Autumnal

I made a long necklace!

The disc beads are from the bead shop in the Custard Factory, Birmingham; the glass beads are Indian lamp work; and the rest is silver-plated. I especially like the plain style of the chain, which nicely complements the floral design of the disc beads, and makes it easy to adjust the necklace length.

In the picture above you can see that it's all misty over the fields... the weather really is autumnal now.

Late summer earrings

Although summer's almost ended by all objective criteria, I still have summer in my head - at least, I'm still slightly jet-lagged from my holidays.

I made a little present for another Sarah, whose birthday party we're going to today, and I think a little bit of summer crept into that too.

I used:

green shell beads from the late lamented craft shop in our town
silver plated Greek ceramic discs
matte aqua seed beads
silver plated headpins
sterling silver earwires

ETA: She liked them!

What am I going to do with all this sea glass?

Today I went on a sea-glass-collecting spree with my sister. We found LOADS at a beach near her home including a piece in a gorgeous intense cobalt-blue colour. She brought me back down to earth by asking me: "so what are you going to do with all this sea glass?"

Ah - experimentation is the fun part!

There's an overview of four main methods here, as well as other interesting links about grading sea glass. This recent blog post about drilling sea glass was also helpful - although surely one needs a clamp or similar to hold the sea-glass in place and drill safely? It looks a bit scary to me.

Using silver metal clay seems to produce the nicest results, and I even found someone who teaches classes and has experience in this technique.

The Rules of Sea Glass

Since I found my sea glass I have been trawling the internet for sea glass wisdom.

These are what I understand to be the Rules of Sea Glass.

1. If it is not frosted all over, with no shiny-smooth-glassy sides, it is not sea glass.
2. If the corners are not all rounded, it is not sea glass.
3. If the edges are sharp, it is not sea glass.
4. If it was not actually found on a beach, it is not sea glass.
5. If it is not glass, it is not sea glass (sounds obvious... but some stones can look very glass-like!).

Some of the bits I found are perhaps rather debatable specimens according to the Rules of Sea Glass, but I like them anyway! I am not sure what I am going to do with them. I am hoping to somehow combine them with some interesting shells that I found.

Sea glass

A few weeks ago, I visited the beach for the first time for a long while.

This is the beach we visited on our holidays. It is, let me tell you, absolutely amazing. Not only is there super-fresh fish and chips, and excellent gelato and coffee, but there is also a lot of sea-glass to be found on the beach.

Have you ever found sea glass on a beach? What is your favourite beach for sea-glass hunting?

Pictures of my haul to follow...

"But Mummy that bead really likes me..."

Took my five-year-old son out to town today.

After we'd chosen some other presents, I told him he could choose five beads from the bead shop. He sort of got round this by choosing five charms and five beads, and wouldn't give any of them back because each bead had apparently developed a strong and unbreakable attachment to him...

On the way back, as a special treat we visited to a gorgeous ice-cream parlour, with a very kind waitress, fifteen sorts of ice-cream, tables with white table-cloths and a mirror that showed us eating our ice-cream in an "upside-down world". It was magical.

We also managed to cover lots of conversational topics over the day, including:

• how soldiers now tend to wear camouflage gear rather than full suits of medieval plate armour
• the difference between a true friend and a false friend (this came from something he had heard from the older children at school - a false friend is apparently someone who "gives you expensive presents and throws wild parties")
• what children (his age) mean when they say "I won't be your friend any more!", especially when everything is fine five minutes later
• why children should not run off in shops so that their parents can't find them (I heard this later re-enacted, with him featuring as the parent and his toy shrimp as the wayward child) 
• how the planets are all named after Roman gods
• how, with the weather, You Never Can Tell (a favourite saying of his)
• what you can see when you are in an aeroplane (and why you are not in space, even when you are above the clouds)
• the different methods for dyeing one's hair (or beard; this particular conversation was prompted by seeing a man with a pink beard)
• what money is for
• what a "chicken dinner" is
• how God is the reason the world is "full of lovely things"

Natural World Necklace: water, earth, air

The focal for this necklace is one of the three grey ceramic hearts my sister Rachel selected at our Craven and White visit. She suggested pairing this heart bead with some of the round green glass beads I'd used for my winter necklace which I happened to be wearing that day. Luckily, I had two of the large green glass beads left, which seemed to suit the focal better than the small ones.

While putting this together for Rachel I was thinking how much she cares about the natural world. She is very knowledgeable about ecology. She and her husband are such great people to visit a nature centre with - they really bring the subject alive.

Thinking of this, I came across these beautiful turquoise rounds from Ilona Biggins. Then I added some long-hoarded poppy jasper beads from Beadworks, and some pale blue crystal rondelles. Together, they felt like "water", "earth" and "air". Because they're so different, I combined them in a simple repeating design, using almost the last of my upcycled translucent green 8/0 seed beads.

 

The necklace came out slightly on the short side, though - almost choker length. So I also made a matching bracelet with an identical Tibetan silver toggle-clasp, which can be used to extend the length of the main necklace if preferred.

The crystals catch the light as the necklace moves, which is nice since they signify "the air".

Luckily the weather has now substantially improved since this photograph was taken!