a new humblebead bracelet

last week i got a wonderful package in the post from heather powers of humblebeads - one of my very favourite bead artists. amongst other things, it contained six - yes, SIX! - of heather's beautiful new house beads. i had been lusting after them for a while and went a little crazy when i placed my order.....good crazy though, clearly ;-) here are the beads i bought; two of each:

willow house bead

tree house bead

bird house bead

and here's what i came up with with one of my precious house beads. a plethora of art beads - alongside the humblebead, a sweet porcelain button from hodgepodge arts and two enamelled flowers from a custom order from gardanne beads. i am slightly obsessed with those enamelled flowers; you'll see them popping up all over the place in my work at the moment....

i had a photo session on this a few days ago but i didn't get enough shots that i was happy with to list quite yet - watch this etsy shaped space - if you'd like this though, it's £32 (about $48) so just leave me a comment and it's yours :-)pyrite, czech glass, amethyst, antique brass and copper, and waxed linen cord. 

New necklace

A lampwork owl from Soul Silver,an enamelled flower cap from Gardanne Beads, an antique brass branch, and Czech glass.




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Gardanne Headpin Hop

When Lorelei announced another blog hop giveaway on the back of her Pinwheel hop, I was thrilled to read that she was opening this one up to readers beyond the US. Hurrah, I thought, typing my comment, not really thinking that this would mean I would get selected. Imagine how chuffed I was when I got an email a day or so later, saying I had been selected! Thanks Lorelei and random.org :-)I am a big fan of Gardanne Beads, and I was excited to see which headpins I was sent from the pretty selection on offer. 

Hmmm, I thought to myself, I'll be happy with any of them, but those brown round ones on the right would definitely be the biggest challenge to me.....

Guess what turned up in the post a week later?! ;-)

And do you know what, I'm actually really glad that those were the ones that were sent. They definitely challenged me - not least because the headpins were glass at one end and ball ended at the other. So without cutting the ends off, nothing else was going onto the headpins. And I really liked those little copper ends to them as well, so I was keen to keep them there if possible. 

Here's what I came up with...

Whirls and Lollipops SOLD

I was so determined not to make earrings....I started off making a bracelet, but these glassy lovelies just wanted to fulfil their earring destiny. However, I was still determined to think outside the box as much as I could, so I twisted the headpins into little tendrils, hanging down to the side of each glass disc. 

I recently order some beads from Pip, and thought that these polymer rounds looked great with the headpins; the detail picked out in them being the perfect shade of brown. As I am a little bit obsessed with Jo's poppies at the moment, I added a couple above the rounds, and topped these off with tiny copper bicones.{Don't forget, Jo's having a sale until the end of May! Coupon code ABS15} I am running remarkably low on ear wires, but these cool little hoops from Fallen Angel Brass were just the right size, and I decorated them as you can see, with a few copper rounds. 

So, I'm really pretty pleased all in all. Earrings, but unlike any earring I've ever designed before, these are just a little different. And although they could have been a little heavy, adding to the glass headpins with polymer kept them light and wearable. 

Can't wait to see what everyone else came up with! Hope over to Lorelei's blog for the list of others participating. Thanks Lorelei!