Simply the beads

I've had these beautiful swirl wrapped silver beads for a long time now. I bought them from an overseas seller and they were quite expensive. I put them in my collection for a future design and have since taken them out severals times, looked at them and then ended up putting them back in storage waiting for the right moment.

Well, I have finally decided their moment has come! They don't need to wait any longer because I have realised they are lovely just as they are and all they needed was the right earwire to set them off. I chose these large hooped handmade earwires and they sit pefectly and swing gracefully.


These are the largest earwires I have made so far so I decided to make a few more and add some other beautiful beads from my collection. I'm really pleased with the results. The earrings below feature some lovely sparkly faceted crystal quartz beads.



Both of these earrings and some others are now listed for sale in my eBay and Folksy shops (please follow the links on the right of my blog).

My little helper!

I was busy taking some photos of earrings this morning when along comes my little helper (distraction!). So I ended up taking pictures of her instead.

This is Coco our 7 month old little (?!) kitten. She's round my feet a lot of the time at the moment as she has had an operation recently and can't go outside until the stitches are removed (one more day to go). She is desperate to get back out in the garden and has been spending quite a bit of time looking out of the window watching the world go by and planning her next adventure.

Fine Silver Texture Disc Earrings - which is your favourite?

Here are my latest Fine Silver Texture Disc Earrings made from Art Clay Silver. Described in order as: Water, Triangles, Diamonds, Lines, Flower, Leaves, Drain Cover (!), Puddles and Circles.

Which is your favourite design?

Sometimes life just takes over!

It's been a while since my last post. I've been meaning to blog but sometimes life just takes over.

First the positives - last week a very nice lady in Candlewick Green (a gift shop in Reigate, Surrey) has agreed to display some of my Fine Silver Texture Disc Earrings in her shop. Fingers crossed for some sales. As I had given her all my stock of my disc earrings and wanted to take my jewellery to show at another shop later that week, I spent the next few days creating some more. I had quite a production line going and, boy, did my fingers and thumbs ache afterwards from all the filing, brushing and burnishing. But as the saying goes... no pain no gain! As well as texture, I have also been experimenting with spirals wrapped over beads.

Then things took a turn on Saturday afternoon when my son broke a bone in his ankle and I spent 3 hours in casualty with him on Saturday night and a further 3 hours today at the fracture clinic. This is all quite depressing because he hurt his ankle last summer and spent over 3 weeks in plaster and now it's happened again but even worse. It looks like his lower leg will be in plaster for at least 4 weeks this time, poor lad.

As a result, I haven't really had any time to photograph my latest texture discs. I took a few photos this morning but have a lot more to take - hopefully tomorrow will bring some good light.

More flowers

Finally a bit of peace and quiet in my house now the kids are back at school and my husband back at work. To be honest, I actually miss them. However, the solitude meant I could concentrate on photographing my latest flowers.

This time I hammered the petals and experimented with adding extra beads around the main gemstone. I was going to put them in my tumbler but, as recently I had some problems tumbling fluorite (too soft), I decided to use my burnisher I got with my Art Clay Silver starter kit and had a WOW! moment when the petals came up really shiny. Sometimes I like my hammered pieces to show the texture of the hammer but this time I really like the mirror shine effect.

I made some earrings and a couple of pendants. I think my favourite are the Crystal Quartz Flower Earrings (shown below). I like the simplicity and sparkle of these and the way the hammering changed the shape of some of the petals.

Now all I have to decide is which to keep, to give or to sell!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

What a day! As I only work part time, my normal Monday is a 'catch up with the washing and housework' day and hopefully find some time to do some jewellery making. Today was a very different day as we awoke to about 6 inches of snow. The news reported it was the most snow we have had for 18 years. My kids were off school and my husband was not able to make it into work. He did get up as normal and try to get the car going but sensibly decided the roads were too dangerous.

As far as the washing and housework went - it didn't. No point when there's kids running in the house, throwing down soggy wet clothes, warming up and then going back outside to play in the snow, running in the house, throwing down.... etc. etc. (you get the point, eh?). So, as the saying goes, if you can't beat them join them. I took the kids for a 'winter's walk' and my village looked as pretty as a Christmas card. I love the way the snow settles on the trees, highlighting the shape of the branches.

I did get a bit of jewellery making done in between all the other goings on in my house and will post some pictures soon. My flower theme has continued and I have been making a variation of my 'little flowers'. I need to get what I made in my tumbler tomorrow ready to photograph.

More snow is forecasted, so it looks like tomorrow might be just as fun!