Summer colours and themes

Summer has me in it's grip, and after spending some time at the beach, and a bit of time lazing around my garden like a cat in the sun I have produced some new work.

Inspired by summer (again!) I have chosen a few ideas and colours that I have been thinking about over the last two days.

You know when it' super hot sunshine - you seem to get two different skies. Where I live in Fife, when it's really sunny with a clear sky, you get that vivid, pure, deep blue sky, that seems to make all colours brighter and bolder. I used to stay in France a lot when I was little, on the South coast, and there when it grew very hot, the sky looked almost bleached. The blue seemed to fade into a white haze, and everything is washed in a bright white light. These two colour schemes gave me two ideas to work from in terms of summer colour - bold brights, and washed, pale pastels.

I've made little agate earrings in red, banded agate, with vivid orange crystals just to liven them up a bit. The bright orange crystals made me think of blazing sunsets at the end of long, hot days. I've also made a pair of natural turquoise nigget earrings with the same bright orange crystals. I love this colour combination, as it makes me think of turquoise blue seas and hot sun....bliss!

I made a variation on my 'Starfish' necklace - pale sandy pink heishi coral bead, with turquoise and a white and gold glass starfish. It looks like it's been washed in the sea and bleached by the sun. I could imagine finding it washed up on the beach, so I've called it 'Seychelles'. (see top left)

I love that golden wash of sun you get at the end of the summer, when you get a real Indian summer, and it's baking hot, until the last gasp of summer. I think as the sun is lower in the sky then, the sun seems to look golder, and not so bright - around six or seven in the evening is my favourite, when the heat tempers a little, but it still looks beautiful. This necklace 'pecky keen' is made from rice pearls in cream. shades of gold, and peach. This looks like that lovely sleepy colour of summer, when it's almost worn out. I really don't think the photo does justice to the gorgeous gold coloured pearls.

I found some seashells on the beach the other day - they were little pink clam shells, which had been washed to a powder pink - almost white, and the colour reminded me that I had some jasper discs in the house in really subtle, powdery pinks and pinky-greys, and some small ever-so-pale pink pearls. They are the colour of those pale, pinky, peachy, grey-ish wisps of clouds that you see at sunset.

Well, enough dreaminess of summer, as I have been writing this, it has sneakily changed from sunny to thundery. This concerns me slightly, as in my fit of summer fever this morning while I was getting ready for work, I put on a pair of flip-flops (also couldnt find anything to go with my outfit , and flip-flops go with anything). Bit of a mistake really, as they have both decided to snap, so I am now barefoot, and have to run for the bus in bare feet. I looked like a big enough wally before, but now that it's raining, I just look crazy.
Gotta love the British summertime, eh?

Busy bee, busy me

Well I have kept up the momentum since my last blog, and have been creating lots of new work, new styles, and re-working old themes. It has been quite unlike me to stay this productive for so long - usually I am distracted from work by the most ridiculous things - Eastenders is one of the worst culprits! I also usually favour cleaning as a form of procrastination, but as I have dedicated myself to making new jewellery, the cleaning has fallen by the wayside, and my house now looks like Stig of the dump lives in it (how can one person make so much mess?! I astonish myself!).

I have re-worked a couple of previous designs - my glass starfish necklace which has been so popular has had a re-vamp, and is now is fine, deep red coral branches, with chunkier pieces of turquoise. It looks like a much bolder piece this time round, and with the richer colour, it would be more of a night-time necklace I think. Some time ago I made a necklace from pale green new jade, which I have had another bash at, and given it a face lift. Again, I've enhanced the colour by going a bit richer, using freshwater pearls in a mint green to liven it up, along with green Swarovski crystal, and alternated the jade squares with green aventuring ovals. I've called it my 'dew-drop' necklace, as the colours look like the dew-drops on all the gorgeous, lush green plants and bushes at this time of year.

My new work is a bit of an eclectic collection - I have drawn inspiration from different places and ideas so there isn't a connective thread between all these things.....who says there has to be a theme?!

