Weekend catchup: New pieces and projects

I had a busy weekend over here. Managed to get caught up on some listings and finish a few pieces I've had laying around 1/2 done.

A new Aurora Borealis tree finally made if off the table and in to the Etsy...

My almost scrapped Seraphinite Full Moon Tree of Life earrings got a second tree to make the pair...

And a new Ethopian Fire Opal mini tree got it's shine one too... 

All finished up and even listed too :D Go me.

The big whoowhoo for the weekend was my new medallion. I've made several now, but I've been trying to come up with a better way of doing them. A faster way. The medallions currently take about 10 - 12 hrs to make, if not more, and that's a lot. I wanted to find a way that works well, takes less time, and looks good too. Surely that's not asking too much. Right?

Well, I think I did it. I've been working on learning some new techniques and it seemed very promising for the backing I'm doing on these. (that part alone took 2-3hrs, if all went well) I was vera excited. It worked up faster, looked better but without actually making a medallion with it, I had no idea if it was going to work out. So, This weekend I tried puting it all together, and voila! 

A new, redesigned, Jade Infinity Medallion. The new backing worked wonderfully!! 

The netting I used before served me pretty well for anchor points for the scrolls and did well for giving the illusion of a solid piece. The problem was, visually it wasn't what I was after, so I had to concentrate of filling all the space on the medallion with scrolls or stones, or... whatever, to hide the web. The new way is not only faster, but it's more solid, works better, gives me more anchor spots, and I think it's going to work well visually when I want more open space in the piece.

I am so vera excited about all these things.

I tried the infinity scroll design with it first, to see how it would work for a piece that needed many anchor points. It all worked out beautifully. Next time I think I'll try it out on a more open piece. I have a couple new designs bouncing around in my head that wouldn't work before and I can't wait to try them. If it works as well as I think, I may have just opened up a gazillion new possibilities for medallions.

That rocks mah socks.