I love jaspers — as a matter of fact, I’ve yet to meet a jasper that I didn’t like. The necklace pictured above is made with silvermist jasper and I just finished the necklace this afternoon. I used a few freshwater pearls to give it a bit of an accent but it’s my opinion that when I have something with as much grain and color as a jasper my job as a designer is to stand out of the way and let the jasper speak. This silvermist jasper has lovely shades of gray, black and even a touch of red.

To preface this story of how I came to love jasper, I must first tell you that brown is not a favorite color of mine — I’m more of a purple, red and orange kind of person. I have a friend who wears a lot of browns and kakhis and I never understood the facination with those colors.

But then I found elephant jasper — wonderful shades of honey gold mixed among the brown. I had to have it! It was calling my name!! And it’s been a slippery slope since.

Last year I ran across bamboo jasper and promptly bought a dozen strands of various shapes and colors. But when it arrived, I couldn’t feature what to put with it and so it sat. All by it’s lonesome on the corner of my desk — staring at me as I brought in yet more jaspers (imperial, picasso, picture, brecciated and many more) and made bracelets, necklaces and earrings. But then the gold pearls arrived, the sun shone through the dirty basement window (housework sits and sits at my house) and the bamboo jasper began to make friends — the gold pearls, the kakhi Swarovskis and the silk thread as I learned to knot between the beads to really make them shine.

I’m so excited – my work was accepted by the Portal of Wisconsin to be displayed in the gallery.
The Portal is a non profit website run by the Cultural Coalition of Wisconsin to support artists. They have listings of artists, classes and events through out the state of Wisconsin, and opportunities for artists.
To tell the truth, I thought my application form had been lost in the shuffle. I had mailed my slides in months ago and had emailed the online section. When I heard nothing after a couple of months, I kept thinking – I’ve got to call them…. And time would pass and I’d think – I’ve got to call them….
Well, about 2 weeks ago I received a notification that the jury process was about to start – for me and a few other people. And yesterday, I got my official notice!
Here is the link to the opening page of the Portal of Wisconsin — then you will have to go to gallery and look for me - Joella Miller - my page on the Portal of Wisconsin.
I’m way behind on posting some of my other work so I’ll try to get pictures taken in the next few days so that I can share some of my other work with you.

Please click on picture for better view.

I’ve been so busy lately that I just realized that I’ve not been posting in my blog — just in case someone out there is reading it I’d hate to think I was behind!

I’ve been having a wonderful and aggravating time this last month. Chain maille has really caught my attention and my attention span is generally pretty short.

????????This bracelet is called the Vertebra — among other names.
One of the things that amuses me is that people name weaves different names — for no apparent reason that I can see. You can hunt and hunt for a weave you saw and would like to learn all to find out that it has a different name for the tutorial or class involved.

Anyway, back to this bracelet — this feels so nice on the wrist — and it weighs just over 1 and ½ ounces –that’s a lot of sterling on your arm — just gleaming as the sun catches it.

It fits beautifully on my arm but I’m putting it up for sale on Saturday at the Dane County Farmer’s Market. Hopefully, I will be on the corner of King and Pinckney streets.

If you would like me to make one of these gorgeous bracelets for you please go to my contact page and let me know. It can also be made in pure copper.

Click on picture for closer look.

The Madison Bead Show was last weekend and of course, I had to take a couple of classes.

Saturday my class was with Jackie Lincoln of
Long Canyon Jewelry. Jackie has a great ability to teach chainmaille so that even a left-handed person can understand it – I’m always the slowest one in the class unless there is another left-handed person and even then I’m generally behind.

This class was for making earrings and sure enough on the first one I was behind. I was still trying to get my first 3 rings together while everyone else was on rings 9,10 and 11. But I got it!!

Here’s a picture – not the best but it is a difficult earring to photograph. It cannot be laid down to photograph so….
After the grueling class I headed downstairs to take a look at all the goodies – and of course, I purchased a few things that were calling my name. I’ll talk about those at a later date – when I actually use the products!!

Please click on the picture for a closer view.

Well, it’s been a bit since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been working sporadically on things but my eyes have really bothered me in the last couple of weeks. I was kind of worried but already had an appointment coming up at the ophthalmologist. So I took a few days off of working to rest my eyes.

And off I went for my appointment. I always kind of worry about my eyes as I’ve been wearing glasses since I was about 7 or 8. I grew up in the country and went to a one room school house until 6th grade. I walked about a mile to school  whether it was raining or snowing or sunny. I remember one day instead of walking in the road in the winter I cut across the field through waist deep snow to get home and I was crying when I got home. My mom asked me what was wrong and I said I was chased by a monster. About that time, the road grader came by the house and fortunately my mom put 2 and 2 together and made an eye appointment. You know your eyes are bad when you can’t see a big yellow road grader!!

I was quite relieved to hear that stronger glasses would help. And when I showed the doctor my Romanov necklace he asked if I used a magnifier. Well, when I got home that day I ordered one from Kingsley North. It arrived on Friday but I couldn’t play with it until yesterday. So I made the bracelet pictured above.

I did learn something else that may be of interest to others. It seems when you reach a ˜certain age“ (somewhere in your fifties) your eyes take a lot longer to transition and focus from near to far. So if you’ve been sewing by hand or working on a model train engine or even beading – when you quit and look at something far away your eyes won’t focus correctly right away. Boy, do I feel better now! It’s not just me.

Please click on picture for closer view

I’ve always loved the look of filigree but never thought I would be able to come close to making anything that had a filigree look to it but boy, was I wrong!

This is one of the many chainmaille pattern that I’m currently hooked on. And it does resemble filigree. I can hardly wait to start working on a new one – not that I’m sure what I’ll do with the current one!

I made this bracelet in copper and patinated it – then I tumbled it for a while and came up with this lovely color – it has some shades of purple in it (one of my favorite colors!) along with a hint of green in the light.

If you would like me to make you one of these please go to the contact me page and let me know. I think my next one is going to be in sterling…. juego 7 card studjuego poker omaha gratislos mejores cuartos del pokercaribbean poker portales webpoker 5 cartaspai gow poker portales webdescarga de juego de pokerprograma pokerpoker multijugador gratisjugadas pokerjuegos de poker gratis,poker gratis pc,poker gratisjuegos poli pokerplay poker texas,play poker,play poker onlinejugar poker,jugar poker online gratis,jugar poker internetreglas poker juegojugar seven card stud gratisjuegos de poker para descargarfichas poquereuropean pokerdescargar juegos pokerjuegos dados poker7 card stud gratisjuegos polly pokerfull tilt pokerstip pokeraprender a jugar pokeraprender jugar pokerjuegos de poker onlinepoquer pcjuegos de cartas pokermaquinas pokerparadisepoker.com,paradise poker,paradisepokerpoker portales internetpai gow poker pagina webjuegos de poquerprogama codigo pokerpoquer gratispoker portal internetjuego poker eroticodescargas de juegos de pokerjugar poquer webpoker freejuego al instante paginas webstud pokerjuego poker pcomaha high pokerpoker gratis para pcjuego texas holdemjuego de poker onlinereglas juego poker

Please click on picture for closer look
I recently had the honor of making 3 sterling charm bracelets that will be used in a Charm Jewelry Drawing fund raiser that is officially sponsored by the Metal Clay community at large. The charm bracelets will have hand crafted metal clay charms added to them. The charms of fine (.999) sterling will be made and donated by Metal Clay artists across the United States. They will truly be unique, one of kind pieces of art.

The proceeds will be split between the American Cancer Society and The Marrow Foundation. The drawing will be July 20 2008 at the PMC Conference 2008 at Purdue University in Indiana. You may buy one ticket price for $5 or 5 for $20. When you purchase the ticket you will make the decision of which organization the money will go to.