My 'Highlander' necklace is made from multi-coloured India jade and little green peridot chips. Last week I made a lariat called 'heather belle' and it got me thinking about the Highlands, and gorgeous they are at this time of year. I always used to go up to the Highlands for my summer holidays, and it looks so different in that part of Scotland, compared to the East coast where I live. I love the 'patchwork quilt' effect of the fields and hills there - all different earthy tones, patched together. These stones remind me of that - there are deep greens like the coniferous woods of the hills, plums and pinks, like the heather,and sandy, orangey stones, like the wind burned fields.

This necklace, called 'Nile' is made from pressed (sponge) coral, and turquoise. I love this combination of colour, it's so rich and vibrant, and makes me think of the gorgeous coloured neck-pieces and crowns of the ancient Egyptians. I love Egypt - I love the colour and history of it, and how everything seems so exotic there (even ordinary things like crisps - they had lime and chilli crisps there! that's exotic!).

I also made a set of earrings to go with some of my necklaces - they do look great as a set, wearing the necklace and earrings together, but I think they earrings look fab as a piece you can wear on their own too.

I have made a couple of pendants as after some thought, I realised it was something I didn't really offer people, so I thought I'd give it a bash.
I have made two in very different styles - 'San Francisco' and 'Abyss'.

'San Francisco' is a really youthfull, fun pendant, string onto linen cord. Its a gorgeous piece of turquoise (obviously my fave at the moment) enhanced by a little millifiori heart, glass beads, and Swarovski crystal. It's got lots of movement in it, and once I made it, I came up with the name as it made me think of flower power, and hippies, and that song about San Francisco and wearing flowers in your hair! I went through a bit of a stage of that in my teens, of wearing big floppy hats, and flower power shirts, and hippy flares. Maybe my fashion sense has grown up a bit, but in all honesty, I'd love to still dress like that.

The other pendant I made is totally different - really simple and hung on a fine silver chain. The pendant is a big chunk of polished and cut fluorite, but the stone did all the work for me here. It is a simply stunning stone - a deep, rich teal colour, with hints of bottle green, and a band of deep purple through it. This stone has great transparency, so it just looks amazing. I love the fact that fluorite develops these colours naturally, and it is not dyed to look like this. I think when nature can do that, it really shows that we just don't match up with things like that - man made never looks this good. The colour reminded me of the colours you see underwater on TV, hence 'Abyss'.

My 'Lily' necklace is just a pretty, delicate, girly number. It looks really feminine on, and really unique. It's made from crackled rock crystal chips, Swarovski crystals, and white rice pearls, with a beautiful, polished fluorite pendant. The fluorite is amazing, as it looks different in depending on how you move - it has blues, and greys through it. This necklace reminds me of the old-school crystal necklaces that my Grandma used to wear to church on sundays! I love alittle bit of girly glamour, and her generation knew how to do it just right!

On a sea-inspired train of thought, I also made a necklace called 'Rock Pool'. This one is just a bit of fun, and so cute for the summer. I used freshwater rice pearls, in a lovely sky-blue colour, and some glass seed neads in a pale blue, to space between the pearls. Then as a pendant, there is a baby-blue Swarovski crystal starfish. I think the little starfish pendant breaks up the string of pearls so it doesn't have such a traditional feel about it (as pearls so often can).

So you can see I have been a bit busy of late! No wonder my house is a tip, and my garden is a field! I think on my days off next week, I'm going to lay off the jewellery, and chill out with a bit of house-work....how sad is that?!!

Made-to-order jewellery

Hand-made jewellery is great, because you know you are always going to get something unique and original, but to get something totally unique to you, you can get something made-to-order.

I have just made two pairs of earrings for a customer, which were made to her specifications. She wanted very long earrings - about 7cm long, with a piece of turquoise as it is her favourite stone, and she also wanted the biggest, heaviest piece of the earring to be at the bottom, so they were really swingy, and swooshy (is that a word?). These were the only specifications she made, so I had a pretty free hand in what I designed, but making something that a customer hasn't seen before is a bit terrifying! How an idea looks in somebody's vision of it can be totally different from the reality. The great thing about making something to order is that you are working from someone elses idea - so it can really open you up to new design ideas, and have you making things you had never thought of before.

