Gifts and Wishes 2015

Well gentle readers, it is now time to announce my final confirmed Christmas show of the season.  For the second time, I will be participating in the Coast Collective's Gifts and Wishes show which is a gallery-style show running from November 25 to December 20.  (December 20th is also the Coast Collective's final day in its present location, so if you haven't been out to Havenwood, I recommend you check it out before they move to the Holiday Inn Express on Wale Road.)

I was there on Wednesday, and it's an absolutely gorgeous show this year!  There's a huge variety of stuff, from what's shown in the above poster to pottery, gourd art, metalwork, glass art, watercolour paintings, acrylic paintings, handcrafted bookmarks, art cards, and completely adorable monster stuffies...  I will be there again on Saturday November 28th and on Sunday December 13th.  I'll be bringing home-made pinwheel cookies this Saturday, and if I am feeling ambitious I'll make traditional Bavarian Christmas cookies for my December shift, if baked foods bribery works to get you to swing by.

Baked goods are not what I'm selling, however.  So without further ado, here are some pictures of the jewellery you can find at the gallery show.

For fans of my pearl and seed bead jewellery, I included a couple necklace and bracelet pairs in some favourite colours.

First up is my classic harlequin design, which someone recently pointed out to me could also be called a ying yang design since it has the curves and balance of black and white.  (bracelet $20, necklace $39)

And for those wanting warmer tones, I have the rich caramel pearl and coffee-brown seed bead combo (bracelet $20, necklace $39)

To go with the pearl necklace and bracelet sets, I have some of my freeform coil earrings.

I have a nice winter pairing of silver-plated copper wire and snowy white glass pearls ($20):

I have a silver-plated wire and greyscale ombre set that would go beautifully with the harlequin/ying yang nelckace and bracelet set ($20):

And I have a pair of silver-plated copper wire with lavender miracle beads.  These ones feature smaller/tighter coils.  The miracle beads never quite come out in pictures.  The best one is the second from the top on the left-hand earring.  The beads seem to have a glowing layer around a bead in the inner core.  Or maybe a shadow layer around a glowing inner core.  Anyway, miracle beads have a bit of an optical illusion going, and I love it, but it doesn't photograph.  ($20)

In warmer tones I have an elegant brass wire with creamy white glass pearls for a sense of classic, old-fashioned luxury with a modern twist in design ($20)

And for those liking a bit more colour, I have brass wire with white and caramel glass pearls ($20)

The final pair of freeform coil earrings features copper wire and white glass pearls for those who like to play with a less common metal in their jewellery ($20)

I also have some of my new triple drop earrings at this show.

The first are in silver-plated wire with deep indigo freshwater pearls ($20)

I also have another pair of my lovely and elegant favourites with the rose-coloured freshwater pearl drops and brass wire ($20)

And a pair of my new favourites (I'm allowed to have many many favourites, okay?), the gilttery shooting star design featuring gunmetal wire, hematite stars, and Swarovski crystal bicones:

These ones actually sold on Wednesday, but I'll bring in another pair on Saturday, only with silver-plated wire instead of gunmetal.  I figure these guys are great for holiday-season parties, especially New Years.

And last but not least we have some sea glass.  I realize it's more of a summer thing, but no WhispereDreams collection would be complete without it.  I have included two sets.

The first is silver-plated copper wire on white sea glass with indigo pearls.  (Pendant on black cotton cord $25, earrings $39)

The second features brass wires and pale peachy freshwater pearls.  These earrings are a bit different because they more closely echo the pendant design and have the pearl dangles hanging right against the sea glass instead of above or below.  (pendant on black cotton cord $25, earrings $39)

And there you have it!  If you buy lots, I'll make new things, haha.  Hope to see some of you there either this Saturday the 28th, or on December 13th.  Remember, I am bribing you with cookies!

Fort Rodd Hill/Fisgard Lighthouse

I am thrilled to announce that my sea glass jewellery will be in the gift shop out at Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse this summer.  This is a satellite shop of the Coast Collective (where I also have some new pieces).  Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse are two National Historic Sites located in one beautiful park near the Esquimalt Lagoon.  If you've never explored it, I highly recommend it.  (I had never been out there until I went to drop off my inventory, and it is just lovely!)

