Happy Autumn!

It's officially autumn now (the TNBC calendar says "Autumn Equinox" so it must be so), and I can therefore stop feeling a bit premature for talking about Halloween :) So, with only five and a half weeks, or 38 days, to go until the big day, I've been adding lots more spooky goodies to the Etsy shop.

After buying some wonderful Halloween-themed supplies, I created a little collection of beaded dangles:

The little bells I bought were used in creating these three pieces:





My favourite is this one, because the large orange bead looks like a big chunk of candy :)



I'd also bought some glow-in-the-dark beads, both round and bat-shaped, which went into the making of these:





Pop into the Halloween section of my shop for all of the above and more!

I've also been working on a commission for four silver pieces:



You can't tell from this picture, but the bat on the bottom right is huge! 16 inches wide in fact, double the size of my usual bats. Was awkward but fun to make :)

Toadstool Footstool and Fuzzy Bats

A couple of weeks ago I got this gorgeous item from the lovely Esme of PaisleyChainsaw, EsmeArt and StyleMissile:



It's a Toadstool Footstool, made for the UK Etsy Challenge, and Esme kindly gave it to me for FREE! Yays :)

I have bought many things from her supplies store:





and recently I was her 100th customer there, so I got fabulous freebies:



Bless her, it's a wonder she makes any money giving away all this free stuff :D

I also wish to pimp a couple of other UK Etsians I've bought things from lately. First up is geegaw.etsy.com, from whom I bought these gorgeous jewel-coloured glass beads:



Also check out her other shop, gugaw.etsy.com from which I bought one of my favourite pairs of earrings:



I love silver, and I love roses, so these are perfect :)

I've been wanting to use felt beads in my work for a while, and finally took the plunge with a 25 bead taster pack from BigFish.etsy.com:



I also got free beads and buttons, yay! BigFish is the colourful, ethical supplies shop of the lovely Kirsty Fish (probably not her real name), and she also runs PaperFish (more colourful goodness) and SnowFish (Christmas goodness).

The new material deserved a new design, and I've created something a little more minimal than my usual work. Here's what I've made with the felt beads so far:





These little winged furballs are called Fuzzy Bats, and are for sale here.

Thanks for reading, and happy shopping!

I'm an April Fool!

And not just for posting this a couple of days after the 1st, lol. On April Fools' Day itself, I went into work just before 12, thinking that's when I started. I came downstairs to look at the rota and see where I was, and the manager then informed me I wasn't due in til 6! Doh. So I pootled around the shops then came home again. At least I got a few decent photos on my way in, so it wasn't an entirely wasted journey!




I've also nearly finished a necklace I've been working on for a while, called Charlotte. Why Charlotte? Well, I asked folks for ideas for names for my necklaces, and some UK Etsy friends came up with Charlotte, as in Charlotte's Web. All it needs now is a little more wire, which I've ordered off t'internet. Here it is so far:




Talking of spiders, I've just made a new spidery suncatcher. Astrid is the little sister of Rosie. She is also a glamourous little thing, takes after her big sis, and is of course not scary at all, like some spiders can be. Because she likes anything pretty, she has woven beads into her web.

I made Astrid from two beads, one glass and one plastic, with steel wire threaded through and wrapped around them. This wire attaches it to the steel part of her cobweb. This cobweb was made from more steel wire, with copper wire and a mixture of glass and plastic beads in shades of green and blue. This cobweb has a loop at the top, to hang it from.



Also, Doctor Who's back on Saturday, yay!

New jewellery designs

Introducing my latest jewellery designs:

Arachlace

A triptych of copper cobwebs, hinged to each other with jump rings, hang from copper chain to make this gothic necklace. The repurposed chain the webs hang from is a darker shade than the new copper wire I've used to make the webs, so I've annealed the middle web to match this. The smaller webs I've left shiny to contrast with this. The whole necklace, including the webs, measures 45cm (about 17.5") long.

Click here for the Etsy listing



Rosie

Some spiders are scary. Not Rosie. She is a glamorous pink spider, hanging not on a web, but from a silver chain. Her dream would be to adorn one of your outfits. Like I said, she is a glamour girl :) I created this spider from pink-coated jewellery wire. She measures 6cm (just under 2.5") long by 5cm (2") wide, and hangs from a 44.5cm (17.5") sterling silver chain.

Click here for the Etsy listing



Purple Star

I made the main star for this necklace from silver wire and three beads in glass and Amethyst. Hanging from this pendant is a smaller star, a steel one, repurposed from another necklace. The large star hangs from two loops that are attached to purple cord.

Click here for the Etsy listing



All these designs, and more are available in my Etsy shop

Well that was short and sweet ...

That had to be the shortest unemployment in the history of me. Acme let me go on the first of this month, and I've been offered a job at New Look today :D So I start on Saturday.

In other news, I've done a new design:



I've named it Repurposeful Suncatcher, because almost everything in it has been re-purposed. It measures just over a foot long, and consists of gems and beads hanging from, and held together by, chain and twisted steel wire. The blue glass beads and steel wire are new, but the other components are not. The purple plastic beads were originally part of a bracelet, and the chain and faceted plastic gems were re-purposed from this belt:



It's not available on Etsy, (it's been given to a bricks and mortar shop) but something very similar will be soon. I also have a few other suncatchers similar to it. Click the image to go to those, and my other suncatchers: