Purple Peacock

This I made this afternoon. I had the beads and findings all read but hadn't had time to put it all together. I've used deep purple freshwater pears, candy jade in different sizes and shades (from lavender, to purple, to plum), plum opal glass chips, Amethyst nuggets and chips and deep plum coloured, silver lined seed beads. The beautiful connectors have a purple stone (not sure what it is) set in the middle and lovely engravings. I've also used little stick and 1-3 connectors and silverplated chain.

The glass chips have an opal effect so seem much more red in the photo than in real life. When the necklace was finished it reminded me of the way a purples tail unfolds with the beautiful purple connectors making the "eyes" of the tail.

Here's a close-up:

Heroine - Cleopatra

I recently went to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and looked (of course) at the jewellery in their Roman/Greek/Egyptian sections. I was surprised how little jewellery has changed since people started wearing it. One thing I really liked was the colours in the Egyptian jewellery. There were lovely deep teal blues (often Lapislazuli or - I believe - Turquoise). The old Egyptians also had a thing about deep, dark reds (I believe Carnelian) and bone/stone colours, all mixed up. I decided to make a necklace that has a similar feel but is more modern. Below is my Cleopatra necklace.

I have used lots of beads including the lovely Chinese Teal beads I've used in one of the Flapper necklaces, deep dark red (much darker than on the picture) glass beads (plain round, faceted, daggers, coin, large and small), topaz golden beads, glass chips, Turquoise, Myuki cubes, Swarovski beads and Magatama drops, all strung on silver plated findings and a memory wire that (compared to deep colours of the beads) is almost invisible. I've gone for the memory wire because I wanted the beads to lie flat.

And here are the matching earrings:

Rings within Rings

This is one I made for myself. I bought a broken vintage necklace (the flat rings) and wanted to give it a new lease of life:

The necklace looks stunning when worn, a shimmery, shiny, silver waterfall cascading down the neckline. I love the simplicity of it with the different sized and textured rings and the little silver discs. Works for me.

Here's the matching bracelet:



And the matching earrings: