Canadian Rockies Art

New Work Shop Update Monday

Loads of new goodies coming up ladies! One of a kind Bangle Bracelets and Fine Silver rings will be loaded up in my NGOriginals Artfire Studio and Etsy shop on Monday…

Here’s a sneak peak…

I love the focal lampwork bead on this large sterling silver bangle, it looks like hot melted glass draping over the main part of the bead, just  stunning in person:

This copper bangle reminds me of juicy mangoes and hot summer days:

I love the combo of dark teal and purple in this copper bangle – Purple is the Hot-coming color for this Fall/Winter season btw:

This one of a kind bracelet here is made with Hill Tribe Silver curved tubes and some really cool blue artisan made lampwork beads (it’s a ‘blue jeans’ kind of  shade) with a belt of silver over top… strung on 49 strand professional jewelry wire:

And here’s a few rings that I made with Precious Metal Clay 3 (PMC3), some are one of a kind, some I can repeat:

 

4mm Champagne Cubic Zirconia (CZ):     Moonstone:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6mm Clear/Diamond CZ on both of these rings:

All fine silver constructions (unisex ring for men and women):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll update my Shops on Monday… see you then!

Cheers,

Nathalie

New Work

It’s been b-u-s-y… and I’ve made a few things, along with a bracelet design that I’ve had in mind for the past 3 weeks (I finally got around to making it today).

I like to read the BeadFX blog, and recently, Jen started having these “Inspiration Friday” pictures and she challenges whom ever wants to play along to make a design inspired by the image that she picks each week.

I designed this cuff bracelet inspired by this image on the BeadFX Blog a few weeks ago. It will be listed in my NG Originals Artfire Studio and/or NG Originals Etsy Shop soon.

Here’s my interpretation of it:

And if you’re wondering where I got this FABULOUS lampwork glass cabochon… I purchased it from my good friend and super talented Canadian Glass Artist Gillian of GillianBeads on Etsy! I just LOVE it! It’s definitely unique. I really love the colors and layers in the glass, it’s like one of those Lava Lamps from the 60’s… very cool to look at.

Next – A simple Turquoise sterling silver cuff bracelet – Custom order, Sold:

Side note: Don’t you just love my new large size NG logo stamp? Infinity made a couple for me in different sizes. I’m very pleased with my new Logo stamps!

Solid Copper Cuff – custom stamped – Custom order, Sold:

My custom hand stamped solid copper cuffs are available in my Canadian Rockies Art Studio on Artfire and in my Canadian Rockies Etsy shop too! Contact me if you’d like one!

Something new for my Canadian Rockies Art line – I was in the mood for making rustic earrings with beautiful pebbles, so I made these (to be listed soon):

I can’t believe it’s already 9 PM… Still so much to do on my list. I better run!

Keep on smiling and shopping handmade!

Cheers,

Nathalie

New Work

I’m not finished listing all of these yet, but it’s been awhile since I posted some of my new jewelry work on my blog, so here goes:

Artisan Borosilicate Lampwork Sterling Silver links bracelet (will be listed later on today in my NGOriginals Artfire Studio and NGOriginals Etsy shop) – I love the colors of these beads, they remind me of the ocean, a bit of a tropical feel:

I’m going through my inventory and making new pieces using what I already have in stock (And I have a lot of stuff in stock! Sometimes I forget that I have these beautiful treasures to work with). These Orbital earrings are listed in my Artfire and Etsy shops, I love the rich honey/flames colors combined with the oxidized metal, and yes, the ball links at the top swivel around a bit for added textural fun:

The pictures I took for these earrings really do not do them justice at all. If you like them in the pictures, you are going to LOVE them in person. I made the bottom charms with PMC3 (precious metal clay 3) and they feature some artisan-made beautiful borosilicate glass beads that shimmer all sorts of colors in the light. Really gorgeous in person. I can make these with other colors of lampwork beads as well.

These are listed in my two NGOriginals shops:

I also made a swirly butterfly inspired fibula / pin in sterling silver. Again, it’s a case of “it looks far better in person than on the pictures” – our weather has been really sucky here lately and so I’m not getting all the light I’d like to have for my pictures to come out better.

This sterling silver pin, along with another one that I made a couple of weeks ago is listed in my two NGOriginals shops:

I also made a fused fine silver rustic necklace. Large funky fine silver freeform links, coupled with a sterling chain. Something different. Will soon be listed in my NGOriginals shops:

If you haven’t seen these PMC3 pendants yet, I am so in love with them! Totally “me” and the Runes designs are hand-carved by yours truly… I really enjoy working with PMC3, and I also really enjoy hand-carving designs. It’s a fabulous material that opens up a world of possibilities. These are all listed in my NGOriginals shops and I can do any Runes that you’d like, or even “initials” pendants, etc… shoot me an email or convo if you want something specific!

