Inspired by Autumn (or O.P.I....or Dulux!!)

I made a few new pieces last night - a couple of pearl bracelets and necklaces, with the colours of Autum and Winter in mind.

Autumn is a time of year when the colours of the landscape are very earthy, and if we've been lucky enough to have dry weather, the leaves and fields have an almost burnished look. I've stolen the colours from nature to make my 'Fall Festival' necklace - beautiful earthy colours with little gold glass beads studded between the pearls. (above)

I also love the pale, silvery, cold looking skies we get at this time of year, so using that palette I've made my 'Mercury' necklace from tiny little white rice pearls and slightly bigger, fatter mercury coloured pearls. It looks like chilly white skies and rain clouds, which although aren't nice to be outdoors in - the colours translate really well into jewellery -very chic and classic!

The other bracelet I made is a gorgeous magenta pink and buff gold colour. I've used button pearls for a change and they are just so cute! I used tiny little goldy coloured ones in between the rich magenta colour, which again are a little fatter. I love the contrast of size and colour, although I must admit, it wasn't our Autumnal landscape that inspired these colours!

I always think that Winter in terms of colour and texture is a time of richness, opulance and vibrancy - of berries, and ribbons, Christmas lights and party dresses. With the idea of luxury in my mind, I was flicking through the O.P.I colour chart in the beauty salon while I was waiting on a manicure and saw an aticle about their new season colours, inspired by Russian luxury - and a little lightbulb went on inside me. The gold and magenta bracelet is called 'Tsarina' in a nod to my nail varnish inspiration! - Really you can take inspiration from anywhere!

It has been some time since my last blog....

I have abandoned my blogging - oops! I will make excuses for myself - it's been a really busy summer, I've been busy making new designs....Big Brother was on!
In all seriousness, it has been a very busy couple of months for me and my jewellery. I've had lots of orders, and unfortunatey by the time I've completed my orders, I've not even had time to photograph my work to get it on here!
I have designed a few new pieces, and when I make the next batch, I will make sure to put them on here to show them off. I've tackled some designs which have required new skills (hand-knotting pearls on silk) and which have required the patience of a saint (saint Debra), and have also made a few pieces which I've regretted once I started making them - handmade silk pom-poms (what was I thinking?!They take HOURS!!). All said and done, it has been a useful and productive time for me.
I'm keeping my first day back on blogging short and sweet, with just a photo of one piece which I was commissioned to make. My sister in law has a wedding to attend at the end of September, and needed something to go with her gorgeous black and pewter grey dress, so we settled on a chunky multi-strand pearl bracelet.
It's made from fat, round black pearls - really chunky ones, teeny-tiny peacock black nuggets, some top-drilled pewter pearls and some bright silver ones, with the odd silver ball thrown in. I must admit, what I thought would be an easy project took much longer than expected, and there may have been a little foreign languages used in the process!

I've added a close-up of the pearls so you can see the variations in them.

New pearl jewellery

I have made a few new pearl pieces over the last couple of nights - still in my 'pearl phase' I think!!

I wanted to do something really different from anything I've done before, so I've used big chunky blister pearls in vivid colours, for a really bold, summery look here ('sunset' pearl necklace and bracelet). I think the shape and colour really takes away the traditional perception of pearls (see my previous post!).

I've also put together a whole set of pearls - necklace, earrings and bracelet - which I have never done before. I'm not a particularly co-ordinated person (some may say I look a little.....'jumble sale'), and being so un-cooridinated, I have always thought that matchy-matchy was a bad thing. I have to confess in recent months, I have been trying to look a bit more 'put together' and can now see the benefits of jewellery sets. When I put on a jewellery set, it means that I can look like a fight in a thrift store with my clothes, but at least one element of me looks like I tried! So in previous posts when I have said that I don't do matching...well, I'm getting there!!

This 'Pistachio pearls' set is made from coffee, white and mint, large nugget pearls. They are really chunky again, which take away the formal element of having a matching set. I think these colours are beautiful together, really fresh - and it means you can mix and match with any of your traditional white pearls.

I have made another simple string of rice pearls but in seaside inspired colours. I was browsing through holidays online the other day, and photographs of the tropical, turquoise blue seas of the Maldives inpired this necklace. Unfortunately all I can do is think of holidays now!!

This necklace would look great with a tan, or one of those pretty broderie anglaise dresses or tops that are fashionable this summer......I'm good at fashion for other people, just not for myself it seems!!

All of these pieces are available at www.arteryuk.com