Trinket #304 - Vintage Halloween Pendant

Somehow, I managed to have a fun and RELAXING Halloween! I didn't have to answer to anyone, go anywhere, or do anything other than stuff that I wanted to do. Perfect.

I put together this trinket as the trick-or-treaters tapered off for the night. (The rain didn't seem to stop many.) The centerpiece of the pendant is a pair of large (about 2-1/2 inches long) glass microscope slides with a vintage image of a witch on one side and pumpkins on the other sandwiched in between them. I made a Czech glass pumpkin charm, added a tiny glass leaf, and added it as an accent to the slides.

Trinket #290 - Beaded Spider Pendant

My husband says that this reminds him of the spider from Krull. I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but I digress... This is another attempt at the same project I used for the brooch, but this creepy creature has shorter legs a loop on its rear so it can be worn on a necklace.

Trinket #275 - Nevermore Necklace

The majority of my day today was spent outdoors under a cold gray sky at Richmond's Edgar Allan Poe Museum for the launch of my new book Richmond Macabre. It was truly a melancholy afternoon, but a great time was had by all! In honor of the day, I put together a Poe-inspired necklace using one of the million ribbon and cord necklaces I picked up last month and a pendant featuring a creepy bird that seems to have seen better days.

Trinket #271 - Carnelian and Black Tourmaline Bracelet

Bright orange and black stones - perfect for Halloween. Actually, for me, perfect for anytime.

Trinket #267 - Citrine Candy Corn Earrings

Okay, they're not really supposed to be candy corn, but the teardrop shape combined with the gradual darkening near the bottom of each bead made it so candy corn was all I could see. It's either that, or I have a bad case of Halloween on the brain. (Probably the latter - I did pick up four masks and a basket full of glow sticks FOR NO REAL REASON at Target today. Someone hide my debit card!)

Trinket #265 - Beaded Spider Brooch

I came across this great tutorial today (thanks to Tumblr) and decided to try my hand at the project tonight. I am impressed! This is one of my favorite projects so far. Speaking of that - am I the only one who noticed that there are only 100 days to go??

Trinket #261 - Glass Pumpkin Pendant

With a design derived from last week's Carnelian Pumpkin Pendant, I decided to try again with some Czech glass for a slightly different look. This pumpkin is a frosted and carved orange glass sphere accented with a tiny stamped glass leaf and a green stem. I think it turned out festive without being garish.

Trinket #255 - Carnelian Earrings

I've always been fascinated by natural stones. I spent the better part of the day yesterday combing through gem catalogs, so today I decided to use a couple from the stash to create these earrings. This pair is made from two tumbled chunks of carnelian.

Fall still seems far away here in central Virginia, where the high temperature tomorrow is still in the lower nineties, but I'm going to be getting ready for the changing foliage by pulling out the autumn colors over the next week or so.

Trinket #253 - Pumpkin Pendant

I went in search of orange beads today that would be suitable for some "upscale" Halloween trinkets. My search was fruitless. Instead, I did find these carnelian nuggets that look okay on a help cord, but don't seem to pair well with the sterling silver. I guess I'll be spending a bit of my day tomorrow trolling through gem catalogs in search of The Perfect Pumpkin.

Trinket #250 - Full Moon Flight Pendant

This is another sporadic Halloween-inspired trinket. I used a little witch charm as the focal point and added a pop of color with a disk of mother of pearl to represent the full moon. Oh, and there's one of those bazillion ribbon/cord necklaces.

I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with me this year. Usually, by this time anyway, I'd be working on Halloween props and decorations in full-swing. This time around, I just don't feel the spark. Not yet, anyway...

Trinket #244 - Halloween Hair Bow

Okay, this is a cheating project. I picked up this hair bow in the $1 section at Target today and customized it with a punky paper fish skeleton. The amount of time it took me to cut that skeleton should make it count as a 100% homemade trinket, right??

Trinket #236 - Bone Skulls and Bronze Earrings

I didn't really think about these much, I just sort of picked a few things out of the supply stash that complimented each other and tried to put them together in a way that wasn't too boring.

I've been using all of my focus during the day lately on writing and editing projects, so the trinkets have turned into a "veg out" activity each evening. This could actually be a good thing in the long run as it prevents me from criticizing or censoring my projects before starting them. I can't make any promises that the projects will be good, but they will certainly be relaxing.

Trinket #222 - Black and Amber Glass Halloween Earrings

There's no distraction quite as nice as Halloween, and I certainly needed a distraction today. These earrings are made with black faceted glass beads, amber glass seed beads, and gunmetal ear wires and head pins.

Trinket #204 - Skeleton Pendant

In case you haven't noticed, it's nearly the end of July. What does that mean? (Besides the obvious...)

ONLY THREE MONTHS UNTIL HALLOWEEN! September and October are my busiest months of the year with book events, appearances, etc, which means that I have really got to get cracking on the prop-building for this year's yard haunt before time is up.

Oh, and before I forget - this little trinket was made from a charm from a broken earring, some silver wire, and a fat hunk of garnet.