To Coral or not to Coral that is the question

Red is my hands down favorite color (I know I've mentioned that) and I have been so enamored lately with this color combination, turquoise seems to be it's best compliment. When I found these dyed coral beads, they screamed "Take Me Home, Make Me Into Something Fabulous"

As I do with many of my creations, I took this necklace for a test drive today. I like to make sure that my pieces are wearable, that they fit a woman to her best advantage. One of my friends ask what material the beads are...and when I replied Coral, she let out a little gasp. "You CAN'T USE CORAL." Which was quite a shock, apparently the industry is destroying the coral reefs in order to bring us these pretty little baubles. That is something I am definitely going to have to look into.

Through a little googling, I found this interesting article on Coral and where beads come from:
http://estatebeads.com/faq.php

Then I came home and found out that not only am I in love with this color combination but it appears I'm hip! Who knew?

Jewelry.com just posted this article on how Coral has hit the fashion scene:
http://www.jewelry.com/2009-06-fn-coral.shtml

However I might not be quite as eco friendly as I hope to be. I vow to find a different way of expressing my love of red in the next go around. This artist lives and learns....

Home sweet bench

Bench sweet home.

This is where the magic happens, Ta Da!

Oh, I'm probably not suppose to show this to you am I? Is it a bit like seeing behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz?

I admit, it's a bit plain, and it hasn't reached it's full potential. The life of a metalsmith is like the life of any other, it's full of moves, and changes and moves and moves and more changes. I bought my bench from my current boss secondhand, it's been lugged around all over town.

I hope it has finally found it's home. I hope I have finally found a rhythm of creating. I'm flirting with it's empty drawers...if I fill them, will I stop creating? Will I make it too easy on myself? Will I abandon it to spider webs like so many years before?

I hope not.
I hope Zarily will create baubles for years to come, or at least long enough to invest in a new chair.