I have created several new pieces of sea glass, or beach glass, jewellery for this location.  We'll start with the pendants.

(Remember, you can always click on these pictures to enlarge them.)

First up is a double scroll and zig zag design of silver-plated copper wire on white glass.

This lovely deep green piece luckily wound up being pretty on both sides, so it can be worn either way.  I apologize for the quality of the photo.  I've already handed this piece off to the gift shop, so I can't take another.  (silver-plated copper wire.)

I also did a few silver-plated copper wire wraps with charms.


The first features a white freshwater pearl set against a rippling wrap.

The next is a classic cage-style wrap featuring a large starfish charm.

And the final silver-plated copper piece features a free form wrap with ripples and a large spiral, with a large starfish charm.

Next up are my new brass pendants.

This one is a fairly simple wrap featuring a double scroll at the top.  This piece of sea glass was fun because it had two ridges, so I was able to snug some wire in between.

The next piece is another reversible one.  The shape of this piece of sea glass reminds me of a shark's tooth.

I have a couple brass pieces with charms as well.



The first features an indigo freshwater pearl and a fairly minimalistic wrap.

The second one features a large golden starfish charm with a classic cage style wrap and a large scroll at the top.

The next few are in a new type of wire I recently bought on Salt Spring Island.  It's a really neat golden gunmetal.

The first wrap kind of reminds me of a leaf, the way the lines curve down towards the center.

The next is another that could be reversible.  The side I intended for the front features smooth lines and a spiral, but I liked all the zigs and zags on the back as well.

The final gunmetal piece is a simple double scroll wrap but it's on a beautiful big piece of bottle-green glass.  This green is a lot warmer in tone than the one I posted earlier and paired with silver.  I think the gunmetal suits the colour quite nicely.

Finally, I have some pendants in copper.

The first is a cute little pendant of white sea glass with a double spiral heart.

The next few all have charms.

The first one features an indigo freshwater pearl.

The next features a teal Swarovski crystal bicone and a clam shell charm on top of a squiggly wrap.

And the final one is a cage-style wrap with a large starfish charm of a different type than the golden or silver ones.

I also decided to do something new for the cords I hang them on.  Typically at markets I would have waxed cotton cord to offer, and I would just tie a double slip knot to make the length adjustable.  That doesn't look super nice when there are several pieces on a display though, so I decided to put the extra time into attaching clasps to all the cords, and I am soooooo glad I did.  I think it looks just fantastic.  I guess in part it's that it's kind of unremarkable (though the bright metal against the black cord does look nice), but it just looks so much more polished to me now, like something that you would see in a store.

I would like you to note that I used split rings for all the attachments.  They're the double coil type, so they're a lot more work to open and to attach other pieces to, but they don't have a gap that could spread open like with jump rings, so they won't just come apart.  I don't know about you, but I've bought lots of jewellery only to lose pieces because a jump ring opens, so I always try to use split rings and am even replacing the jump rings on some jewellery I've bought.

I also made a few new pairs of earrings for Fort Rodd Hill.

The first are made with silver-plated copper wire over lovely pale blue pieces of sea glass.  I wrapped them with all sorts of wiggles to look a little like foamy waves.  I attached a dangle with a pale azure Swarovski crystal to echo the pale blue of the glass, and a white freshwater pearl perched above a spiral.

(I think they might go nicely either with the pendant with the freshwater pearl or with the wiggles and the starfish that I posted above.)

The next ones feature a spiraling design in brass wire over white sea glass, with pale rose freshwater pearls dangling below.  Those long pearls add a lot of elegance.

The final earrings are copper wire on white sea glass dangling below indigo freshwater pearls.  They're similar in design to some I'd made before, but the sea glass is a little bigger on these

All of these earrings are mounted on my new home-made earring cards.  This is a definite improvement to just attaching a price tag to one of the earrings and hanging them on a stand, don't you think?

They've got my business card on the back, and I write the materials and price on the inside.

I hope you'll come to see some of these pieces in person out at Fort Rodd Hill.  I'll post my schedule soon so you know when you can talk to me there.  (I'll post my Coast Collective shifts too.)

