Sneak Peek.....

This weekend I'm off to spend some time with my parents and help my dad celebrate his 65th birthday - actually, his birthday was back in February but we haven't been able to get together as a family until now due to my sister and her husband doing so much traveling for their jobs.  Before I go and get ready I thought I'd offer you a sneak peek of some of the necklaces I've been assembling recently;

There's a sort of Steampunk styling to these pieces that I love because I hope that my particular eclectic style still shows through in them and of course each one is unique and will never ever be exactly repeated.  I just adore to assemble these, adding unusual elements like the mica pieces I've stamped and embossed, and the teeny bottles that hold potions (or poisons, depending on your point of view).

Embroidered Necklace #2

It's still not completely finished.  I made some ribbons by melting the edges of some silky fabric I had (I'm trying very very hard not to buy anything new and just use what I've got) and I need to get the ribbons attached and then add a backing to the piece.  Although sticking it would be slightly easier I think I'm going to go for the sewing option.  I'm pretty pleased with this:

Once it's all finished I intend to make some more, using different colour-ways (and as I say, it'll all be with bits and bobs that I have already).  I love the way that one thing leads to another!

And speaking of which, I made some organza flowers at the weekend.  I'm not entirely sure what I shall use them for but I feel another necklace coming on.  And I shall  be making some pink ones this week too hopefully.  My daughter's school is having a craft fayre in March (I'm trying to encourage my daughter to make some bracelets to sell from the beads I gave her for Christmas) and I figured that my usual stuff might not sell, so I shall be making more bracelets and things myself as well as these pretty flowers as they will go well on clips.

Once I come up with something for these flowers I'll let you know.

Embroidered Necklace

So this week, despite it being half-term I got something new started.  I've been thinking about making a necklace of scrips and scraps for some time now, and it's one of those things on my virtual list that I always manage to forget about it.  So here it is, unfinished as yet, but it's proof of a couple of busy evenings at least.

There's lots more to do - more beads to add, maybe a few feathers here and there and then once I'm happy with it I'll need to back it and add ties.  And as I've got lots of different scraps of fabric in lots of colours I can forsee that I'll be playing around with a few of these before long.  I can't wait to get the children settled in bed so that I can have another play but as it's the holidays that might prove a little tricky.....

Two of the flowers I've added were pre-made, but the others (which do look a little indistinct at the moment) were made by gently melting the edges of organza with a candle flame.  If you're interested in making some of your own flame kissed flowers plus some other ideas for making you own here are two great blogs with lots of tutorials, Little Birdie Secrets and Skip To My Lou.

And as if that wasn't enough make sure to skip over to Handmade Monday and check out what everyone has been up to this week.  Have a great week all!

Back to it!

So, the day approaches when my youngest child goes to nursery.  Today he braved his pre-school inoculations and although the concept of going to nursery is still a little hazy for him I'm hopeful that he'll enjoy himself - and that I'll get to use the time wisely!  In all I'll get two and half hours each day to create, craft, blog, promote, practice dance and prepare my classes so I think I need to set myself some kind of schedule in order to make the most of it.

He's ready for nursery - here's a picture of him with his depiction of "Small, Medium, Big".

And until I get some more items made and pictures done and posted I'll leave you with a link to a very crafty Blog, 1st Unique Gifts

Crystal Headdresses #2

So here's some of what I made at the weekend - just simple band headdresses from chandelier beads - the time consuming bit was making sure all the links were in the same direction and bending the wire in so that the beads won't come apart -plus ensuring there are no "snaggy" bits to get caught on hair.

There are some more of these to come, with more elaborate drapes...

And whilst I was in a slightly Medieval mood I added some beads and drops to some pendant necklaces I made this weekend too.

Crystal Headdresses

I have a huge bag of old chandelier crystals so today I am having a go at making gorgeous crystal headdresses.  My fingers are a little....ragged shall we say from wiring them together, but sometimes my pain is your beauty!
Obviously the next task will be to photograph them and do them justice, but for now I'll just keep on making and we'll see what happens.

Bye bye eBlogger....

I'm quite sad to go really, I like eBlogger.  I like the set-up, the ease of use - it feels friendly....

BUT.  I also like having things in one place.

So I'm off to pastures that are not as new as they were....and that I'm slowly getting my head around....

Make sure to come join me at the new Twinkle Twinkle Shiny Things blog.

xx

Streamlining #2

So as part of my streamlining process I have finally decided to do away with my www.blackwillowtribal.co.uk website.

It's been a part of my life for some time now but as more and more of my sales and enquiries are coming via the Etsy shop I think I am wasting my money in keeping it going.  So I am starting to shift everything over and then when that's done I shall shut the website down.

SO.  If you have www.blackwillowtribal.co.uk bookmarked then you should hot-foot over to www.blackwillowbellydance.co.uk instead and go bookmark that one instead.  And hopefully you all go take a look at the Etsy shop anyway?  And if not why not? 

