Nelly Script Flourish font by Tart Workshop

In the meantime, do you know about the Google Art Project??? It’s been around for awhile but I just ran across it this weekend and oh. my. gosh. Virtual tours of museums all over, with the ability to blow up sections of the piece and wow. It’s not exactly like being there but it’s the best iteration of real-life art I’ve seen online to date. Here are a couple screenshots of just a few of the pieces over there. Seriously. Go check it out.

You can click the images below for bigger versions if you want to see more detail.

“Birth of Venus” is so huge. I don’t remember ever not knowing what it was or not getting all the references to it that are made everywhere, all the time. But if you’d asked me to sketch what I thought it was, it’d be just a woman standing in a big clamshell. Who knew there were other people there?

Dude. Napoleon is so hot.

Sometimes seeing paintings in the flesh is surprising. Like the size—I always assume painting are going to be about poster size, but a lot of them aren’t. Some of them are really small, like Dali’s “Persistence of Memory”, which is intricately fit onto a canvas about the size of an 8×10. Sometimes the texture is shocking. Van Gogh uses a boatload of paint.

LOUIS QUATORZE! Not a real role model but how sassy is he?

I’m super behind on the necklace a day. It’s been a long week is my only excuse. And then last night I felt like making some quote poster thingies instead. This is the first.

Wintermelon font by Denise Bentulan.

Photo of San Francisco Bay by me.

I’m a little behind, trying to catch up tonight…this one’s just for me because some of the the petals of the vintage red flower earring I used here are coming loose from the metal rims and I don’t expect them to hold up real well. Hooked up to a knotted strand of red coral.

Use coupon code FEBRUARY12 for 15% off anything in my shop through the month.

I’m making a necklace a day through February. See all my daily necklaces here. Then stop by to visit per:cent blog, who’s doing it, too.

Hey guys, it’s Day 5 but I gotta go eat some chicken and drink some beer so I don’t have time to write except that if someone knows what this style of bead is called, leave me a note because I don’t. It’ll be on etsy after some team wins something later on. xoxo.

Use coupon code FEBRUARY12 for 15% off anything in my shop through the month.

I’m making a necklace a day through February. See all my daily necklaces here. Then stop by to visit per:cent blog, who’s doing it, too.

I am not the best about keeping records about my stock, so when I’m making something to sell, I sometimes have to spend some time hunting down what components are, try to estimate what I spent on it so I can figure that into the price. I can usually tell you the story of where I bought most of them.

For instance, the antique English cut pink milk glass beads on today’s rosary-style necklace? Got those at the Alameda Antiques Fair (Have you been? You really should. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find. The next one is tomorrow.) at the end of a long Sunday. I loved them but the guy wouldn’t haggle down enough and I couldn’t afford what he was charging, so I walked away. He literally chased me down five minutes later and here I am, the proud owner of a dwindling strand of these really fabulous milk glass beads. If you don’t know English cut, it’s like faceted but it’s all imperfect and kind of nubby since they’re so old and a bit rubbed down, making them soft around the edges.

For Day 4 of the Necklace a Day Challenge, I wanted to make something pastel and gunmetal because that is my favorite color combo — the grey frames the beads so they pop more. I was set on the pink and peach, and was looking for a pendant when I found this old teardrop the color of the inside of a lime. I knew where I’d bought it (the giant bead show they hold every fall in Oakland, another event you should check out) and that it was a gemstone but had to spend a little while hunting more info down for my etsy description. Here is what I learned:

Serpentine is also called New Jade even though it is not a jade. It’s found pretty much everywhere and is also used in brake lining and fireproof fabrics. If you’re a Scorpio or Gemini, or down with Saturn, this is the rock for you. It’s a protective gemstone associated with the heart and activates the kundalini while protecting you against snakes (!), diabetes, PMS, and anxiety.

I don’t know how much, if any, of that is true, but you cannot go wrong wearing a calming anti-snake talisman that you can use to fix your car in a pinch.

Plus it’s a really pretty piece for spring to go with all those soft antique-y neutrals you’re wearing.

Special shout-out to Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden, where I made the Day 4 necklace. Julie’s is the best place in the world to sit around with your #1 americano and pile of beads being super productive with no distractions at all in a gorgeous, cozy setting.

Use coupon code FEBRUARY12 for 15% off anything in my shop through the month.

I’m making a necklace a day through February. See all my daily necklaces here. Then stop by to visit per:cent blog, who’s doing it, too.

Buy this necklace on etsy.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, which got me thinking about how this year is flying by and it’s almost Valentine’s Day already so I made this red-heart necklace for Day 3 of the Necklace a Day challenge.

The challenge is tougher than I thought it would be — not just finding the time to sit and make the necklace but trying to take a decent picture when the light is so bad this time of year. So today’s batch (which you can see on the etsy page) are not my finest. But that’s okay, I finished. Go, me!

Use coupon code FEBRUARY12 for 15% off anything in my shop through the month.

I’m making a necklace a day through February. See all my daily necklaces here. Then stop by to visit per:cent blog, who’s doing it, too.

Early last month I read a blog post talking about ways to reorganize your jewelry-making stash for the new year by dividing it into three categories: keep, discard, and repurpose. Which I thought was pretty genius — I have a zillion little half-finished or finished-but-I’m-so-over pieces in piles everywhere yet it never occurred to me to take them apart. Really.

This necklace comprises the cannibalized remains of several necklaces and bracelets I made a couple years back when I was super into the vintage buttons. I still am, but something about each piece just wasn’t quite right, so I put them aside and let them gather dust for a long time.

So when I read that blog post, the button pieces were the first things that popped into my head. I took them apart and collaged all the buttons and a couple accents beads together then added a fatter chain for a little more heft. Which I really like and am tempted to keep (that green focal button is one of my favorites, it has this really awesome fading along the edges) but I really don’t need more jewelry.*

You, however, DO need more jewelry and you can buy this necklace on etsy.

Use coupon code FEBRUARY12 for 15% off anything in my shop through the month.

I’m making a necklace a day through February. See all my daily necklaces here. Then stop by to visit per:cent blog, who’s doing it, too.

* I say that, but really? If you are looking for a Valentine’s present to buy me, I would wear this every single day.

It’s Day 1 of the Necklace a Day Challenge so I’m starting with something easy. I’ve made a bunch of these oversized birds nest pendants before, but don’t usually get around to selling them because my friends keep asking for them.

Buy it on etsy

Use coupon code FEBRUARY12 for 15% off anything in my shop through the month.

I’m making a necklace a day through February. See all my daily necklaces here. Then stop by to visit per:cent blog, who’s doing it, too.