Only a few days left on Etsy Grand Opening Sale!

Hello all,

There are only a few days left to use the WDGRANDOPEN coupon and save 10% on items in my Etsy shop.  It's only available until October 24th.

I will be adding more items to the shop soon, but for now, here are some pictures of the pieces I currently have up for sale:

Reversible brass wire wrapped sea glass pendant. $20

Reversible copper wire wrapped sea glass pendant.  $20

 

Silver-plated copper wire wrapped sea glass pendant.  $20

 

Silver-plated copper wire wrapped sea glass pendant.  $20

Brass wire wrapped sea glass pendant with shell charm.  $25

Silver-plated copper wire wrapped sea glass earrings with Swarovski crystal bicones and freshwater pearls.  $39

 

Silver seed bead and white glass pearl necklace with toggle clasp.  $39

Icy blue seed bead and white glass pearl necklace with lobster claw clasp.  $39

 

Hematite-finish black seed beads with crimson glass pearl necklace with lobster claw clasp.  $39

Copper core transparent black seed bead with caramel glass pearl necklace with lobster claw clasp.  $39

Silver-plated copper wire donut wrap on rose quartz with glass pearls, Swarovski crystal bicone, and E beads on an iris seed bead and rose-white glass pearl chain with lobster claw clasp.  $59

Are there more pieces from my blog you'd like to see in my Etsy shop?  Just let me know in a comment or shoot me an email.

Acres of Art was Lovely; Also New Beach Glass

Hello everyone!

As mentioned, I went out to the beautiful Coast Collective for their Acres of Art show on July 12.  It was a lovely afternoon, and I got to talk to so many nice people.  If you happened to pick up my business card and are checking my blog now, please comment or send me an email so I know these things are working.

It was exciting to set up my table with all my new jewellery stands.  I think the table ended up looking pretty nice.  (There are closeups of all the pieces displayed in this photo down in my previous blog entries.)

Since I had dropped off all my old beach glass pieces at the Maritime Museum's gift shop, I made a whole new set for this show.  So I figure I'll show off some pictures of it here.

First up, I have a couple new reversible pieces.  The first is non-tarnish brass wire (looks like gold) on white beach glass.  It's $20.

The second reversible piece is copper on white.  It's also $20.

I have another copper pendant for people who really like swirls.  It has two scrolls on its face plus a really swirly top. $20

This next piece features silver-plated copper wire on white beach glass.  It sort of reminds me of a cello.  $20

I have another in silver-plated copper wire on white beach glass.  This one's design is more vertical.  $20.

In case you're beginning to worry that all my new pieces are on white beach glass, I'll show you now that they aren't.  Here's a dainty one in silver-plated copper wire on deep green beach glass.  $20.

I also did one with brass wire on dark green beach glass.  This one is probably my favourite of the new set of beach glass pendants.  The odd shape of the glass actually helped me to do a really nice wrap.  $20

The rest of the pendants all have charms of some sort.  The first is brass wire on white beach glass and features a large scroll and a shell-shaped charm.  $25

The next one is brass wire in a ripply wrap on white beach glass, and for something different I gave it a pink freshwater pearl to add a splash of colour.  $25

Sticking with the notion of some added colour, I put an indigo freshwater pearl on this pendant of silver-plated copper wire on white beach glass.  $25

The final pendant for the day is rather fun.  It's a heart-shaped piece of white beach glass wrapped in silver-plated copper wire with a dolphin charm.  $25

I also made two new pairs of earrings.  The first set could go nicely with the pendant with the indigo pearl, since it also features silver-plated copper wire and indigo pearl dangles, though I added a vibrant pink seed bead for a touch of contrast. $39

Here they are again hanging on a mug.

This next pair of earrings is probably my favourite pair of beach glass earrings so far.  They are copper wire on white beach glass dangling below an indigo pearl, which looks lovely against the copper.  I also feel like the double scroll in the wrap somehow ends up looking a little like a heart.  $39

And hanging from the mug:

And that's it for today, but I will have more news of venues and events for you soon.  Just comment or email to let me know if you'd like to see more of something.