Except for a red, white and blue bracelet I had made for myself for the last day of work (Census? Red, white and blue? Get it? Okay, so it's not that funny), I had not designed any significant jewelry for a  long time until last weekend.  There were a lot of reasons for this, among them a recurrence of tremor that makes it difficult to thread small beads.  (I have not made any baby Elvises  for a long time for that reason.)

I'm not sure about my design skills anymore, but I think these may have come out okay.  They are both short -- longer than choker length but not by a whole lot.  The one on the left is Swarovski crystal in Siam (a deep red), peach colored freshwater pearls, white cloisonné, small gold-filled spacer beads and a handmade gold-filled wire clasp.

The one on the right is primarily hematite (which is a metallic silver gray) with leopardskin jasper, black onyx, mauve freshwater pearl and black cloisonné accents.  The spacer beads are sterling silver, and the clasp is hand-made from 18 gauge sterling silver wire. I'm thinking this one may be a bit busy.