Psst, Valentine’s Day is coming up, and jewelry’s not a bad gift idea … how about one of these to impress your sweetie?

All this wonderful jewelry is from Portland, Ore.-based smallthings. Every piece of jewelry is made with sterling silver — only the highest quality. All the silver and glass used is also hand-cut! No molds, no prefab pieces here — that just makes this jewelry even more amazing.

You can choose from different colors of glass for many of the pendants, and there are all kinds of motifs available, from flowers to mushrooms to squirrels (and other forest creatures) to leaves to birds.

Every piece is made to order, so if you’re looking for a Valentine’s gift, you should order now! (Orders can take from two to four weeks.) Or maybe you’ll just want one for yourself so you can shine.

If you love nature and you love jewelry, you’ll have to check some of these pieces out:

These lovely pieces are the work of UK-based Joanna Rutter. Joanna hand-fabricates all her jewelry, which features many things found in nature: birds, leaves, squirrels, clouds. Since each piece is hand-cut, no two things are exactly alike!

There’s a really nice selection of items, from big dangly earrings to studs to good-sized pendants to rings that won’t get in the way of your holding a pen. What’s especially cool are the earring pairs that aren’t two of the same thing, but related items. For instance, there’s this robin and a branch or this squirrel and a branch.

Joanna’s style is simple and elegant, and definitely worth checking out.

A friend of mine used to make fun of chain maille, saying, “What, for all your knightly needs?” Well, poobah.

Chain maille is cool, visually interesting and darned intricate. And if you hop over to Elements by Dawn, you’ll see some fabulous stuff like this:

Dawn’s jewelry is a mix of styles, ranging from the simple, elegant lines of the silver jewelry — like this lovely heart pendant — to bold and chunky (check this necklace out). And it’s versatile jewelry and can go with both your elegant outfits or add some pizazz if you’re wearing jeans and something casual.

Do take a look.

Sorry for the mini hiatus (been sick, out of town, busy at craft shows, not attached to my computer, etc.), but I am back with some very nice jewelry:

This swirly delight is from Leah at Michon. I met Leah at the Pleasanton Craft Mafia’s Art & Craft show last weekend in Pleasanton. She was my booth neighbor. I enjoyed her pieces so much that I bought one! It’s swirly and silvery and pearly too.

Anyhow, Leah not only turns out some nice silver work — from pendants to earrings to bracelets — she also makes some really nice resin necklaces. The resin jewelry sometimes has copper forms in it (like a seashell-shaped thing you can view on her site), to acrylic paint (her husband is a painter) to one cool one that had a piece of a tree branch and crushed eyeshadow in the background (which I can’t find a picture of on her site).

There is some innovative stuff on Leah’s site, so do check it out. Unfortunately, what’s available for sale online isn’t even the tip of the iceberg, but she does provide a list of Bay Area places you can buy her stuff. She will also be at Maven Craft Fair in San Francisco on May 12, so you can see her there.

It’s almost spring, and I’m sure the wedding scene will start to pick up once the weather gets warmer.

If you’re a bride, or you know a bride or bridesmaid, maybe you should take a look at these:

These stunning piece were found on Etsy at micheledawn’s store. She is a jewelry maker based in the UK.

There was a lot of really intricate work in her shop — even a few tiaras! — and definitely worth checking out if you need some really special stuff.