My Creative Blog:
antique silver finish

This is my first attempt at wire wrapping — I thought it turned out pretty well!

I used all sterling silver wire with a coin pearl center and two freshwater pearl dangles. I oxidized the silver to give it an antique finish. Measures approx. 1" wide and 1 & 3/4" tall.
The wire wrapping was definitely fun to do — and more tiring on the hands than I expected! But now I'm inspired to try out some more wire projects.
For this piece I used:
24g sterling silver wire
two sterling silver headpins
coin pearls small freshwater pearl beads
misc small silver beads
What do you think?

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?