Silver and Pearls

Funny how I've returned to a wintry palette so soon. This is one of my favorite designs - sterling silver forged into lengths
of ribbon looking bands connected by some sensuous chainmaille and sprinkled with pearls. It feels great too as the bands
of silver rest on the wrist with the chainmaille creating enough drape and the four clusters of pearls as accents around the wrist.

Stormy Weather or Snow and Ice

This is my latest addition to the Year of Jewelry blog for week 7 "Stormy Weather". Once you get an idea in your head, it can
be really hard to consider anything else. I knew I wanted to use the AB faced tubes and any other bead I had that look like
ice and snow, so pearls were chosen. Then I picked the design (not that easy as I considered several but were either too influenced by what I had seen on the site already or I had done something like it recently). This chain design was inspired by
Scott David Plumlee. He had used carnelian tubes and I made a mental note that this was a chainmaille design I'd love to try.
Having completed this one however I think I'd pick stones that can stand up to the sterling silver rings. I love pairing pearls
with SS rings but somehow the translucent tubes seem too delicate. I think I accomplished the feel of snow and ice (or stormy weather) though....The bracelet measures 8" with a SS lobster clasp. I believe the ID of the rings were 5.0 and 16ga for the larger of the two sizes and 3.5 ID 18ga for the smaller. I like the way the position of the three larger rings between the
tubes and pearls stagger rather than sit side by side. Unlike other chainmaille designs that can be tumbled for strength and sparkle this design cannot because of the pearls, so anyone contemplating a design such as this should tumble and polish beforehand.......all in all, I'd do this design again.......