Month: October 2020

Day 285. A couple more pieces heading off to the Little Treasures exhibition at @pepper_street_arts_centre

Day 284. Working on some new jewellery for Little Treasures at @pepper_street_arts_centre, featuring beads inspired by the ocean in beautiful transparent blue and greens. More to follow. This cash and carry exhibition runs from around mid November to December 23. Perfect for Christmas shopping.

Day 283. I have been going through the glass that has been donated to me and came across this beautiful green plate. A friend had found it in an op shop, and had thought of me. I love receiving donations of glass, I just don’t always have the time to make things with them. But I have made time during these holidays to test out some of these donations, and really like how this glass turned out.

Day 282. Just back from a short wintery beach break with the kids! The weather was terrible, but it was lovely to smell the ocean air again. Wild seas, lots of rain, but it was fun to spend some solid time together without our devices. I was glad to have some beads ready to go. This is one of the new French gin bottle earrings that I will eventually add online. Such a pretty colour.

Day 281. Over the years I have accumulated lots of sterling silver scraps. I have not thrown any away, but I hoped that one day I would work out how to use it. This week I have watched a few videos about melting silver down, and yesterday I did a little experiment, and this is the end result! Handmade recycled silver beads, mixed in with my handmade recycled glass champagne bottle beads!

Day 280. Yummy purples! The glass beads were made from a Hendricks Gin (Limited Release) bottle, and the copper disks were another enamel experiment that I was happy with!

Day 279. And now for something completely different! Let’s just say it has taken me years to get this pair of earrings made. I first started playing around with adding colour to metal about 10 years ago! That was experimenting with titanium, but the set up cost at the time was incredibly expensive so after the workshop I didn’t pursue it. A few years ago I did an enamelling workshop at the Jam Factory, and realised that this could be how I got colour into metal, and I have been experimenting with copper tubes for a while now. But yesterday I finally set up a little section of my garage with an enamelling area, and I made some pretty horrible pieces! Today, after a bit more research….this is what I made. Copper disks with enamel, along with my handmade glass beads. Lots of colour!! And lots of fun.

Day 278. I was delighted to find this blue gin bottle at my local bottle shop, and after enjoying the contents over several fun occasions, it was finally time to test the glass! So happy to discover it’s a really beautiful blue that handles the flame with no problems at all. A nice addition to the range of gin and tonic colours that I can use. Looking forward to making some more beads soon.

Day 277. Weird but true, green earrings seem to be the most popular earrings at the moment. Followed closely by blue. Must be the season for these cooler colours.

Day 276. Thanks for all the gin and tonic jewellery love, lots of orders coming through for various pieces. I love that people are getting organised for Christmas now, it makes my job a little easier. Looks like packages are taking about 4 weeks to get to the USA, stoked that they are still getting there, but if you need things shipped…now is a good time.