Pattern and Texture Love.

Posted on April 1, 2015 by TheStrayArrow

I, like many of the smiths I know, am a nut for patterns and textures.

This is mainly ever seen in the rocks I collect (hoard).

My entire home and world is filled with an overload of different prints, patterns, paintings, plants and flowers, shelves upon shelves of books and rocks, anything that captures me.

Below is a little peak into my life of this for your enjoyment…

A bit of my world of pattern love~

^print close up by a Beehive print from Kris Johnsen, click on photo

^Swamp print by Tory Novikova (click photo)

xx Stray Arrow

New Item Preview…

Posted on March 28, 2015 by TheStrayArrow

All of these pieces will hit the shop today at 12pm EST.

Giveaway news coming soon!

xx The Stray Arrow

Materials and Sourcing…

Posted on March 22, 2015 by TheStrayArrow

Spring is almost here in New England and I’ve been getting back into using deer hide in my jewelry. I have wonderful customers of all types, sizes, backgrounds, and beliefs, so I know pieces with leather aren’t for everyone. That being said I want to share with you all what I use and how it is sourced…

As with my stones, quality and sourcing is extremely important and a lot of time and effort goes into it. All of the deer hide I use, and it’s currently the only kind of leather I use, I get solely from my local annual powwow. None of the beautiful creatures it is gifted from are hunted for sport of any kind, but for food. Every part of the deer is used and nothing is wasted. I acquire the natural hides in full, so I can cut my own cord pieces from them for another layer to the hand crafted nature of my work.

In addition, I’ve been hanging full hides in front of my window so certain folds can be lightened by the sun. This has over months created a really lovely ombre effect in the leather colouring.

With this hide sourced respectfully I’ve made a few fun earrings to add to the shop this afternoon. So far there are three pairs with different kinds of stamped markings. All sweet and simple to add to any woodlands lover’s collection:

***Giveaway news with mythical ties coming soon***

xxStray Arrow

New Stones…

Posted on February 22, 2015 by TheStrayArrow

Throughout my years of collecting and research, I’ve established some really wonderful contacts for the materials and supplies I use in my work. This goes especially for my cabochon and gemstone collecting. I feel extremely fortunate with how wonderful the folks in the mining and lapidary business I’ve met are. Them enabling me to provide the best choice stones for my customers and my work just makes this full time gig of mine that much more delightful!

Below are new recent turquoise and variscite scores with their respective origins listed. All are currently up for grabs for custom orders, but please know I have a cap on how many commissions I can take at this time.

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A few new items also hit the shop this morning

xx The Stray Arrow

New Items

Posted on July 5, 2014 by TheStrayArrow

A few new items will be hitting the shop throughout Sunday, made again in between filling orders. Long term custom orders are almost all complete so more pieces will be filtering in soon!

AND FOR THIS WEEKEND ONLY:

In the main shop enter in coupon code: FIREWORKS, for 10% off of your order.

(not applicable to custom orders)

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Check back to the shop tomorrow for these sweet and simple new pieces!

xx Stray Arrow

New Items…

Posted on June 22, 2014 by TheStrayArrow

A few new items will be hitting the shop this morning that I’ve created in between filling orders and custom pieces.

Here’s a short preview…more news soon!

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xx Stray Arrow

New Item Preview

Posted on March 30, 2014 by TheStrayArrow

These new pieces will be hitting the shop throughout the day and this evening!

Things have been a bit slow in the studio for various reasons. Now that the icy shores I’ve recently planted myself on are starting to show signs of life again, so will the shops! I’ll be finishing up commissions (don’t I always say that?), and creating more items for BOTH shops. YES, that means plugs too!

For now, here are new offerings:

^Old Grounds earrings, a made to order offering of dark silver, pyrite fool’s gold, and deer hide straight from my annual powwow.

^WEAVER rings, all featuring a ring band with a textile/weaved patterning.

^new Cave Stack set with Fox mine turquoise. Size 7.5.

^Bangle bracelet with copper, bronze, molten silver, and natural Kingman mine turquoise.

