Embracing Autumn

Continuing from yesterday when I posted my love of autumn and how I am inspired by the wonderful colours that have been given to us by Mother Nature here is another one of my creations. A memory wire cuff with semi precious chips of unakite and large beads of goldstone with tiny transparent gold glass seed beads between each chip and polymer clay leaves in lovely autumn colours.Tomorrow another day and another creation.

Autumn Inspiration

I have always felt inspired by the seasons, with spring and autumn being my favourites. I consider myself fortunate to be living in a very pretty and picturesque part of the UK ......Wales. I am surrounded by mountains and lots of pretty places which I suppose I do sometimes take for granted a little as they are just about on my doorstep. The photos here in  my blog is just a twenty minute walk or so away. For anyone reading my blog I do hope you enjoy! 

Autumn is well and truley upon us and and to embrace the season I have made some jewellery that I have been inspired to make by the changing colours and to embrace the season.

Here is one of a selection of the bracelets I have made with autumn colours.The bracelet below is called Autumn Spice. The large beads I made from Fimo white translucent with a hint of tumeric spice to give it colour. I accentuated these with little gold plated bead caps and transparent gold glass seed beads and semi precious red carnelian. Hopefully from tomorrow I shall start to make daily posts which I will post a photo of each make.

Faux Ivory........I love it!

My last post over a month ago(where does the time go?) I told of how I made my first faux ivory and covered spoons.

At first I wasn't too sure if I liked my first attempt. My daughter and son-inlaw were delighted with them and in time the more I looked at them the more they seemed to grow on me.

So I decided to have another go and make something for my self.A hair barrette,earrings,bracelet and pendant. And these are what I came up with. I haven't yet decided how to finish off the pendant,but the rest are already made up.

In Search Of Elephants,Whales,Walruses...........

A couple of weeks ago it was my eldest daughter's fourteenth wedding anniversary. What I didn't know was that gifts for  fourteenth wedding anniversaries is ivory.

As much as I would have liked to be able to afford real ivory there was no way I could. But more importantly I am a conservationist and there is NO WAY I was going out to kill  an elephant or whale or walrus in order to get a few teeth.

Next best thing I 'll fake it and bake it! So this is what I came up with.

A set of teaspoons covered in faux ivory bone polymer clay.

Covered spoons with little gold mica hearts and smaller hearts embossed.

Close up of one of the spoons.

I have to admit this is the first time I have tried my hand at faux ivory and my first time at covering spoons. I wasn't too sure at first if I liked them or not.  Personally I thought they looked primitive and something Fred Flintstone may be happy with.  However my daughter and son-in-law was delighted with them. Plus I guess a few elephants,whales and walruses were too . :)

                                

The Beauty That Surrounds Us Part 2

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The other day when I was in our conservatory something caught my eye that was fluttering on one of the panes of glass. I don't know if it was a moth or a butterfly. But whatever it was to me it was beautiful. I wanted to let it out so I thought I would take a photo of it before sending it on it's way.The wings were dark in colour with spots that reminded me of a peacock.

A couple of nights later I was about to put my recycling out when I nearly had heart failior!  There was something alien looking stuck to one of the bags. It was the biggest slug I have ever come across. It was the grand daddy of all slugs! I admit I am not a big fan of slugs but I had a strange fascination for this one.  With great big wads of kitchen roll I scooped it up and placed it on some more wads of kitchen roll and took it's photo. It had spots and stripes and leopard print markings. In my daughters words it must have been a designer slug. This summers must have accessories. 

And talking of the big things. Just over four years ago we had a new addition to the family. A six week old Welsh border collie pup,who incidently feels bothered by things that fly(I think he feels they have an unfair advantage over him as he can't fly). A couple of weeks later he  gleefully chased something into the living room from outside. It landed by the side of the mirror. I thought it was a bat. It turned out to be a moth. A elephant hawk moth apparantly.

 

For those of you who may have dropped by and read this blog. It is from this beauty that surround us that I take inspiration from and try and recreate in polymer clay and jewellery making.

The Beauty That Surrounds Us Part 1

I was brought up to respect nature and that everything in life is here for a purpose.That all creatures great and small have a right to life and should not be harmed.

However it was not until I took an interest in photography that I actually started to see the beauty in things that surround us.Where I live in Wales I am surrounded by mountains and the ever changing colours in seasons and the ever changing weather(seems I back to that again) and the way in which it can alter the way the landscape looks.

Before I got an interest in polymer clay I started making jewellery and it was during this time that I purchased a Czech designer glass pendant. The piece was called "Stormy Sky" and it seemed as if I could relate to this as it so reminded me of the mountain  that we can see from the back of our house. There are times when the sky goes quite black and thundery looking but there will be some little streak of blue sky and and sun shining on the mountain. For some reason this glass pendant reminded me of this.

Mountain View from the back of our house.

"Stormy Sky" Pendant

 

Pendant made up with black onyx an Swarovski crystals.

Weather Back To The Usual Rain

"Colour My World" Necklace

"Dotty About Spots"Necklace

"Dotty About Spots" Necklace

                       

                                                                                                                                                      "Colour My World" Necklace

Well the weather it seems is back to the norm here in Wales with really heavy bursts and landslides in some parts.So I have added some vibrant coloured necklaces to my collections and websites. Versatile in colours as they compliment any colour scheme's.

The inspiration I had for these.... well there is a couple of  positive aspects to the amount of  rain we have been having of late. There has been no mountain fires (the rain have put a dampener on the little b&*g^rs setting fire to them) so they are really lush looking right now and not burnt to a cinder. And the little tiny bits of sun that sometimes come through after the rain fall  forms beautiful rainbows over the valleys. So I take my inspiration from these and try to create the rainbow spectrum.