Swap!

My friend Denise makes the most amazing Georgian dresses.  Actually she does all sorts of creative things - bookbinding, wood-carving, jewellery-making.......  She really liked a necklace that I made for boot camp so we decided to swap - I'd make her a necklace and she would make me a Jane Austen-style dress.  We both recently went to Bath for the Jane Austen festival so my new dress got its first outing then....

It was a rather wonderful experience parading through Bath in my dress....and also a little disconcerting every time I looked round someone was taking my photograph!

For my side of the swap, I swiftly got coiling and this is the necklace that I made for Denise......

If you want to see more of Denise's fabulous dresses (plus lots of other things) please go and have a look at her website - http://www.austensiblyausten.co.uk/.

And if you want to see more of us at the Jane Austen festival go and have a look this film made by my friend Janine of Gorgeous Media......what talented friends I have!!  

Capturing Summer

We're definitely feeling the first blast of Autumn here in the UK.....so to remind me of long, warm days and flower-scented nights, I've captured this rose bud in a sphere of resin.  

I've paired it with some golden rutile quartz beads - I had a rummage through my bead stash and these beads seemed to work the best.

Pink and Sparkly

I don't normally do pink and sparkly but I got seduced by this Druzy cabochon.  It has a lovely sparkle to it which is hard to capture in a photo....

I decided to set it into silver and came up with this shape by putting the Druzy onto a piece of paper and doodling.  This is the shape that I liked best.  

I finished off the piece by adding some tourmaline beads.  Pink, delicate and sparkly - so not me, but I'm rather pleased with it!

Autumn Design Challenge

Hooray!  I got chosen to be part of the Autumn Design Challenge organised by Lesley from the The Gossiping Goddess and Caroline from Blueberri Beads.  These ladies are very talented - go and have a look at their work.  For this challenge, they have put together a set of beads and sent them out to all the participants.  This is what they sent me......

Caroline has sent a set of her ceramic beads.  I love these, particularly the purple bird bead - I think that I'm going to have to find it a nest or a branch to sit on!  Lesley has sent a bronze flower pendant with a gorgeous enamelled centre and a bronze bracelet focal with a lovely patina.  I've got lots of ideas about how to use these (probably too many ideas!) but you'll have to wait until the reveal day on October 2nd to see what I do.  Please come back then!