Not quite busy enough for my liking....

....but I do try and make the most of my weekends when the children are at their dads.  So.  With two Christmas fairs to attend over the next couple of weeks I figured I ought to actually make some Christmassy items, and then the rest of the stall will be what's left of my stocking-filler priced jewellery and gift items.  I feel a bit out of my depth with Christmas items as I'm....well, I'm just me.....I make things that are somewhat left of centre.  In fact one of the fairs I'm only going to because I was asked to go out and belly dance there as part of the entertainment for the day.  I figured if I was going I might as well go and have a stall.  The second event is one that is connected to my daughter's school so for both events I shall take along my Christmas goodies, all of my more commercial makes and one or two statement pieces just to see what reaction they get from the general UK public.

Anyhow, here's what I came up with and so far I haven't had to buy anything to get any of this made but I am going to have to get some ribbon and I might add some little silver bells....

Domino and chandelier bead Christmas tree decorations, coated in sparkly sealant.  I need to add some ribbon loops to these babies and then think of a way to package them.  The vintage images are ones I found a little while ago and you may see some of the images repeated through my small range.  I've got about 15 of these altogether (all of the pictures are different) and may sell them in sets of 5, or decide on a per piece price and let folk choose the ones they want.

Next up these microscope slide tree decorations.  There are ten of them in all (again all different) and on the back of each I've place a sheet of vellum printed with Silent Night sheet music. Ribbons are required here too and I might add a little bell or two to each of these as well.

Vintage images cut out as tags.  Again, need some ribbon or string to finish these off.

The good thing about all of these things is that if no-one likes 'em I shall use them on my own tree this year.

I've got some decorations made from just chandelier beads and a loop but I forgot I'd made them as I did them a while ago and didn't take a picture.  Silly me...

Twelve Days of Christmas - decorated tags on a canvas box board.  There are three gifts on here - a keyring, a pendant and a vintage brooch.  All of the other items are purely decorative.  I've got another two of these to make - I would have made them yesterday as I got the tags all ready but when I unwrapped the canvases I noticed small marks and flaws in the canvas surface so I'll keep those for painting on and get two new ones and get them made up this week.

The cinnamon sticks make them smell nice and Christmassy.

So, feeling like a happy bunny that I had achieved quite a lot yesterday (as well as popping out to send a card to my parents for their 45th wedding anniversary) I sat down and made three necklaces.  They took longer than I would have liked but I'm happy with them all - although I only manged to get good shots of two of them. I really need to get myself some day-light lamps.  Anyway, here's the necklaces:

 I am loving playing around with things, taking bits off and adding things on and generally just playing.  This is a Turkoman pendant.  The red stone in the centre called out to the huge briolette that I've for aaages and didn't know what to do with.  I seem to have a massive amount of antique keys at the moment so that was a no brainer; the long dangles were on the piece anyway (and the ones I've taken off will be used elsewhere); then I added beads and bits and some Tibetan pendants on the outer edges.  It sits just on the collarbone with a double chain.  I can't decide whether to darken the metals or not.....

This next one, that I've called Dark Night, is a vintage brooch at the top (you can see it better in the next picture) and because the pin was broken it needed to become a necklace.  There were some stones missing so I replaced them and then added some dangles (aha, see one of those Turkoman dangles?) and a set of rosary beads with a clasp so that it sits on the collar-bone.  And then I dunked it all in patina fluid.  I love patina fluid, especially when it works immediately like it did on this piece.  Everything has been treated with paste wax to stabilize the patina and imparts a wonderful scent.

The brooch was so sparkly my camera couldn't handle it, it was like it was blinking, so when I do some proper shots I shall have to set up a background that is not so white.

And that's me done, til tomorrow at least.

On a Happier Note...

I love PicMonkey - it's helped me warm up my recent shots a treat:

Name Change

Wow.  I think I need to change my name from Blackwillow Boho to something else.  This is not just a rebranding whim - I've suddenly realised that I've done something very inappropriate....

To explain a little; Blackwillow is a name I took on when some seven or so years ago I started making costume items for the tribal belly dance community, headdresses and belts and decorated bras and the like.  I'll tell the full story one day but for the moment all you need to know is that it came from events at the time plus a little nod to my gothic image loving past.  I became, for the purposes of my website and business cards, Blackwillow Tribal because I was aiming my wares at the tribal belly dance market.

In the last couple of years that side of things has dropped off - I've sold hundreds of headdresses and a few decorated bras and belts in my time but after my son was born the recession took hold and I discovered that fewer and fewer people were buying, more and more were making their own.  So I decided to close down my (at the time) expensive website and open up an Etsy shop were I could be a little more eclectic - still some headdress, feathery things and such but more jewellery, embroidered cuffs and the like.

I decided to retain the Blackwillow bit and then add a new descriptor to the end, something that would help sum up what prospective buyers might find in my shop...so I settled on Boho (as in Bohemian).

Here's where I begin to find myself feeling really stupid.  As a belly dancer I would never presume to call anything I've done, dance or costume wise, by the word gypsy.  Why?  Because it's an inappropriate racist slur of a word.  This blogger says it so much more clearly than I could. As a belly dancer I know this, have had discussions about and have read many a forum post about this word and how it is used and I understand I should not use it.  So I don't and I totally respect why it should not be misappropriated.

But, when you look up the definition of Bohemian, what do you find?
1. A native or inhabitant of Bohemia.
2. The Czech dialects of Bohemia.
3.a. A Gypsy.
b. An itinerant person; a vagabond.

I'm such a fool....

Expect a rebrand (or at least a name change) very soon....

Sneak Peek

So it's night time and the lights are on and the kids are in bed but moaning about wanting to stay up and so I'm taking (bad) photos....

Take a look if you will......none of it is pretty - it's all for the adventurous soul.......

