Three Potato, Four........

Above is my latest offering, the first official illustration since being taken on as illustrator of the potato book. I don't think I will be showing every single one, but this one is kind of special! It's painted in acrylics, as they all will be, and shows two of the Ulster variety.
I was supposed to be tidying away my beads and general mess, got sidetracked and started the above necklace. I bought these beads last week at a street fair and thought they looked like sea glass. I've hung them on silver-plated wire with clear seed beads and turquoise glass cubes.


It has a pendant featuring the same beads, four silver fish and a silver turtle. I call this one Catch of the Day for obvious reasons! It will be on my Etsy shop as soon as I can raise the enthusiasm!

Teardrop Necklace and Presents....

Really enjoying getting back to work with beads and wire at the moment, although I only had the time to make one necklace yesterday as it was a bit complicated. This is made using silver wire and clear and frosted glass teardrop beads. The hand-made chain incorporates clear seed beads on each link. £15 + P&P
I didn't make the above - isn't it beautiful? This was my swap for the felt dragon and daisy brooch from the lovely Sybille at Magpie Magic. She made this just for me and I absolutely adore it - the wire has been hammered to an almost paper fine finish,and there are so many different charms and beads all with a stormy sea theme. I can't stop looking at all it's components and admiring it all! If you haven't seen Sybille's work, have a look here - you will be blown away!

I spent today in Basingstoke taking my daughter on a long overdue visit to the cinema - Horton Hears a Who, which is fun - and some retail therapy. Who knew Primark was such a brilliant place - not me! Came out with a huge bag of goodies for under £30 in total - can't be bad! When we got home, I found a parcel on the doorstep which was some old jewellery from E-bay which will be washed and cannibalised. When I turned on the computer, I discovered I had won some fabulous beads from Laura - check out her work here. And I got my bank to re-imburse a £12 charge with no quibble - what a great day!

Glass & Gulls

I spent an evening back at the beads and wire last night and had lots of fun. I made the above two bracelets, the first using bronze wire and AB glass beads with a little vintage brass bird and heart charm. It is very delicate and pretty, extremely feminine. The second is chunkier with turquoise glass beads decorated with white flowers on silver wire with black seed beads as spacers. Both bracelets are £7 each + P&P
The above set is made using gold-coloured wire together with turquoise and clear glass cubes, very polished and shiny. There are three vintage brass gull charms as focals. Very clean looking and with a lovely sparkle in the light evocative of sun on the sea - that was the idea, anyway! Set £20 + P&P
The above is a pendant made with a very large chunky glass bead that I purchased from Pericles the little old man in Monastiriki market, Athens. I have bent silver wire around it and used a similar smaller square bead to keep it all in place, and hung the whole thing on a soft grey suede thong. I'm wearing this as I type, it's not going anywhere....not just because I like it but because I managed to break the smaller bead with my pliers and it's super-glued together - whoops!

And finally, here is the commission I worked on over the weekend - a deep blue chunky glass bead (again from Pericles - only one left now...) with silver wire twisted around it together with a turquoise glass cubic bead, hung on a brown thong with two cubic beads on the tassels. The earrings match with dark blue round beads faced with wire and the cubic turquoise beads. Needless to say, this is sold already.

Don't forget to enter the 200th post giveaway - you have until Monday.....