly.  But the results are kinda cool. I'll show you the pair of earrings I made for myself next post, but for now I wish you all a Thursday full of peace and hope. 

Resin Cabochon Pendant & An Amazing Day

What a wonderful day~~After worship and a visit to a dear friend, I came home and glued myself to my workbench.   I finished the resin cabochon pendant!  With only a few mistakes along the way~~pretty amazing.  The wonderful part of the day was being fully engaged in creating this piece.  The hours disappeared.  When I came up for air it was 9:30, which is 30 minutes past my bedtime!  Seriously, on work mornings I wake up at 4:30...so an early bedtime is a must.  But today is President's Day and the Imaging Facility I work at is closed...whee!  AND my sweet darling husband is in Bakersfield with my little brother.  I'm luxuriating in sheer selfishness. 

Side view of the piece.    The cabochon is cold connected to the copper plate with the stamped tabs.  Below you can see the rivets I used to attach the tab sheet to the copper plate.  I'm so happy and proud of this!  I'm so grateful to God for this gift of creative joy.

Revelations Chapter 21: Verses 3-4  NLT

"I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, the home of God is now among his people!   He will live with them, and they will be his people.  God himself will be with them.  He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  For the old world and its evils are gone forever."

A new week my friends.  Now I get to catch up on laundry & stuff to get ready for work Tuesday.  But I hope I always hold the joy of play and creation deep in my heart.  Love y'all!

Tuesday!

Had a great Tuesday at work! Great patients and enough time to do their exams..what a blessing!
Here's a pic of the latest resin pendant I finished last week. Called "hope" and it contains a little mother-of-pearl bird fetish, turquoise, carnelian, copper and brass and stuff. I have 2 more to try to finish before the showing at the Arts Guild of Sonoma in June. I'll keep plugging away.

May your Wednesday be full of love and be sure to smile at yourself in the bathroom mirror~~God bless you all!

Lovely Wednesday and a new Resin Pendant

What a perfectly great work day! No giant conflicts or problems~~there were a few small ones, but goodness! Life is so full of small conflicts~~
My sweetie and I sat down to our cereal supper and watched a taped episode of "Gilmore Girls". Sitting side by side on the sofa and laughing and commenting---sheer bliss!

Here's the latest resin pendant named "Wonder". The little scamp of a girl is my DH's great-aunt. Doesn't she look a bit mischievous?? The dangle is citrine, one of my favorite stones in the universe.



May your Thursday be full of wonderful achievements. And may you be led by God every step! Amen!

Monday in Spring

Busy Monday~~work kept me hopping. Did mammograms on two breast cancer survivors and other regular screening ladies. The day flew by!


Here's a pair of pendants that I made using the extra resin from one of my collage pendants. I bought a base metal locket at my local bead store. I pulled the two sides apart,sanded and roughed up the lockets so they looked "older", made little faith collages in each and poured in the resin. I love 'em!


Here's the backs---the roughed up locket pieces.

May your Tuesday be creatively blessed. Treasure each minute and remember that He loves you so very much. More than you can ever know!

"Renew"

Blessed Sunday all!
"Renew" is my latest resin pendant. Copper, brass, nickel, silver, garnet and peridot are all included in this piece.

A beautiful day in Northern California~~86 degrees so far. I pray that this week is full of kindnesses and joy, with several grins and a few shared laughs thrown in daily. A hug to you all!

"Miracle" Resin pendant

Here's the other pendant I was working on while my husband was playing with his chainsaw. "Miracle" has a pic of my son Robert. He's 25 now, so he looks a bit older. Honest!

We are preparing for a long weekend in Bakersfield. It's about 5 hours from here, but we'll be taking the Lab and the Lab-Border-Collie pup. So potty breaks will be important! And I must make 4 pairs of earrings tonight and tomorrow~~my 3 SILs and my niece all have birthdays this month. So I better get to work :-)

Blessed Thursday to you all!

Tuesday and time to "Play"

Happy Tuesday All! Here's a resin pendant that I worked on during the "Tree Eradication by the Studly Lumberjack" on Saturday and Sunday. Hope you enjoy it and may your week be blessed. Way blessed, OK?

"Beloved" Resin Pendant

I've had SO MUCH FUN and a little frustration with this new pendant. My second foray into soldering and resin~~ This piece was inspired by Stephanie Lee, the amazing found object jewelry maker and author.

I started out by cutting copper pipe to 1/4 inch thick. And sliced my hand a bit. Not bad, just enough to annoy you because the bandage gets in your way. Warning: if you use a pipe cutter, be careful! Sharp metal can cut (duh). After bandaging, I cut and stamped a piece of copper sheet.

Then I played with solder. The first picture is another solder explosion. I used a soldering gun first. Didn't work well and the join wasn't stable. When I was cleaning it it fell apart~~heartbreak! And that just fired my determination to fire up my little butane torch. Which worked better, until I ran out of butane. LOL!

Then cleaning, painting the join, antiquing and Krylon-coating the metal. Oh, I punched some holes sometime too.

Next came trying to figure out what I wanted to put into my pendant. I tried little pieces of metal, little charms in my "odds & ends" drawer. I found this copy of an old pic of my Polish Grandma, and it all started to come together after that.

As soon as this cures completely I'm going to wear it and see how it lays, wears, works. And I'm going to hang it on hand-dyed silk ribbon~~ooo la la! As soon as I find some, that is. :-)

God is so good. It's been lovely making this and then running to clean the bathroom, do the laundry and vacuum. A wonderful weekend of productivity! My friend Kristy from Wisconsin is visiting this afternoon after church service. Thank you Lord! I'm so richly blessed.

May you feel richly blessed too. Or if you don't, may you feel the Holy Spirit comforting your heart and holding you close. I love you all!

Resin Collage and Solder Explosion

My first resin collage pendant! I love it. Still a little sticky~resin apparently takes a long time to cure. Or I didn't stir it well enough. But this was sooo fun! And I even tried soldering for the first time. See up at the top? That messy blob of solder? Wait until you see the back:

I call this "solder explosion"! I love that I tried. And I'll try some more. Just need time~

Cool quote from the Luanne Rice book, "Dream Country", I'm reading right now (actually re-reading. I read it a while ago and now it's time to enjoy it again):

"When he was young, his mother had told him, "If you're going to pray, don't worry. But if you're going to worry, don't pray."

Amen!