Messing around with thorns.... eek! Careful!

We have a very vigorous old English tea rose growing in our front garden. It's at least 50 years old, quite possibly more as it is tacked to the wall with old Victorian pins. When we came to view the house, before we owned it, it was blooming beautifully, covering the entire bottom wall of the front of the house. After seeing this amazing rose bush, I knew it was the house for us! (Sadly the rest of the house wasn't quite so spectacular.... but isn't that what husbands and paint brushes are for?)

After pruning it recently, I looked at the cut branches and realised I could snap the thorns off. I layed them out and noticed that they point in a certain direction and eventually I was able to make a circle....

What do you think?

I'm just about to start building it up with wax, so that it can be cast at a later date... When the thorns dried out they became very thin, so I think I need a little extra strength in there which the wax should be able to provide. Could make an interesting pair of earrings or perhaps a necklace, if I can get it to work.

Just love experimenting!

Wishing you all a good day or good evening. xx

New Shoes! Even more fun when they are for someone else...

I have just ordered some shoes for my little girl. Oh, I wish I was 2 years old again! They make such beautiful shoes for little ones these days. When I was small it was always brown and black leather. I remember once I had a pair of black patent shoes for a brief period and I LOVED them, but then I grew out of them and it was back to dull leather ones again... sigh! These ones even have little butterflies on them and a trail of stitching between them. And just look at that pearlised patent leather! Ah, little girl heaven!

Sometimes it's the journey, not the end itself that matters

I've had a busy day today, the little girl was in nursery for a few hours so I was able to really get into work. I love it when you don't see time going by and suddenly realise it's time to stop for lunch. I think it's called going with the flow. That feeling is terrific and it means I'm loving what I'm doing.

Here is one of the pieces I finished off today - a dog tag sterling silver necklace with an abstract repeating Fleur De Lis pattern. You can find it here. I first started experimenting with this pattern in 2006 and finally I think I've found how I want to use it.

I also finished off my ruched silver flower a few days ago. I have been wearing it non-stop and really do love it! I even found I was wearing it in bed the other night.....accidentally!

Another project completed today - the dog tag necklace with stars on.

Right it's late, time to quickly play the piano before bedtime. I'm am playing  Michael Nyman's "The Piano" currently, I've learnt about 3 pages of 6 in total. It's an interesting piece, lots of time changes but at least in the key of C, thank heavens. Bonne nuit dear world, wishing you a good night's sleep.

Is it a plane? Is it a bird? Is it an alien?

Erm.... well it looks like an alien, I agree but it is in fact a sterling silver flower, cast from jeweller's wax which I have just soldered two little jump rings to, so that I can attach a chain and it can begin its life as a necklace.

I have a small burn on the back of my hand which happened, not, dear Reader, during the soldering process, but as I was putting the torch away. I moved a jar out of the way, forgetting that it was still around 500 degrees centigrade. and it briefly touched my hand. Fortunately, I have a retired doctor for a Dad, who taught me to put a tiny smear of cortisone cream on any minor burn after running it in cold water for a few minutes.

The satisfaction of getting these jump rings on is more giving me more of a glow than my burn is right now :) !

My new anenome plants

I got these from Morrisons a month ago and suddenly they've started to do really well. I love anenomes, except for the fact that they are the last really lovely flowers before autumn well and truly kicks in. I'm not a great fan of winter, ever since I travelled for 6 months in Asia in 1999, when I got used to it always being warm and sunny.

But these flowers are a real tonic and put me in a good mood every time I leave the house and see them nodding their pretty heads my way :D)

Happy Autumn Days!

Poor little blog.... but the work continues!

Well, the 18 month old is now 2... I haven't been idle though, far from it! You barely even get to have a cup of tea with a 2 year old around, let alone make a piece of jewellery. The good news is that after a long break from making I have been working on new pieces again and still find it utterly inspiring and exciting to watch them take shape. I recently made a customised version of my Endless Spiral Line Ring, it was just slightly narrower for a lovely lady in Canada. Here it is as a wax cast before going off to be fired into solid sterling silver.

And here is the final ring, polished up:

Such good fun, I really enjoyed making this ring! I love it's unruliness, so free-spirited! To me it says "I will not conform". Hmmm.... goooood!

The other pieces, a heavily textured moon-surface bangle and a dog-tag with two different patterns on either side are coming soon. Notes to self: 1) I am still in love with texture, 2) let's not leave it another 10 months before posting again! :) Hasta luego, Interwebers!

Too long too long!

Finding time to write a blog when you have an 18 month old is sometimes almost impossible, which can go some way to explaning the month-long silence in this space :(

Still, I have managed to continue browsing, not all work and no play! :)

And I found this wonderful collection of historical shoes, posted by Northampton Museum in recent weeks on Flickr. I LOVE the gold shoe-boots! Possibly from the 1920s?

And the Turkish stilts are simply amazing, much earlier. Gives platforms a whole new edge eh? Hee hee!

Enjoy!