Tonya Davidson of Whole Lotta Whimsy and Mary Ellin D’Agostino, PhD of MED’A Creations have graciously agreed to sell the tickets. Just click on the links and you will be taken to their sites. They will accept Credit Card, Paypal and international orders.

Please click on picture for larger picture.

This necklace has been a work in progress – I started it about a year ago but was never happy with it – not that I knew what was wrong with it but…
About a week ago, I was shopping at the
Bead Bin in Madison and ran across the hematite circles. I knew instantly that is what I needed for this necklace. The circles really show off the smaller recycled metal parts and the black onyx and hematite rounds.
It is always amazing to me that something that sat for so long waiting for that ‘unknown/unseen’ part could go together so quickly!
If you would like to purchase this work of art, please click on the Paypal button below. It is 69.00 and the shipping is free in the US. I package all my jewelry in nice gift boxes, just in case you’re not keeping it for yourself!

Please click on the pictures for a bigger view.

I’ve been researching the best way to clean copper jewelry. And it has been entertaining…
I’ve read about using ketchup, lemon juice, lemon juice and salt combined, Worcestershire sauce and a few other things that just sounded nasty.

I rummaged through my pile of the ‘not quite happy with it stash – better known as ‘What was I thinking?’ pile. I found a bracelet that I had made up while learning some things from Connie Fox’s tutorials. It has sat on my desk for over a year and I haven’t quite decided what to do with it yet but it was getting kind of grungy so it was a great learning tool. Lots of swirls and coils – things like that

I have Paul Revere copper bottom pots and pans that I used to keep nice and shiny in my cooking days and figured that maybe I could use this on the pots and pans if the experiment went well.

First I tried lemon juice in the bottom of a glass bowl – I really couldn’t see much happening so I added some salt and scrubbed a bit – nothing overly thrilling on that front. I had also read that salt used on copper corrodes it. Somewhere in my tiny brain, thoughts of soda surfaced so I got a different dish and poured new lemon juice in – then I laid the bracelet in the bottom of the juice and added some baking soda (reminder to self – get a bigger bowl next time!). That was the most effective so far. I let it set until the bubbling and foaming stopped and rubbed at it with my fingers. I liked it the best so far but still wasn’t really happy with it. I ran the bracelet under clear water. I debated on my next item to use — I like ketchup on my fries and I didn’t want to waste it on my jewelry so I didn’t try that. I did find some Worcestershire sauce in my cupboard so that was next. I laid the bracelet on my cutting board and poured some WS over it – rubbed it over the bracelet with my fingers to get a better coverage. Wow!! Shined it right up! Cleaned off the bracelet with some water and dried it with an old, soft dish towel. Turned out so shiny I think I’ll take it downstairs this afternoon and start working on it again.

Click on either picture for a bigger view.

Bamboo Jasper has become one of my favorite stones – unfortunately I’ve not been able to find any information about it – where is it mined, etc.
Late last summer I ordered about 20 strands of different shapes and sizes – then when I received it I couldn’t decide what to do with it! It sat on my desk and every day I’d look at it and wonder why? Why had I fallen in love with it? Why had I ordered so many strands of it? Why? Why? Why?

And then some pearls that I ordered came in and the light went on! Last fall I sold a fair amount of bracelets with bamboo jasper, pearls and khaki colored Swarovski crystals. Now I’m using it with copper – in the bracelet and earrings on this page. And it looks wonderful again!
I envision this bracelet on a nicely tanned arm but I’m sure you have other thoughts!

The copper in the bracelet is woven into the Box or Queen’s chainmaille design. I have to confess I didn’t make the rings on this bracelet - I did purchase them. I’ve not had time to do both lately so these are by Michelle of ChainWeavers. If you would like to purchase either the bracelet or earrings or both….. please contact me.