I’m pretty proud of these little babies. One of our family’s oldest friends (Bernadette) owns the best health food shop on the island, Bay Health Food on Union St in Glace Bay. She had a tea party this week where a reflexologist (Sister Melda!) gave a talk and I won a free session with her!
Anyway, I’ve been promising Bernadette to make her an exclusive line of jewellery to sell for years now… today she came over and we collaborated and created these pendulums, which can be used to help make choices by swinging back and forth or in a circle when hung from the hand.
These are Picasso Jasper with firepolished glass beads in various colours. On the end is a chakra pendulum in copper – I’ll be making more of those in silver shortly. I just think they’re so pretty!
These pendulums will be available exclusively at Bay Health Food. Bernadette intends to hold tea parties every few weeks, and the next one will be a discussion on using pendulums. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll get you on the call list for invites! It’s limited seating so, first come first served.
Previous versions of these pendants have sold well so I kicked it up a notch! I added lock and key charms and these are made of variations of silver, gold, bronze, copper, and vintage bronze wire. They’ll be available at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design within the next week or so!
My fall collection is a little late, but I think these colours work well all year round anyway:
I’ve got some winter-y colours in production as well:
Lots to see at the upcoming craft fair – the Christmas Loft at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design, the last weekend in November. It’s a fundraiser too, and the CBCCD is one of the best organizations on the island and worth giving some funds to – that’s why I do their show only!
I was feeling uninspired so I rummaged through my supplies and found these little hair clips.. I wasn’t sure where I was going with them but these little wire nest pairs make me pretty happy! This is a new product I’m rolling out this week.
I’ve been playing with a new style and I really like it! There are some handmade lampworked beads in there, firepolished glass, crackle glass, and lots of tiny silver beads. Loving it!
Aren’t these fabulous? My friend Angie has been telling me about the virtues of alcohol ink for at least a year, but last weekI finally got my fingers dirty. And oh man! Fun! I will of course be making jewellery out of these. Look at the sets made from regular dominoes and tiny dominoes:
OH yeah, they’re DOMINOES:
I’m trying not to stress about the show. It’s much, much easier this year because I have a new little helper elf who likes to take charge. Angie has grabbed all my little vague half-started projects and either made them better herself or directed me how to finish them. I’m actually almost prepared for setup tomorrow!!
The place is a freaking mess and it’s stressing me no end as I haven’t time to clean it, and won’t for at least another week.
On the bright side, the show itself is going to be amazing. Tomorrow night we’ve got the jazz band, I’m going to be fancy’s older sister, Elegant, and it’s going to be a great time.
Here are all the rings I managed to complete after Scotian Ocean bought 3 dozen from me! Want one? See you at the CBCCD! Special preview fundraising, Thursday Nov 27 5pm-9pm; open to the public Friday and Saturday, 10am – 6pm.
I am extremely happy to finally be able, after nearly a decade of wiresmithing, to present the public with a line of jewellery that is centered on the lore of mystical properties of gemstones. They’re my Focus pendants, and here are a few!
Happiness:
Renewal:
Strength:
Friendship:
I also have Love, Luck, Health, Wealth, Insomnia, Grounding, Peace and Creativity. Gemstones include amber, labradorite, peridot, tigereye, emerald, tourmaline, aquamarine, moonstone, rose quartz, topaz, chrysocolla, kyanite, opal, chalcedony, carnelian, citrine and quartz crystal.
These will be available for the first time at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design’s Christmas Loft Show, November 27, 28 & 29, downtown Sydney.
The coal industry has been a big deal in Cape Breton for decades. It’s been slowly shutting down, but of course the coal is still here – and it washes up on our beaches, all soft and beautiful. I give it a semi-gloss coat of sealant (because coal, it is the dirty) and turn it into jewellery – don’t you love it?
In the ramp-up towards this fall’s craft market, I’ve made nearly 100 new pairs of earrings, most of them from a fabulous batch of new glass beads I received recently. In my never-ending quest to find the best way to photograph my jewellery, I tried hanging earrings from the top of a pottery vase from the dollar store, but it was too shiny and the shadows and reflections were much too harsh. However, the remnants of yesterday’s beach glass photo session were still around, so I tried that – and the more matte middle section of the vase plus a scalloped shell turned out to be the magic trick!
I finally found a setting that doesn’t look completely lame when taking beach glass pendant photos – a fistful of my white beachglass, a couple pieces of driftwood, some sand dollars and a shell! I think these came out really fabulous and as soon as my camera’s battery is charged up again (grr), I’ll be taking some more.
