Friday Fill In

1. I'd really like to go for a swim right now.

2."Oh, no I think I've broken it" is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe. ( this really happened to me this week - how did you know?)

3. Possession is not neccessary.

4. I laugh at Captain Jack Sparrow.

5. Marshmallows and fire go together like summer and tennis.

6. Life goes on and on.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going out to dinner with the special man in my life, tomorrow my plans include going to the movies to see 'Doubt' and Sunday, I want to stay home, but I have to go to work!

What I made last week

Time to get busy again for the first big event of the year - Australia Day celebrations at Glenbrook Park.

I made some earrings using my favorite Czech glass beads.

- little necklaces with glass pendants and my own mixes of seed beads.

- rings, with handmade lampwork glass beads, czech glass beads, venetian glass, and gemstones.


- and some more earrings, this time with unicorn beads, and venetian glass with little swarovski crystals for a bit of spaarkle.

Treasuries with me and by me - part 3

This week started quietly as regards either getting or being featured in a treasury.

Maybe the timing wasn't right for us down-under people.

Then the end of the week brought a flurry - including this deliciously coloured one by laceandlinks.
Carmel of laceandlinks was inspired by the colour of Australia - the wide brown land, and kindly included my south-west cape necklace, right next to rainbowrevolutions gorgeous wrap which I own a version of (see a previous post).
Carmel (laceandlinks) is a very versatile crafter, who enjoys making all sorts of creations.
Just look at the incredible colourful bracelet - Beads of fire.

On a totally different topic, hannahfaerie found unity in the muted tones of bugs, and we were thrilled to see one of our new tshirts included - the blue dragonfly tshirt.

Hannah is another Australian seller on etsy who fashions one of a kind jewellery from her own lovely ceramic beads.
I just love the colour and textures on this pretty wedgewood necklace.
Well it has been very hot in Sydney this week, and Olga from Baboom must have wished she was back in Europe to cool down. Not that there are actually icebergs in europe!

I'm glad she thought my moonshine bracelet fitted her theme, and hope it helped to cool her down.

Olga is an amazingly talented worker of yarn, felt, beads etc, who creates all her own designs, including this delightful scarflette - perfect for mermaids, and exquisitely knitted and crocheted.


And to finish a couple I curated (at the same time, one in treasury and the other in treasury west).

This song has been going round in my head all week, so I just had to put it into pictures.

Then, because it was Australia day, I just had to do the green and gold one...

Friday Fill In

1. Oh, I am so HOT!

2. My body, unfortunately changes, big and little.

3. During the day, I create jewellery.

4. I reversed my car into a truck yesterday ; are you kidding me???

5. Right now I'd like to be at the beach - or somewhere just a little bit cooler.

6. My Ott light (wonderful natural light) is my favorite gadget.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watcing the tennis on TV, tomorrow my plans include getting my new bed delivered and Sunday, I want to go and watch the Brewster Brothers at Katoomba!

...at the bottom of my garden...

Hey! what's that at the bottom of my garden???

Let's take a closer look...

something is eating G's new plant....


"hey! What are you doing?"

"Who? Me?"
Yes! YOU!!!!

Treasuries- part 2

It's a great buzz to find an item you have created has been chosen to be in a treasury.

I had that thrill three times last week!

How do you know if your work had been picked for a treasury?
When you look at the treasury lists if you have an item in one, a gold star will show just before where it says 'picked by'.

So the first one was curated by super-talented artist janallsopp.

I'm so happy that she thought my sand and sea bracelet fitted with her theme.

Jan has many talents, apart from painting and drawing she makes altered books and mixed media pieces.

I really love these pair of cup paintings.


Another treasury I was in, was this lovely one by michvanetta.
She found all these different silver pieces from members of the DUST team (Down Under Street Team - a group of Australian sellers on etsy).
My by the light of the silvery moon earrings are in wonderful company amongst all these talented artisans.

Mich, is an amazing jewellery designer, who takes amazing photos of her creations.
Dont you just love the cool simplicity of these turquoise earrings.
check out all the other goodies in her shop.


A great surprise was to see I had been included in this team treasury, to showcase the work of the etsy twitter team.
Just in case you dont know, twitter is a social chatting network.

This was a lovely bright and colourful collecton, and I was so happy to see my colourful carnival bracelet was a part of it.


Lastly I got the chance to curate one myself.
I also wanted to showcase all the wonderful Australian craftspeople, so I started searching for members of the DUST team.
I found a vibrant ring by bobishi, and that became my colour scheme.
One thing led to another, and then I had to think of a name, as that is the first thing you enter when posting your treasury.
...berry colours, yum - I love berries, they are delicious!

Hope you think my treasury is delicious too.

new earrings for the new year

All good things come to an end - even having a break from making things.
I have a market coming up next week, but being a great procrastinator, I have put off making anything I can actually sell.

Instead I have been fiddling withwonderful little cubes give to me by the gorgeous Realisationcreations. She's been having a destash, which is something I had planned for the new year too. Ah, well.

I started with just a simple bracelet in peyote stitch.
But I didnt have enough beads to make it fit my wrist, so I added co-ordinating seed beads in 2-drop stitch at the ends.
(this picture shows it not quite finished yet)

I remember seeing a technique using cube beads and seed beads in a Bead and Button magazine.
that surely would solve the problem of not having quite enough beads for a bracelet.

For the next project I chose these lovely pewter or gunmetal matt cubes.
I teamed them some size 11's in a clear pale amethyst colour, that wouldnt overwhelm the cubes.


It is worked in a 2-drop peyote stitch, with the cubes being single-drop.
This technique is a lot slower than straight peyote stitch, and so it is still a work in progress, because I'm really thinking that I should be making earrings.

I have a stack of gorgeous Venetian glass beads still to use, so I warmed up witha few simple pairs.


The beads come from many different glassmakers in Venice and you can see how varied their beads are.

Some of them are quite large - not for the faint-hearted.
I'll be taking them to the Australia Day market in Glenbrook, Which is where the gnome convention happens.
These are definitely not gnome sized earrings.