New Goddess Intro! Hygeia for Autism

Thats right, Hygeia is my new Goddess Collection! Hygeia is a lesser known Goddess, but once you see the pieces I have in her collection, you will see why I chose her.

Hygeia is the Goddess of Health and Healing. She was the daughter of Asclepius who was the God of Medicine and Healing. Her mother was Epione, the Goddess of soothing of pain. The painting above you can easily recognize as the work of Gustav Klimt. In both the statue and the painting Hygeia is pictured with a snake. She is often holding a medicine bowl (patera) as well from which the snake is feeding. Serpents are often used as symbols of healing and medicine as with Mercury's double serpent caduceus, which was adopted by the Medical Department of the United States Army and other medical related organizations.

A prescription from Hygeia would be homeopathic in nature. She would most likely prescribe a healthy diet, rest, and cleanliness. She brought about the concept of bathing patients. She believed in being disease free life through preventative measures, rather than waiting for symptoms to show. Her significance placed on the cleansing of the body is where we get the word hygiene from.

I have used Hygeia’s collection as a space for my Autism Awareness Necklace and Earrings. In the future I hope to create more pieces that can benefit causes of this nature, through both charity and awareness.

Autism is a condition that I'm sure has touched everyone's life, or that of someone you know and love. I am fortunate to know so many people who help... and they have inspired me to do the same. Special thanks to Alaina and Samantha who work with Autistic and special needs children on a daily basis and truly make a difference. Love you guys!


25% of the money from any pieces I sell will go directly to Autism Research. Also... did you know that April is Autism Awareness Month? Spread the word! The new category has been added to my website, but if you prefer...you can buy through my Etsy site.

Spring time Ear Wear!

Like everyone in blogland I just can't stop thinking about SPRING! And summer too I suppose. Anyway here are a few new earrings I made today. I already know these gold coral stick earrings are part of my new "uniform" (the outfit I will wear everyday this summer...i.e. sundress, flip flops, these earrings, and a flower in my hair) Anyway, they are on 14k gold fill chain, and have small sawarovski crystals and seed beads at the top. Hopefully my camera and I will be friends today and I will get up better pictures of these.

Remember these little guys? The lovely shell clusters I picked up in Hawaii? Well here is my first creation. Sweet little spring time earrings. I used hoops made of metallic seed beads to join them together. They look like little flowers! Oh wait - that gives me more ideas! Good thing I bought I bunch of them....back to creating!

Happy Monday! :)

Aloha Indeed!

I'm counting down the days till I visit my sister in Hawaii. I leave Friday and I haven’t packed yet!!! :) We are hoping to have a small jewelry party there with some of her friends. I think these earrings embody the Aloha spirit! I will definitely post blogs while I'm there. I’m sure I will have a lot to share. We have a trip planned to the big island and I just LOVE Lava beads. The Turquoise earrings are made of chalk turquoise and bone beads, and the other ones are mother of pearl, fresh water peacock pearls, and cute little pink seed beads. The mother of pearl ones will be hard to give away (or sell!) They will look so good with a cute summer sundress!

Here is a picture of beautiful flowers from the last time I visited the ALOHA state!

Stained Glass Jewelry

I've been playing around with making stained glass jewelry lately... and I must admit that I love it. When I saw this glass I bought it for the purpose of making jewelry...no stained glass window in mind :) I made several pendant shapes and some simple triangles for earrings... nothing too heavy of course.

After soldering the pieces I used a copper patina on them. I think the copper looks great with the colors in the glass. I also soldered on some copper coils to the earrings.

Then I added some red swarovski crystals and some gold filled findings.

Here is a picture of the necklace pendant I did as well. Again with the swarovski crystals... I do admit they a great punch of sparkle and thats why I'm loving them so much right now.

And the set! The necklace back has been finished off with leather to protect clothing/skin from any wire ends and solder bumps. I use 100% lead free solder. . . but still it doesnt feel great next to the skin ;) I will get better pictures and up and get these on my website later tonight. :)