Mermaid

 The whole mermaid thing was inspired by t-fourlee's poem Ocean Peace

I've always loved the sea and water and this is my take on a mermaid. I wanted to do something dreamy that showed the yearning for the sea and living in the sea rather than something cute and twee.

This is the poem to accompany the image, Mermaid

Featured on Redbubble:

Credits
 Stock:

• Mermaid - vintage lady 11
• Orange Ghiribaldi Fish
• Yellow Tang Fish Aquarium
• Frog stock 143
• Dragonfly Stock 7
• Shell 12 - Coral
• Shell stock 53
• Shell stock 54
• Shell stock 55
• Coral - 2
• Fish Scales - for Mermaid Stock

Textures:

• Texture 111
• Bubbles 1
• Bubbles 2
• Free background by moonchild-ljilja
• Mossy Wall
• Green under water
• Grunge Texture 03

Brushes:

• Spanish Moss Brushes  

 

MCN: CKSN3-E66A2-QQYLP

Lover's Kiss Necklace and Twilight Series Review

A book review and a necklace may seem an odd connection, but read on and you'll see why...

Below is my latest necklace - and it's MINE - so don't get your hopes up. It's a prototype where I try out a new technique (or in this case several) and I need to wear it to make sure it works or if I need to modify the design to make it work. I am pleased to say it DOES work and it's great fun, although I am intending to make one little change. It needs a clasp after all, despite it's length as I prefer to be able to wrap it round twice if I feel like it. :-)

Below is a picture of the necklace in natural light. I wanted to show off the beautiful colours of the cherry and raspberry quartz, coral and the organza and tulle I used.


The picture below is the necklace wrapped round twice and with flash.


Most of the findings and makings are copper, although the filigree is antiqued brass. I oxidised the copper including the chain to 'harmonise' the colours.

Below you can see two of the different strawberry quartz beads I used plus one of the coral beads.


Each of the little organza flowers has been made separately from a layer of gold and wine red organza with a layer of burgundy tulle at the bottom. Holding everything in place are dark red Magatama drop beads and raspberry red seed beads. The flower sits on a vintage copper daisy bead cap. The flower is then sewn onto the brass filigree with a Magatama bead at the back to provide a weight to keep it straight when worn, and because this makes it look pretty even if it flips over.


Below you can see the third type of quartz beads, these are smooth in contrast to the micro facets of the other two quartz beads. I've used two types of chain - one a vintage Greek key design, the other a plain design.


So, here's where the Twilight series comes into this... I've just finished reading the series and it must have still been on my mind when I named the necklace - an extremely soppy name for me....

The series is about a girl who falls in love for the first time and her intended turns out to be a vampire. That's the gist of it. There's of course far more to it, but I don't want to spoil the fun.

Although the book is intended for young adults, it was a really good read. Each of the books is a page turner and I enjoyed reading them, although there were times when I wanted to shake some sense into the main character, however, in the end it turned out all right. :-)

The thing I thought was depicted particularly well was this feeling of first love, the confusion, the joy and the sheer bloodymindedness, which brings me back to my necklace. The lovely colours of the strawberry quartz - the soft pink of the large one, the golden hued and soft pink blush of the medium quartz, the romantic pink of the small, smooth beads and the deep intense red of the coral together - for me at least - show the facets of first love really well. The same colours are picked out in the organza and framed by the copper and brass.

I could have named the necklace Twilight after the first book in the series, but I'd just named a bracelet 'Forever Twilight' so it didn't feel right and 'Lover's Kiss' reminded me of a description of a kiss in the books.

So there you are. :-)

The Dragon's Heart - Set

There's something about dragons that just seems to fascinate me. I was going to makes something really feminine with those handmade beads with rose gold, but the design would just not come together, however, once I started to think dragon, it was all there. LOL Remember the Dragon's Tale necklace? I bought both sets of beads from the same supplier and I am so pleased I did, they're absolutely wonderful.

Dragon's Heart

Here is the necklace of the set.


I've used: handmade beads in pink and gold, oval garnet, red coral, pale rosy pink chalcedony, white turquoise, deep red mookaite, carved big and smooth small ebony beads, and finally a lovely vintage heart shaped copper wire cage.

