Poppy Field Necklace

One-of-a-Kind. Hand painted with glass enamel "Poppy Field" set in eye shape brass with silver bezel. adorned with single moonstone briolette. inspiration is the eye looking at the poppy field, so beautiful that single tear coming down from the eye....

currentry display at Zodiac, $300.00

Introducing: Poppy Swing

thank you so much for all the lovely, creative names! all the suggestion was so wonderful, I really had hard time picking just one. but after much thinking, I decided on "Poppy Swing" that Kaitie Au suggested! I think it's discribes earrings right on! so Kaitie Au, I'll gift you the prototype. please email: info@jewelrybynatsuko.com or contact me through my Etsy shop with your address.

and these earrings are avilable in two colors at my Etsy shop & Style Outside The Box store!

Happy Crafting:)

the karma of inspirations...

a while ago my good blog friend Aimee send me a link to my facebook page and say, look like somebody ripped off my design. well, I certainly see the similarity with my work but not really sure if they did ripped off my design. I'm sure I'm not the first person to use enamel discs in the design and call it "poppies". but say they got "inspired" from my poppies. and I got inspired from them and here is what I came up with. I like to call this is "the karma of inspirations"! hehe...:)

Happy Crafting & Hope for quick recovery in Japan!

Riveting the Poppies

~how do you rivet those little balls without cracking the glass?

I got this question through my Flickr page. I’m no expert but I could be very cleaver & love questions like this! And I had locket order to do today so I decided to take pictures step by step. BTW, to me riveting is the single most valuable technique I learned at jewelry class. It’s opened up how I incorporate my enamel pieces into metalwork in so many ways!

You’ll need~
*one poppy disc
*brass locket
*1” - 18g fine silver round wire -And it’s important to use fine silver because fine silver doesn’t harden so you don’t have to put too much pressure hammering them.
*nail head punch –I got mine at “Harbor Freight Tools” for about $3. In jewelry class, we were using a fancy tool that has many sizes but this will do me just fine.
*stand for nail head
*riveting hammer
*small drill
*bead reamer




Let's start!

Drill a small hole on the middle of locket. Hole should be snag to wire so it’s better to start small and wider with reamer.

Make ball on one end of silver wire.

insert poppy, then locket on wire.

set ball end on the nail head punch. Punch end should be large enough to cover most of the ball but small enough to not touching the enameled surface.

Clip wire to leave about 1.5mm.

Tap on wire until they are almost flat.

file on sharp edges.

Yay, finished!

Happy Crafting:)

Let’s make enamel stud earrings!

I just try some new way to make my stud earrings so I thought I’d take pictures along the way!

Now, I always soldered or attached post at last but this time I soldered them first. I use hard solder so it should with stand in the kiln up to 1450° F.

Then, I counter enamel on the back.
And here is my big invention! I made stand for earrings by poke holes in the mica sheet. These little things that makes life so much easier!
Shift & fire, sift & fire…

this is the last firing with silver ball.
Yay, finished!

Baby pink enamel poppy stud earrings

and another color...

Sea foam enamel poppy stud earrings

Happy Crafting!

jewelry making for fun

I took enameling class over this summer. well, it was just because I forgot to sign-up for jewelry class and couldn't get in but... I do enameling daily at home so I wanted to try new things. preferably something I can incorporate into metal work afterward.

this first one, I made cabochon with raspberry pink enamel over copper and made rose from silver wire and fused onto the cabochon. and then, I made a setting at the jewelry class. I think it's very beautiful and proud to say it's 100% handmade from row material. and this piece was first piece to get purchased at my trunk show this past Saturday. I must say I was little sad to say good bye to the necklace... but fact that customer who purchased was very good customer of mine and he was purchasing for gift to his wife. now, his wife is really lovely lady so I'm very happy that she is going to have it!

ok, now to the second one. this piece is paint with enamel. I never really paint since I was kids. but boy, it was so much fun! I had a little taste of "painting". subject was of course "poppy field". my friend coincidentally had a picture of it and she let me use as inspiration. I just came up design for the setting so that's what I'm going to make next on my class!

happy crafting:)

brass locket with enamel poppy

I had a custom request for brass lockets in little lager than what I had. so I got few of them and made one for the customer. and because it turned out so beautiful, I made one sample and listed on my Etsy shop. and then little bit that I had sold out in matter of a day or two! even more exciting thing was each request was different and each piece turned out oh so beautifully! here is few snap shots before shipping...

these must be an odd size, I couldn't find large supply for it. but I did order few more and it's on their way! the one in the first picture, customer requested with "petal look" poppy. so I made with just little larger than my half inch poppy. and each locket, I'll hand stamp secret message...

Happy Crafting:)

fall color palette & help me name this color!

I been working on very special custom orders and busy enameling. then I looked all the finished poppies together, there is wonderful fall colors! plum, autumn red/orange and... well, I need help with name this one. I was thinking "caramel" but I'm open for suggestion! happy crafting:)

fall poppies sneak preview

these are going to be part of my new fall collection. I put my heart & soul into these pieces! it's still work in progress but I just wanted to share:)

happy crafting!