Shiny Things! ...Work in Progress

As my boyfriend abandoned me this weekend for a lads day/night, then subsequent hangover, I actually got to be super-constructive! More lads nights please guys :) So, I spent pretty much all weekend making jewellery (save for a break to watch X-Factor, obvs...).

I had a lovely time with tiny saw blades and hitting things with hammers and didn’t want to come back to work this morning. I wish making jewellery was my real job...

Anyway, I thought I’d share a couple of pictures of my work in progress.

First, a very cool Essex name necklace in silver for one of my favourite Essex girls from LRG:

I was really excited to do this one, as I love the font she chose, and also, I really wanted to be able to work a triple sword logo charm from the Essex flag into it somehow.

I think it’s going to look awesome when it’s finished and will be a good portfolio piece for my (eventual) website if I can get some good shots of it. Sadly, my fabulous new camera is currently still at coveting stage, as renovating a bathroom and moving house is kind of expensive. Booooooo.

Anyway, my second project of the weekend was a name necklace commissioned as an Xmas pressie. I really like this font too, even though it was a bit of an arse to cut out, as it’s so fiddly. It’s looking good so far though, just needs a polish and chain added.

So, that's mainly what I've been doing. Design stuff is going pretty well too, just need some time to actually make it now...

Spooky Goings On...

Just for a change, I’ve had a mental busy week. Had a rather fab Halloween, which involved going to my lovely friend Amy’s wedding reception, then off to Torture Garden, which was pretty fun. Totally amazing decoration, including one room that had been turned into a massive forest in the middle of the club, complete with twinkling stars overhead, leaves underfoot and even a proper foresty smell. Awesome! I want to dress as a vampire every day please.

In jewellery news, I also started work on a couple of name necklaces, which are looking really good, and have done a ton of designs for new earrings. So much to do in the next few weeks though, eek!

Halloween Cocktail Hats and Fascinators

Right, back to making stuff now...

I've been so busy with work and other randomness, shiny things have rather fallen by the wayside. However, a thing on my do-to list was to learn how to make fabric roses and, inspired by Halloween, I made some little hats as kind of an experiment. As experiments go, they turned out pretty good :)

First one was a little white satin and spiderweb lace creation, with some black and white feathers and black satin roses...



The fabric roses took a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, they're pretty easy. I made a red one too, thought I'd get a bit fancy, and covered the roses with the spiderweb lace too...


I also randomly purchased a little hot glue gun from John Lewis whilst I was buying sewing needles, which is possibly the best thing ever! It made attaching the feathers and roses sooooo much quicker than stitching them all by hand, and seeing as I stitch the rest of the hats by hand, I think I'm allowed a little time saving every now and again ;)

Happy (Very Belated...) Birthday to Me!

I have been super-busy, hence not much posting recently, but I took a couple of well-needed days of work and pottered off back to my little island at the beginning of this month for my birthday. It was lovely, actually, as I can never normally be bothered to do anything for my birthday. This year, however, I got a perfect day of walking by the sea in the sunshine, going to the zoo (meerkats and fruitbats... squeal!!!!), then lovely mum-cooked roast dinner and some awesome cupcakes that mum bought me. I did take a picture, but only after we'd scoffed most of them :)


I also got to meet mum's gorgeous new cat, Pudding, who is like a big fluffy teddybear. She also turned out to be somewhat camera-shy and refused to show me her cute little face. Booooo. But here she is...

I WANT A CAT!!!!!!!

Lori Earley - New Art Crush

Obsessed as I currently am with all things baroque, I accidentally stumbled across an artist by the name of Lori Earley yesterday. She paints beautiful and strange portraits and, excitingly, has an exhibition opening on October 16th at Opera Gallery in London, so I can go and look at the art close up, yay!

Check out more of her work here, as she is awesome:

http://www.loriearley.com/gallery/

Strange Dreams...

This week I have been mainly having dreams where I am getting my roots done. Apparently, even my subconscious thinks my hair is horrible...

Silver Christening & Birthstone Charms

I have only made one so far, but have been playing with a rather lovely new computer program called Lightroom, which I discovered allows me to select small areas of a photograph and "paint" new colour over them. Amazing! And so much easier than Photoshop.

So, this here is the original photograph, with a ruby for July:

Some deepening of the colour gets us to this, which is garnet, for January. Still red, just a little darker, so not that impressive, you might think...


...but check this out! Desaturating, upping the exposure then painting layers of semi-transparent purple colours gets us a pretty accurate rendering of an amethyst, birthstone for February:

And so on. We have aquamarine for March...

Diamond for April...

Emerald for May...

Sadly, June is still missing, as the birthstone is a pearl, and even the fabulousness that is Lightroom can't turn a faceted stone into a smooth and even coloured pearl. Booooo.

But, we have peridot for August...

Sapphire for September...


Opal for October...

Citrine for November...

And finally, blue topaz for December.

Sadly, Adobe will only let you have a 30 day free trial of Lightroom. Booooo. Something to do with them wanting you to actually pay for the program or something...

But, I love it so much that I may well do that. Maybe. When I have some spare cash...