Summer Fair Sales

Thanks to those who bought from me today - certainly not as many as last week, unfortunately. The weather was abysmal, stall holders were stuck inside various classrooms, so not the ideal conditions at all.

Can I just ask those of you who visit this blog, please leave a comment to show you have been. It is very easy and you do not have to have a Google account - you can do it by clicking on anonymous/other. It would be lovely to know you have called, and also to know I am not rambling away to myself like a loony! So don't be shy, say hello and let me know what you think of what you see here (I will censor it if you are rude though!) Thanks - I look forward to hearing from you.

Sea Glass and more ..

First is a simple necklace featuring sea glass gathered off Longis Beach, Alderney, C.I. I have wrapped it in silver wire and strung the made 'charms' on to a hand made silver chain. I do wish there was a way of drilling holes into these lovely pieces of glass, but we don't have the equipment. However, I think this still shows off the beauty of these little chips of the sea. £15 + p&p

Secondly is a bracelet made to match a previous necklace, made with Fimo 'stones', MOP fish, shells and glass, all on a bronze wire chain. These look fantastic on, and the charms hang really well. I must admit to having made one previously and pinched it for myself! £10 + p&p

Craft fair this afternoon - after which I can slow down the production line. No doubt Sod's Law will prevail and I won't sell anything at all after a week's hard work! The weather forecast is awful, so perhaps everyone will come to cheer themselves up by buying lots of stuff........

Angel...

A last burst of creativity before I can relax for a while! The above is a little necklace made with three clear glass lilies on silver wire stems, with a hand made chain featuring round clear glass beads, twisted wire and clear seed beads. This came about by sheer experimentation and turned out beautifully. When I held it up to show my daughter, she said 'Angel!', so that is obviously it's name! £16.00 + p&p

Butterfly Meadow

Having sold the Purple Haze necklace less than 24 hours after posting it on here, I had to get myself moving and make another curly crochet necklace in a hurry! I began the above in silver wire, got half way through and ran out of wire - aaagh! So as it is nigh on impossible to unpick wire crochet, I had to cut off all the flowers and start again, in green this time. Funnily enough, it looks better with the green, so perhaps it all went wrong for a reason!

So this is Butterfly Meadow, with green wire, little flowers interwoven in the main part of the necklace and irridescent butterfly sequins on the tips of the lace points. I have photographed it in bright sunlight and with a flash, as the green looks different in both lights. Also, you can see the way the butterflies leave a delicate coloured shadow in the sunlight, making it look as though there are twice as many. Very delicate and unusual, and whoever wears it can pretend they are Titania for the day.......
£20 + p&p

Purple Haze

Finally finished the crochet wire necklace - it is in a purple-pink thin wire with tiny pinky/orange glass beads and little glass stars on the lace points. I'm quite pleased with it, considering it is made with a colour that I got free with last week's wire order which I would not necessarily have bought otherwise. As this is so labour-intensive, it is £20 + p+p
SOLD

Having seen Toby's wonderful work with Fimo (check out Natural Attrill blog for his beautiful and quirky jewellery) I was interested to see that you could make fake stones. I have been trying to use pretty pebbles for years and unsuccessfully trying to drill holes in them, plus the weight of more than one is a real problem. So I bought myself a couple of chunks and made some stones which actually looked quite authentic. I have hung them on bronze wire with a few shells, a vintage seagull charm, a couple of pieces of glass, and one small pearl and have the necklace I was hoping to make. It looks really heavy but isn't at all, and all the bits and pieces hang attractively together when it is worn. Once again, thanks to Toby Attrill for the inspiration and I have the utmost admiration for you making so many Fimo beads as the process is mucky, boring and time-consuming - thank goodness the end results are worth the effort! I have a feeling that once this lot of Fimo is used up I will not be buying any more for a while.....

Three more days until the next craft fair and I wish there were more hours in the day - I have made what you see here as well as another zebra bracelet (SOLD!) and earrings set(only 6 zebras left, oh no!), a shell bracelet and ....that's all. Unfortunately this is a handicraft that cannot be hurried, plus I do have a family who keep on needing food and clean clothes - inconsiderate lot!

