Playing around with Spoons: Antique Silver Spoon Earrings

These used to be spoons!

Earrings I made from antique spoon handles

I'll admit it, I have a hard time throwing pretty things away, even if it is something that is considered "scrap." 

After making a spoon bracelet out of a pair of orphaned antique silver plated spoons I found myself left with the cut off bowl-ends of the spoons - and they had such a pretty filigree design on the neck (the thin part of the spoon that connects the handle to the bowl) that I just had to make something out of them...

...so I removed the bowl of the spoon and kept the thin, ornate necks and transformed them into these one of a kind earrings! (click photos for larger images)

(total measurement 1/4" wide by 2 & 1/4" long including sterling ear-wires and Swarovksi crystal drops)



I added sterling wires and pearls to this pair



Antique silver spoon earrings with pearl drops

What do you think of them?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Who Owns the Gold in Ft. Knox ? - Lew Rockwell and Judge Napolitano on Freedom Watch

Ludvig von Mises Institute Chair Lew Rockwell on auditing the Federal Reserve

Who Owns the Gold in Ft. Knox? - Lew Rockwell and Judge Napolitano

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Gold May Rise to $3,000 in Several Years Rosenberg Says

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Matt Miller and Carol Massar about the outlook for gold prices and U.S. stocks. (Source: Bloomberg)

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

GoldMoney Founder James Turk interviewed at Baird Co. by ITN

GoldMoney at Baird & Co.

GoldMoney's Founder James Turk interviewed at Baird & Co. by ITN's London

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Peter Schiff: Glenn Beck Doesn't Know That GOLDLINE Is Ripping People Off!

MSNBC 25 may 2010

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Silver or Black Jewelry Finish? Which Do You Prefer?

Silver or Black jewelry finish? Which do you prefer? 


I recently posted this question on my Facebook page. 


So far, silver is in the lead...

Shiny silver finish?

When I first began making jewelry from broken china (and we're talking nearly 20 years now - yikes!) I would occasionally dabble with the black/vintage/antiqued finishes, but for some reason I always seemed to come back to silver.

Silver is traditional, it's easy to wear, it's shiny....as for the darker, vintage finishes - I believe they tend to be more trendy, coming into style right along with the whole "new vintage" era that you see everywhere you turn - in clothes, home furnishings, fabrics...what's old is new again, and so it goes.

I like the way a dark finish against a bright floral china pattern makes the colors pop, and how it lends to the "old" feeling of a piece of china. I equally like the feeling of luxury a shiny, silver finish affords. For me personally, I guess it all comes down to what kind of mood I'm in.

Which do you prefer?

Silver that has been given a black finish

What do you think?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Love This Etsy Treasury!

Pin Brooch crafted from vintage English scenic transferware, antique silver finish

I'm always happy to wake up to find that a kind artist has featured my work in their treasury. I found the colors of this one to be quite attractive!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bf617ddafe66d9169686bdb/sunset-over-butterfly-gardens

Update: Happy to find this treasury on the front page of Etsy on 5/22/10!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Buy gold on dips for long-term: Kotak

May 19, 2010 — In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Amol Tilak, Head-Research at Kotak, spoke about his outlook on gold, silver, copper and nickel.^M ^M

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

I'm On Etsy's Front Page!

I was thrilled to find my items included in five different Etsy treasuries last week, and even more thrilled to find that one of the treasuries was featured on Etsy's front page...

...of course I'm never home when these things happen, but got a capture of the screen shot :-)

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Gold rush in China is pushing the Gold price to all times high

Chinese love GOLD

May 18, 2010 — China is now the number one consumer of Gold , and it is not just consumers , the central bank of china is quietly building up its reserves moving away from Euros and Dollars into hard assets like Gold ...and to meet this demand for gold China is opening new mines every month to the point that China now eclipsed south africa as the gold's first producer , Smart Chinese buying gold and dumping FIAT at rapid rates....

I guess they see currencies are only headed one way...DOWN!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Gold Bull vs. Bear

Tom O\'Brien, editor of The Gold Report, expects a $200 pullback in gold, and Brian Hicks, of US Global Investors, thinks the commodity could soar to $1,500. They go head-to-head on CNBC.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Gold May Rise for Several Decades says Robert Cohen, manager of Goodman

May 17, 2010 — May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Cohen, manager of Goodman & Co.'s Dynamic Gold & Precious Metals Fund, talks with Bloomberg's Julie Hyman about influences on the gold market and the outlook for gold prices. Cohen also discusses some of his gold-related stock recommendations including Osisko Mining Corp., Red Back Mining Inc. and San Gold Corp. (Source: Bloomberg)

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Watch out for GLD pretending to be GOLD

GLD vs GOLD

May 14, 2010 — Watch out for that GLD, it isn't really GOLD.

Read the prospectus on the ETF, I believe they hold 10%...I am not sure I even trust that as an accurate number.

Physical is the only way to protect yourself form the Banksters Paper Games.
Yes, it is a game of musical chairs...

Paper gold is NOT physical gold!
If it isn't in your hands, then you don't own it.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Refreshed

So glad to be back to my little blog and working again - this winter I made like a bear and hibernated most of the season...but am back with lots of new pretty things and a refreshed Etsy store with tons of new stock! (Check it out below!)

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

Note the new Etsy store name - missing the letter "a" in Dishfunctional - but alas, Etsy only allows so many character spaces for shop names....so I am without the a, but still dishfunctional if even now more so...

I actually had one of the very first shops on Etsy way way back when they first began. At the time, I had been a steady eBay seller for many years (I started selling my broken china jewelry on eBay in 1999) Since then, I've amassed over 5,000 positive eBay feedback - the number they show is 3,788 give or take a few, as ebay no longer counts additional feedback from returning customers - a bummer for sellers, but what can you do?

In any case, I closed my Etsy store after the first year, as I found I was spreading myself too thin, trying to supply both eBay and Etsy with new stock on a constant basis. Now times have changed. I've found the handcrafted market on eBay to be too ...well, too complicated. Fees and rules are always changing, I get phone messages on my answering machine from eBay associates trying to sell me new features, etc etc... I figure it this way, life is hard enough, why complicate things? I'm still a registered eBay seller - I haven't cut the cord completely, but am definitely shying away from the eBay marketplace. My new items will now be listed on etsy on a regular basis!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad