Birthstones and other inspiration

Well, so much for me getting lots of lovely handmade birthstone jewellery in my shops each month. I've done pretty well, but I have let May down. The May birthstone - Emerald started off pretty well. I got some gorgeous little stones, all beautiful and deep green. And then messed up completely in trying to set them. Whoops. They aren't the strongest stone, and I was probably a little....ahem over enthusiastic.

Never mind, onwards and upwards.... June is pearl, and I've got a box full of pearl goodies and a brain full of ideas - well half a brain anyway, the other half is trying to deal with all the everyday stuff and failing miserably.

In the meantime, I've been loving the warm weather and was out in the garden yesterday taking pictures.

 I love how this chive flower is bursting out of it's bud. Yippee... sun.

 These Lily of the Valley are such a gorgeous delicate shape. I would love to make some earrings in silver based on these flowers. Might take me a while to figure out how to put it all together though.

 Stunning stunning peonies. Love this splash of colour in our garden. Big flouncy and beautiful!

Ah we have so many forget me nots all over the place. I know people think they're a weed, but I think they're so pretty. I can't bring my self to get rid of them, so now they're everywhere. I love how there are so many teeny flowers clustered together. Definitely gives me some jewellery design ideas.

Inspiration - words #2

Have a look at this great flow chart....(you might need to click on it to enlarge)

If only it was that easy eh? I do like a flow chart.

Pantone - Autumn 2011 Inspiration

Pantone, the powerhouse colour company have released their colours for Autumn 2011 and they are gorgeous.

Apparently, they have taken inspiration from the great masters and the sepia tones of old Hollywood.

I love orchid hush and quarry, that slightly chalky, milky quality is just what I've been looking for in beads recently. I bought these lovely milky glass beads a couple of weeks ago to use in earrings....

 

The only colour I couldn't instantly see looking fantastic in jewellery is bamboo, but I think that's because I'm a red head and avoid yellow at all costs. A quick look at the Starving Artists Team blog shows me I'm wrong...

Look at these beauties from Erika Price for example! Just lovely (on anyone but me!).

It just occured to me that it feels completely wrong to make anything that I wouldn't want to wear myself. Is it just me, or does everyone do that?

Inspiration - Words (#1)

I often come across inspiring quotes, words and word art on tumblr, pinterest, Etsy, and Flickr etc... and thought it was about time I shared them. This one is The Holstee Manifesto.

I'd never even heard of Holstee before I saw this, but it looks very cool!

Yup, words to live by.
Do you have any inspiring words, or word art to share?.... links below please!!!

Jewellery Inspiration - Our pond!

We've got a lovely little patio pond in the new (or now, not so new) house. It's really not big at all, (think very, very small) but it's so nice to have a pond, however teeny. Obviously, whilst the kids are small, and with me looking after other peoples kids quite often; it's not so safe to have a pond. But I couldn't bear to fill it in (where would all the frogs go...?)

So instead we've fitted a grid system over it, that's strong enough for Richard to stand on, but which has holes in big enough for frogs to use it as a climbing frame, and birds to still be able to have a splash and a drink, but small enough for the kids to be safe. Perfect!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well it's working for the lily pads - they seem to be pointing upwards a bit too much, as they can't just float on the top of the water, but we're getting some lovely flowers poking through too..



Aren't they beautiful? What a fantastic shape, they remind me of a spirograph - all long curves, and many, many petals. And those colours, especially against the green of the pads.

As you've probably guessed, they've given me a bit of inspiration for some jewellery too.... watch this space.....

Can you see what I see?

I get a lot of inspiration for my jewellery from nature.... and I could spend hours on a summers evening just sitting in the garden watching the birds flying around from tree to tree, and listening to their song. If only I had hours to do that!

We're really lucky to have loads of trees around here and we have a gorgeous (but huge) silver birch in our garden, which gives us lots of dappled shade on sunny days (as well as sucking up all the moisture so the grass near to it has none and has a brown tinge for most of the year!)

As much as I love our tree, our next door neighbours seems to get more approval from the more exotic birds in the area...

Can you see it yet....

Look closer...

How about now?
Apparently we have quite a big flock of wilds parakeets around here, and have done for nearly 100 years - they seem to be thriving. If you take a stroll down to the river on a summers evening you can see loads of them.

Anyway, I'm working on a few more tree inspired pieces at the moment - more of which later, but in the meantime here's a few from my shop...

Leaves

(Picture by gorjuss - click to check out the etsy shop!)

I know it's a cliche but I do get alot of inspiration from nature. I am such a country girl, and feel so lucky to live in such a lovely little village with miles and miles of beautiful countryside on my doorstep.

Spring finally seems to have sprung, and I've been out in the garden all day. I noticed that our silver birch is coming to life again - I love it's delicate leaves, and the shade it provides.

I've got a few leaves in my shop at the moment (none of which are birch .....yet);

Fine silver leaf, with rock crystal and freshwater pearl

Fine silver leaf earrings

Other springy leafy finds I love....(click on the pics to find out more)