Agate Tree of Life Pendant Copper | Jan E O Jewelry

 I have made a number of tree of life pendants but I am always trying to find a better way to make them.  This was the first attempt to make a fancier wrap around the cabochon.  The process was slow as I had never tried this on a tree before.  I already know what I will do different next time if there is a next time.





Agate Tree of Life Pendant Copper | Jan E O Jewelry

Accepting the Cycles

The Autumnal equinox marks the time to once again move within.   I have noticed through the years that as the light outside wanes, I slowly move back into the house.  The summer kitchen is closed up and the patio furniture stowed away.  The last of the harvest has been preserved for the winter ahead.

This process of moving within also happens on a more personal level as I turn to my spiritual practices of meditation and yoga to shine a light that guides me through the darkness ahead.  Each year I think I will spend the winter days in the Shiva Shop designing new jewelry pieces.  Or at least, take pictures of the pieces I have created and load them in my shop. www.janeojewelry.com I have the best of intentions, but  I find my desire is to hunker down and rest in stillness.  Time to turn the wheel and embrace the darkness.

Cleaning Jewelry with Products from your Kitchen

Being a jewelry maker I have a heap of necklaces.  Often when I go to wear one it is so covered with tarnish that I just put it away and change my outfit instead.  I was so thrilled to find this jewelry cleaning recipe I just had to write about it.

Not only did I clean my jewelry, but all my mom's silver that we use every day got cleaned as well. The silverware looks brand new.  Wish I had known about this as a kid when I used to have to polish the silver before Thanksgiving dinner.

My neighbor told me this trick then I found it on the internet.  Wire-sculpture.com had an article about it on their site.  So here's what you need.

                                                                                    1 tablespoon salt
                                                                                    1 tablespoon baking soda
                                                                                    1 tablespoons dish soap
                                                                                     1 cup boiling water
                                                                                     A piece of aluminum foil

Take a piece of aluminum foil that roughly covers the bottom of a small bowl.  Pour the boiling water into the bowl.  Add the other ingredients and swish them around.  Put your brass, sterling, silver, german silver, or goldfilled jewelry into the bowl.  The metal needs to be touching the aluminum foil . Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes.  Take it out, rinse in water and dry.

I tripled the recipe and put it in a baking pan to do an 8 piece place setting of silver.  It only took minutes.  The more tarnished the piece the longer it takes of course.  There is a point when the solution no longer works.  I could actually smell the chemical reaction and saw small bubbles when I put the items in the water.   If you like to know the science behind why this works you can read that here.  In fact after reading this article seems like all you really need is aluminum foil and baking soda.  The dish soap does help clean up the beads and gems however. I'll probably leave out the salt next time.

If you have pieces of jewelry with porous gemstones like turquoise and pearls this seems to be safe.  At least my gemstones didn't seem to suffer.  On some large pieces that were really tarnished I had to leave them in the whole ten minutes.  Others I just dropped in and pulled out almost immediately.  You don't want to leave items that have been antiqued with liver of sulfur in too long or it will remove this black as well.  The chains were the best because some of them are so delicate that they are difficult to clean by hand.   Time to get off this computer and go gather up all those tarnished earrings.  Happy cleaning. 

The Healing Power of Sound

     As a child my friends and I would often chant, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  Oh, how wrong we were.

 Sounds can hurt as well as heal.  In medicine,  ultra sounds are used to obtain visual images as well as heal tissues. While gentle sounds soothe the nervous system,  loud, angry dissonant sounds agitate and stress it.  The picture to the left was created by sounds and is the cover of a book about cymatics.

 A mantra  is word, a symbol, or a group of words that can bring spiritual transformation through their repetition.  Scientist believe the cosmos was created with a big bang in other words a sound.  The bible states that in the beginning there was the word. To some, the sound of creation is the word "Aum."

Tibetan prayer wheels have mantras  inside that are sent out into the universe when the wheel is spun.

After looking at the hand held prayer wheel I bought while traveling in Nepal, I was inspired to create a piece of adornment.  I call this pendant a prayer package because it looks like a little gift and a word is hidden inside.

I use recycled tins, recycled copper flashing and bench scraps to make my prayer packages.  The word sits next to the wearers heart and is activated by the breath or prana.  This is much like spinning the wheel to send out the prayers.

Click on photo to see more prayer pendants

While many of my prayer packages have the word already selected by me,  For instance the one below  says "Light",   I also like to give my customers a chance to choose a word that has meaning for them.

