White Christmas!

We spent Christmas day with family at my sister and her husband's home in Eltham. They say be careful what you wish for, and ever since I left England as a child, I've longed for a white Christmas. Well it happened this year. We were all sitting outside enjoying a balmy 30 deg C afternoon, all very sleepy after over indulging on the traditional Christmas lunch, when we felt a few spots of rain. Everywhere became very steamy with the heat. Then it happened, the skies opened and we received the biggest deluge of hail that I've ever seen, some pieces the size and shape of lemons. Needless to say we all dashed inside and viewed the show from the windows. The outcome, all the skylights in my sister's house were broken as well as a large window. Our cars in the driveway all ended up damaged with craters all over the roofs, sides and bonnets. Their garden and trees were torn to shreds, and we were the lucky ones. They live on five sloping acres and the dam at the bottom of their land just couldn't cope with the amount of water, it burst it's banks and just kept going. There has been such widespread devastation in the area.
Our house was lucky this time, (we lost our roof and skylights in a similar storm last year), the storm followed a narrow path that didn't go over our area.

Looking out of the living room window you can see the size of the hail.

It suddenly gathered speed and pelted down.

Looking down their property to their dam, every where is white.

The hail was so forceful it striped the leaves off the gum trees, paint off the hand rails and put holes right through the plastic chairs. It's amazing the damage that can be caused, it only took 15 minutes to reek all of the havoc.

I hope you all had an uneventful time and that you have a great New Year.

Happy Festive Season and Thank You

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas or whatever else it is that you might be celebrating. Thank you so much for visiting my blog over the past twelve months, and a big thank you to those who leave comments, and for supporting my Etsy and workshops.  I feel I know so many more like minded people than I thought was possible since starting my blog back in 2006. I hope to start some on-line workshops next year, once I sort out what to do.

From our place to yours have a wonderful, safe holiday break and an even more creative 2012

This swag hangs above the fire place

Our Christmas tree, the flash makes everything look so bright but in reality it's more like the photo below.

More of the swag

My work room table after my two little artists came to play.

Another shot of the chaos that hangs from my studio ceiling.

Guess what! More fabric pages for another journal.

And a few more, I try to work on two journals at a time.

These are some papers I've decorated ready to go into the journals.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

Latest necklace

This is my last necklace to go on Etsy until I find time to make some more. this one features a beach theme.

This is the necklace, there are lots of semi precious stone beads in this. It has a lovely delicate aqua look to it.

A piece of my hand wired sea glass and a repurposed earring.

One of my fabric beads, a game piece and a vintage mother of pearl fish.

A lovely glass bead and the game piece.

An overall view.

Thank you for all of your lovely comments on my last post. I'm so happy one of the pieces has sold already.

Thanks everyone for your continued support, I really do appreciate you taking the time to check out my blog and Etsy.

Jewellery for a change

I've finally got around to finishing some jewellery and adding it to my Etsy store. These pieces are all one of  kind, I never make two the same. The fabric beads are all made by me as are the soldered pieces of china. I've also made the components that make up the pieces. The lengths can be adjusted by putting the hand made hook into any of the loops on the chain, making the pieces very versatile.

The finished necklace. SOLD

a vintage brass boot charm that was a very old button, an opening brass locket and a lovely old amber coloured globe that I've wired with brass wire.

the locket closed

repurposed jewellery

repurposed jewellery, a very old army brass button, a vintage blue button and a very old bead from Africa

SOLD - Thank you

This is another necklace, it can be worn long or shortened by putting the hook into any of the chain links.

the brass circle swivels and is from a lamp fitting, the main bead is ceramic

I've soldered a piece of china and drilled a hole then added an eyelet, I've done the same for the beach glass.

this necklace also features one of my hand made fabric beads

the five drops of the necklace, it's very comfortable and easy to wear

This is the third necklace, again it can be worn long or shortened by putting the hand wired hook into one of the links of the chain.

I used a brass keyhole plate for the main feature, it has mica in the actual key hole to protect the art deco flower graphic, which is glued to the inside of the copper back of the piece 

This shows the oxidized copper back that has been riveted to the brass front piece. There are brass spacers to separate the two pieces of metal. 

another soldered piece of china, a very old key, a vintage button and one of my hand made fabric beads.

You can just see the brass spacers in this view. There are also semi precious stones, crystal beads and a very old African bead.

I have one more to be added to my Etsy tomorrow.

Another journal

I've had a few people contact me re my journals mentioning that the journals sell before they get to check them out. I think it's great that they sell fairly quickly and I really appreciate my valued customers. This time I've decided to show photos of the journal before I put it in my Etsy store, that way people can check it out first. I will be posting this one in my Etsy store tomorrow night Australian time. Below are just a few of the pages and details.

SOLD before going to Etsy

The journal measures 150mm or 6 inches x 220mm or 8 and 1/2 inches. 

There are 128 paper pages, 16 fabric pages and dyed doilies and lace pages, this includes both sides.

There are blank white pages with my hand carved stamp borders, my decorated papers and a couple of papers made and printed in India. Many of the fabrics are my hand dyed and printed ones.

Thanks so much for your wonderful comments in previous posts and for supporting my work, it's much appreciated.