I've made my own wire swirls to give the necklace texture, I cut, filed, shaped and sanded copper sheet into a dragon's tail complete with a scaly texture, I made my own clasp and jump rings. Each bead was wire wrapped with different gauges of copper wire.

Finally, the necklace was dipped in liver of sulphur, cleaned, and polished with olive oil.

Here's the dragon's heart in detail: a vintage wire cage attached to the chain with sterling silver wire and the heart made of garnet and coral.


Here's the pretty clasp. One lovely round hook and a round ring wrapped with thinner wire. You can also see one of the lovely handmade beads in detail.


Here is the dragon's tail in detail:


A selection of the wonderful beads. The ebony beads are from my supplier on Etsy e&e Bungalow - the same one I used for the Sea in a Nutshell necklace. The necklace is very long, but can be worn wrapped around the neck, or with a particularly slim neck three times wrapped around. :-)


Here is the matching bracelet although it's more versatile than that as is can either be wrapped three times around a medium sized wrist or worn as a necklace. The materials used are the same as for the necklace above, except, I used a small vintage copper wire cage rather than the large heart cage.


Here's the cool clasp I made - it's meant to look a bit like a curled up dragon.



Here's the bracelet when worn three times around the wrist. It looks all luscious and gorgeous with an abundance of beads.

Both available in my Etsy shop soon... Promise!

Fly Me to the Moon - Set

Here we have one set consisting of earrings and a short necklace.

Fly Me to the Moon

Not sure why I called it 'Fly me to the Moon' but in my (very weird) mind it works. LOL

I've wire wrapped bright red coral, beautiful black and gold handmade beads, black goldstone and jet Swarovski bicones in sections. The centre piece is a pretty vintage brass swallow, the wire is bronze but has been oxidised. The necklace has a handmade clasp and a little dangle with a vintage star charm and several wire wrapped jet black Swarovski bicones. Details below.


Here's a close-up of the vintage brass swallow. It has a lovely gingerbread patina although I lightly polished it to bring out the detail in the stamping.


Close-up of the handmade black and gold beads.


Close-up of the red coral beads.


Close-up of the black goldstone beads.


Close-up of the handmade clasp and dangle.


Here's the set complete with earrings:


The earrings have been made with the same beads as the necklace however I added smaller vintage swallow brass stampings, one flying up, one flying down.


Here's one of the teeny swallow stampings in detail:


And here's a close-up of the earrings hanging down.


The handmade beads are the ones I bought a while back from Firedance Beads. Check this post here.

Purple Starflower Lariat

I made this a little while back - simultaneously with the Dandelion Necklace, but forgot to post the pictures! Silly me!

In case you wondered, I often work simultaneously on several items at once. Often it's because it's easier - for example if I start cutting things out of sheet metal - sometimes it's because I am stuck with a design and need to do something else for the little grey men in my head to work their magic and come up with a solution to my design crisis.

After all this, here it is:

Purple Starflower Lariat

I started off with the starflowers. These were cut from brass metal sheet (0.5mm thick) and then filed, shaped, filed some more, and then sanded so all the edges are smooth. I did the leaves in the same way.


Next, I wire wrapped beautiful purple coral beads in a saucer shape together with some teeny tiny Japanese seed beads into each of the starflowers and then wire wrapped some more of the purple coral and seedbeads for buds. I put them all together with the leaves on bits of lovely vintage brass chain.

Here is an image of the pendant on a black background.


Detail shot of a flower and leaf:


A flower in detail. You can see the wonderful effect of the oxidisation - there are pinks, purples and lots of emerald green.

Since it is a lariat style necklace it doesn't have a clasp as such, but a ring for the pendant end of the necklace to slip through. Often this means that the lariat is strangling you because the pendant is heavier than the ring, however, in this case I've added my ingenious little arresting mechanism to the ring. You can just slip and slide the chaine around the little curl inside the ring and then, to permanently arrest the chain at a certain point, manipulate the curl to hold the chain in place, or if you want more flexibility, leave the curl as it is and just push the chain down.


This lariat will be available in my Etsy shop soon. If you can't wait till then, send me an e-mail. :-)

Botanical Theme and a bit of Night Sky

Despite my cold I couldn't help myself but make some jewellery although it did take a lot longer this time... Sigh!

Here's what I made over the week.

