New earrings...

I recently went on a very inspiring trip to Kraków, Poland.  Whilst there I fell in love with the work of artist Stanisław Wyspiański, particularly his incredible stained glass.

The colours are just amazing!

And then, for the first time in months and months, I felt inspiration creeping back, and the desire to try out some new jewellery ideas.

Apollo I

influenced by the colours in this wonderful glass:

I also experimented with some other Wyspiański-inspired colours:

Olea

and smaller pieces of embroidered and beaded felt:

Hydro

Berie

I like how these turned out - a little more delicate and feminine than my previous designs, and they all swing pleasingly from the ear when worn!

Now available in my Etsy shop :D

Earrings in progress...

One of my favourite parts of the earring making process is when all the stitching is finished, and the felt pieces have spent a while under a pile of books getting nice and securely fixed on to their metal tags.  I carefully take them out and delicately check them over, front back and edges - it's like a little surprise to see them again and to remember it was me who made them!

This is my latest collection - Turmeric (orange), Levant (burgundy), Lupin (multicolour) and Carduus (purple).

Choosing names for my pieces is another favourite part of the process.  I love my thesaurus, and the internet (particularly Google images) is also an invaluable resource.  Sometimes I go for simpler, or more complicated, colour names (it gets more and more difficult... finding new names for purple shades these days is giving me a big challenge!), and other times something more abstract or that sums up what the piece reminds me of.  I also use quite a few Elvish names for the more nature-like pieces - I find Tolkien's invented language to be beautiful, and there are such evocative descriptions of nature in his writings.

New prototype earrings...

Well, I've been out of commission for a while being a bit under the weather, but I'm on the mend now :).  One good thing about my crafting is that it can be done with minimal expenditure of physical energy (...not including eyesight!).  


I've been working on some earring prototypes after being given a new idea (thanks Mum!).  I found some lovely vintaj patina metal blanks and earwires on Etsy, here, and have been seeing what I can turn them into.  Here are the results so far!

Clementine

Nous sommes du soleil

Nutmeg

Atoll

Orchid

Gamboge

I've been playing around with the idea of adding beads, as you can see with the 'Gamboge' pair.  I have some lovely findings from PatinaQueen and some fabulous beads from CaladoniaMarch  on the way - so once they arrive I will be able to try out a few more ideas.  I've been thinking about possibly adding a very few beads to my necklaces also - we'll see!

Works in progress - October....

I've been finishing up a lot of bits and pieces recently, and last weekend I had a chance to start some new projects too... .


One of the things I've been working on is the swap package for my Clasheen Crafty Swap autumn swap (Organized by the wonderful Nicola). This is my second crafty swap - the idea is you are paired up with a fellow crafter, given a general theme, and then you swap away with all sorts of handmade goodies and little extras.  This time I've been paired with the very talented Julie, (all the way over in Arizona!) so I'm very excited to receive my package!  I'll post some photos when both of our packages have safely arrived :D.  


Oh ok then, here's a wee preview of one of the pieces I made for Julie:

I finally got around to listing some kumihimo rings and earrings on my Etsy shop - the rings look lovely when worn, but it's a bit difficult to describe the sizing as the nature of the braid makes them very flexible:

Seashore ring:

'Rust' ring - showing the way I have made the braid into a ring:

Here are a pair of the kumihimo earrings - these ones made with my 'Hibiscus' braid:

I was able to get my embellisher out last weekend and have a play, making some felted pieces as the precursor to several different projects.  My Grandma has sent me some great patterns for felted mitts, so I'm going to give them a go.  I was trying to explain to her how the embellisher works, but it's a bit difficult to grasp if you've never seen one, so I thought I could try illustrating it with some photos:

So first of all I prepare my fibres - I always use a real mixture.  In this pile is merino roving, silk fabric, silk fibre and throwsters waste, silk noil and wool locks.  It's not normally necessary, but I like to use some sort of backing material to felt onto because I usually need the finished felt to be very stiff.

Next, I zoom all over the fibres with the embellisher, to felt them together.  The embellisher machine looks like a sewing machine, but instead of one eyed needle, mine has seven barbed felting needles (with no eyes) - so you don't use any thread.  Instead the needles move up and down (just as in a sewing machine) and this action agitates the fibres and felts them together.  It's a lot of fun, and the results are always slightly unpredictable which adds an interesting element of surprise!

So after all that, you end up with a piece of 'material' like this:

Depending on how much texture/flatness you want, you can spend less or more time with it under the embellisher needles.  I'm going to use this particular piece for making an iPhone pouch for a friend.

Apart from that, I'm working on another brooch prototype idea:

...and I finally got around to sorting out my embroidery threads:

yum!

October giveaway to follow soon...~!