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Treat yourself or someone you love. :-)

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Why not treat yourself or someone you love to something special and a little different:

Especially as there is free shipping all week. Click on this link to get free shipping worldwide until November 17, 2013 at Midnight Pacific Time. 

*Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

One for you and one for me

 

© Sybille Sterk
Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

One for you and one for me. I knitted the fingerless gloves from a pattern I found on Craftsy for a friend for Christmas. The dragon was a present for me from a friend. :-) Little wave to uniqart.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope all your wishes come true.

Like, like, LIKE - Jewellery on Etsy

Here are some things I found on Etsy and I like, like, LIKE them. LOL

 Feel free to copy the little banner and add a collection of your favourite handmade items to your blog. Send me a link if you do. We have to support each other! :-)

This shop is called Baronyka and it has some fabulous, interesting and imaginative jewellery...

Some of my favourites:

I love the geometric designs and fabulous texture of the items in this fab shop: StudioMETHODE

 You can't beat simplicity, hearts or cherryblossoms, perfect for Valentine's Day: HapaGirls

 I'll try and do one of these posts once a month. :-)

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. :-)

It's the Season....

... to be busy.

Here are just some of the Christmas presents I made this year. I was so busy, I didn't manage to take pictures of all of them...

Emerald Green Butterfly Necklace:

Cobalt Blue Butterfly Necklace:

Feather Black and White Necklace:

Ivy Leather Cuff Bracelet:

Purple Leather Cuff Bracelet:

Safari Flower Brooch:

This, strictly speaking, wasn't a Christmas but a birthday present for a special friend. :-)

 

I also made three hats, a scarf, some arm warmers... and painted a sunflower on canvas for Steve. I'll be showing some pictures of that soon... once I catch a sunny day, rather than this dreary winter rain. Hopefully my second excursion into the world of painting on canvas will be done by then too, so I can show you both.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and got nice presents, I did. :-)

Present - Rainbow Shawl

Finally finished - not that it took me very long at all really as I only started it a week ago.

Rainbow Shawl

... with dark clouds around it - how else could you see the rainbow?


This shawl is a present for my marathon running friend Caroline. She hasn't seen it yet, so shhhh!

It's a really versatile shawl that can be worn different ways. The pattern is from a knitting/crochet techniques book and is called 'Flickering Flames'. The border and design is my own idea and the rainbow yarn is from one of my favourite shops on Etsy: Tulle And Dye. It's a re-dyed Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. The grey yarn is rough silk and has almost a lavender tint to it.

Here is the yarn in more detail.

It was fun and interesting to make - not too taxing but not boring either. I love the contrast of the two yarns and it drapes really nicely.

Fingers crossed she'll like it. :-)

Back to my boho-Chanel top. :-)

Daffodil Wisp Shawl

Here's the wonderful Wisp shawl (pattern here) I made for my sister in (as yet unreleased) Rowan Kidsilk in daffodil.

I love the colour and the drape of the shawl. A row of buttons and button holes along all four sides makes the shawl very versatile as it can be worn in hundreds of different ways.



I've used yellow sweetie heart buttons and an orange flower button as an accent.

Here you can see the pattern in detail:

The pattern I used is the same as Caroline used on here colourful scarf. Don't they look so different?

Can't wait to show my sister her shawl this afternoon. Not long now.... :-)

Movie Magic

I've been busy with presents and a commission.

I was asked to make a pair of earrings like the ones the lamia witch wears in Stardust. There are some pictures of the whole costume here. I love the film, it's one of my favourites, so I agreed and here's my take on them:


It was quite difficult to find all the different materials for them as everything was slightly unusual and certainly not 'off the peg'.

I ended up with a lot of improvising and I think - although the feel of the earrings is similar - they look lovely and different in their own right. I hope to get some images of the finished costume as the earrings are to go with a whole outfit for a big party.

Alongside this commission I've also finished the purple polka dot wrist warmers and the silk flower (see previous post) and I've been working on a silk scarf with an intricate leaf lace pattern. However, this scarf keeps being put aside as other projects come up.

Currently I am working on a special secret project for my baby sister. She's going to come next week and stay with us for Easter. I CAN'T wait. It'll be lovely to have her here.

Crimbo Presents

Caroline reminded me that I'd promised to show all the Christmas presents I made this year, so here we go:

Wrist Warmers

Two of my friends really liked the wrist warmers I'd made for myself, so they asked me to make some for them:



After making these two I was pretty tired of making wrist warmers, but my sister who I'd made a fantastic scarf for decided she wanted some wrist warmers too... so I ended up making another pair. However, this time I changed the pattern quite considerably. I call the set 'Barbie goes Elisabethan', you'll see why!


Barbie goes Elisabethan Set

Here's the wonderful ruffle scarf. Not a design I'd make (or wear) every day, but it looks brilliant when worn. I've used 100% wool, 100% merino, Louisa Harding Kimono Ribbon and Rowan Kidsilk Night for this.

And here are the cute matching wrist warmers with picot edging on the front of the wrist warmers and plain edging on the back.

Funky Punk Wrist Warmers

I ended up making another pair for my friend's daughter. The pattern is based on my Gothic Wrist Warmers but I've added stripes to the mix in a multi colour yarn from Adriafil.


Hats

For the men in the family it was hats this year. They were all based on the brown beanie hat I made a while back. The first one I made was a sort of steel blue:


The other one is in a charcoal grey. It's identical to this one apart from the colour.


Flowers and more Flowers

By this point I needed to make something else... like my Secret Santa present for the Greeting Cards UK mailing list... Each flower in this hair barrette has been needle felted separately. The flowers have been embroidered with raspberry lustre seed beads and sit on a needle felted branch in dark brown and black. The felt is all made from 100% merino wool.


Little Treasure Bag

This one's for a little girl. A little bag knitted in moss stich with a button fastening, more buttons and a sakura blossom for decoration. I've added two sakura blossom hair clips and a little memory wire bangle as a suprise inside the bag.



Deep Red Felted Rose

Needle felted from 2 different reds and black and embroidered with glass seed beads.



Purple Silk Rose

For this one I got my silk rods out and painstakingly separated the layers, sewed them into shape, embellished the centre of the rose with gorgeous Swarovski bicone beads and black matte Magatama beads. The leaves were needle felted from black and purple merino wool and embellished down the centre with tiny purple Miyuki cubes and black glossy seedbeads.



Sterling Heart Earrings

Finally, the last present. The Sterling silver hearts were cut out of silver sheet, filed and sanded, punched with a hole and a pattern, hung from Sterling silver wire and a little round Sterling spacer bead and then oxidised, polished and burnished.
And here they are in their tiny little box looking like they've been laid out on snow...



I am currently working on a scarf that I didn't manage to get ready for Christmas, with a totally new, very practical design. I also still have two more projects and several commissions to make. However, when I was needle felting the leaves for the Purple Silk Rose I managed to make myself some little hair clips too.

Poppy Hair Clips


A lot of the items shown here will be available for custom order in my Etsy shop soon....