Black and white bracelet

While looking over my jewelry I realized that I don't have many pieces with classic colors, like black and white, so I made this quick, easy and fun bracelet. Goldstone beads - not exactly black, but very dark blue, and milk opal white beads. The fun elephant clasp is there to break a bit the classic style of the design.

Light Siam Red

"Siam Heart Bracelet"
7" Sterling Silver Bracelet
Crystallized Swarovski Elements
$55

"Triple Crystal, Light Siam & Golden Shadow"
16" Fine Italian Sterling Silver Necklace
Crystallized Swarovski Elements
.925 Sterling Silver Findings
$40

"Large Light Siam Heart Necklace"
*New 17" Italian Sterling Helix Necklace*
Crystallized Swarovski Element
.925 Sterling Silver Finding
SOLD OUT




Free First Class Shipping Available Until January 1, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Light Siam Red

"Siam Heart Bracelet"
7" Sterling Silver Bracelet
Crystallized Swarovski Elements
$55

"Triple Crystal, Light Siam & Golden Shadow"
16" Fine Italian Sterling Silver Necklace
Crystallized Swarovski Elements
.925 Sterling Silver Findings
$40

"Large Light Siam Heart Necklace"
*New 17" Italian Sterling Helix Necklace*
Crystallized Swarovski Element
.925 Sterling Silver Finding
SOLD OUT




Free First Class Shipping Available Until January 1, 2010

Happy Holidays!

New life of old earrings

Recently a friend of my friend has brought me a pair of old vintage earrings (Sterling silver, labradorite and pearls) and asked me to create an unusual piece of jewelry using those earrings.


Create a new pair of earrings using the old ones? Oh, no! I decided to keep the old design, and put the earrings together on a blank beadwoven bracelet. I picked up seed beads matching labradorite and pearls for the bracelet, and added a few seed bead branches with amethyst rounds, pearls and some gemstone chips. So, here we are!

Herringbone is the theme of today - SOLD!

As I mentioned in my previous post about herringbone weave, this is the first jewelry piece I made this year, a bracelet for a colleague at work. Green cats-eye in herringbone weave with 0.6 and 1 mm sterling silver wire.


I also made this cute pair of herringbone earrings after watching a free video on youtube, created by Cynthia. It really inspired me to try them and I will do more of these.
Beads are dark blue goldstone (so dark that they could easily pass as black in the proper light), they are really beautiful, and so dainty. If you like shorter earrings, which sit just right in your ear, these are for you :)

I will add the pair to my Dawanda shop, but you can also buy them directly from here via Paypal (with free shipping).

I had people sending me email asking me how much does xyz cost in $US, so I will display from now on both prices, in Euros and in $US. You can click on whichever button you prefer to buy it, depending on your location.

More hammering

Ancient II

I seem to be stuck on creating for my Simply Heaven Range at the moment ~ I suppose while pieces are selling I have to redo them for the shop, both on my website and Etsy ~ while in my workshop I always get waylaid into creating something new ~ which is great fun and its usually while I redoing a piece these ideas flood in. Ancient II is a remake of my other earrings this time with five recycled silver pebbles adorning each hammered ring. These will be going up onto my website very soon.

Curly Ribbons ~Sold

These beauties came from another session in my work room, they sort of just happened but I think I will be making more and these sold really quickly ~ they were also featured in a treasury on Etsy as they were being sold in my Simply Heaven shop. But fear not there will be more I promise you .
And finally I have one of my signature bracelets to show you ~ made with Claire Morris of Rowanberry Glass Arts fabulous boro beads and mixed with blue opal, Chalcedony, Iolite and peridot and of course wire wrapped to creat a stunning bracelet in blues and greens.

Obscured by Clouds

This bracelet is available on my website in the Glass Gems section.

Following......

Mulsum

Ok those of you who know me well, know how terrible I have been of late and not only blogging but catching up on everyone elses blogs ~ I have great excuses ;) but won't bore you with them here because I have a new gadget on my blog! Yes, following is the new way to keep up to date with friends blogs ~ now at a drop of a hat I can see who is posting without trawling through each and everyone's ~ sadly if your blog or name was after L I probably wouldn't get to you because the beads would start calling and I would forget where I was ~ maybe its my age not the beads ....

