Silver Rain

The above is a simple curly crochet necklace in silver wire, the only beads being the irridescent glass droplets on the points of the lace, which look like rain/tears, depending on how you are feeling! The photograph does not really pick up on how delicate this looks and feels - the wire is so fine that it really ends up like lace when crocheted. £20 + p&p
There may well be a bracelet to match this as I have a few of the beads left.
A simple necklace and bracelet set using blue/silver flower beads on silver wire. The necklace has clear glass seed beads as well. Necklace £12, Bracelet £5 + p&p

Tonight is the preview of the Best of Hampshire Artists Exhibition, so we will be putting on our best clothes and toddling down there for our free glass of wine and to see who has won the prizes. Fingers crossed, but I think my work is too 'diverse' to win traditional prizes - I'll just be glad to sell one or two!

Antidote to the 'Great British Summer'!

This is an acrylic painting of Pigeon Island, part of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. I started it during all that rain we had a couple of weeks ago - I thought if there was no sunshine outside, I could create my own! It did go a long way towards cheering me up and I have thoroughly enjoyed painting something that does not have any animals in it for a change! I find if I paint the same subject matter too often, I feel stale and bored and it starts to show in my work. Then I have to have a complete change in direction for a while to re-charge my creative batteries.

If you are interested in buying this, please get in touch but be prepared as it will cost you £100 - acrylics take a lot of time and effort and the price reflects the amount of work put in.

Doves, Cats & Butterflies...

I'm really getting back into the swing of making 'stuff' these days! Last night I produced the above:
-China doves and Fimo roses around a purple mother-of-pearl heart using gold coloured wire and hung on a baby pink suede thong £15 + p&p
-Earrings with tiny yellow glass butterflies and AB lilac flowers £5 + p&p
-Earrings with turquoise glass cat beads (kitsch or what!) £7.50 + p&p
-Bracelet with turquoise opaque glass beads with a delicate gold filagree pattern and gold glass seed beads on gold coloured wire £7.50 + p&p

Antique Shell Pendant

I bought this lovely carved shell pendant in Covent Garden Market a few weeks ago from a very sweet, very old, lady who was selling off all her stock of antique/vintage jewellery at half price as she was retiring. Unfortunately at the time I was a little strapped for cash and could only afford a couple of items - this and a string of beautiful AB glass beads.

I have had the idea for this necklace in my mind since I bought it - finally got around to it! I removed the ugly wire finding from the pendant, gave it a really good clean, and have made a rope of several intertwined strands of co-ordinating turquoise, blue and clear glass beads, with a few vintage pearls added for accents. The pendant is just hung on the rope through it's hole, (it is not a whole shell, just the front section.) £22 + p&p

Pebbles and Pears

Here is a little necklace I made yesterday, commissioned by a friend of mine, using pebbles collected on her holiday a while back. This was quite a tough one, as the pebbles are round and slippery - I lost count of the times they went shooting across the room as I tried to wrap the wire round them! We got there in the end - hope she likes it!



We have a glut of pears from our tree this year - and the problem is that my daughter is the only person in the house who will eat them 'raw'. I have given some away, thrown the rotting ones, stopped the dog from eating them, but still have so many left.




So yesterday, we cut up a couple of pounds of them, added some blueberries and cinnamon, boiled them with preserving sugar...











....cut up another couple of pounds of them, added pineapple and ginger, boiled these up with preserving sugar too.....








...and now we have lots of jam! I wonder how long it will last!

Two Little Bags...

Here are a couple of bags I have made since the weekend - the blue one should really be called the 'Waiting for the Repairman' bag as I managed the bulk of it while bored out of my skull waiting for someone to repair our hot water boiler yesterday!

The blue bag is knitted using a rag yarn, and trimmed with my home-made rag yarn in a pink flowery print, with a plaited handle and a little fabric rosette with a vintage mother-of pearl button in the centre. I'm very pleased with it - I don't normally do cute, but this is quite cute!
The black bag is crocheted in black raffia, and trimmed with a crochet flower, button in the centre, and stalk and leaves embroidered on. Very subtle decoration which shows up better in real life - the camera couldn't cope with the blackness! Both bags £10 each + p&p

It's lovely to be getting on with my own creations again - I even managed to sort out my mess of beads yesterday and prepare some pretty pebbles for a necklace I've been commissioned to make. I don't think I'll be taking on any further knitting for anyone else - the $*^%! skating dress cost me £6 to send yesterday - take that out of what they will pay me and there's not much left....

End of Knitting Project..

Well, I'd like to say this is finished, but I ran out of the other yarn five rows before the end of the whole thing - how frustrating is that? So after chatting to the people at the company, we agreed it would probably be quicker to send the dress to them to be finished rather than me sit here another couple of days waiting for the post to bring the extra yarn. (If only I had been sent the correct amount in the first place, this would have been finished a week ago......)

The red around the edge is a piece of thick yarn I put in there to hold the stitches - nothing to do with the design! As you can tell, it's quite a funky little number and obviously for some uber-slim model type as I don't think I could even get one leg into it! I am so relieved this is over - I can get back to my own projects which have been sadly neglected the past ten days or so. I am in the process of painting, but in the early stages - something sunny, cheerful and not relating to any animals for a change. I have another commission in the pipeline of a greyhound - sadly put down this week - belonging to a friend of mine and one of my best customers. This will be the third pet portrait I have done for her and I do so enjoy painting her dogs as I know she 100% appreciates my work and each painting means a great deal to her.