I’ve been trying to photograph this particular ring for the past 3-4 weeks now. I kid you not, the weather and lighting just do not do this ring justice. The pictures all turn out awful, but I have to list it at some point.

It’s fab in person, lots of fun and colors in there, and it keeps coming out “blah” in pictures. (if you saw it in person, you’d see the difference and why I say “blah” to the picture here).

Anyway, it’s a Size “5” but with the 5mm wide band, it will fit more like a size 4.75 – so keep that in mind. It’s one of a kind, as I’m still experimenting with working with metal clay. It’s listed in my NGOriginals shops if you want it!

And I’m so excited!!! I got my new packaging from Rio Grande this week (I love their Impressions service, very fine folks working in that division and I love the results!). Eco-friendly boxes and satin pouches in various sizes with my NG Originals logo on them. It’s love!

Have a fabulous day! Keep shopping handmade!

TGIF!!!

New work and updates!

I’ve been a very very busy girl these past few weeks. So many things to do, so little  time.

Here’s a preview of some of my New Work that will soon be listed in my NG Originals Artfire Studio and NG Originals Etsy Shop:

Two of the 4 featured pendants here are hand-carved from scratch by yours truly. The Runes pendants (at each end of the picture above) are the ones that I carved myself. These are thick slabs of fine silver (.999 pure) and not only are they really cool to touch,  but they have a nice weight to them that makes for a quality design that will last a lifetime.

Today’s Accessories Magazine highlighted trend is “Wood” since natural  materials and textures are hot, hot, hot and I think that my new pendants that I made last week out of PMC3 (Precious Metal Clay Fine Silver) and set on beautiful Hemp Cords with sterling silver clasps are a good representation of this latest fashion trend.

The rustic beauty of Precious Metal Clay, which is a recycled material (reclaimed fine silver particles), combined with natural hemp cords and adorned with a few handmade Greek Ceramic beads, make for the perfect Natural/Eco-friendly Art Jewelry design.

Some of my pendants’ designs are Unisex, so they are perfect for men and women alike. They come in various lengths (and an extender chain can be added of course).

MORE NEWS:

I also got quite busy last week with preparing some of my jewelry designs to go on a fantastic journey with a DIVINE photographer here in Northern Alberta. Her name is Suzanne Sagmeister, and if you want to have a peek at her mind-blowing work, you definitely need to visit Suzanne’ website (there’s tons to see on there, click on the left to “visit the website”, and you will also hear some beautiful music from one of my new favorite Albertan singer/song writer Kalsey Kulyk! I love “On My Way” and all her other songs…) and for up to the minute updates and latest shots, visit Suzanne’s Facebook page!!!

I’ve always wanted to have a professional photographer take shots of some of my designs and so very soon, I will be able to add some of those cool shots in my listings and in my portfolio. I’m so friggin’ excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m BEYOND in love with Suzanne’s work – there’s no words to describe how much I love her work - and we’re both located here in Alberta – Let the artists from Alberta ROCK the World!!!! :o)

Stay tuned!

Tooth Ache and lots of NEWS

I’m tired and grumpy and in pain, but it does not matter because MY MOM is doing really well after her cancer surgery yesterday. Yay!!!

She had her major surgery yesterday because she had ovarian cancer. They did a hysterectomy to remove the two tumors that were on her ovaries, and they also removed 3 more tumors that they found on the right side (not sure at this point where these were attached), and they removed the layer of fat that covers up the organs in the abdomen, because cancer cells tend to want to hide in there... and all the rest is 'all clear'. She will need more chemo, but after that she should be in the clear.

She is one brave woman, my mom. 73 years old and what a trooper she is!

She is recovering well at the hospital, and she will be home in a few days, and I will be looking after her. Nurse Nat ready for action!

Meanwhile, I have a nasty toothache that started yesterday at the hospital when I ate a sandwich while mom was in the OR. I had made myself some food to take along, and the bread that I use has a mixture of seeds on the crust. Well, one of those little tiny seeds ended up making its way between two of my molars.

It wasn’t bad at first, and I tried rinsing it out at the hospital but I had no floss on me and no toothbrush, so I figured it would have to wait until I got home. Well, by the time I got home last night, needless to say that this little pesky seed had managed to get in deeper and started to aggravate the nerve on my one tooth. It got pretty bad last night.

I took some Tylenols and they knocked me out for awhile, but then they wore off, of course… so this morning I called my dentist and they have a short work-day on Saturdays and they were swamped with emergencies, so they could not fix that tooth for me today, it has to wait until Monday afternoon.

So I continued trying to get that seed out, and I’m not sure if I did it or not. I can still feel something in there, but the nerve is so upset now, I’m leaving it alone and we’ll see how tomorrow goes. I took more Tylenols and at least the pain isn’t shooting in my left eye anymore. And if I don’t talk, then it’s not too bad. So I’m hanging in there and being quiet (ok, mumbling and cussing under my breath LOL)

Will you look at this:

This is my new ‘mini Moo’ card design for my brand new line of ONE OF A KIND/LIMITED EDITION  “OPULENT” high end jewelry “NG Originals”.