It makes so much more sense to have everything in one place.  And I shall have to think about transferring this Blog over to the one that's integrated into that website - again, it makes more sense to have everything in one place although I'm loving how easy this blog is to mess around with and configure.  I'm really not that technical (I'm sure I must have mentioned this before?) and the other blog bamboozles me a bit but hey, just need to make my life a little easier.

I still have a pre-schooler with me until January next year and as I generally only have evenings to get things made, practice dance and prepare for classes as well as all the promotional stuff that goes with being a teacher and designer - well, I just need a couple of places to go each evening when I'm doing webwork rather than 5 or 6. Luckily the little man was out with his dad this morning and I've had a good couple of hours on here whilst he's been relaxing so I've been able to back lots of things up, do a bit of SEO work, tweak things here and there in readiness for all the switch-overs.

I'll keep you posted with everything that's happening so that you can pop over and subscribe to stuff as it's happening, and hopefully you'll all come and see me over on the other blog and the other wbsite and then I'll make sure that I go and subscribe to everyone I like to keep up with in blog-space so I don't miss out on anything.

Necklaces and things that go deeper.......

So.  In my huge collection of stuff I have beads, bead wires, spacers, threads and all of the paraphenalia associated with jewelery making.  And every so often I am inspired to make something from this ever growing stash.  Here's a couple of pics of the stash...

So in the world of jewelery what is still really hot at the moment are necklaces made up of slightly incongruent elements.  The colours integrate but the necklace isn't symmetrical.  This is harder than it sounds to recreate properly and I strive to make something beautiful each time I create a wearable item.

I was too late in taking some proper pics this evening as the children were enjoying playing in the garden and with a river at the end of the garden that takes some supervising believe me.

But here are the quick pics of what I've done today:

 
When I was at school I wanted to go to art college and fully explore the artistic side of myself that I knew existed.  My parents, being more pragmatic, wanted something else for me and so I pursued a career working with people, that to their credit has stood me in good stead.

Now I get to pursue both of these avenues and that makes me very happy.

Sneak Peek

I have a couple of vintage items that will go up on Etsy in the next couple of days, two of them are vintage Banjara anklets, usually used by Tribal and Fusion belly dancers these days as other body costume parts.  There's also a really delicate lapis necklace.  And for the non-vintage lovers I have a new cuff and will soon have another in the same fabrics and lace but with extra embellishment......

Oh, and there's a headdress that I need to get a good full headshot of.......

Sneak Peek, earrings and necklace

Here's your sneak peek at the new items.  They probably won't go up on Etsy until later tonight as I'm grabbing time whilst cooking a roast lunch, mediating a teddy bears party and getting ready to teach this afternoon.

Feathers!

Today saw the arrival of many new feathers to stash and I will confess that fly-tying feathers are officially my new objects of joy.  I've not been able to buy as many colours as I would have liked but I have lots of plans for the ones I've got, especially the beautiful strong and flexible generic hackles that enable me to thread things onto them without damage to the filaments.  The dust-buster will come in very handy in getting rid of the excess fluff that needs to come off of them in order to make sleek and sexy earrings and other accessories.

And now I'm working my way through a huge list of *things to do* so that I can free my mind of clutter and get on with designing and making as I can find the mundane things in life can get in the way of creativity (although I'm pretty good at not doing the ironing, that one never bothers me.)

I've paid for my Deb Rubin workshop that will be happening at a weekend event in Southampton in April (details can be found here) and I'm very much looking forward to that.  As well as doing a workshop I shall be dancing with Covert Bling in the evening Hafla and vending as Blackwillow Tribal on the Saturday.  Make sure to come along and say hi if you're there.

I now have to go and pay for my WOMAD ticket as I plan to take the kids there this summer, reply to a couple of emails, and have decided that I need to take a trip to Fabricland this week in order to see a couple of fabrics in the flesh before putting in an order for some fabrics for Covert Bling.

Once that's all done I'm going to sit back and play with feathers for a bit!

Earrings

If you've worked out my process yet then you will have worked out that my earlier post about fly fishing feathers
was going to lead to a blog about how I've made something from feathers like those I mentioned earlier.

I've made a few pairs tonight and once the glue has dried I can get them finished and get some pics up to show you what I've done.  I've yet to decide whether they go onto the Blackwillow Tribal site or the Etsy shop.

Fly Fishing Materials

My new favourite search term on the Net is "fly fishing shops".  They contain a whole new world of feathers that I never knew existed and had never considered until recently.

It came as something of a mild shock to discover that I can also buy dyed squirrel tails, bird wings and sometimes even complete bodies.  I don't want to though, I'm too squeamish for that. 

To take a look at what I'm talking about (feathers, not the squeamish stuff) then just take a look here.  Prices are a little breath-taking, but ooooh, aren't they pretty?  And, yes, I've looked at shops in the UK too but there's no-one in the UK that has a range like this.

Bindis

Last night I made some bindis.  Unbelievably this was my first foray into bindi making, or rather jewellery re-purposing with extra bling.  Pics probably won't be available until tomorrow, toddler tantrums are top of my list this morning.