A few years ago I was asked by the Olympia Senior Center to make Mah Jongg items for sale at their first ever benefit tournament. I wanted to make pendants and key chains. I’d also never done resin jewelry before, so you get to benefit from all my research in one easy blog post. In case you are wondering how different this is from the jewelry I make, you can head here to see what I mean: www.andiclarkejewelry.com Materials needed: - Pendant trays (available at most craft st

Well researched blog post on working with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) for jewelry making and how to torch fire it.

We used to have a horse (he was the cutest Haflinger Pony ever, I think you will agree) and our daughters used to do 4H and various dressage and jumping shows with him. When one of our close 4H friends had to euthanize her ailing and elderly horse, she asked me if I would make her a bracelet with her horse’s tail. These things are kind of pricey online or as custom orders and I was quite honored to be asked to do this, but I’d never done it before. Being a “can do” person I s

I am a self confessed nature lover. I love hiking, being in the woods, being on a beach collecting pebbles and sea glass, kayaking in the Puget Sound or on a lake, admiring the growth of plants in the forest and seeing the bloom of flowers in our garden. This is Tolmie State Park in Olympia and it is fabulous for having a picnic at, kayaking, finding sand dollars, oyster shells etc. How does this love of nature inspire my work as a jewelry artist? A little while ago, I was at

Some of you may have read my previous week’s blog post where I reviewed a couple of jewelry making books, one was specifically for precious metal clays. If you missed it you can read the blog post here: This year I’ve been on a quest to improve my jewelry making skills the way I usually do, by educating myself the most reasonably way I can. I am a self-taught jewelry artist, so I tend to research, read, watch YouTube snips and read a lot of Pinterest tutorials. We also have

If anyone has been following me for a while on Instagram @andiclarkejewelry or via my “Andi Clarke Jewelry” Facebook page, you may have seen me share that I had a skiing accident just before New Year which resulted in a broken leg. Surgery followed with doctor’s orders of being non weight bearing for 8 weeks and on crutches. Well, my New Year’s plans for my jewelry business took a sudden 180 degree turn and I had to rethink a lot of them. While I was able to do limited jewelr

I want to share a tip with you that you will save money if you are using lots of jump rings in your work. People who do chain maille work or jewelry will know what I mean. I use a lot of jump rings in my work as part of the setting around the pebble, broken china or piece of sea glass. I also use them when I make the leather necklace for some of my pendants, both as the top bail of the actual pendant and then to attach the extender chain and also to attach the sterling lobste