Click photo to view pendant

 One custom order was for the word, "wealth" as in plenty-more than enough.  I had wanted to use the word abundance in the past but six letters is about the maximum that words in a prayer package.  Wealth became the perfect substitute for abundance and I ended up making a pendant with that word inside. The top picture is of the pendant containing wealth.


“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.” ― Emily Dickinson

Copper and Health

Curated By: JanEOjewelry

ArtFire.com

Copper is an essential mineral for the health of all living organisms.  Because of its role in iron uptake, copper deficiency can lead to anemia like disorders.   Many swear by the healing powers of copper for arthritis which may be due to its ability to conduct electricity.  What I know is that copper makes beautiful jewelry and here are some of my picks from the CJUIN guild on Artfire. 

Find Direction and Balance with the Stacking of Stones into Rock Caiirns

 Balanced stones can be found through out nature where just the right elements of wind and water leave a stone or boulder in a state of balance.  These stones are so intriguing that many people have taken to balancing stones as artistic expression.  

Check out his site Gravity Glue

Michael Grab of Colorado stacks stones using nothing but gravity. Just like in life if he tries to force the balance point, the rocks tumble to the ground.  Balance requires trusting nature and being willing to let go of control.

The balancing of rocks into cairns has been used for centuries as directional markers.  When hiking in the Cascades the trail can often be across rocky terrain.  Cairns are built by fellow hikers to help show the direction to follow.  So cairns show us the way home, a path to follow and help us connect to the earth. 

Om rock cairn by janeojewelry

I love cairns and spend time stacking stones whenever I am camping along a river.  I also love the beach and find my coat pockets full of rocks after a visit to the coast. I have combined these two loves into a  piece of zen jewelry.     

I stack and balance the stones I have gathered on my bench and drill them the way they naturally want to balance.  I listen to kirtan music and the chanting helps me find my own inner place of balance where I am both connected like the stone and flowing like the sea. The stones spin on the wire and can also be used as a contemplative device.

 Om is believed to be the vibration of creation so I call my line of beach stone jewelry Om Rock Beach Stones.   These are an earth friendly product as the rocks are a gift from the sea and the metals are either bench scraps or recycled copper flashing..

                                                            

 

How to make a necklace display

I wanted some displays I could use for a number of necklaces.  In addition, I wanted to be able to store them without having to remove the necklaces and  they had to fit in my plastic tote.

I went to the local hardware store and bought 5 feet of 4 inch drain pipe, three end caps and three knock out caps.  The end caps were over 7 dollars a piece and the knock out caps which I found later at Home Depot  were only 38 cents.  So if you want to save money you can buy the knock out caps for each end.  However, the end caps do add some weight to the bottom of the display.  I have also placed a bean bag inside for more weight.

The pipe was cut into length with a chop saw, but any hand saw would do the job as well. I wanted mine stepped so they were cut 22,20, 18 inches.  The necklaces displayed are on the shortest one. For foam I used a carpet pad which I also purchased at the hardware store.I

First end of pad duct taped to pipe.

My initial thought was to use Contact Cement to glue the carpet pad onto the drainpipe.  However , the carpet pad was pretty stiff so I decided to just use good old duct tape instead.  I rolled the pad around the pipe and cut it to fit.   With the thickness of my carpet pad it turned out to be 17 and a half inches. I then rolled the pipe onto the pad and duct taped the other end..  Not all that attractive, but it is going to be totally covered up by the velvet.

Old velvet curtain that I used in my booth for a number of years came in handy to make a cover for the tube.  The velvet was very slick on the back and also had some stretch to it so it worked perfectly.  After I made the tube, I pulled it over the pipe with foam.  I put some glue along the bottom and top of the foam to hold the velvet.  I cut the velvet long and also tucked it down behind the foam at the top so there was a nice edge.  I wanted the tops to open because I plan on having them double as storage for other jewelry. 

Measuring length and width needed.

Sewing the tube on my old singer sewing  machine

I wasn't happy with the contrast between the white knock out caps and the velvet.  I considered gluing velvet on the caps, but I had run out of glue and just so happened to have some purple spray paint.  So I sprayed some paint on the white tops and called it good enough for now. Might have made another decision if I lived in town, but I live in the back woods and wasn't willing to drive 15 miles to buy glue.

 I used the couple of feet of foam I had left into bracelet displays.  Again I used duct tape and made them into an oval shape.  My bracelets are oval , not round like the bracelet displays I have so they never look quite right on them.  Really look lots better on the oval displays.  Hope this gives you an idea of a way to make a display for yourself.  Love to hear about displays you have made. 

Three displays should hold 20 pieces all together