A Little Heart of Two Hearts - Commission

Here's a heart necklace I made as a commission for a dear friend.

I made her heart earrings for Christmas and this is the matching necklace ordered by her husband and sons for Mother's Day.

The heart was cut from sterling silver, filed, shaped, a hole punched into it so I could attach it to a chain. I also bashed the living daylights out of it to give it a textured look and stamped two tiny hearts into it.


I included 2 prehnite faceted beads into the design:


Below you can see the tiny little hearts stamped into the big heart.


Here are the matching earrings:

I just had a text from her and she loves it. :-)

Dandelion Necklace

Finally managed to finish this. I started it the weekend before last but never had the time to work on it, because I was so busy with the illustrations.

Unfortunately it was a bit dark by the time it came out of it's bath in Liver of Sulphur so the pictures aren't as good as I'd hoped.

Dandelion Necklace

It so so pretty in real life and the pictures don't do it justice. :-( I've started with a wire shape that I pierced, filed, sanded, brushed, and polished.

I then added all the tiny beads on their stalks: Japanese seed beads in a lovely olive green with coppery mottling, teeny Japanese seed bead in a sunny yellow, moonstone and sapphire rondelles - the sapphires are not blue but a very pale lime and olive colour - using two different gauges of brass wire. There is no solder to attach them, the design holds them in place.



The pendant was so pretty and delicate that I decided a shop bought chain just wouldn't do it justice, so I made my own.


Here is the chain made from tiny little links with three of the green mottled seed beads each, a handmade clasp and a dangle with a lovely lemony-lime prehnite at the end.




The final step was a long soak in Liver of Sulphur which turned the brass from a brassy gold into a deep green with hints of other colours - there are bits of red and purple. The necklace looks so organic it has the feel of something made with vines and berries.

In the very close close-up you can see the mottling on the green beads and the moonstone and sapphires.


Although I really love this necklace, it will be available to buy in my Etsy shop VERY soon, unless you snap it up before I list it. :-)

I am thinking of making some matching earrings, a bracelet and a ring for it. However, not today. Today I am going to play with my new wool - silk covered steel... :-)

Ivy Mania

I know, lots of gardeners hate ivy as it strangles other plants, but I love the shape of the leaves, they are just so pretty and decorative, and I am always surprised by their symmetry.

Here's the Ivy Bangle, one of the commissions I made this week - see the Commissions June 2008 post. This one is for Caroline's sister and she'll get it at the end of next month for her birthday, so keep quiet about it until then. ;-)

This bangle - like the one I made for myself - has been made using a real ivy leaf from my garden as a template for the design cut from copper sheet. The leaf then has been filed and filed some more, sanded, brushed, polished, two holes were drilled in it and filed and sanded for the thick wire to be fed through, which then in turn has been shaped and hammered for texture and finally the whole thing has been oxidised and polished.



And here's a little ivy ring I made for Caroline so she wouldn't be sad when she had to hand over the ivy bangle to her sister. It's been made in the same way as the bangle but with a much, much smaller leaf and thinner wire.



Since I was busy making ivy leaves, I decided to make myself some earrings to match my ivy bangle. They are so comfortable to wear and very stylish and unusual, even if I say so myself. :-)

Here you can see them hanging from a little tealight jar in my garden.



Lastly, I made this necklace - in the same way as the earrings, ring, and bangle but with a larger ivy leaf and some gorgeous prehnite triangle beads, my favourite cut for beads. They look like little flower cups and the ghostly lime green works particularly well with the oxidised copper. The clasp is a new design.



All these designs will be available as a custom order in my Etsy shop soon. :-) I will add other leaf shapes and metals as well.

Treasure File

I went to a bead fair in Newmarket last weekend and got lots of gorgeous treasures. It was a good day out as we went to a carboot sale in Newmarket afterwards. The next one is in November and well worth going. For a list of bead fairs around the country click here.

My first stop and absolutely irresistible was Lush Lampwork Beads. I could have bought at least half the stall but restrained myself and only bought this:

These lentil beads somehow remind me of Japanese cherry blossoms. They have all sorts of colour flecks in them and are gorgeous and unusual.




I love the simplicity of the black and white swirly theme going on here.




And here are some orphan beads I picked up and just had to have!!! I should only be allowed to go to bead fairs with my hands tied behind my back! LOL



All from Lush Lampwork Beads.


I love unusual semi precious beads. And they don't come much more unusual than these lava cubes. They're a bit rough, which will be fine for earrings, however I may try and tumble some of them with pebbles. I'll let you know how it goes...


Labradorite beads - this string came with graduating sizes, which is unusual because normally such strings are roughly of beads almost the same size. I like the fire within labradorite - without the flashes of colour (blue or coppery gold usually) it would be a fairly unassuming gem.


The green apatite below was irresistible. One of those must-haves. It's a pale green with flashes of gold and copper and deep brown. It's not a perfect or flawless by any means but that makes it dearer to me because it is so much more interesting.

Prehnite is one of my favourite gems. I love it's ghostly lime green glow. It looks totally magical to me.


Cherry red jade, such a lush deep red, it looks good enough to eat!!!


All from Buffys Beads.

Right at the beginning of the fair was the Designer Cabochons stall. I am not that interested in cabochons as you have to make bezels etc for them, something which I haven't tried yet enough to make something worthy of a cabochon of their calibre. However, the beads below caught my eye.

Aren't these two pendants utterly fun? I love the robot and the zombie. They were far too expensive, but again 'must-haves'.


The swirly heart below is so pretty, like the red jade it looks almost edible with the glossy glaze over the top. It reminds me of a jam tart!



Last but by no means least a celadon green Day of The Dead pendant. I love the delicate colour with the flowers and then the contrasting skull. Works for me. Think this might be one I can't bear to part with.

All from Designer Cabochons. Note, these beads are not yet on their website as they are a new line, however if you want anything similar, just contact them.

Below is a selection of the trade beads I picked up. They are so light. The lady at the stall told me that they are made by women in Uganda displaced from their homes by draught and war. The beads are made by rolling paper strips cut from magazines and then coated with resin. It allows the women to send their children to school and feed them. I also got the lovely sterling silver calla lily beads.

From Spoilt Rotten Beads.

There was one more stand at the bead fair which stood out to me because of the quality of the beads and findings: Itchydo. I really liked the unusual beads and the great quality, alas, I'd run out of cash by then....