More new earrings

Don't ask me why but I seem to be in the mood for making earrings. This time, I went for a bold - for me - choice of colours. 

You might have noticed by now that I tend to stick to safe colour combos when it comes to my jewellery. But lately, I've been meaning to be more adventurous and this time, I was inspired by a photo of Cameron Diaz wearing a stunning fuchsia gown paired with turquoise jewellery.

Wouldn't you know it but I had beads in my stash that were almost exactly the same shades of pink and blue. Talk about coincidence!

The  teal drops are porcelain clay pendants by Mary Welsh Hubbard of White Clover Kiln, while the fuchsia beads are acrylic (plastic if you will) nuggets I found in Paris on my last holiday. If anyone ever tells you plastic beads are cheap and nasty, direct them to me and I'll set them straight. These beads are a lovely mottled colour - bright fuchsia in parts, and a paler pink in others. I simply wire-wrapped them with artistic wire and added antique gold-plated pewter daisy spacers. The ear hooks are gold-filled.

I'll be listing the earrings in my Etsy store soon. Hopefully someone will love their bright, bold colours as much as I do. 

Look what I got!

Yay! My partner June and I have both received our soups! It took just about a week for our beads to travel the distance between New Zealand and Singapore. Wasn't that quick?

June has already blogged about the soup I sent her. You can read her post here. She also took a great pic of the beads. I did take a photo of the soup before I mailed it off, but I forgot to include some ingredients that I added at the last minute. Doh! For what it's worth, below is a pic of most of what I sent June:

The main focal is a glass disc by mandrel2 on Etsy. The back-up focal is a ceramic pendant by White Clover Kiln. The beads are an assortment of Swarovski crystals and pearls, Czech pressed glass beads and spacers, lampwork beads from Tokyo (the white ones with swirls), glass rounds, fire-polished rondelles, and acrylic rounds again from Tokyo. The clasp is a vintage faux pearl box clasp. I also added 2 metal leaf connectors and some rubber tubing. Just for fun.

And now, for June's fantabulous soup brewed just for me:

That fantastic focal is New Zealand Paua (Haliotis Iris - a member of the abalone family and found only in NZ). June tells me she tumbled and polished it herself. I was so touched to know this. I love that she sent something native to New Zealand. How thoughtful! June also sent some accompanying Paua beads, as well as a good amount of Swarovski crystals and pearls (what a coincidence we both sent Swarovskis!), Preciosa crystals and dyed stone rounds. She also sent a beautiful silver toggle clasp and a wee frog charm. 

I love the colours of the soup June sent me and I'm cracking my brains as to what to make with that beautiful focal. I so want to do it justice. June and I are in the 3rd Reveal so please come back on April 13th to see what we end up creating.

Something new...

I made something new this weekend, and used a new (to me) technique. Who knew how fun coiling and hammering wire could be? I'm still learning my way around so please excuse the wonky, uneven spirals.

Oh, and the lovely ceramic charms are by Mary Welsh Hubbard of White Clover Kiln. Aren't they beautiful? They're an intriguing mix of green, blue and brown...and possibly some other colours I don't have a name for. 

Back...

...with new loot :-).

Yes, I've been away for quite a while. Busy with work and with a certification course I'm taking - lots of readings to complete and papers to write. But I still have time for my beads. Well, at least for buying them LOL. Below are some new beds I couldn't say 'no' to.

As you can see...they're pretty much all ceramic beads. Did I ever mention I can get pretty obsessive over things? I fall in love with something and then spend the next few weeks, months wallowing in that something. Apart from reading - which is an obsession I've had since I was oh, about four years old - the only other obsession that's lasted is my love for beads and making jewellery. And right now, I'm all about ceramic and stoneware and porcelain. The beads pictured are from Keith O'Connor, White Clover Kiln, Earthenwood Studios and Marsha Neal Studio - aren't they just beautiful??

Weekends...and something new

I wish 3-day weekends were the norm. There just isn't enough time on the weekends for me to do what I need/want to. Once I've done the cooking, cleaning and whatever chores that were ignored during the week, there aren't very many hours left for fun. I didn't do too badly this week though. I squeezed in lunch with friends, waded through most of the book I'm currently reading, visited the library and borrowed more books (including 2 on chainmaille) and best of all, made some jewellery. Well....just one bracelet, to be accurate.

You might remember the focal from my earlier post. It's a ceramic link from White Clover Kiln. I knew from the start that whatever I made with it would be strictly for me. And since I have very simple tastes in jewellery, I kept the design quite spare. Just some chain - I love how the oval links mirror the shape of the focal bead - a couple of dangles and a pewter clasp.

What did you do over the weekend? Did you make jewellery too? Or read a book? Whatever it was, I hope you had fun!

What I've been up to

I'm not a girly-girl, never have been. I wear way too much black and usually run screaming from anything pastel. But I like pretty things - my fetish for beads attests to that - and lately, I've been leaning towards designs that are...well, sweet.

This features ceramic pink hearts from White Clover Kiln on Etsy. I was going to keep it simple and just add ear hooks but then I got sidetracked by some Swarovski crystal pearls. So what was a girl to do? I took them, added some lead-free pewter frames and voila.

I'm working on a matching necklace. The heart charms were part of a set that included a larger pendant. I'm sticking to the pearls and pink hearts theme and will probably add some silver beads or chain or something. Or I might decide on something else. I'll let you know.

And then, there's this:

Purple's one of my favourite colours so I finally made something with these pretty lavender lampwork rondelles from a glass artist I found on Ebay.

Other WIPs:

The blue ceramic link is from White Clover Kiln again and I'm planning on making it into a bracelet for myself. The red glass bead with the Bali silver (and I actually got it in Bali - how about that?) bead cap is going to be a charm that I plan to string on either a chain or leather cord. Something casual and everyday that's still pretty. Maybe I'll do a whole collection of these simple everyday charm/pendant necklaces. The last is a beautiful focal bead from Etsy artist SKHolt. I've been hoarding it and 3 of its siblings for longer than I'd like to admit. But i think it's time to start making it into a piece of jewelry. It deserves to be worn instead of being cooped up in my bead box.