These are the earrings I made for the home show I had on Sunday:
And yesterday I got a whole passel of new beads, including flowers, raspberries, butterflies, leaves and crackle beads – so of course I had to make more! These are destined for the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design’s gallery on Charlotte St., so get your butt down there if you want some! [earwires to be attached soon]
I had a very fun weekend making a lot of new jewellery from old glass, shells, pottery and coal found on the beaches of Cape Breton.
There’s a new Ocean Harvest Charms series which consists of local stone drilled by Laird and wrapped by me with the inclusion of pewter or sterling silver charms. I think these are so beautiful:
I managed to wrap some of the rarer beach glass I’ve found, including an extremely tiny piece of red & a gorgeous teal droplet:
I also made many many common-coloured beach glass pendants:
This was all in preparation for A) the flea market, which was yesterday, and B) sending more work to Arts North.
Well, all the flea market did was make me ache all over (who sanctioned the use of concrete for floors, ever?). Barely made any money whatsoever. I did get lots of interest and lots of people took my card, so that’s good I guess.
It does reinforce my belief that I should never ever try to sell my own work. I’m simply no good at it. Someone looks at me and I smile and look away; someone looks at Angie and she immediately starts to talk about my jewellery. I should just hire her as my personal representative.
I recently received shipment of these amazing lampworked beads:
They’re gorgeous! I did this with some of them:
Laird has my photo studio so the lighting isn’t the best here. Also I’m lazy.
The large pendant in the middle on the neckwire is all mine. The rest are pendants I’ll be selling in order to pay for the beads! Lampwork: gorgeous artisan work that’s not cheap but totally worth it!
Speaking of lamps (well, sort of), I found an amazing daylight lamp for extremely cheap (less expensive than the lightbulb that’s in it!) yesterday, and it’s making working at night soooo much easier:
And hey… is that a CLEAN workbench? Why yes, yes it is! Thank you for noticing!
Also new are the rings that have been selling like CRAZY at the two gallery shops my work is honoured to be a part of:
No two alike, just like fingerprints! Or renaissance masterpieces! I’ve made nearly 150 of these in the past couple of months, and I expect to be making more. And no, I can’t make a custom one – custom work takes at least three times as long as working on my own, and I have a full-time job so I just can’t keep up to commissions. But there are many options available! I’ll post available sizes and colours when I get a chance.
That’s the update for the summer! Busy busy bee over here!
I’m rolling out this starfish series with a bang.
That thing has been rolling about inside my head for a very long time. I’m SO glad I finally got it out! Plus, I totally made it another kitchen-sink necklace (gotta stop doing that)… it’s got: hand-sculpted polymer clay starfish & shell, blue kyanite, aquamarine, pearls, labradorite, chrysocolla, moonstone, blue chalcedony, firepolished glass, pressed glass, reclaimed leather, and copper, bronze & silver wire.
More views if you click on the photo and go through the Flickr set.
Also making me happy this week are these adorable wee hair combs (again, you’ll find a few different combs by clicking on the photo and going through the set):
I expect to make many colour combinations of these. I LOVE them and want one in every colour. Gotta remember to sell them, too!
I’ve got all sorts of plans for new necklaces and serieseses, and feeling just creative enough and energized enough to try some of them tomorrow. Here’s a sneak peek:
A set of rune pendants;
A sea serpent necklace;
Polymer clay starfish;
Half-finished necklaces that can be strung on chains;
Black + copper wire.
I’ll let you know what I come up with!
Here are those sets un-jumbled and laid out (click for larger):
And a couple of my favourites:
How adorable are these? I made a bunch one night last week, wore two to work, and sold about eight of them by taking orders, making more that evening, and delivering the next day. I still managed to have three dozen for my inventory! Which is really good because I’ve got THREE shows coming up this fall, within six weeks of each other. Oi.
I somehow felt the need to create a neckwire to match my previous piece.
Voila! Except for the stamp, this was all handmade by yours truly (and even the stamp I designed). I was solving all kinds of problems – keeping sets together, where to put chains, branding, coding and pricing (on stickers on the back, which I can mail merge from my inventory spreadsheet).
I’ve got ten different colours (five double-sided versions of cardstock), I’ve got production streamlined and efficient, and I think they’re gorgeous.
I think they’re rockstar and will be using them for shows and jewellery parties (rules for which are coming soon – anybody interested in hosting?).
Also of note here is the new hammered wire, my new-to-me earring designs (they’re not really that original), the beach-tumbled limestone, bottom-right, which I varnished before wrapping, a new way to wrap a stone by coiling hammered pieces together (the rose quartz), and a brand-spanking new bail I designed for holding the pendants on the chains (also new).
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