Some I made earlier...

 

Wild Thing. Commission. 

Medieval Girdle to be used as a prop for photographs. Commission. 1.43m long

 Bracelets, Presents.

Mobile, driftwood, wood, glass, vintage and new, and seed beads. Present.

Check out my Etsy shop, or request a commission. I am always happy to experiment and make new things. :D

Typewriter Key Bracelets

 Commission for my friend Caroline over on Uniqart.

 Birthday present for a friend.

My own - first one and prototype.

Each bracelet is unique with a mix of semi-precious beads (above, from top to bottom: turquoise, rose quartz and opal), vintage and modern beads, charms, and chain and of course a single vintage typewriter key. The typewriter key is chosen at random unless specified otherwise.

You can order your own bracelet - you just need to let me know the size and what colours (or semi-precious beads) you'd prefer. I will either select a random key from my stash or if you are after a particular letter, I will try and order it for you (unless it's in my stash already); however if I have to order it, it will add two weeks to the commission as I have to order it in from the US, so keep that in mind if it's for a present and ensure enough lead time.

Each bracelet is £25 plus P+P (depending on where you are in the world) and will come gift wrapped, ready to give to someone special or just a pretty way to keep it safe from tangling up with other items in your jewellery box.

Watch out for the new Rockabilly jewellery coming soon....

Secret Heart II and more jewellery

I thought it was time to show off some jewellery again. This is 

 Secret Heart II

A commission that made its way across the pond yesterday. It's always been one of my favourite designs. I love the barbed wire chain and the caged heart. Sad, I know.

Here it is once before the oxidisation process, just the bare bronze and then again, oxidised and packed, ready to go. This design takes forever and caused me some very sore fingers. Each part on it, except for the wire (different gauges) and the bead, is made by me. Each barbed wire link takes about 10 minutes to make. The wire heart took me most of an afternoon. Even the jumprings are handmade.

 Dragonfly Necklace

This was a present for my friend Helen back in October. I am so pleased with how this turned out. Different chains, different mostly semi precious beads and vintage chains and charms (apart from the swallow at the bottom. Click on it to see a larger version.

A Walk in the Woods

Christmas present for my friend Caroline over on Uniqart. I love wooden beads and seedpod beads and have accumulated quite a few of them (as you can see). I've used every singel one of them plus everyhting else that fitted with the theme including paper beads, fabric beads, Kashmiri beads, a little vintage bear bead, a glass heart, semi precious beads, mother of pearl, horn....

Viking Ships

Christmas present for my friend Helen... She loves blues and purples. The colours reminded me of the sea and the ships on it, hence Viking Ships. Wooden and glass beads, vintage and new, lava and kimono fabric beads, resin and semi precious, even a sead pod or two.

Pomegranate

Pinks and greens and reds... another Christmas present for my friend Liz. :-) Her favourite colours and all the beads I had in those exactl colours. LOL

Pink Eruption

Final jewellery Christmas present for another Caroline. :-) This was one of my silver art clay experiments I liked. I loved the heavy texture on it and thought it worked really well with the pink Calcedony.

That's it (for now anyway). I am always open for commissions, even with older pieces. Just send me an e-mail and ask, if there's something you fell in love with and just have to have. :-)

Jewellery Party - Final Post

The jewellery party went really well and lots of items went to new good homes....

...I've just finished the modifications for some of them and one commission.

Items no longer available are:

The wonderful Klimtesque necklace

I have just shortened it and added a different dangle so it will go with some other jewellery sold to the same lovely customer a while back:

And here's a detail of the intricate wire work:

 

The Constellation necklace is gone too....

and here are some matching Starlight earrings I just finished:

... here's a detail shot of the earrings - I've used a handmade soldered rose copper hammered ring and attached some teeny labradorite rondelle beads to it with antiqued copper wire. The earrings are really small and perfect for a little everyday glam with the gorgeous blue fire in the labradorite rondelles.

I've also modified my Willow Mk2 earrings to make them a teeny bit shorter:

I sold the lovely copper Leafy Blue bangle...

Both of the Dragon's Heart necklaces - the short one and the long one:

Crochet Wire Squares set:

I sold loads more, including the lovely red hat.

A big thank you to all my lovely customers and friends who came to the party and bought presents and treats for themselves and the biggest thank you to Caroline who helped me out with lighting and lots of support in every way.

There is still time to order your Christmas presents... or a treat for yourself if you've already done your Christmas shopping.

New Toys!!!

Sorry, just had to show off, I am so pleased with my new toys. :-)

I got a set of dapping punches, a dapping/forming block and some lovely, teeny letter punches.


Here are my dapping punches, complete with a little wooden block for them to live in. :-) Lots of different sizes.