Theodora

Showing of my surprise bracelet ~ yes I actually used gold~filled and found it very lovely to work with. I love the warmth it gives the garnet too. The earrings are a bit of sneak preview ~ as of Monday evening not even my Flickr watchers have seen them yet!! What do you think ~ Amethyst, labradorite and pink Amethyst on posts ~ I'm really pleased with the out come but need to stop putting pink Amethsyt in everything I make :P

My Eyes continued...

Watersnake

I know its boring - the saga of my eyes but after the lovely comments and emails I had I thought you may wish to hear I have been!! I have been tested and ..................................................yes...............I need glasses!! No surprise there then ;) I have picked out some sexy black rimmed ones but as its only for close up work I shan't really be showing them off - unless you all want a pic?? Also my darling Elli needs them for th complete opposite reason - she needs them to see the white board (opposite to black board!!) so they are making her little bi-focals - and they look so cute on her!!

Watersnake Earrings

It was actually ok - the test and everything but its scary when you see how far your eyes have deteriorated although apparently for 10 years (yep thats how long I went in between) its not bad just .5 but I could really see a difference - do you think it will make a difference to my work??

My Eyes

Aurora - SOLD

I think my eyes are starting to complain about all this close up work, I need nagging to go to the opticians! Years ago, and I mean B.E (Before Elli) in fact B.M (Before marriage) I had my eyes tested as my Auntie was diagnosed with Glaucoma, I need glasses for close up work, I had them as a Birthday gift (very expensive) and I hated wearing them. At the time I worked as a photographers assistant - setting up lights, booking in clients, sorting through the photographs, adding client base to computor, loading film etc. My head was up and down and I started getting headaches from glasses on and off, or in my case not taking them off at the right moments. So guess what I gave up wearing them.....

Tundra - RESERVED

Of course I now need to be rechecked and my eyes are so sore in the evenings, I think they are crying for help. I'm just so bad at gtting myself checked out for some reason... you'd think after all my health scares I would be the opposite, sadly anything which is slightly invasive of my person I run screaming for the hills. WEll I suppose there's always more valium ....

ANd yes I am joking ;p

FLames

"BUBBLES"

Fridays for me is usually coffee with friends but every so often something happens to change the plan from our usual cappacino at CHarlies (Charlestowns fabulous coffee shop) Friday was one of those days so with the arrival of my new torch I set about soldering - and boy I did lots. I was on a mission my "Just Silver" section on the website was looking a little sad and I really need to get pieces added. Of course I am slowly doing this so if there is something on todays post you fancy - drop me the usual email :)

"DULOE"

Bracelets and earrings and a lovely necklace (you can already find in my Etsy store) I did have fun - there's something very theraputic about soldering, pickling and finally taking out of the tumbler!! Maybe its the hammering ;0)

"GOODAVER"

My jewellery this weekend was influenced by the stone circles and the bracelet and necklace are both named after Cornish ones.

Where the week went!

What fabulous weather we have been having - ok its not going to last (in the southwest at least) so of course I've been making the most of it! Monday, a bank holiday or May Day as we call it, was really warm and we (the family) went to TRerice, owned now by the National Trust, a beautiful Elizabethan house and gardens. Elli and E even had a go at playing Cornish Kayling - a game of skittles, and ELli tried her hand at brass rubbings. LOts of sunshine and a run around the maze - great fun. Mamma, Gump and Nanny came to - so cups of tea and slices of cake finished off the day!
Of course when the weather is fine my designs tend to turn blue don't they and this one is no exception - named Arethusa after the NYmph who who turned into a fountain - these turquoise briolettes are gorgeous!
This bracelet is named Rioja and is garnet, crystal quartz and bali silver - all wound onto dainty chain for a really slinky feel - I'm working on a kyanite, iolite and moonstone one at the moment and have slightly pink arms from sitting outside this afternoon!!

Wire

I am so enjoying wire work at the moment and the above piece "Artemis" was a real labour of love - one of those projects that seemed to click even though it wasn't exactly what I started out to achieve. I definitely had aching hands by the end but am so pleased with the final outcome I am hoping to attempt another at some point.

