I’ve gotten pictures taken and put up some listings in my Etsy store, mostly Swarovski crystal pieces I have lying around, including my Citadel earrings and A Lady’s Ransom bracelets.  Also put up a few Swarovski crystal leaves.

I did a copy of the first high-end piece I ever sold this morning as well, “Quartering the Arms,” which my good friend Brett bought for his fiance, Nora, at the Grand Valley RenFest. There is slight variance to this piece (instead of the 4mm rounds that I used in the first piece, I had some 3mm hand-cut faceted garnet beads lying around that I used instead), but it turned out quite nicely. The photos below are of the work in progress.

As you can see, I’m working at the kitchen table and didn’t fully clear everything off of it. I was working in the morning through early afternoon, thus my cup of coffee. If you look on the flasks real carefully, you can see some custom pieces I’ve made for my mother in the past!

The “Quartering the Arms” piece is inspired by my work as a historian.  In 1340, Edward III of England quartered the arms of England with the arms of France on his standard at the suggestion of the Flemish with whom he was dealing at the time.  This piece, done in sodalite and garnet with gold accents, echoes Edward’s choice and the color scheme of the combined arms (the arms of England at the time were gold lions/leopards on a red ground, the French arms were golden fleur-de-lys on a blue ground).  The metaphysical properties of this piece lend well toward working postively in a group environment–and getting along with said group (which bodes well for Nora, I think, whose day job is teaching)!  The finished piece turned out lovely.