Autumnal Colours Show

Hello everyone, I have very exciting news this post.  I've had a piece accepted into the Autumnal Colours show at the Coast Collective.

Autumn is my favourite season, so I'm very excited about this.  I will be at the reception mentioned on the poster there, on Saturday August 29th, and I'm thinking of baking some pumpkin snickerdoodles for the occasion, so you should definitely come check it out.

The piece that's been accepted is my Autumn Colours coral-style necklace.  It's inspired by trees changing colours in the fall.  I posted about this piece back in 2013, but couldn't really justify spending the time to finish it since these large pieces take so much time to complete, and it's hard to charge minimum wage for my time on them.  That's part of why it was so exciting to be accepted into this show based on the work in progress picture -- it gave me a good reason to prioritize finishing a piece I really liked but had put on the back burner.

So without further ado, here it is:

It's made with five different colours of seed beads, golden bugle beads, and 100 Swarovski crystal bicones (fire opal), including the one on the extender chain I added to make the necklace adjustable.  It's choker-length without the chain, since the coral part extends a good few inches below the length of the chain, but it can be worn more loosely if desired.  I've priced it at $299 for the show.

Here's another shot of it hanging on a bust with the extender chain draped over the top:

I am absolutely delighted with how it turned out, and I hope you like it just as much as I do.  Hopefully I will get to meet some of you at the reception.  Please let me know you read about this on my blog if you do come.

New Pieces at Fort Rodd Hill

It's been a busy and delightful summer.  I've met so many interesting people from all over the world out at Fort Rodd Hill, and I look forward to meeting more. 

I promised I would tell you my schedule, and I have been somewhat remiss, but here are some of my upcoming shifts.  Hope to see you there!  (If you do come visit me, let me know you've seen my blog.  I have no idea if anyone but my mother reads this, haha.)

Coast Collective: August 16
Fort Rodd Hill: August 19 & 28, September 12

I've also made several new pieces for people to check out.  Here are some pictures.

The first is made with a lovely piece of deep green sea glass, and features an elegant wrap of graceful lines and smooth spirals in silver-plated copper.  I know this glass is from the ocean, but this one makes me think of mirror-smooth lakes surrounded by tall trees.

The next is already sold, sadly, because it's one of my new favourites and if it hadn't sold this summer I would have definitely kept it for myself, haha.  It's a large white pendant with silver-plated copper wire in pairs of wiggly lines that echo its wiggly outline and the faint swirls you can see in the glass.

I also did another gunmetal on white piece.  This one is all irregular shapes and was really fun to wrap.

I also did a few new pieces with charms.

The first up features a leaping dolphin over the deep green waters of the pacific, with silver-plated copper wire.

The next is a wiggly freeform wrap of silver-plated copper wire on white sea glass, and features a large starfish charm.  It's also already been sold, sorry.

I've been lucky enough to find more coloured sea glass lately, so here is another piece htat features it.  This one is a rich dark brown colour, a bit pitted, so I wrapped it with silver-plated copper wire in ripples to mimic wavelets ruffling sand, and put a large sand dollar charm on it.

The final silver-plated copper piece features a lovely violet freshwater pearl.

I also did a new piece with brass wire and a light rose freshwater pearl.  The simple lines gently frame the pearl dangle.

I thought this pendant might go nicely with the new pair of earrings I did.  These also feature brass wire and pale rose freshwater pearls, but I added golden Swarovski crystal bicones, which gives them a really elegant touch.

I actually can't take full credit.  One of the artists in residence suggested the golden crystals.  (The artists in residence are really great.  There's one up there each week, and they often do workshops and are always happy to tell you about their medium and style.  It's been really wonderful getting to talk to the ones I've seen during my shifts in the gift shop.)

Here's another picture on a white background so you can see the effect of the colours.

And in case anyone is curious, I've been working on some beading projects lately too.  A few people have commented lately that my pearl necklaces with the white and silver look somewhat bridal, so I thought I'd extend my line of bridal options in those.

Here's the first, which is made with white glass pearls and iris seed beads for a really airy and lacy look.  I don't currently have this on sale anywhere, so just send me a message if you're interested.

And here it is tumbled on glass.

That's it for now, but hopefully I'll have some new pictures ready soon.  I have some exciting earring ideas I'm working on.