Cute design huh? Look at my Studio and Shop below (and look at my Artfire Rapid Cart on the RIGHT SIDE column), you will see some of the pieces I have already listed and the banners I’ve made for each online venue.

I figured that while I’d be looking after mom and taking over the chores she was helping me with (she was a huge help, believe me), I will most likely not have time to do a lot of work in my studio, so this way, I can do some One of a Kind pieces while keeping her company in my parent’s living room in their suite in our house, as I can use my little toolbox to bring over what I need and make some wire wrapped jewelry (mainly). It will be nicer that way for her. She won’t be able to come up the stairs for a few weeks at least, so that way, I can keep her company and make some jewelry at the same time.

You will find these NG Originals designs in my NG Originals Artfire Studio as well as in my NG Originals Etsy Shop.

Enjoy the weekend!

Is it always all or nothing?

Tonight, I have to say that I’m just pooped right out…

Got some good news today as mom and I went to her follow-up Dr’s visit at the Cancer Center. She’s responding very well to the chemo and getting stronger and feeling good, so they were quite happy about that :)

They also said I was doing a very good job at looking after her abdominal drain (to continuously drain the acites liquid from her tummy area). I’ve been religiously following the instructions on how to change her dressing and cleaning her wound, etc, so it’s all looking great. Yay for Private Nurse Nathalie!

She had a 2nd round of chemo on Monday. I went with her and this thing lasts the entire day, so armed with lots of things to keep me busy while mom slept in her day bed at the chemo clinic, the lovely iPod Touch that my hubby gave me for Christmas is proving to be a really handy gift - I rented a movie on iTunes (The Ugly Truth – that was funny and light-hearted, just what I needed) and watched that and read a book, while answering the odd check-up question on how mom was doing during the drip, etc, when the nurse would stop by. It was a looooooooooong day but it went very well.

But in between that (speaking of “All or nothing” here), I’ve also had to deal with several other things all at once… starting with a broken dishwasher and the associated repair man (he’s a nice guy, so that helps a lot). He’s coming back tomorrow with the parts he ordered to fix it. That will be a blessing :) The top rack’s wheels broke off (don’t ask me why Maytag can put together a really great dishwasher and then use cheap plastic wheels for their racks – the heat wears those puppies down like you would not believe!).

Anyway, so that will be taken care of… and I also had to deal with the warped siding on the one side of our house… thanks to some extreme heat/sun that hits the one area really bad each summer. Four summers and the vinyl siding was so warped, it was not funny. Thankfully the builder was kind enough to act quickly after my call in removing the faulty siding and replacing it all free of charge of course, but again, I still had to deal with a bunch of people coming and going and checking stuff, and upsetting the puppies.

That’s the worst part, our puppies do not want ANYONE on our property except for us. They are super protective and folks, you step up to the front door and be ready to be greeted by a 3 pound (soaking wet) puppy that will tell you from her full 8 inches tall off the floor that she rules the house and you better play by her rules or else! LOL.

The other one is more laid back …. he’s a guy…. need I say more? LOL

I haven’t been able to get back in the studio yet to continue on the Ring a Day challenge, but I hope to get back in there on the weekend for the sole purpose of continuing to explore all sorts of rings designs :)

I’ve started working with PMC3 and I have to say that I really enjoy it. It takes a LOT of patience to work on the greenware stage (leather hard stage) to make sure it’s all smooth and perfect, etc. But putting in 80% of your time at that stage is really the best way to end up with basically no work to do once it has been fired and comes out of the kiln.

I love all things METAL big time, so I could not let a metal technique/material slip by without me trying it out… I listed some pieces that I made last week, and I’m just posting a couple of pictures here for eye candy. Can’t have you reading a long post about my boring life without giving you something to look at, right? :o)

I’m very happy with how the LOS patina came out on these:

PMC3 Leaf Pendant with Cubic Zirconia

 

PMC3 Heart Pendant with Lab Grown Ruby

 

Check these pieces and more in my Artfire Studio and Etsy shop for more pictures and more details… Each one is unique!

