good gifts

Two weeks ago, I finally got to give the EZ baby sweater and the felted fox to the new baby and new big brother. I'm assuming that most knitters get at least a little excited about giving a knitted gift that they put much time and love into, so I was so happy to hear that my gifts did more good than I had imagined. I hear there was much oohing and ahhing over the sweater, but apparently, the fox really eased the transition for new big brother. At two and a half years old, his parents were more than a little nervous about how he'd handle meeting his new baby sister. He was a bit freaked out by being in the hospital, but as soon as his parents gave him the gift, it took his mind off of it right away. Not only did he relax, but he immediately wanted to go share his fox with his new sister. They have some wonderful photos of the new family in the hospital and that fox is in every single one. Who knew?

Anyway. My hot pot kiln arrived this week and I finally tried out the precious metal clay. It was actually a little harder than I thought it would be. I think the difficulty resulted from trying to work on such a small scale, combined with my paralyzing fear of wasting this expensive material. Consequently, I made some junk. But firing them in the kiln was VERY fun, and I did get one successful piece out of it:

These earrings will be a birthday gift for my sister this weekend. The disks are made from precious metal clay, and so are 100% silver. I stamped a flowered pattern into them and gave them a patina to bring out the texture. They were a little boring until I added the freshwater pearls, but now I really kind of like them.

I made another pair at the same time, which I will add to a my Etsy shop, eventually. They still need finishing touches and I also need a scale to weigh them and figure out how to price them properly. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with precious metal clay. It's so satisfying (and unexpected) to be able to make a high quality piece of jewelry on your front steps!