Burtonesque

Dear reader, it may not come as a huge surprise to you that I love Tim Burton. The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice and others of his are among my favourite films, and a book called Burton on Burton has been one of the most interesting things I have read. My paintings have often been called Burtonesque, even though, in all but the piece below, there hasn't been a direct influence. It must just have filtered through from my subconscious ;)



So I'm very excited about Burton's re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, to be released next year. Alice has long been one of my favourite stories, and I love seeing various artists' interpretations of scenes and themes from the book. I can't wait to see what he's done with it. With a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas and Alan Rickman, it surely can't fail to be awesome.

In celebration of this, an Etsy friend of mine, the fabulous jewellery-maker Gugaw, is having a merry unbirthday giveaway! You can win anything from her shop - just comment about your favourite piece on her blog.

Fuzzy Bats

My Pink Fuzzy Bat has been reduced! No, it hasn’t shrunk (noes!) – its price is just smaller. Hurrah! This gothic yet contemporary pendant is made from silver-plated wire, a pink felt bead, and pink leather-like cord. I’ve reduced it from $30 to $20. Click below for the listing:



My other Fuzzy Bats have not been reduced, but they are still just as fabulous. Each one has been made from silver wire, leather cord and a felt bead. Click the individual images for each listing:







All Fuzzy Bats come shipped in a little recycled box, as do all my necklaces.



Your item can also be gift-wrapped and shipped straight to your intended recipient, if it is a present. Just let me know. :)

In other news, my parents very kindly took some of my work to a little charity table-top sale (my Dad is the Treasurer for a charity called Ebrook, which helps people who have learning difficulties) for me, and sold £35 worth of necklaces. Thanks folks :D

Repurposeful Crafts

As a varied artist and designer/maker, I like to work in a variety of media. Therefore, reclaimed materials are an important part of what I do, as I take inspiration from what I find.

I love using reclaimed materials in my work. The idea of giving new life to an old, unwanted piece of jewellery intrigues me. I take the bus up to Stourbridge and scour the charity shops for interesting old jewellery to repurpose into new.



These second-hand pieces have their own unique qualities, which bring something different to a new creation. The style that these old pieces of jewellery already have can inspire the style of new piece. For example, the original look of the second-hand beaded chain in these necklaces inspired the forms that the finished pieces eventually took:



My love of salvage means that you can expect to find reused chain, beads, and other found materials in many of my items (search "repurposed" in my shop for a few of those).

As well as salvaging jewellery for its aesthetic qualities, I am also interested in reusing materials for environmental reasons. I believe that reusing is the best form of recycling, as it is the best way to reduce waste. I feel that it is important to protect the environment by reusing and recycling wherever I can. The reusing of materials is something that I am committed to, not only in my work but also at home. Old sauce jars become containers for paintbrushes, old cereal boxes are cut up to become magazine files, old fruit containers become containers for craft supplies, the list goes on. I think the old adage of "Waste not, want not" is a great one to follow.



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Posting the above in a couple of other blogs on Sunday made me want to do a bit of thrift shopping. So yesterday I popped into Stourbridge and bought a few things from the charity shops:





Earlier today I finished a necklace, which started life as the above bracelet. I took the bracelet apart, then put it together as one long chain:



I then added a beaded heart and vintage Lucite charms, and created this piece:



To hang from the thrifted steel chain, I created a beaded heart pendant from steel wire and emerald green glass beads. This heart measures 6cm (just under 2.5") high and is 5cm (2") high. The whole necklace measures 56cm (22") long, although it can be as short as you like, as the lobster clasp can be fastened through any of the chain's links. Find it for sale here.

Repurposeful Jewellery

I love using reclaimed materials in my work. I take the bus up to Stourbridge and scour the second-hand shops for old jewellery to repurpose into new.



You can therefore expect to find reused chain, beads, and other found materials in many of my items. Search repurposed in my Etsy shop for a few of those, for example:

Sneddonia Designs at The Starkeeper - Part 2

Remember my recent blog post about my designs in a local shop? The place is called The Starkeeper, and you can find it tucked away in a little side street in Stourbridge town centre:



I've recently been back to the shop, and had a look at how they've displayed everything. I love what they've done! They've had some more stock in too since I last visited, and it really does look gorgeous:



Especially since some of my work is in the window display:




They've also got it on the wall and elsewhere:





So next time you're in the area, why not pay a visit?

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ... S

Is it Sneddonia? Is it Superman? Is it soup?

Nope:



Now do you know what it is? No, Boris doesn't begin with S. Try again, maybe Rosie can help you:



Now you've got it! Here's another one, the lovely Charlotte:



And another one, the glamorous Astrid, who has woven beads into her web:



Talking of webs, how about some cobweb necklaces? Click the image below for some:



Or maybe a cobweb sculpture or two?





These are great actually, because you can also hang your earrings and things from them:



Thanks for looking :D

New Things!

I've joined yet another social networking site (alongside MySpace, Facebook and VampireFreaks). This one's called Fashion Central and is rather fabulous. I joined about a week ago, and it seems cool so far. As the name suggests, it's all to do with fashion, and there's all kinds on there - designers, jewellers, models, photographers, etc. Seemed like a good place to network and promote oneself, so I joined.

I actually found out about it from the lovely Bunny who posted her profile on the Etsy forums. So thank you to her!

Also, I've started to make a few changes to my Etsy shop. It will have a darker theme, with richer colours used to photograph my work on, and some new items that are more gothic in style, for example this fella:



I'm trying to get some great colour combinations going in the thumbnails, just so the shop is as visually appealing as it can be. Rich, strong colours very occasionally punctuated by a pale blue or something, like these:








Which just happen to be the newest items in my shop :)

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!