Enjoy!
Nathalie

Ring A Day 3-5 & New Work

I’m feeling really run down at the moment. I have to deal with shuffling a whole bunch of specialist appointments for my father, myself and my mom, and this is not an easy task. Mom says she would have given up long ago, but I can’t give up. I have to sort this all out. We have no choice and I’m the only one who can do it…

I had posted before we discovered that mom had ovarian cancer, about the fact that mom needed Cataract surgery and a few different rounds of laser procedures. I had also mentioned that my father and I both suffer from Glaucoma (which can lead to blindness if not looked after), so I thought I had my hands full then with juggling two different eye specialists and all the appointments, tests, procedures, etc for 3 people (mom’s being the worst of all of us with so many appointments), then just before Christmas, we discovered that she had ovarian cancer (and you know this means chemo, blood work, CT scans galore, hysterectomy, etc…) – which means many more appointments and tests for her (and postponing her cataract tests and procedures further, and changing some of my own and my dad’s glaucoma appointments now as well because of scheduling conflicts with mom’s cancer procedures) = Bureaucratic nightmare :(

Anyway, I was stressing out about finishing the ring that I started on Day 3, and I figured that I did not need the added stress on top of everything else I’m juggling with, so I decided to finish the ring when I could, and it happened to be today, so this ring is my Day 3 to 5 “ring” for the Etsy Metal Ring-A-Day challenge. I really like how it turned out… It’s a mixture of sterling silver and pure copper… What do you think?

Ripples in Time – Size 5 1/2, listed in both my Artfire Studio and my Etsy Shop.

I also have other goodies to list, just not enough time to list them all in one shot, but here’s a preview now:

 

Keep an eye on my Canadian Rockies Art Artfire Studio for these and other goodies to come. Some items will be exclusively listed on Artfire. I will list a few items on Etsy when time allows. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions :)

Ring a day challenge – Mantring

Good evening everybody :)

Today is Day 2 of the Etsy Metal “Ring a Day” challenge, and I have finally taken the time to create a ring I’ve had in mind for a very long time:

The Mantring!

(short for the “Mantra Ring”)…

I call this original design of mine a “Mantring” because I think this ring style is perfect to feature your favorite Mantra on your fingers!

I can stamp any message a person wants in the space available. I have a few different fonts available… Contact me if you’d like your own custom Mantring :)

I think that it’s a great ring for inspiration, prosperity, to make you smile or to aim higher!

It also makes the PERFECT thumb ring too…

I made it using solid copper sheet and sterling silver for the band. The band is slightly oval shaped for comfort.

Let me know what you think:

Ring a Day – Day 2: The original Mantring – Copper & Sterling Silver

Size 8.75 (as pictured) is ready to ship. Available for a time in my Canadian Rockies Art Etsy and Artfire Shops, depending where it sells out first.

I can also make it in all Sterling Silver, contact me for a price quote.

See you tomorrow!

Ring A Day Challenge – A relic for vampires

With everything that happened with my family during the month of December, I sort of got lost in the shuffle of medical care and eye specialists appointments and tests, trying to get ready for the holidays, etc… and I admit it, I’m addicted to metal and gemstones, and if I don’t get my daily fix in my studio, I go bonkers. Truly. Ask my family.

Anyway, when I saw yesterday the Etsy Metal team starting up a Ring A Day challenge for the month of January (the rings can be made of any material, they can take a minute to several hours to make), I knew this was for me. This challenge is open to everyone, so I decided to jump in. You can see everybody’s designs in this Flickr group.

January and February is going to be crazy-busy with all sorts of medical things going on for my parents and myself, and I just wanted to make sure I’d keep my sanity through it all by taking some time for me, each day. This challenge will force me to take a bit of time to stop by my studio on a daily basis and let the creative juices flow, even for a minute, to see what I can come up with for the day’s design.

Today was day “1”, and I took it easy, I admit it. I decided to use a blank 5mm wide sterling silver commercial band that I had purchased a year ago (and I made a mistake when I originally bought it, it has a high dome on it, not so good for stamping words), which was just sitting there, doing nothing, being unloved :(

So I dug it out and gave it some love and some personality of its own using a few of my hammers, design stamps and my beloved dremmel – I kept having images of Edward in Twilight in my mind (I saw the movie again on TV today, we DVR’d it) and I could easily see him or anyone of the vampires in his group wearing this wide band ‘Relic’ ring for some reason. It just has that mysterious feel to me – What do you think? :

Ring a Day – Day 1: Relic Ring – Sterling Silver, size 7.5. One of a kind.

Available for a time in my Canadian Rockies Art Etsy and Artfire Shops, depending where it sells out first.

I have a bunch of new One of a Kind jewelry pieces to list, but my schedule is quite full, so I will try to list at least one new item per day in either one of my online shops, and see how that goes. I need 48 hours per day!!!

See you tomorrow with ring design No. 2!

Happy New Year!

Wishing for all your dreams to come true in 2010!

I’m always excited about starting a New Year – we start fresh, new ideas, new designs, new commitments to our health (ahem……).

Everything and anything is possible.

The sky is not the limit… the Universe is the limit!

Make this coming year one that will change your life for the better.

Make your dreams and passions come true.

Step forward and make things happen!

* * * * *

Here's a glimpse of things to come in 2010 in my Artfire shop:

 

Happy New Year!!!