View from the side:


Here's my dapping/forming block.

View 1:



View 2:


View 3:


There is a view 4, but I accidently took two pictures of view 3. Never mind. You get the idea....

Here's what you do with the dapping punches and the dapping block:

A little dome shape, just perfect for little flowers and cup shapes.


Here is the little dome shape from the side.


There are lots of other shapes as you can see, and it will come in handy whilst I am exploring all the things you can do with metal.... :-D


These are the little letter punches. Each letter is only about 2.5 - 3mm, so quite teeny, but the work perfectly.

All you need is one of those, and a hammer...



To make one of those:

Had to try everything out of course! :-)

Great fun.

Names and thoughts

What's in a name? How do you decide on a name for your creations?

I bet, you're going through the same thought processes as me:

• There's, of course, the obvious one - it looks like this, therefore it should be called that, e.g. the leafy blue earrings from one of the previous posts.
  
  
• Then, there are those instances where something just turns out to be something, which usually happens when I experiment with shapes - like the Moonflower from the previous post.
  
  
• There are also those pictures or jewellery designs that start off with a name (and the internal visualisation to go with it). This worked for me with the Roman and Wave Bangles and the Stargazer Lily Earrings and Necklace.
  
  
• And then there are the ones that don't look like a 'thing' but are a concept or an idea, like True Love. That one I made and when it was finished that was what it 'felt' like. When I made True Love Too, I'd started with the idea of making something similar because the heart necklaces are popular, however, I didn't want to call it True Love Two, as it didn't 'feel' like my true love but it felt like it might be someone else's.

Confused yet? Try and explain how you come up with your names then!

Nature Theme - Moon Flower, More Leafy Blue and Stargazer Lily Necklace

Busy weekend, but I managed a few new creations. Just can't keep my fingers still!


Moon Flower Necklace

This happened by accident. I'd made the centre piece to go with the Stargazer Lily necklace (at the bottom of this entry) but when I attached it I didn't like it. It was just too much, so I decided to make it into a pendant.



I've used a lovely vintage opaline bead in the centre which reminded me of the moon, so I cut out a crescent shape from copper sheet, shaped it, filed it, sanded it and then played with the pencil torch until I had a lovely deep red colour with lots of texture and a few highlights.


Below you can see the wonderful fire of the vintage opaline bead.


Here's a the crescent in detail.

Another close up of the opaline bead. I love the way it reflects the light and reflects it back onto the copper.

A simple chain and a handmade clasp finished the design.



Leafy Blue Bangle

Another labour of love. This bangle took me two days off and on. It's to go with the leafy blue earrings, but all three items (earrings, necklace and bangle) will be sold separately in my Etsy shop.



I started off with drawing the shape on copper sheet, then cutting it out as well as I cut with my tin snips. After a LOT of filing and sanding I finally had the shape I was after. I sanded the surface on both sides, then brushed it to give it a soft texture.


To make the bracelet (which at this point was quite delicate) easier to put on and take off, I decided to change the design from the wave bangles to a cuff bangle by adding a thick gauge copper wire frame to the inside, which I attached to the leaf design with wire, adding little blue topaz beads as I went along.



The final touch were the five aquamarine briolettes I added to the front of the bangle.

The bangle now slips easily on and off and due to the design it can also be worn at the top of the arm (if you happen to have a slim arm).




Leafy Blue Necklace

Here is the matching necklace. It was cut from copper sheet, then adorned with blue topaz and aquamarine beads.

A simple chain and a lovely handmade clasp finish it off. The necklace is quite short so it sits flat and looks beautiful with a higher neckline as well as a low neckline.


Here's a closeup of the centre of the necklace with the three aquamarine beads and a cluster of blue topaz beads.


Here is a closeup of the side wher the copper leaf design is attached to the chain.

Here are the links that Alison posted in the comments section. She's right they do look like something much, much older:

Head dress 1
Head dress 2
Head dress 3
Head dress 4


Stargazer Lily Necklace

Finally, here's the necklace that matches the earrings I made a while back.

I made three little flowers cut from copper sheet, filed, sanded and then torched. This time I was a bit more experimental and achieved a beautiful raspberry red colour plus some apricot highlights. I was very pleased with that. :-) I added two different sizes of vintage opaline beads to the flowers to complete them.

Thick copper wire was turned into a 'stick' to attach the flowers to. This was also shaped, filed, sanded and then torched to the same deep raspberry colour.


I used the most gorgeous copper vintage chain to attach the pendant to.


Finally, I made a clasp and a little dangle (a copper leaf with a centre line cut out, a dangle made with a wire wrapped opaline bead and a couple of Miyuki drop beads) to finish off the design. I like the organic feel of the design.

Below you can see the detail of the patina on the copper leaf.