What is Lobster Lu doing this week?

Lobster Lu is

Entering Art Jewelry Contests - I'm finding these to be a fun motivation to force myself to try new techniques and designs. I work well with freedom within a defined concept. The inspiration is seeping into all my new designs. You'll see soon!

Redesigning the Website - This is an ongoing challenge. But I have some ideas to make the navigation easier and the jewelry more front and center to you. I'm really excited, actually. Hopefully I'll be able to carry this out soon within the next few weeks.

Creating a Spring - Summer 2007 Line for all the Collections. I find that jewelry falls into seasons, just like fashion. I aim to release a Spring Summer Line before March and then a Fall - Winter Line in late September. Meanwhile, I'll add more items to the site frequently.

Preparing for Monthly Limited Edition Jewelry Designs. These should begin this year in February. This will be a way for me to offer items specially geared towards each month's special days - holidays and birthdays, special events, etc. The items will only be available for that month, so it will be fun and refreshing for all of us.

Is that enough? Well, there's more! But I will spare you the details.

What do you think of these ideas? I welcome your comments.

Always and Forever - romantic punk Valentine's gift earrings

I'm starting to think about Valentine's Day. I think the pair of earrings above are so romantic and punk at the same time. Just perfect for a really unique woman.

They are made of Mixed metals, copper, brass and sterling. Red glass heart charms and black agate beads. Sterling silver ear wires. You can buy them for $14.99 by clicking here.

Earrings really are the perfect gift. As long as a woman's ears are pierced, you don't need to know sizes with earrings.

I'm going to try to make some special earrings for Valentine gifts and put them on the website soon. Until then, I think the Always and Forever Earrings are the perfect Valentine's gift.

This bracelet is a sampler of materials I often use. It includes a plastic guitar pick, a stainless steel snap, a vintage Indian head wooden nickel, threaded with sterling silver wire and embellished with a flower made of ocean jasper faceted briolette beads, a charm made from an American Express magnet, mixed metal rivets and jumprings. The clasp is a silver metal magnet. I made this bracelet for the EBSQ Art Jewelry Show Contest, although I've made others similar, I had to be sure to add wood, stone and metal to this piece. It was a fun challenge and I plan on making more with these elements.

Since each piece is unique, I will be allowing for customization in the bracelets. I think this is a great way to incorporate little tiny treasures that we all hold onto and never know how to keep them close to us. Like a quilt made of fabric scraps from our childhood clothes can trigger such precious memories, I think a sampler of found objects bracelet can do the same.

Let me know if you have a "scrap" of the past to put into a custom bracelet.

I currently have this bracelet on HOLD status, because I'd like to see if it places in the contest, before I set the price! I'll also have a custom bracelet listing soon in The Chelsea Collection at Amethyst Lobster. Click here for the page of this particular bracelet, titled Found Object Wood, Stone Metal Bracelet.

I HEART IKE
Today's Inspiration - Common Postage Stamps
Found Object Art Jewelry Earrings


This is what I like to do - challenge myself to create jewelry from the commonest materials. Some call it trashion. Some call it found object art. They also call it recycling and upcycling.

My challenge today was to use postage stamps. I took a big bag of saved, used stamps and sorted through them. I kept throwing Ike (President Eisenhower) into a bigger and bigger pile. He was the commonest of the batch I had. So - he deserves a glass heart. His campaign motto was I LIKE IKE. But these days, I think he'd get a heart instead.

These earrings are double-sided. There is Ike in mulberry, which matches the dangling heart. And there is the dark side of Ike - a deep gray. These are laminated and the holes are hand riveted. The charm adds some weight, but they are light. I love the way they flutter, showing both sides of Ike.

I really enjoyed making these. They'll be added to the Chelsea Collection soon. There are so many other stamps I could use. Do you have a special request? Let me know - these are easy to customize. If I don't have the stamps, you can send them to me - on the outside of the envelope!