Presents

Alison (check out her cute Platypus and her cool photos!) and her kids are always on the lookout for sea glass for me, so I thought they all deserved a special treat.

Green Man Necklace

Alison (if I remember rightly) really likes the Green Man and I found a lovely vintage brass stamping of him which I decided to use in a special necklace for her.



I've also added a nugget of deep green sea glass that, although it has been through my pebble polisher, still has some texture and wrapped it in some brass filigree. The green man stamping didn't have any loops so I created two by bending the sides of his beard backwards and by soldering a jump ring to the bottom of his beard. (That took me longer than making the whole necklace!)



The chain, bead caps, clasp and the little leaf charm are all vintage. I used two different types of chain, one has almost rectangular links, the other has figure of eight links; both are brass.

The beads are all new from the dark green round beads encased by teeny flower petal bead caps to the peridot green flower beads and the Japanese seed beads which are a wonderful dark, matte green.

The final touch was a little dangle made with an eye pin, the aforementioned green seedbeads and leaf charm:

And here's the whole necklace:



Feather Key Ring

Alison's son been busily helping collecting glass, so here's his treat, a key ring made with lovely wooden beads in different shapes, sizes, in varying shades of blue and cream, a lovely ceramic bead with a simple bird drawing engraved in it and a gorgeous feather charm. The beads are all strung on silky rat tail in two different shades of blue.




And here's the third present for Alison's daughter.


Tattoo V2 Necklace

Like the first Tattoo necklace, this was made with spirals that have been hammered flat and then strung together with much thinner wire. However, this time the whole design is slightly smaller and made from copper and bronze wire. I like the two-tone effect after the oxidisation process. I think it really works to make it into something special.

Wire Fever Still Raging...

Well, I've been busy... as per usual. I just can't get enough of the wire! It's addictive. You may also notice that my jewellery is becoming more sculptural. I just love the way you can bend and hammer the wire into almost any shape.

Here are my latest creations.

Keishi Petal Necklace

This is a necklace made with handsawn and brushed silver tubes, keishi petal pearls in silver grey, a single white new jade bead and lots of sterling silver wire. The pendant is a flower made with keishi petal pearls and the new jade round bead. The clasp is handmade too. At the bottom is a picture with a penny so you can appreciate how delicate the necklace really is.






Cranberry Sweetie Necklace

This is a necklace I made for myself to go with all my silver bangles. I wanted something to go with everything and this fit the bill perfectly. It's been made with handsawn and brushed square silver tubes, tiny garnet rectangles and lots of silver wire. The clasp is also sterling silver wire but bought. Again, at the bottom is a picture with a penny to show the size of the necklace parts.







Cloudberry Bracelet

Little hammered, flattened, shaped and partially brushed clouds made with fine sterling silver, filled with a variety of beads: pale blue and powder blue facetted chalcedony, white jade, crackled rock quartz cubes and frosted rock quartz rounds, lace agate in cube and chip form. A lovely opalite drop near the handmade clasp together with a handmade sterling silver heart and another frosted rock quartz round bead.








Cherry Blossom Earrings

The cherry trees are in bloom all around which inspired me to make these earrings. I've made oxidised sterling silver wire swirls, hammered and bashed them into shape, added some pale pink chalcedony, bright pink candy jade, and some lovely hot pink fossil beads to make it all work. The earwires and jumprings are also sterling silver wire and made by my own - not so fair - hands (the wire works is taking its toll).



Black Sun Necklace

This was inspired by the big black chalcedony I used as a pendant. I added lots of different beads to bring it all together, there are coral sticks, carnelian (chips and beads in dark red and orange), golden amber chips, and orange and sunny chalcedony. There are three lovely handmade bronze connectors and the findings (chain, jumprings) are a mix of copper and bronze which I oxidised.








Dragon's Tale Necklace and Bracelet

This one's ALL MINE. :-)

I bought these absolutely stunning, gorgeous handmade beads that looked to me like dragon's scales. I just couldn't resist making something with them almost the minute they arrived.

The necklace is shaped like a dragon with a bronze wire flame shape at one end and the beads getting smaller and smaller towards the end of the dragon's tail. I've used a variety of beads, from the beautiful handmade beads to lava beads, citrine, a plethora of glass beads, green coloured two-tone crystal, jade cubes and Miyuki cubes and Kyanite and black chalcedony rondelles. Mixed in with this are my handmade swirly connectors and there's a litte wire heart at the end of the dragon's tail. The dragon's tail fits through the flames at the beginning. Very mystical, I know. ;-) The bracelet is made with mostly the same beads but the tail doubles back on itself.

It took forever and a day to make all the links and string the beads, so it's a tale and a half, but well worth the effort.












Tattoo Necklace

Sorry guys, this one is ALL MINE too! I love making swirls and this one turned out looking like a tattoo, even more so when worn. It's made with two thicknesses of fine silver wire, the swirls made, then hammered flat, and lastly tied together - imagine puzzle shapes - with much thinner wire. A last tender bashing of the thinner wire to make it all stay in place. Least but not last, I've attached very thin sterling silver chain and a bought clasp and oxidised the lot. Voila!






Klimtesque Vine Necklace

Can you tell yet that I do like swirls? This one is made in the same way as the tattoo necklace but this time with copper wire and chain. I've made a clasp for it and added a lovely little dangle with a beautiful teal copper framed beads.







Ginkgo Necklace and Earrings

This set must be one of my all time favourites. It's absolutely stunning in real life (rather than on a picture on a computer... sniff).

I've shaped a Ginkgo leaf from thick copper wire, then added the veins with much thinner copper wire giving the leaves a look of skeleton leaves. Lovely golden yellow chalcedony beads dangle like little flowers in the centre of each leaf. A little dip to oxidise them, then I added the gunmetal chain and put the earrings together - the earwires and jumprings are handmade too, apart from the ones attaching the pendant to the chain, the handmade ones were too thick to get through the links of the chain.







Cityscape Bangle

This is a freeform double cuff bangle. It was quite difficult to do as I had to hammer the bronze wire between the be to ensure that it would be firm enough to put on and take off. The beads look like little sweeties - white with green and blue stripes respectively - and the pretty little opalite cubes add interest. More texture is added with the little spiral connectors above the candy (furnace) beads. Finally, I added a spray of Miyuki drops to one side.







SOLD - to Penny. :-)


Jewellery Display

There's no space in the house left to hang my jewellery so I had to get creative with some more wire.

I made the frame from silver plated copper wire, the used two thicknesses of black iron wire to create the 'web'. Took half a day to make. Oh well, only another 11 more to go....

Finished Tattoos

The tattoo on the hand came out quite well, but Ben smeared the dot in the dark area of the Yin and Yang centre so it's not quite as perfect as I'd hoped for.

This one came out brilliantly. Unfortunately, the camera decided that a flash was needed so the colour is not quite as intense as it is in real life.

Ben is really pleased with his tattoos although I wonder about his next choice, it would take me much longer, but he really wants a dragon......

Tattoo Madness

When I went to London with Ben to meet Toby and Penny, Ben and I went to Covent Garden first and Ben had a temporary henna tattoo done. He loved it so much that he wanted another, so I bought some henna on eBay. Here are my first two attempts with the original design underneath each tattoo.


This one is on his right hand.This one is on his left arm.

The biggest problem was to make Ben stay still. He didn't like that bit. I used free designs I found on the net and drew them freehand. Fingers crossed they'll come out okay. Now I just have to keep Ben from smearing the henna all over the sofa and not rubbing it off before time.