Shards

When I first started making jewelry about 10 years ago, it was all because I'd lusted after some gorgeous necklaces in an exclusive boutique. They were beautiful combinations of semiprecious stones with painted floral pendants. I wanted them--every last one of them. They were like nothing I'd ever seen before at department stores or other boutiques I'd shopped in. The problem was that they were waaaay out of my price range. As someone who's been "crafty" ever since I can remember, I left the boutique thinking "I can make them!"

I researched the supplies until I found a source and took lessons in jewelry making from a friend. I read every jewelry magazine I could get my hands on. I spent a lot of free time in the jewelry aisles of craft stores and browing the selections at my local bead shops. Since that day, I have spent the past decade amassing thousands of beads, learning new jewelry-making techniques, and experimenting with color, mixed metals, and styles of the past and present...but I always come back to the pottery shards.

Birds

It all started with birdy necklaces--the ones with two birds building a nest together on a pewter tree branch. Then I had to make bird earrings--flying swallows with Czech glass flowers to give them a bright shot of color. I have now moved into bird hair accessories. Cheep! Cheep!

I made these sweet "tweets" as bobby pins that can be pushed into a messy ponytail, especially when you need a funky party accessory for a night out. You can also use them to pull your bangs over to the side (my personal favorite) or push a cowlick behind your ear. When you don't want to adorn your 'do with these feathered friends, they can also be perched on the page you've just finished as a sweet bookmark--or perched on your collar as an alternative to a brooch.