New Jewelry

I can't believe that it is Wednesday already! We have had a crazy heat wave here in Southern Ca. I finally had to turn on the ac which we never use. Living here in this beach town our temps are usually from 75 to 87 degrees but on monday we hit 107 which is just insane! So I just kept on plugging away at my jewelry, with the ac going and lifetime movies on the tv for company. Exciting I know. :) My next piece of jewelry I am very excited about because it is a healing prayer necklace for me. I researched some healing stones and I am going to add Amethyst, Citrine, garnet, jasper, and most importantly Quartz. I will add some charms that are very special to me and a St Benedict medal the meaning of it is also very special to me :





On the front of the medal is St. Benedict holding 2 things. He holds in his right hand a cross, to which he was incredibly devoted and, in the left, his rule for monasteries. In the back there is a poisoned cup, that when the saint made the sign of the cross over it, shattered. A jealous enemy had given him this cup and a loaf of bread (also poisoned) that a raven carried away. Above the cup are the words "Crux sancti patris Benedicti" (The Cross of our holy father Benedict). Surrounding the figure of St. Benedict are the words "Eius in obitu nostro praesentia muniamur!" (May we be strengthened by his presence in the hour of our death) as he was always regarded to the Benedictines as the patron of a happy death.
On the back there resides a cross. On the cross are the letters C S S M L - N D S M D, initials of the words "Crux sacra sit mihi lux! Nunquam draco sit mihi dux!" (May the holy cross be my light! May the dragon never be my overlord!). At the top of the medal is the word Pax (peace.) Surrounding the back of the medal are the letters V R S N S M V - S M Q L I V B, refer to Vade retro satana meaning "Vade retro Satana! Nunquam suade mihi vana! Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas!" (Begone Satan! Never tempt me with your vanities! What you offer me is evil. Drink the poison yourself!)

you can find more on this medal here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Benedict_Medal

Well I better get back to my beads. Sending forth "love, light and peace" :)


You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world.
Sheila Graham

Humble Abode

My jewelry is now in The Humble Abode here in my town San Clemente :) So if you are a local come visit this cute little shop by the sea and be inspired by its uniqueness. From weddings, to the garden it has everything.

www.thehumbleabode.net

Bridal Jewelry

I was recently honored with a special request to do the bridal jewelry for a co-worker of my husband. It was an exciting opportunity to be given her wedding colors and the freedom to make each piece different and I included a hand stamped metal charm with the wedding couples date as a special memory keepsake. Everyone got a bracelet/earring set except for the maid of honor who got a matching necklace. For all three flower girls I made matching pearl bracelets. I also used circles in the design as a symbol of eternity.












gift from me to the bride:


She also ordered another necklace for her sister made with stones here are two samples:

Beauty Rest

Mommy,  I don't want to get out of bed yet. Maybe if I look really worried and tired we can sleep just a little while longer. 

Pea Pods

I am so excited to share the new jewelry I have been making! My husband got me a metal stamping kit for our 20 year anniversary which isn't until next tuesday. An early gift that I had to put on hold because I had to make 7 memory books for our dance studio's coaches gifts last week. Thankfully a friend helped me and she took over making 2 of them. So that left me with 5 books in 7 days. I got it done though. Yay me! ... literally the day of our team party (4 hrs just before) So for those of you calling me last week or wondering why I dropped off the face of the earth that is why...and I couldn't tell any of you on FB because some of the coaches are on my FB and it was a surprise :)

Ok so back to my jewelry! I finally got to dabble with my stamps and oooooh it was love at first pound! I have been pounding and shaping and wrapping! This is what my kit contains:

I LOVE my metal disc cutter, I can now punch out my own blanks and the hole punch is a must have! I am already looking in to getting stamps in other fonts. So now I can customize anything! I spent all of yesterday, hammering and enjoying these babies! I was also oxidizing some of the metal with liver of sulfur ...but that is not exactly fun (the smell is really bad, like rotten egg farts) ew.

I am so happy to finally have my passion for jewelry making return to me. I feel like I was in a dry period for 2 yrs. I would force myself to make something but I just wasn't feeling it and for those of you who make jewelry will understand if you aren't feeling it , it shows in your work. I think I just hit a wall with all I knew and it was time to learn new techniques. I am so grateful. Yesterday I made the pea pods pictured above. So I have gone from birds nest to wonderful pea pods =)

Thats it for now. Hope you enjoy your thursday, I need to get back to stamping :)

~Michelle xo

This is one of the books I made (I forgot to take pics of the others) Inside are pictures from all of our teams and sentiments written from the children to their coaches (Thankfully another mom organized getting the quotes I could not have done it without her help!) I still need to make one for me. (shoe cobbler without the shoes that is me) It was an honor to make these books for our studio. This has been one of the best years of dance for my daughter. :)

Chili pepper pendant

This was a fun challenge! I have this friend of a friend who I now like to think of as a friend :) Every now and then she will send me an e-mail with a request to make her something unique. I have not turned her down yet because I love the challenge of making something new. I normally would not have thought to make a chili pepper pendant out of wire with beads inside on my own. I just finished the chili pepper yesterday and sent her pics. She loved it! YAY ME :) Here are the photos of what I came up with:

I love requests like these. It gets me outside of the box I sometimes get stuck in . Happy monday :)

~Michelle

Welcome to my blog!

Why is writing your first blog so frightening? I feel as if I have stage fright, yet its not like I am writing for an audience at the moment! So forgive me if I tend to babble. I decided to keep a blog about my jewelry, interests and to share some things about me. I will devote this time to update those on what it is I am working on, my accomplishments and to just stay focused on my goals. Tiny Lotus is named after my daughter Mirabai. She is a dancer and one of her very first solos that she competed at 9 was called "the flying lotus". I started to call her my little lotus she is now 12 and  well, it stuck. I have done jewelry under the name Spiritual Elements for years and I have been ready for a change now. Tiny Lotus just seemed to fall into place for me and I am very excited about it! With my being a dance mom there are certain times of the year that keep me very busy sewing and altering. I also have 2 older boys 16 and 19 . I am married to my high school sweet heart and this June we will celebrate our 20th year of marriage!

I like to work with wire, love making birds nests and I am learning to hand stamp metal charms so I will keep you posted on my progress!

Here are a few things I have been working on:

Thanks for stopping by!

~Michelle :)