These old lovelies will be hitting the shop again as a made to order item:

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That’s it for now folks!

xx Stray Arrow

Tucson Gem Show!

Posted on February 21, 2014 by TheStrayArrow

Alright folks. This is going to be a fairly long post, so hold tight.

To give a brief summary, I’m sharing my experience and rock haul from the Tucson Gem Show this year. Anything marked N/A in the photo is not available for custom orders. All other stones are up for grabs and will ONLY be fully reserved once you nail a design down with me and a deposit for said design has been paid. Please be aware that unless you’ve sealed a piece with me, I may be showing the same stones to others.

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So. I started in New England, looking at this:

Packed up jewels from my personal collection to sport in the sun:

Took a few planes…

….and entered a region where aliens are abundant. Aliens. Yes. They are everywhere, in bizarre variations that look inviting yet are secretly hazardous…

And yes. I’m talking about these:

I swear these are the weirdest, coolest things. I got so many, “Uhm how many photos of cacti is this girl going to take???” stares. I don’t even care.

Oh yeah. There was also the huge gem show all over the city, that was cool too.

(^natural rough Sleeping Beauty mine turquoise)

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Now, onto conquests.

^Broken Arrow mine variscite. natural. straight from the mine owner.

^Burtis Claim Cripple Creek mine turquoise. natural.

^Royston turquoise and Royston ribbon cut turquoise. natural.

^Royston turquoise. natural.

^White Buffalo turquoise. natural. Straight from the mine owner.

^Blue Moon mine turquoise. natural.

^Royston ribbon cut turquoise. natural.

^ left to right: New Lander mine, Peacock mine, Carico Lake mine, Number 8 mine (!!! truly!), Damele mine.

All natural.

^the amazingly tight webbing in this one is hard to photograph.

^this one has a very high dome.

^ Sleeping Beauty mine turquoise. natural.

^Fox // Cortez mine turquoise. natural.

^old stock Number 8 mine turquoise. natural.

^Royston turquoise. natural. Along with some strays.

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That’s the haul folks! I hunted and enjoyed the skies of the Southwest

Then I returned home to a series of snow storms. Fantastic.

Keep a look out as I’ll be posting NEW ITEMS to preview here on the blog this coming Sunday before they hit the shops!

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SALE NEWS

From tonight until next Thursday at midnight, enjoy 15% off of your order in the Main Etsy Shop with coupon code:

SNOWVERDOSE

in honour of there being too much snow here and wanting to empty the shelves in the shop a bit for new items! Sale does not apply to custom orders, minimum purchase of $25 required to apply.

KEEP POSTED FOR SUNDAY.

In the meantime, if you aren’t in a sunny land, stay warm and bundle up!

xx Stray Arrow

Eye Candy.

Posted on December 26, 2013 by TheStrayArrow

No. This isn’t a post about rocks.

There will be one down the line, but not today!

I’ve been spending some time going over old photos, admittedly clearing space on my computer. I thought I would share some old and new that may not have made it to item listings, social media posts, or just been swept under the carpet of time…

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I hope everyone has had a lovely Holiday Season, whichever you choose to celebrate!

For future notice on a packaging change:

I used to send all bangle bracelets and bracelets in general in plain sweet little muslin bags. They’ll now be going out a bit more spruced up, as such:

That’s it folks!

NEW ITEMS will be hitting the shop throughout tomorrow, including two Chained in Turquoise rings, and two unique stacking ring types.

xx The Stray Arrow

New Item Preview

Posted on August 11, 2013 by TheStrayArrow

I’ve spent a little time lately outside of the studio, doing inventory of the pieces I already have made up. A ton of jewels have been sitting quietly and patiently in the corner, waiting to be photographed and listed. I’ll be posting some of these throughout today (Sunday) and tomorrow. I’ve also reshot some oldies but goodies. Oldies will be posted first, followed by newer pieces. If you’ve been keeping up with my Instagram (@thestrayarrow), you may have seen some of these already!