The hand-knotted earrings are something I would never have made - but my customer was looking for a pair of turquoise earrings to go with a hand-knotted lariat I had made for her, so going on her specifications, I though I'd try the lariat-style knot work for them. I was a bit concerned before I made them, but now I've managed it, I think I will probably make more pairs now - to match lariats that I've made. The other turquoise earrings on the silver chain are quite different to what I generally make. They are very simple - which for those who know me, know that's not my style (why be simple when you can complicate everything?!!) but I love the movement of them. As they are on such long chains they are really 'swooshy' and just skim the shoulders.

So this has been a learning curve for me, and one that I would be glad to repeat, as it has pushed me to learn something new, and opened my eyes to new designs. If you ever want anything made to order, you can contact me via my email, and arrange a consultation.
debraelizabeth@live.com

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

New ideas kill artist's brain cells!!!

So far, since I've been making jewellery, the thing that is most difficult, is to constantly come up with new ideas, rather than variations on ideas. So I've tried to strike a balance so that I don't send the creative part of my brain into meltdown!!

If I come up with one new idea, and do two variations of it, in necklaces, earrings and bracelets, that should give me lots of new looks, but save my tortured artistic brain from exploding. (it's not really tortured and artistic, but I quite like to 'buy into' a theme, and tortured artist is workable).

I have made a very pretty, girly necklace in rose quartz ovals, amethyst chips, pink pearl nuggets, and pink, violet and opal Swarovski crystals. It reminds me of that lovely pink blossom tree that comes out around this time of year - the one that's like confetti when the wind blows. Actually, saying that, I suppose it could make a nice bridesmaid necklace and earrings set, as its just so feminine. Continuing on that theme, I made a plain white rice pearl bracelet with lovely rose coloured crystals interspersed with the pearls. It looks really clean and fresh.

I used the same sort of pattern for the rose quartz necklace in a different stone and colour, so I'm really getting two necklaces out of one idea (remember tortured artist brain...). In this other necklace and earrings set, I've used new jade, crackled rock crystal, white rice pearls, and swarovski crystals. This gives a totally different look,which has been born out of the original idea. The square jades in this necklace are gorgeous - each one is a pale, marbled green, slightly different from the others.

I also made a new bracelet, building on the 'sunshine' themed jewellery, of coral and turquoise. I put together a bracelet of tiny little coral branches, with turquoise, and peachy-orange blister pearls - it just says summer to me. This idea could be built on further I think, perhaps adding in sponge coral nuggets, or something along that idea.

I made a necklace which was an entirely new idea, and already I can see lots of variations and themes of this pendant style necklace. It is jasper rounds, with tiny chips of peridot inbetween each jasper. It is finished with a large, carved jasper flower pendant. Jasper is such a versatile stone, with so many colours and names. It is also known as 'The Scottish Stone', so I feel I'm doing my patriotic bit by making jewellery in this material!

It has been a taxing few days!! I'm off to re-charged my delicate and artistic soul, with a cuppa, and a night off I think...(idea for next post - lazy girl's guide to jewellery making...?)

I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure.......

Pretty, girly, pastels or bold and bright and pushy? I love both, and can't decide!!

I've made some new jewellery along those lines - some of it is very delicate and feminine - spring flowers inspired this, and some chunky gemstones in bright colours - just a bit of fun really.

I've made this pastel coloured necklace - 'Crocus' necklace, and earrings - inspired by spring flowers and the little, new unfurled leaves on the bushes. It's made from cracked rock crystal, Swarovski crystals, nugget pearls, and a large fluorite pendant. The earrings to match are so cute! (even if i do say so myself!).

This chunky coloured jade necklace my 'Sweetshop' necklace - has been made from sweetie shaped jades and tiny olive serpentine rounds in-between. I think they look like sweets from an old fashioned tuck shop! This is a real statment piece, and quite different from anything else, so if you like to be noticed, this one is for you - just don't try to eat it!!

I'm not sure if most jewellery designers make such opposing pieces - it makes me look slightly crazy to have two such different styles, but I don't think it's necessary to stick to the rules when it comes to jewellery - or anything for that matter! Some people would call it eclectic, some would call it bohemian ( know someone who will be choking on his blackpudding roll laughing at this - he has said I've to remember the look is 'boho' not 'hobo' - quite a difference apparently) - anyway, whatever you want to call it, I'm not going to stick to the rules. That's about the only thing I can make my mind up on!!