Happy New Year

Wow, I'm shocked.  Almost a month since I last blogged, how very remiss of me.  No matter, as the children are both back at school today I've been able to get myself together and get a couple of things done. Headers mostly....blog header, website headers, Facebook headers and Etsy header have all been re-done.

I wrestled with Pixlr for a while last night before giving up but this morning sense and creativity returned long enough for me to get them all done and loaded.

And despite the children being off school I managed to have  little play around with an idea that's been floating around in my mind.  Tiny books, decorated with hand-dyed silk, lace, vintage beads and this and that and place on a chain to be worn as a necklace.

They have vellum paper inside that I sealed in case the item got worn in the rain, but I'm going to play around with resin coated paper next time I think.....

These books don't open but I'm going to make some that do......

I have a couple more to make into necklaces or to use as charms on other assemblage jewelry pieces.....

I'll definitely be making more of these as they're very cute.

On a Happier Note...

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

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

I've been thinking.....

....and buying....

Even though I have a ton of stuff I have been buying more stuff....

I am a very lucky girl (by the way don't argue with me about teh girl bit even though I'm far too old to warrant it).  One of my belly dance students is a lovely lovely lady who happens to work in a place that means she can bring me a bag of unloved jewellery and bits and bobs.  I love to get a bag from her on a Sunday afternoon - I get it home, leave it tantalising me till the children are in bed and then I pour a glass of wine and very slowly get each item out. It's like Christmas when she does this for me....  

About 50% of what you can see above is from her and the picture above is about 0.0005% of what I have stashed.....

So what have I done recently?  Bought more!  OMG.  I've sold stuff recently and so I decided to splash out on new tools and new things to add to my stash so that I can play with more creative avenues.  I shall add these new creative avenues to some of the other things that have appealed to me recently because as we all know, when you have no free time why not pursue myriad avenues.... (hoho).

One of the things I bought recently was a tutorial (ok, three tutorials) from the hugely talented Fanciful Devices (OMG I am her blog stalker extraordinaire at the moment) and in accordance with her generous instructions I am posting photos of my version of her gypsy tribal bangle stacks.  If she reads this I have to assure her that I still need to age the bangles properly (I will, I will I promise!) but the main point is I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Finding the right wire was a pain in the arse but that's another story.

Here you go:

Yes, I know the photos are bright and shiny and as soon as I can I will be putting into practice the lessons given by Sparrow Salvage (someone else I'm blog stalking, not just for her photography tips but her equally awesome and inspiring jewellery).  I plan to be better at everything I do and at the moment I am consumed with reading/drinking in the blogs by these two artisans in particular in order to ensure this happens.  (I won't blame them at all if I turn out to be crap.....).

Although I should not forget to mention Tribalis and Stregata - ohhh how I covet their style and artistry....

So, here's a little peek at what I've been up to in my creative corner of the kitchen...

(yup, that's it just there..)

Some of what you see here has already been taken apart and re-worked a little and you can be sure I'll keep you posted once I'm happier with what's going on.

I should also add that I now have creative constipation because I'm worried about copying other people (see above) too much.  However, I have a weekend without the children coming up so I shall try and make the most of it.  Don't hold your breath though.....