Anemone Earrings

My dainty little anemone earrings were made with little brass cups that I made using my new shaping tool and the dapping punches. I then filed them and sanded them into shape and drilled a hole into the centre. There's a little moonstone rondelle set into each cup and it hangs from brass wire that has been hammered to keep its shape. The cups have been lightly oxidised to give them a deep old gold colouring. The longest stem also holds a crackle quartz, drop shaped bead and I've used small, very dainty ear wires to hold them. The jump ring is as per usual handmade too. The earrings are fairly long, but not too long and very light. The flowers dangle beautifully when worn.


Below you can see how filigree the wire is and you can see the moonstones and quartz in more detail.


Below you can see the cups and their lovely scalloped edges close up.



Willow Earrings

These must be my favourite earrings I've made so far - although it's a close run with the anemone earrings, which are so sweet and dainty.


The earring are made from oxidised copper. I made two heavily textured willow leaves and added a lovely chartreuse green flower with a little Japanese seed bead in olive with a copper lustre. The second dangle holds a lovely large chartreuse dagger bead. The ear wires are so cute with the little spirals (also handmade) and I think they match the earrings perfectly.


Below you can see the texture on the leaf and the beads in more detail.


And even more detail. Note, these earrings are longer than I normally make them, however they are so light and lovely and sway when worn just like real willow. Anyway, long earrings are the latest trend...



Blue Ginkgo Leaf Necklace

I have a thing about ginkgo leaves, I love their symmetrical shape and the detail in each leaf. So here's another example.



The gingko leaf was cut from copper sheet, I then shaped it using my new tool and pliers and bashed it to get a lot of texture. I then shaped the edges using files and sand paper and drilled a hole. At first it was going to be another bangle like the Ivy bangle I made recently, but when I looked at the shape I thought it would work better as a pendant. I haven't quite given up on the idea of making a ginkgo leaf bangle. So watch this space.



I added the deep blue quartz faceted beads in two sizes, and the lovely pale blue chalcedony faceted bead. The chain is bought, the jumprings handmade. A lovely handmade clasp in a new design finishes it off.

In the two pictures below you can see the pendant hanging and also all the detail of the texture (almost like bark) of the copper leaf. To add more depth the leaf has been oxidised and then polished to bring back some of the original colour.




Fire Seed Necklace

This is my lovely Fire Seed Necklace.


All the little cups were shaped and cut from copper sheet and they are very dainty and took ages to file, sand and shape. They are so very small (the largest is just over 1 cm in diameter) and each one is an almost perfect sphere.


Below you can see the beads I wired into each of the little cups. There is bright red coral, deep red ruby, bright orange fire opal, and lovely muted red jade. The beads are all very small, some smooth, some faceted. The beaded cups have then been hung from fine chain and handmade jumprings and attached to a deep red frosted glass ring. The glass rings have been handmade (not by me) and I have used them throughout the necklace. They are all a little different in shape and colour; they range from deep red to rusty red to coral red. The dangle of fire seeds feeds through the large ebony ring to close the necklace allowing the length of the necklace to be adjusted at your pleasure.


I've used lots of of different types of chain, handmade large copper rings, handmade copper jumprings, the glass rings and one large ebony wooden ring for this lariat style necklace. I like the different textures and shades of copper. The little spheres have been oxidised twice until they had a lovely charcoal shade. The large jumprings are oxidised with a blow torch and are therefore different shades of deep red to very dark red. The jumprings have been oxidised and then lightly polished, the chain ranges from antiqued to bare copper, all adding texture and colour to the necklace.



Constellation Necklace

Okay, this is not quite botanical, but the pendant looks a bit like a flower... on a dark night. LOL



I started off with thick copper wire and made a spiral which I then shaped using my new shaping tool and a dapping punch and a hammer to add texture. Next, I oxidised the pendant and then added the big lava bead that fitted perfectly in the half sphere of the spiral. To add more interest I wired on the little moonstone beads in a pleasing pattern.




Antiqued copper chain, handmade jumprings and clasp finish the design. It's a simple design and wood work well every day as well as for a night out.


Here you can see the pendant hanging.


I will try my best to get all my recent designs into my Etsy shop this weekend, so if you're interested check back soon and hopefully the little Etsy shop window in the top corner will have changed to lots of new designs.

Newsflash - Etsy Mini has changed!!! :-) All the items in this entry are now available in my Etsy shop with more to come.