It's almost Christmas!.....

And another year seems to of zoomed by!  Looking forward to the New Year as my youngest child will be starting nursery full time, which means no more 3 hours of school runs....Yes 3 hours!  So hopefully I will have more time to blog, be creative, take photo's and work on my business =)

The Christmas holiday is always a busy time of year.  I have a few gifts to make and lots of cooking to do and plan to dance as much as possible, so I don't have to watch how many mince pies I eat!  The smell of mulled wine is becoming quite common in my home and the Christmas tree is up with all it's lights twinkling =)

If you're still in need of some gifts, you can find my Christmas delivery dates in my Etsy shop announcement, click here! 

As you can see I've started making glass teardrop pendants.  I'm totally in love with being able to change the pendant on my own necklace to suit what I'm wearing and these match the earrings that I make.  The pendant is £6 and with a sterling silver chain £10-11.  I've had some happy customers already that have bought these as a gift or for themselves =)

Well until I next blog, thank you for visiting and I hope you have a lovely festive holiday!

Beautiful Combinations....

 I thought I'd share some eye candy with you.  I love love love detail, colour, texture and maybe this can be seen in my work.  I've collected beads, pendants, charms and various findings to be able to create pieces of jewellery that I find pleasing.

The above necklace is a perfect example of this.  I've had the smooth round Kyanite beads for over a decade, the same is true of the fine silver turtle charm I've used as a pendant.  It was only more recently that I purchased the lampwork beads, which I feel match the Kyanite perfectly.

 These ancient looking lampwork beads were created with linear trails as inspired by the great civilizations of the past and were aged artifically using various techniques.  I've teamed them up with these fair trade Karen Hill Tribe fine silver sun print beads and I think the combination works well.

Here I've used Karen Hill Tribe fine silver bead caps (all the fine silver featured in this blog post is fair trade) and lovely Aquamarine beads, detail meets smooth and simple, I like the result =)

Just Add Some Sparkle....

I love colour!  In my possession I have a 18k white and yellow gold chain necklace, that I bought in Venezuela the last time I was there (which was too long ago) and I've made different gemstone pendants to fit onto it to suit my mood or what I am wearing.

Having the different pendants to choose from is wonderful, each one is different, with it's own style and energy, I can't stress enough how handy they are and how much I love them!  My favorite pendants are a beautiful Pink Sapphire heart cut briolette, a Oro Verde Quartz shield cut briolette (like the one shown in the picture below) and now a tiny dainty Lapis Lazuli onion cut briolette which I wire wrapped with goldfilled wire.

One by one I'll be adding these beauties to my etsy shop and resisting keeping them for myself ; )

It's starting to feel alot like winter....

 My gosh has it turned cold, true there's still some sunshine, but all I can say is thank goodness for coffee!  Although I'm not fond of the cold I think winter is a magical time of year with it's long nights, candle light, perfect for snuggling up under a blanket or duvet and reading/ listening to winter tales and stories.  I have a few favorites and the above treasury was inspired by them.  Karen and Richard of Grin Grimace and Squeak handcraft amazing masks, crowns and accessories and I love the above picture of Karen as the Snow Queen =)

To visit the above treasury click here to explore these lovely finds!

 

 These icy blue petite teardrop earrings are a fairly new addition to my etsy shop, they are so dinky =)

And I love these beads *drool*.  I'm in the process of listing this bracelet, just have to measure and price it, although very tempted to keep it!

These light blue opal Czech glass briolettes are dreamy (can you tell I'm a beadaholic).  Think I might use them with some goldfilled wire, they would look gorgeous =)

Golden Summer....

 Gorgeously vibrant and golden!  I've added these lovelies to my collection of teardrop earrings and the wonderful thing is that as the wire and ear wires used are 14k goldfilled they are kind to sensitive ears, without the huge price tag =)

 So what is gold filled? The answer is that gold-filled is an actual layer of gold that has been pressure bonded to another suitable metal alloy and wears like solid gold. There is no flaking, rubbing off or changing of colour and your skin will only come into contact with the pure gold. This is what makes it more affordable, whilst still providing all the qualities of solid gold.

Whilst I love silver, I love the warmth of gold and there is something luxurious about it.  Find these lovelies here in the teardrop section of my etsy shop =)

Teardrops in every colour....

 Well not quite but I'm trying!  I love these briolettes and now have over 30 different colours/ sizes to play with.  They are great for everyday wear and are also popular as bridesmaid jewellery.  I like wire wrapping them with sterling silver wire, the end result is worth the extra time it takes =)

The matte aqua blue and matte teal green colours that I've just added to the collection, have a great sea glass look that I love. 

These are another new favorite.  These opal light teal green beauties are both translucent and semi opaque, as I've tried to show with this photo.  No two earrings are exactly the same, which I like =)

To see all the full collection as it grows click here!

Enjoy!

Packaging....

 Well it's been something I've been working on, like my Etsy shop, so I thought I'd take some photo's to share =) Note to self need to buy sharper scissors to snip those little threads on the organza gift bags/pouches!

This is the free gift I added in the package, who doesn't like a prezzie =)

My matching sticker and business card.  You likey?  The designs are by moi =)

 And finally the box sealed with love & cute kawaii washi tape, ready to be posted.