Gorgeous boro beads by Claire of Rowanberry Glass - amazing colours to pull out - my favourite type of beads - someone on Flickr (sorry if its you) said it looked "appley" and I think they're right - like apple blossom - maybe I should photograph the blossom on our apple tree for comparison?
Finally some earrings I created with beautiful apatite, Iolite , aquamarine and gorgeous smooth rock crystal .
And thank you Hannah (Of Kutuu) who checked up on me this morning - she was worried because I have been a bad, neglectful blogger recently!! May, I promise will be an improvement :)

Goldstone wrapped bracelet

I made this wire wrapped bracelet last night from Jessie Donnan's first book. I always wanted to make this style of bracelet, but never quite knew how to pull it off. Of course, now that I saw it in the book, it's quite easy *grins*.
I messed up a bit the right side of the clasp, so this one stays with me as a prototype. It's quite comfy to wear, I had it on today at work and was great. It's more a bangle and you can shape it with hands on how much to bend. Which is good because it fits all sorts of wrists, from the thinner to the fuller.
Goes with pretty much anything, from jeans to anything blue, black white, yellow and even red. Maybe not green though, lol.

Rolling In Gemstones!

Today I had a meeting with a lady from a gemstone suppliers - a lovely lady - who fell in love with my cat! She had so many gemstones I was in heaven. I even held in my hands a strand of th most beautiful diamonds which cost nearly as much as my lampwork collection :) Keishi pearls with an incredible luster, rubies - oh I could go on but I would get all you gem lovers drooling over your keyboards!!! Sadly I'm too busy pooling all my money into silver at the moment for my party on Friday!

I've also being doing some mor wire wrapping - I love this one with the ethereal blue of the Chalcedonywith ros quartz, pearls , crystal quartz and more Chalcedony all oxidised. It was a lot of work but well worth it - well I think :)

Weekend Posting

Elli had her first sleepover last night - they were chatting a lot - until gone 10 and E went and told them to calm down - then just before 6 am they woke again! Urghhh I know tonight Elli will be struggling , normally at the weekend she lies in until 8 (so do we!!) and she needs her sleep (so do we!) and getting up at the crack of dawn all week means the weekend lie ins are sacred !
I'm down to 38 sets of artisan glass beads but I have succumbed twice - I know a moment of weakness - sadly the beads are beautiful and je ne regrette rien ;) (Or I regret nothing for those of you who can't read french - or remember the song by Edith Piaf ( although I wasn't even a twinkle in my Daddy's eye when the song came out!)
The top bracelet is still available but the second - after being spotted on Flickr is off to the US to her new home. I'm now preparing for a party next Friday - lots to make and create - so back to it!!

OK I know

where have my blog posts been - well I did warn you - blog posting with a six year old is hard you get to the middle of a post and get called away - then you come back and forget where you are - I have quite a few unfinished ones in draft this week. I also would like to apologises to my blogging friends for neglect ;)

Part of me is looking forward to normality when Elli goes back to school but she is such good company too I will miss her loads! Yesterday we went shopping - I love shopping but I don't do enough of it (contrary to what my E says!) She is such good fun and loves looking at clothes as much as I do - especially if they come in her size - yes I have a real girly girl :)

I'm down to 40 sets I think (although bad girl that I am I've recieved another 2 sets in the post - do I have to count them lol) I'm working on getting down to 20 arghhh but its hard!

Backwards

I giving up beads for lent - thats the reason for being backwards because as you know lent is over!! Over the weekend I added up all the bead sets I have - now I'm talking about Artisan Glass (lampwork) which is something I have always held my hands up to being addicted too! BUt this I actually hang my head in shame I counted (and this was me being honest - when I say counted these are just the ones I sorted) 47 sets in total (well actually I counted 46 but then found another set under a book) yes you read that right 47!!!


SO because of this I am on a bead buying ban - yes I have to show you in the next month at least 20 pieces made with lampwork - Hopefully you will help me count this down and when I reach 20 I can start buying again - eeeek - this will be extremly painful as I adore buying them!! Please hold my hand throughout April so I keep strong - haha! So all my flame fueled friends please help me be strong and I am not ignoring you if I suddenly stop buying your beads - I need to be strong ;)