Moderately young dog, new tricks

I did a little experiment last night. I oxidized a couple pieces of jewelry. I’ll be honest, I was a tiny bit terrified that I was ruining perfectly good pieces. But, they came out pretty sweet.

Today I did a big experiment. I oxidized a metric ton of jewelry. There’s something kind of cleansing about throwing hours and hours of work to the wind (or into a vat of bleach, as the case may be), hoping it turns out in your favor.  I don’t know, what do you think?

Personally, I think it’s quite an improvement. The oxidation provides beautiful contrast with the different colors of the stones. Who needs shiny silver? Not this girl. I think I’ve turned over a new leaf. Hmm, what chemistry experiments does the future hold? I wonder if Windex does anything cool… ;o)

I’m baa-aack

Walking through Michael’s the other day looking for tie-dyeing supplies, my husband paid me an unintentional compliment: “I wish you would take jewelry back up, you’re so good at it.” Mostly he was annoyed at my tendency to scurry through hobby after hobby, but still, that compliment stuck with me. Truth is I’ve been thinking about delving back into making jewelry for a while now, so I took his comment as a sign that it was time. So, after a couple years off, during which time I got married and had a beautiful baby girl (suffice it to say I was distracted), I’m back.

I’ve decided to reinvent myself a little bit, so Tinybaubles is in the past. Now, to go along with my more mature outlook on life, my little venture will be known as Ripe Designs. This time I’m doing it right, not the half-hearted effort that yielded so much frustration last time. This time is going to be different. I’m already a working mom and fan-freaking-tastic wife, what’s one more hat?

Facebook and Twitter are on the horizon, and there should be scores of Etsy listings up this weekend. Fear me world, I’m gonna rock this.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ripedesigns

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ripe-Designs/100225816709067