Afganistan stampings, eletra (bug wings) and tribal fringe bits on Noibium ear-wires (I LOVE Noibium ear-wires - after my second child was born I couldn't wear any of my earrings but Noibium has changed all of that) - and I'll warn you now, I shall be using  lot of my tribal belly dance bits and bobs in the upcoming jewellery selection......

Afghanistan stampings, light metal circles, kyanite shards and steel wire - all very light-weight and all on noibium wires - from now on all earrings are on noibium wires and if they're on sterling silver wires I'll tell ya....

Brass stampings, hammered out, brass wires (sorry - forgot about these ones) and tribal bits and bobs, turquoise stones and quartz crystals held in brass bell bead caps.....

I love these ones most - twisty vintage pearls, inside light-weight brass rings, decorated with brass religious medals and belly dance bits, super small antique keys and faceted vintage beads.....noibium wires like I said before....

I adore this necklace - it has a massive inverted rhinestone crescent, held with antique patinated tin, accented with a vintage thingy (ok, I have no other word for it!) and a large amethyst point wound in annealed steel wire.  It is held as a necklace by vintage lace, wound with more steel and an extender chain finished with a carnelian bead.  

I have a whole heap of these coming up - amulet necklaces - little pouches of vintage fabric where you can secrete something precious to you and only you.....this one is made of vintage sari fabric and is embellished with a blue oyster shard, a tribal belly dance doo dad, kyanite teeth and golden and pink sari decos.  All held with plaited blue silk, antique brass chain and a French religious medal.....

All metal has been oxidised - Indian metal work, altered agates, kyanite shards, metal bits, religious medals and niobium ear-wires......

I love this one - vintage tin outer, silver and amber earring as a rivet, vintage book pages, agate beads, brass chain and silk length wrapped with glistening thread.  Turquoise and tribal bits for deco on the bottom...... absolutely one of a kind......

Gypsy Tribal bangle stacks (tutorial courtesy of Fanciful Devices) and the above ones are in white....

These ones are in pink.......

These are in green......

Apparently I made water-melon tourmaline bangles and so I am happy.

Give me 48 hours and all of this and more will be up in my Etsy shop.....if you want anything before then be quick and we can negotiate a price.....xx

WIP (Works In Progress)

So here's some little glimpses of what's going on here - as much as I would love to take pics of my WIP in a proper workshop setting what you've got is items placed on my knee with the lights on cos it's 10.30pm at night....

An assemblage piece that needs some patina action to pull the metal together (that might be a theme throughout if I'm honest...)

I'm kind of liking the idea of little pouches made of fabric that you could put something small and precious into - or that I could put something small and precious into for you to find.... I'll think about this some more....  Do you see that mini tote pole?  It's gone all verdigris......I wasn't expecting that, two weeks ago it was just black but it's obviously been rotting away whilst I wasn't looking....

I love this one, I think the upside-down crescent is doing something to my brain cos it makes me think of Herne the Hunter....even though it's kind of nothing to do with the woods and the hunt and any of that kind of stuff....

Here's another one of those pouches - this one is almost done but still needs patina action and some lovin' to finish it off...

A close up of some of the battered bits......

Here's another likkle pouch - there's a fair old mixture of dangles here including raw kyanite teeth, a bit of kuchi, an oyster shard and some Indian bling......

Some earrings that looked a bit different before I removed some stuff, bashed them with a hammer and then added new things.....

Here's a mish-mash - you see that piece with the blue lapis in the centre?  I bashed it too hard and have had to take it apart cos it had a scratchy bit - it's in a tin at the moment, asking for me to sort it out but it'll have to be patient, I can't do everything all at once.

And i you're not impressed enough with what I've been doing then spare a thought cos tonight I taught belly dance for an hour at a pub - and this afternoon i watched an old film and cried like a baby when Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracey got blown up by a big old volcano.  I love those old films....

I am still here, honest....

Dear followers....please forgive my silence these last couple of weeks but I've been a busy bunny.

I'm honestly not going to bang on about how hard being a single parent is because trust me, being one parent/adult alone with your dearly loved children (despite the challenges) is so much better than being part of a couple when one adult abdicates their responsibilities.......let's just say that it's been a challenging week but we're more than half-way through it.

Dance-wise, classes are well attended which is nice and I am working on a choreography for the troupe I dance with and now just have the small task of sorting out a piece of hair-raising music for myself.  Once that's done I need to make a costume and actually work on a dance structure for it.  I may have a new class to take over and in the next week I have two hour long classes to give to absolute complete beginners in two very different settings; one in a pub, raising money for a good cause, one at an event for people with disabilities.  I'm looking forward to both and hopefully won't disappoint.

Jewellery...I'm emptying out my Etsy shop as I want to move in a new direction.  I am spending far too many hours looking at/lusting after/reading up/trying out/playing with.......ooooh, that's not messing around is it?  That's Research & Development.  Excellent.  I also have to make some Christmas themed things for a couple of fairs I'm doing and I really need to get ma groove on with some jewellery ideas I have.  In my head the name of my new range is, "StuffonlyIreallylove" but I'm not sure how commercial that is...  It does describe what I'm going to be doing though.  Art will out!  I need to express me in a much more confrontational way that I have done before.  I think I am torn between making the things I want to and being more commercial and then I remind myself that I'm not particularly commercial anyway and it all becomes a bit easier in my mind.

Volunteering....I've taken on another task and now my Tuesdays are going to be super-busy but I think that's ok.

In other news I have a night out planned for Friday (OMG, I don't really do nights out any more so I'm kind of dreading it, I'd rather stay home and be a hermit) and have one more Akasha Queen of the Damned headdress to make.

And if you're lucky I'll remember to take pictures of what I'm up to......