Panier Avec L'Oiseau - Cage with Bird

Something different for a change. Been drawing the last couple of days.

The picture was created in Corel Painter and I've used lots of different techniques/brushes to create it. Not quite sure why the title of the picture had to be French but... just needed to be.

I am thinking about putting some prints of my pictures in my Etsy shop, mainly my dresses and some lily pictures I did recently, and, of course, the picture below and any others I do in this series. The lily pictures are not quite finished yet, but I'll post them soon.

Stormy Sea

This is a lariat style necklace I made for Caroline. Check out her blog here.

It is special, for one, it's been made just for her, secondly because it's so pretty, thirdly, because I used loads of different techniques and different beads, bits of chain and things, and, lastly, because it's a swap. A little dragon made by Caroline's fair hands for my son in exchange for the lariat.

If you ever feel you'd like to swap rather than buy, make me an offer I can't refuse! It has to be handmade though, or something to make something with.... Surprise me!

Here it is in all its glory:

The whole lariat - it will fit twice around your neck or can be worn long like a flapper necklace or it can be hooked together any way you like using the links.



Here's a selection of the beads and different types of chain I've used.



A wrapped bit of smooth sea glass as one of the centre pieces:




The dangle that can be pushed through the puddle shaped wire form (see below) if the necklace is worn as a long lariat with 2 pieces of sea glass (one polished, one not polished) lots of beads, pearls, Magatama and Miyuki drops, and a vintage seahorse charm.


The free form puddle shaped other end of the lariat.


Hope you'll enjoy it Caroline.

More Wire Fantastic

More wire artisan jewellery. I've really got the bug now. Got myself three proper jeweller's hammers today, just so I can have even more fun! :-)


Writing on the Wall

The first version has been made from bronze. I bent the wires into shape, then bashed them about a bit till they were nice and flat and sturdy, then fixed them together with handmade jumprings. I added handmade clasp so the bracelet won't get lost and a little charm with a cobalt blue, faceted vintage bead. To finish it off it has been oxidised to give it a warm dark hue. The matching earrings are shown underneath.


Bracelet




Earrings

Here's the Sterling silver version of the bracelet. The wire was much finer so the links are smaller too. I left it 'au naturel' because I liked it's shiny silverness. :-)



Violet Hoops

I adore these Violet hoops. I've made them myself from scratch with thicker, square Sterling wire for the hoops, and thinner Sterling wire for the ear wires. after bashing it about a bit, I added the beautiful, intensely violet chalcedony beads with yet more Sterling silver wire.



Wavy Sugar Drops

Earrings made with some leftover links from another project. The beads are quite large with a Givre coating. They look fantastic together. The ear wires and wavy links are made with brass wire that has been oxidised to make it less shiny and brassy.



Sleeping Dragon Pendant

Another lost pendant that hasn't found its chain YET. It reminded me of a sleeping dragon I painted a while back. See it here. I've made the pendant starting with a simple Sterling wire spiral. I hammered it flat and sturdy, added texture with the other side of the hammer and some netted wire, then I used much thinner wire to wrap around and to add the head and tail and the spikes. The head and tail are made of marquise cut labradorite and the spikes are labradorite heishi beads.




Skyline Bangle: Kiss

This is a completely new design. Sterling wire bent into the shape of something resembling the Manhattan skyline, the adorned and prettified with gorgeous sky blue millefiori beads with little red flowers and crayon red seed beads. This is quite delicate but comfortable to wear and absolutely stunning!