McFarland Designs - Ethical Jewelry Using Fair Trade Stones and Recycled Metal

Fordite SALE!!!

2009-07-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Due to California's new super-restrictive (and rather confusing) Lead in Jewelry law, I'm going to be discontinuing my Fordite line. {sniff} All of my existing Fordite pieces have been marked down dramatically, so now's your chance to own one of these beauties for half price!

Reversible Fordite and sterling silver necklace (now only $59.00)

Fordite and sterling silver cufflinks (now only $74.00)

Fordite, 14k gold, and sterling silver necklace (now only $74.00)

Fordite and sterling silver ring (now only $56.00)

I also have some great Fordite cabs that I'll be offering for sale soon - stay tuned.

New Work

2009-07-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Moissanite and recycled 14k gold ring
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

Enormous fair trade cat's eye pink tourmaline and sterling silver pendant
{ custom order; sold }

Fair trade pink tourmaline and recycled 14k gold ring
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

Moissanite and recycled 14k gold ring
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

Fair trade amethyst and recycled 14k gold ring
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

New Work

2009-07-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to show this simple new piece...

Recycled 14k yellow gold band (4mm wide) with five 2.5mm spessartine garnets and five 2mm lab-created rubies, size 6
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

On another note, thanks so much to my friend Nathalie, who posted this very sweet article on her blog yesterday singing the praises of artisan-crafted wedding jewelry, and showcasing some of mine in particular. Thanks Nat!!!

I'm Back.

2009-07-06T13:26:00.001-07:00

I'm back in town and trying desperately to get caught up on e-mails, etc. Carlos is feeling much better - back to his usual spunky self - and we were able to at least enjoy the last couple of days of our trip. We took Carlos to the water slides twice and out on a boat on Lake Coeur D'Alene. The sun felt wonderful, and it's actually kind of difficult adjusting back to the cool Humboldt County weather, which I usually love. I think I'm slowly starting to like warmer weather in my old age. :-)

My nephew, Calvyn, jumping into the lake

June Jewelry for Charity Recap & July Kick-off

2009-07-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today to let you know how we did for charity last month... with your help, I raised $343.00 for Safe Passage (Camino Seguro) during the month of June, bringing my total fundraising since May 2007 to $11,076.00. Thanks so much to all of you who helped by making a purchase during the month of June!

July's charity, once again, is the fabulous Animal Place sanctuary. Always one of my favorite charities, my love for Animal Place was revived and intensified during a recent visit. There's just something about the vibe of the place that makes me feel very much at home. So don't forget, 5% of anything you spend with me (either through my Etsy shop or a direct custom order) will go to support this amazing group.

That's it for today - technically I'm 'on vacation', if you consider a day's worth of flying (yesterday) and another day (today) glued to the bed in the hotel tending to an extremely sick three-year-old (four days of high fever, diagnosed today as pneumonia and an ear infection) to be 'vacation'. Wah. He should be on the mend now though, thanks to high powered antibiotics (knock on wood).

New Work

2009-06-27T19:53:00.001-07:00

Moissanite and recycled 14k gold earrings -
3.5mm stones (0.28 total carat weight) set in yellow gold with white gold posts and backs

rear view.

Fair trade California smoky citrine and recycled sterling silver ring, size 6

Boy, I've been boring lately... all I've posted in ages is jewelry stuff. I guess it's obvious that I've been working hard and not playing much. :-) Vacation coming up soon though, thank goodness!

New Work

2009-06-26T14:52:00.001-07:00

Fair trade Holley chalcedony and recycled sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

Padparadscha sapphire and recycled white and yellow gold ring

Fordite and recycled sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

New Work

2009-06-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Moissanite and recycled sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

Fair trade California pink tourmaline and recycled sterling silver ring
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

Fair trade sapphire and recycled sterling silver ring
{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

New Work

2009-06-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

California smoky citrine, recycled sterling silver, and recycled 14k gold ring, size 8

California pink tourmaline and recycled sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

Fair trade Holley chalcedony and sterling silver pendant
{ custom order; sold }

California pink tourmaline, recycled sterling silver, and recycled 22k gold ring, size 7.5

Oregon sunstone, recycled sterling silver, and recycled 14k gold ring, size 7

New Work

2009-06-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is a big one!
Fair trade Zultanite (8mm) and recycled 14k white gold ring, size 7

Fair trade Oregon sunstone, moissanite, and recycled 14k rose gold ring, size 6.5

Fair trade Oregon sunstone, recycled sterling silver, and recycled 14k rose gold ring, size 6.5

New Stones

2009-06-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's shopping trip, continued... this time faceted stones. As before, all are available for custom orders; email me to discuss details and pricing.

Amethyst from Arizona
6mm (0.58 carats)

Amethyst from Arizona
4.5mm (0.57 carats total)
{ a nicely matched set for earrings }

Andradite garnet
3mm (0.53 carats total)
{ two nicely matched sets for earrings }

Citrine from California
7mm (1.12 carats)

Citrine from California
5mm (0.4 carats)

Green tourmaline from Southern California
4mm (0.48 carats total)
{ a nicely matched set for earrings }

Green tourmaline from Southern California
5mm (0.43 carats)

Green tourmaline from Southern California
5.5mm (0.86 carats)

Pink tourmaline from Southern California
5mm (0.45 carats)

Oregon Sunstone (I have two of these)
6mm (0.8 carats)

Oregon sunstone (with pale flashes of gray-green and peach)
4mm (0.44 carats total)
{ a nicely matched set for earrings }

Oregon sunstone (nearly colorless, with subtle flashes of earthy color)
4mm (0.41 carats total)
{ a nicely matched set for earrings }

A lovely, gemmy Oregon sunstone with beautiful color
6mm (0.85 carats)

A lovely, sparkly Oregon sunstone with gorgeous schiller
6mm (0.72 carats)

(The same stone again, just trying to capture the schiller a bit better.)

Oregon sunstone (a light peachy-pink)
5mm (0.42 carats)

New Cabs

2009-06-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

I had waaaaay too much fun shopping yesterday! I'll start with the new cabs and do a separate post for the faceted stones. All are available for custom orders so let me know if you're interested!

Holley chalcedony from Sweet Home, Oregon
10mm with 6.5mm dome (3.95 carats)
{ This one and the next one have the most amazingly intense color! }

Holley chalcedony from Sweet Home, Oregon
8mm with 5mm dome (2.05 carats)

Holley chalcedony from Sweet Home, Oregon
9mm with 4mm dome (2.28 carats)

Holley chalcedony from Sweet Home, Oregon
matched pair (earrings, maybe?) - 6mm (1.45 carats total)

Cat's eye green tourmaline from Southern California
7mm x 9mm (1.84 carats)

American golden opal
6mm (1.25 carats)

American golden opal
8mm (1.17 carats)

Pink tourmaline from Southern California
11mm x 15mm (6.9 carats)

Variscite from Nevada (Prince Mine)
17mm x 32mm (22.32 carats)

And the winner is...

2009-06-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

I've selected an entry from my $100 gift certificate giveaway contest (via Random.org) and the lucky winner is Gabriel J.!

Thanks so much for playing, everyone! It was lots of fun for me as well. Feel free to continue to pass along your thoughts and suggestions about my new site as I continue to make little tweaks and adjustments.

New Work

2009-06-14T13:12:00.001-07:00

Fair trade grape garnet and recycled sterling silver ring, size 6.5

Fair trade black spinel and recycled sterling silver ring, size 6.5

Fair trade Oregon sunstone, moissanite, and recycled sterling silver engagement ring
{ custom order; sold }

And finally, I thought I'd try my hand at some earrings, since several of my contest participants mentioned that they would like to see some earrings in my shop. These are teeny-tiny (3mm) fair trade California green tourmalines set in 14k recycled white gold.

New Stone

2009-06-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

A new fair trade stone that's available for custom orders - Oregon opal!
This one is 6mm.

