Gifts for Myself and Others 2015, Nov 20-22

I am thrilled to announce that I am once again participating in the Gifts for Myself and Others Juried Show and Sale of Fine Craft.  (There's actually a short youtube video with pictures of a bunch of the artwork at that link as well as a list of participating artists.)  I won't have my own table this year, but I'll be part of the gallery shoppe, which is a large booth featuring the works of a number of Island Artisans members.  (The video's info is a bit outdated; the cafe and gallery shop are on the main floor.)

Once again, the show is being held at the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre right across the Bay Street bridge.  I got to look around a bit when I dropped off my jewellery this morning, and it looks like it will once again be a fantastic show this year.  In case you missed it in my title, it's this weekend, November 20-22. 

Here's a look at my Gifts for Myself and Others 2015 collection:

Remember you can click on the images to enlarge them.

Here's a picture without the busts blocking the necklaces on the stands:

As you can see, there are a few old favourite designs and some new ones.

Some spiral earring designs make a comeback, with pure as snow white and silver spiral earrings set for strolls through winter wonderlands. $20:

I also have two ombre versions in silver plate.  The first has a white center and gets darker towards the edges for cool sophistication on winter days. $20:

and the second starts dark in the middle and brightens up at the tips like clouds with a silver lining, $20:

New this year I have a design in candy cane red and white for Christmas time delight, $20:

I also have the classic gold and white and gold and caramel and white designs with brass and glass pearls, and the cherry red miracle beads and brass.  New to the golden scale this year is a pair featuring clear amber-coloured beads for a warm honey glow, $20:

I also have a few sea glass pendants at the show, like this one featuring brass wire, a shell charm, and a freshwater pearl.  They're all ready-to-wear on black cotton cords with clasps to match the metal used in their wrap.  $25:

New this year I have a series of triple drop earrings.  These are long and elegant dangling earrings that can be worn to taper towards the face or away from it, depending what flatters your face shape best.

To stick with the golden theme, first up we have a set in brass with pale rose freshwater pearl drops, $20:

Next are some that I think would be perfect for holiday season parties, especially New Years.  They feature silver-plated wire, shiny little hematite stars, and glittering Swarovski crystal bicones.  They'd add the perfect sparkle to any party outfit.

Last in the new lineup of drop style earrings I have some with silver plate, icy blue seed beads and beautiful blue glass beads cut in faceted rectangular prisms.  These would add some fun and colourful sparkle to your look:

And last but not least, since it's in the show and I may never get to see it again, here is yet another picture of my beautiful fringe necklace Treasures of the Deep.

If you make it to the show and enjoy it, drop me a line and let me know.  More news to come soon about my next Christmas season event.

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.

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.)