Blowing my own trumpet!!

Below is an e-mail I received today from the lady in Greece to whom I sold several pieces of jewellery:

Just got your jewellery! It's wonderful!!! Every single piece is a small work of art! I love the starfish necklace........and the fishy one......and especially the bracelet.......and the green necklace...............

they're actually all my favourites! You're so talented!

It doesn't hurt to have a little self-promotion! Also I am so pleased she liked what she bought - it is a chance buying something you have only seen in a photograph, so it is a relief it was well received.

Still flogging myself to death trying to get more stock ready for the weekend - not doing terribly well to be honest. I'm trying to make another curly crochet wire necklace and they are soooo time-consuming, plus I keep falling asleep while doing it and waking up at midnight with the crochet hook still in my hand! (Needless to say, the man in my life just leaves me there to sleep until it is his bed-time!) Better get on with something I suppose.....yawn.....

Morning Glory

This necklace is made with green wire, purple flower beads and green glass leaves, which hopefully looks like a climbing plant with it's flowers. It was quite an undertaking, getting it all to hang just right! This is £16 + p&p

Pretty Pink Flowers

Above is a set of necklace and earrings made using tiny pink flower beads, green glass leaves, and pink and green small beads, all on silver wire. The pendant is made to look like a sprig of blossom, with tiny pink seed beads at the top to resemble buds. Very pretty and feminine, and hangs at just below choker length. £20 the set + p&p

Thank You

Just a quick note to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who bought jewellery and handbags from me this afternoon - too many to list, and now I have to go through all old posts and mark off what is sold! Later, I have to begin replenishing my stocks before next week's fair - brilliant!

Forget-me-Not

I have been incredibly busy this week, but don't have much to show here. This is a little bracelet I made using glass flowers and leaves on monofilament - it was going to be elasticated but the glass kept slicing through the elastic! Very sweet and feminine! £10 +p&p

I have been preparing for a craft fair tomorrow, so spent the week sorting, packing and putting prices on everything. Boring but needed to be done. I have made more little knitted parrots, scarlet macaws this time, and have made little wooden and wire swings for them all, but they are packed away already, so no photos this time.

Just received the next lot of zebras as well as some pretty coloured wire, so plenty more projects in the pipeline - just a matter of finding the time!

Knitted Parrots.........

Here is a little something (3 little somethings!) I knocked up last night. They are very small, about two inches long, and very cute. I am not too sure what to do with them now - pencil toppers? keyrings? earings? - but I know I shall be making some more in different variations, macaws definitely. They do not take very long to make now that I have figured out the pattern so I should be able to fit making them in around everything else I am doing at the moment!

More Zebras, painted this time...

This is my latest painting of two young zebras play-fighting at Marwell Zoo earlier this year. It is in watercolour with a bit of ink on the stripes to emphasize them.

Seagulls, Zebras and Sales...

The above is a delicate little necklace in gold coloured wire with turquoise glass seed beads and three vintage seagull charms. When worn, the gulls look as if they are flying in a little formation - which was my intention all along! The gulls are very small, and the whole necklace is very light, barely there. £15 +p&p
I only have three more seagulls, so this necklace is one of a kind!

Above is a pair of earrings I made to match the bracelet - very silly and lots of fun! I have cornered the market on small plastic zebras (BIG thanks to Emma of Llamalashes who let me buy them all!) so there can be some more zebra-based jewellery but not much, probably only three or four pieces.

Finally, I have made two sales, the little silver posy necklace and one of my bright tape handbags, going over the sea to Germany (Thanks Gates!)

Marbles...

This is a bracelet I made using some lovely beads sent to me by my blogging friend Toby of Natural Attrill fame. I would never have chosen these colours by myself, but I am very glad Toby sent the beads to me - they caught my eye because they look like marbles and I have always been fascinated by marbles of every size and colour. So I have put them on gold coloured wire with matching glass seed beads (what are the odds I'd actually find any beads in my collection the exact same colours!) , and made a thinner chain using just the seed beads which is attached at the clasp.
I am very pleased with it - thank you Toby for making me work in some different colours!

How Kitsch Can You Get?

So this is the finshed zebra bracelet and I am sooo pleased with it. I have been looking at these zebras for so long on the internet and finally ordered them at the weekend. I had this bracelet in mind the whole time, although with more black beads and without the links, but upon actually trying to put that into practice I discovered that it was just too crowded. So I put the zebras on a separate link each and it works - when you wear it they hang down in a little procession, looking just so cute! I know it is over the top, I know it is too kitsch for words, but I simply love it - and as you can gather, this one is MINE! However, I have just enough left over to make one more, so if you too want a mini herd of zebra around your wrist, let me know and I will make it for you and you will be guaranteed a completely unique piece of jewellery - as long as we never meet......! And that would cost you £15 + p&p - slightly more than usual as the zebras were vintage, and I doubt I will find any more.SOLD

I do have a small obsession with zebras - having failed abysmally to paint them when in the regional final of Watercolour Challenge, to get them right has become a bit of a mission. I do not like to be beaten by anything (least of all on national TV - augh! the shame of it!) and will thrash myself to death to accomplish it - it's not often I admit defeat! So that explains the high proportion of zebra paintings in my portfolio - although I am fairly lucky in that I have sold quite a few as well. So the bracelet has a bit of an underlying meaning for me - nil desperandum!

Bubbles!

This is a necklace and bracelet (not intended to be a matching set, but they could be!) in turquoise and clear beads with silver wire. The necklace is made with large blue opaque plastic beads together with big clear glass round beads and blue and clear glass seed beeds, all on a hand-made silver wire chain. It is choker length and looks very clean, bright and elegant. £15.00 +p&p
The bracelet is made with opaque turqoise beads interspersed with clear glass beads, one strand crocheted on slightly stiffer silver wire than normal, one strand just threaded, and one strand of just crocheted wire. Because of the thickness of the wire, the strands have kept a wavy shape and together look like ripples on the sea. It started as an experiment and ended up something very pretty! £5.00 + p&p

New Arrivals!

I have just received a herd of very small zebras in the post! I can't wait to use them and have had a project lined up for them for days. With them also came some little seagulls, so look out for more of a marine theme.

Full Billy-Bob Story So Far...

For those of you who have enjoyed the Billy-Bob story, the finished photo-stream can be seen on Flickr at the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/knittedveg/sets/72157600339528812/
Now I'm off to do something far more sensible........

Holding Pattern....

No, the above is not the sum total of what I have done this weekend! It is, however, the only thing that I have finished - it is a bracelet using turquoise and dark wooden beads on gold coloured wire with raffia threaded through in an undulating pattern. Oh yes, and I made myself a little silver chain bracelet with lots of 'anti-evil eye' beads which I am wearing at the moment - one needs all the help one can get y'know!

Other than that I have started three other projects- a crochet bag using string-like yarn, which will then be lined with ditsy print fabric, but I have run out of yarn so that is on hold until tomorrow; a pale green cropped knitted cardigan for me - I know I knit fast but that will take a bit longer than a weekend; and finally I was experimenting with some blue and clear beads on silver wire but haven't quite got it right yet, so that is on hold until inspiration strikes! As well as the crafts I have done the garden, given the dog a radical haircut (for which he still has not forgiven me and is sympathy-limping, one of his more peculiar traits - he jumps about if there is a walk in the offing and was chasing rabbits at a hundred miles an hour this morning, but when he feels he is hard done by he can barely walk......I can forgive him, he is 13 which is 91 in dog years so a bit of senile dementia is par for the course!) I have also been tinkering with the Billy-Bob story and expanding it a bit - as my son said, the neighbours must think I am mad, lying on the floor in the garden photographing a knitted broccoli!

Finally, I am waiting for some more vintage charms and have a couple of things lined up to use them for, so as in the title, it's a holding pattern for the time being.....

Nuts!

The above is the necklace involving nuts as promised! I have made a double stranded necklace using dark copper chain, raffia, leather thong, linen thread, hemp, (everything but the kitchen sink!) and threaded on the above are several nut-shaped beads, two rough clay flowers, wooden beads, brown seed beads, metallic brown smartie beads and some antique-effect copper leaves! Phew, what a mixture, but I think it has been successful - I'm really pleased with it and it has come out as I had imagined. This is completely unique as the beads have come from far and wide - never to be repeated either, as that's all there is of some of them! £20 + p&p

SOLD

I have had this necklace in my head for some time now since getting these little flowers - they are vintage opaque plastic and very delicate and pretty. I wanted to get the effect of a posy and have put each bead onto a long piece of silver-plated copper wire and hung them all across a short piece of wire, bending the 'stalks' to make them a more natural shape. The whole posy is then attached to a hand-made silver chain with clear glass seed beads. It all holds it's shape beautifully when worn and the colours are very soft and attractive. £16 +p&p SOLD

The season of school summer fairs is nearly upon us - I know of three in our area so far and hopefully I will have a stall at them all - it is time all this jewellery found good homes rather than adorning the candelabra in our kitchen!

Flower Power!

Just a little something made using three glass flower beads from the Covent garden shop, as well as some green glass leaves and AB tiny pink glass flowers, all on a copper wire chain. The photo does not really do it justice as the flowers and leaves have a much purer colour when in day light and without a piece of mount board behind them! A great deal more reserved than the last necklace, but pretty and very summery all the same. £15 + p&p

The WIP is something involving nuts....I am saying no more as it is very much still in the planning stages but I'm hoping it will come together as well in real life as it has in my mind! Watch this space....

Kitsch Koi

This necklace is made using gold coloured wire shaped into curves and spirals then threaded with opaque and clear green glass beads, hopefully resembling underwater weed.Then three vintage carp charms were hung inbetween, together with some sparkly clear crystal beads to represent water drops. I had hoped the charms would hang horizontally so the fish would look like they were swimming through the weed, but when they arrived I found they have the loop at the mouth, so they are 'feeding' instead! Photographing this has drained the colour somewhat (I have made many attempts to get it as true as possible!) - the fish are brighter in real life, more the colour of real carp.

£20.00 + p&p - Are you extrovert enough to wear such a kitsch necklace??

We went to London for lunch at the weekend, and just had to pay a visit to the bead shop in Covent garden - I was quite restrained however, and only came out with a few bits and pieces. Lovely to browse through - my daughter just loves to run her fingers through the big jars of seed beads. She does the same at home, which is a bit distracting when you are trying to use them!

Pretty Flamingo...

The above is a necklace based around the little brass flamingo charms I received the other day from LlamaLashes. I have used a gold effect chain and threaded all kinds of pink, cream and white beads to make a rope and to represent the colour of flamingoes, with a few black star beads to add contrast in the manner of the flamingo's beak, and hung three of the little charms at the front of the necklace. It is very feminine, pink and sparkly!


The bracelet above is one of my favourites and I wear it an awful lot. It is made from shells gathered on Longis Beach, Alderney (so they have particular sentimental value) which have been simply strung on elastic. With wear, the true colours of the shells are brought out, I guess from the natural oils in the skin and various body lotions, which makes it very eye-catching. I have sold a few of these in the past as they are very popular and completely forgot that to put them on here would also be reaching a wider audience.


The above is a necklace made using a leather flower from the super-dooper bead shop in Athens, sewn on to a leather thong with beige satin ribbon and contrasting beads. This was made quite a while ago, and again I forgot to put it on here.


This is just a picture of my garden today - it is such a glorious day and everything is growing so well after the rain. Somewhere in the undergrowth is the small pond and fountain, looking very naturalised and home to various amphibians and snails as well as a watering hole for the local birds. It has taken ten years of hard work to get it looking like this and now it is relatively low maintenance. This is just the bottom end of the garden, but it is what we can see from the sitting room window, so makes a lovely tranquil view.


And for those waiting to hear the end of Billy-Bob's story...

Reunited!

In the cold light of day, Billy-Bob found himself abandoned by his fairweather friends. He set out, chastened and not a little hungover, to find his destiny. There, in the corner, he saw something he could hardly believe.......


"Mama!"