Hello all! No posts for a while, where have I been, yada yada ya.....BORING - you don't want me to recite the usual spiel, so I won't. More importantly, I'm back on the blog now, and sharing a bit of news and a few new pieces of jewellery.
In my previous post from about his time last month, I mentioned that I'd taken up swimming again. It's safe to say that I'm still going strong! A couple of days after I wrote that post, I signed up to Swim 22 - a charity swimathon for Diabetes UK where you commit to swim the length of the English channel (22 miles) over 3 months. Well, the challenge was meant to run from the 22nd February - 22nd May, and I signed up on the 19th May....safe to say that, much as I've been building up my distances, I did not manage it in three days! Three days no, but three weeks yes - I completed it a week ago with a rather epic 152 length (3800m!) swim. Pretty pleased with myself about that! You can still sponsor me here - I've already raised over £500(!!!) thanks to several rather wonderful people - but I am sure that you, like me, know more than one person affected by diabetes, and so it's never too late to contribute. I need to get a silly photo of me with my Swim 22 swim cap on but I haven't managed that quite yet - it's coming!
Other than swimming, I have been galavanting about the country (my sister's Masters recital in London, singing lessons in Kilmacolm, concerts in Glasgow) and enjoying lots of gorgeous sunshine, although that's gone for this week, sadly. I have had an EPIC delivery of new beads for Curious (I've got a 'New-Restocks' section now to make it easy for you to check these out) so lots of beads to count and sort, and I am awaiting more favourite metal spacers and - new to the shop - some artisan polymer from Humblebeads! I'm seriously excited for these to arrive - SOON, I am hoping! And, last but not least, I have found a little time to create more jewellery. I need to find a heck of a lot MORE time for this, as in 10 days, I am taking part in the Royal Highland Show! First time for me so I'm excited/nervous/anxious - you know, the usual combination before a big event. It is a GREAT day out, so if you are around central belt Scotland on the 23rd - 26th June - or if you fancy a trip to Edinburgh! - then come and see me in the 3d2d tent. There will be tons of awesome craft exhibitors plus all the usual Highland Show excitement, so do come along.
Now, onto the jewellery! Here are a few items that I managed to create over the last week.
A lovely long beachy necklace, with artisan beads from me, Soul Silver and Swoondimples. I've combined these with some cultivated beach glass which is just delicious! Perfect over a simple vest top, or with a summer dress.
I fell in love with these awesome ceramic decal 'shields' with floral decoration on them from Grubbi Ceramics - the combination of softly feminine and rustic is just perfect. I've combined them with some awesome rough-cut citrine and a bunch of mixed metals - Vintaj brass, and hand-oxidised copper and sterling silver. Yum!
Diving to the Lilacs
This necklace was made sitting in the hot sunshine in Kilmacolm last week. What a joy that was! I had the factor 50 on for sure. I have had this Round Rabbit diving swallow pendant for years (literally) and came across it whilst organising some of my MANY boxes of art beads, and felt that its time had come. I'm not sure where the double layer at the bottom of the necklace came from, but the pendant seemed to want it. Artisan handwoven glass from me, and a super-sweet word bead from Grubbi Ceramics again - the perfect turquoise glaze to go with the beautiful swallow.
Polka
I had a custom order of these awesome polka dot nuggets from Jasmin French made up a couple of months ago, and I'm so glad I did - aren't they just awesome? The black and white polkas go so well with so many of my favourite colours. I used a few with some lagoon-blue turquoise previously, but here I've paired them with some handwoven orchid purple rondelles, and some oxidised sterling silver. They've got a touch of the 80s about them, don't you think (in a good way!)?
Last but not least, I whipped up this little bracelet last night - ceramics from Elukka, polymer from Swoondimples and lampwork glass from Soul Silver. A good friend of the top necklace, don't you think? I know I am not alone when I say that the sea is my spiritual home. It doesn't matter if it's a scorching day on the Mediterranean coast, or a blustery day on a Hebridean island - the sea puts me at peace in a way that nothing else can. (And I always have to take a shoe off and put a toe in the water - even if it's that blustery day we're talking about!) I've combined the artisan elements with my own handwoven beads as usual, and added in a strip of larimar nuggets. Very rustic; very beachy.
I'm heading over to Etsy now to list all of these so they should be available online asap! Message me if you don't see what you're looking for however.