Ladies in the Rain Earrings

I have just finished making a pair of earrings that were a special order for a lovely lady in the US. She had seen some of my mudlarking finds, and requested that I reserve some pieces for her, which I was happy to do. Then she requested a pair of earrings...

Victorian Ladies Pottery Shards found on the Thames foreshore

As shards with people on are quite hard to find, I was a bit nervous of cutting them or shaping them in any way, in case I spoiled them (yes, it does happen - they are very old shards after all and some of them are quite brittle). There was also the challenge of making two unrelated shards of slightly different scale into a unified pair. So I kept them on my bench for quite a long time, looking at them, until - an idea popped into my head. I knew one would eventually...

I decided that what would have been in common to both those ladies, busy doing leisurely activities it seems, is that in London, they most probably would have been doing them... in the rain.

So here are the finished earrings:

Ladies in the Rain pottery shard earrings

Minimal cutting (I had to make the lady on the left slightly smaller to fit the frame but no vitals were removed). The rain was etched into the silver, then the background oxidised and the raindrops individually  polished, to make them stand out. 

There were many stages to making these, but I love the result and I hope the recipient will too!

An appropriate song, as it's raining again....

This Week's Monochromes

My self inflicted rule of using only 'seafoam' sea glass this week so that I could work out some new designs was quite fun. I might continue for a little while longer. Some worked better than others...

First I made these, which I am happy with -

Double drop sea glass earrings

Then I made the 'sprig' pair, which turned out slightly art deco, and would probably look nice in other colours as well -

Sprig sea glass earrings

Then I made these, which took ages and ages, but I liked them. Sadly they were too heavy (I try to make earrings that are as comfortable as possible) so I modified them a little.

Chandelier sea glass earrings

They now look like this, and are light enough to make me satisfied that they will be OK to wear.

Chandelier sea glass earrings

Then I used the drops I had taken off to make these -

Hoop sea glass earrings

And finally I made these, which were inspired by a tea light holder I saw in Pinterest.

Sea glass lace flower earrings

I also made a smaller type of ring (my sea glass rings are quite large and chunky, using a lot of silver, so this is a slimmed down version -

Sea glass flower ring

My First Cabochon

Yesterday I learned how to cut cabochons, and made one all by myself. I should have taken pictures of the process, but the class proceeded quite quickly. I cut an oval out of a slice of rock (I forgot the name of the mineral) that was about 7mm thick, then using a 'flat lap' ground a bevel, then polished it in a number of stages.

Not sure how many I'll have an opportunity to make in the future, but it was good fun, and I loved using the power tools. If only I had a studio like that...

Here is my 'masterpiece' :

oval cabochon, 25 x 18 mm

Photographing Bluebells, Monochrome and a Chaotic Start to the Week...

May is my favourite month because of the rapeseed fields and the bluebells. Bluebells are at their very best at the moment, and while walking through them this weekend I discovered the secret of getting better bluebell photos.
When you take them from normal person height, even though they look lovely - they appear rather sparse in the photos:

If you want to capture the sheer blue carpetiness - you have to crouch down to the bluebell level, and take the photo from that angle:

Both photos were taken in the same spot but for the second one I was lying on the ground. I was quite pleased to discover that, and it may be useful to you :-)

Jewellery - I realised that I was getting distracted by the beautiful colours of the glass, and could have gone on making my three drop earrings forever. So - I decided to go monochrome and just use seafoam glass for a while, to concentrate on some new designs.
I love the combination of seafoam (a very light green or aqua) and oxidised silver - it brings out the 'inner glow' of the glass and makes it look watery and pretty. So here is one of the designs I had intended to try out (OK, I'm still in threes, but they are slightly different)...

Sprigs sea glass earrings

I plan to work only with seafoam glass this week, an see what I come up with.

And lastly - my week started by me locking myself out of the house at just after eight this morning... I went out with the recycling stuff, in a t-shirt and my work trousers, a dust mask (dont ask) on and a knife in my hand to dismantle some cardboard boxes, and closed the door behind me. As soon as I did that I realised my mistake, calmly went about cutting up the boxes and putting the recycling out (denial), then sat on my steps, posted the dust mask and knife back indoors through the letterbox, and realised I was stranded.

Everyone I know that has a key was either at work or school, and I don't know anyone's mobile number by heart.... Luckily my nice next door neighbours called a locksmith for me and I was back inside within the hour, but it completely put my day on a slant. I will have to give them a spare set of keys so they can rescue me again next time I am absent minded...

Thank you Sharon and Cyrus :-) and thank goodness for nice neighbours!

Mudlarked Gifts....

Over the last few weeks, I have received two wonderful packets in the post - gifts of  pottery shards.

The person who sent them to me had bought some of my jewellery, and was  inspired to go down to the foreshore herself, for a spot of mudlarking. She very kindly and generously sent me her finds, so that I could use them in my work.

So I would like to give a huge thanks to Madeline Fenton, who is an amazing artist and I am very honoured that she chose my work!

Please have a look at her paintings:  www.madelinefenton.com  

Here is one of my favourites:

Madeline Fenton - Girl with Hat

I was more than delighted, since I hadn't been down to the river all winter - my excuses were that it was too cold (it was a bit cold, you must admit) and that I had to use up some of my existing collection... But - new pieces always inspire new ideas, and I have a lot of work lined up now!

Here are just a few of the highlights of what I received - a piece of combed slipware that was as big as my hand - the largest piece I have ever seen outside a museum:

Combed slipware - you can read more about these on the wonderful mudlarking blog :
Staffordshire Combed Slipware - 1690-1830

Another large piece has a beautiful seaweed design which I love:

This is the piece I received from Madeline

This is my entire previous collection of seaweed - waiting patiently until I have enough pieces for a bracelet (they need to be large enough, some of these are tiny...)

My entire collection inside the large piece I received...

Some of my other favourites are:

A huge piece of crackle shard, which I use in many ways for earrings etc'.

A piece of 'Pratt Ware' (the large piece in the middle) - now added to the rest of my collection of 'bracelet to be' pieces.
More about this design on my favourite mudlarking blog: Pratt Ware 1780s-1840s

more with interesting colours and patterns...

A beautiful pot top (the flower, bottom left), some Imari Porcelain  (top left), some Willow Pattern,  a pice of Delftware, and a beautiful piece featuring a squirrel and nuts

This gorgeous squirrel will eventually become a brooch

Westerwald - I love the textures on these

OK - off to work now!

Two More Threes...

This week I will be working on other stuff, but here are the last of the sea glass earrings for the time being - made last week and finished off today.
A trio of light greens, and an odd combination of mustard, blue and green multis, which actually looks better in person than in this picture... Perhaps there wasn't enough light....

On My Bench - Things in Threes

Here is what I am currently working on - two more pairs of triple drop sea glass earrings, and a triple drop pendant in pink and orange (!)