New Work

2009-06-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

Custom-order moissanite, fair trade sapphire, and sterling silver wedding set

(I really like how the band turned out.)

Thanks for the feedback!

2009-06-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who took the time to give me feedback on my new website. It's been really helpful to read your thoughtful comments, and this morning I made a few changes based largely on your suggestions. Take a peek and let me know what you think.

The biggest changes are the slideshow on the homepage and a longer slideshow on the gallery page. I'm particularly interested to hear whether these shows take excessive amounts of time to load on your computers. I have a reasonably fast connection, and they are fairly quick to load here at my house.

I also added some links at the bottom of each page to make it easier to find the pages that are not linked in the main title bar (my etsy shop, custom ordering info, fair trade stones list, and fair trade birthstone chart).

Hopefully these changes will be positive improvements; do let me know what you think!

More New Work

2009-06-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

Moissanite, recycled 14k yellow gold, and recycled sterling silver ring, size 6.75

New Work

2009-06-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm actually planning to set an Oregon sunstone in the center setting of this ring, but I couldn't resist temporarily placing a moissanite there in the center, just to see how it would look. I love it! The center stone is 6mm (as compared with the 5.5mm stone I used in an earlier, white gold version of this design), and that half-mm really packs a punch - this one is a real sparkler!

Three-stone engagement ring, moissanite and recycled 14k rose gold

Yoga!

2009-06-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I'm a little late to the game - many of my readers have probably been practicing yoga for years, and/or have moved on to pilates, yogilates, and all forms of advanced body-bending techniques that I can scarcely imagine. But I've just started getting serious about yoga quite recently, around the time that I started running longer distances. I could feel that my body was getting really tight and needed to be stretched. But for various reasons (drive time, frugality), I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of going to a yoga class at a gym, so I bought this awesome book.

It has two programs - one for beginners and one for intermediate practice. I'm still doing the beginning program but may try the intermediate soon. The book has a spiral binding and is constructed in such a way that it can stand up, easel-style, for ease of use during practice.

I can definitely feel a difference in my body since I started using this book - my muscles feel looser, and I feel more relaxed in general. Matt has even been joining me sometimes - we do yoga in the evenings after Carlos goes to bed. Anyhoo - just thought I'd pass along the recommendation in case anyone else has been thinking about giving yoga a try.

I had such a wonderful yoga session this morning - I took my mat out on the front deck, and was surrounded by chirping, chattering, tweeting, humming birds, and the indoxicating scent of the honeysuckle vines I planted next to the porch stairs last year, but which are blooming now for the first time. A great way to start the day!

My favorite shoes

2009-06-09T09:53:00.001-07:00

For the past several summers, I have been living in my Teva flip-flops. I just found that my favorite style is on sale for under $15 so I thought I'd share. Go buy a pair; I promise you'll love them!

Don't Miss Out!

2009-06-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't already done so, please be sure to enter to win a $100 McFarland Designs gift certificate! The drawing will be held in one week. :-)

Doggies

2009-06-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

Bruno in stealth mode

Lookin' cute

Pretty Hazel

Bruno and Otis

Otis enjoying a stick

More stick chewage

Hazel takes a turn with the stick

New Work

2009-06-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Lab-created ruby & recycled 14k gold ring, size 6.5

Custom wedding set - moissanite & recycled sterling silver

Recycled 14k white & yellow gold wedding band, size 12.5

An Awesome Article

2009-06-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Via Foreign Policy -

Meat: the slavery of our time

How the coming vegetarian revolution will arrive by force.

By Jim Motavalli

I have a prediction: Sooner than you might think, this will be a vegetarian world. Future generations will find the idea of eating meat both morally absurd and logistically impossible. Of course, one need only look at the booming meat industry, the climbing rates of meat consumption in the developing world, and the menu of just about any restaurant to call me crazy. But already, most people know that eating red meat is bad for their health and harmful for the planet. It's getting them to actually change their diet that's the hard part... [read more]