sew different

I decided my Woodland Necklace needed something special when it is sent off to its new home, so I sat myself down at my sewing machine and improvised a little something.
A jaquard material, closed with antique glass buttons.

Image transfered to cotton and attached to the back.

Two little "pillows" of unbleached cotton inside, one with green silk ribbons to tie the necklace in place - to keep it safe during mailing.

et voila! I think this will do the trick!

When the postman rings...

Today, my mailman brought me something wonderful! And I apologize in advance for the photos - artificial lighting just doesn't do these justice!

Little porcelain bird
Some of you might have seen this little bird over at LeAnn's of SummersStudio. I just couldn't resist - this birdie is just so adorably cute!

Some of you might remember, a while back - we all wanted to "Get Excited - Make Things". This was a kind of pay it forward, which stipulated that you send out something you made to your participants in the year 2009. I'm thinking, we might be hearing about this some more in the weeks to come.

Well, I received this from LeAnn from this pay it forward:

One of her wonderful big lentil beads with chandelier crystals as a holiday decoration!!
LeAnn is an excellent craftswoman - she truly understands her clays and her porcelain pieces are made with so much love! In addition to this, she is a wonderful and supportive friend! Thank you, LeAnn, for every kindness you have bestowed on me in this year and for being my friend!!!

Seems like a good moment to thank all of you that I have come to know a bit this past year in the blog community. I thank you for your kindness, your support and your encouragement! You have helped me to push my boundaries and grow. Thank you for being there! I wish you all a most wonderful (and delicious) Thanksgiving with your loved ones!!!!

Round Robin landed

On the weekend, another of our Round Robins landed at my house, bringing the most incredible things along! I thought I would share a bit with you.

Look at this! Véronique (of Narrative Jewelry) was so sweet - she sent me several different kinds of tea and a present! Besides sending me a postcard with a vintage photo of a bicycle - just like the one I saw at the flea market last month!

She was so kind and made me a pair of earrings - please take a look at these lovelies!

Thank you, dear sweet Véronique!!! They are wonderful!

She also sent me Sharon's necklace - do you want to see this piece of beauty and wonder? Okay...

but unfortunately, this photo has been censored (hèhèhèhèhèhèhèhèhè), so you will have to wait until our Round Robins have completed their flight around the world!

Inspite of Advent - Sunday flea market

The way things have been going this weekend with the Advent exhibition - I decided to perk myself up and go to the flea market with Max this morning. To say things are going badly would be an understatement. I have had no customers this weekend. And to top things off, the electricity went off yesterday for one and a half hours in the entire area. Seeing as it isn't likely that anyone will come today either, I might just as well show you some flea market impressions. I took my camera along and took so many photos, I could keep posting for a week. Please join me again while I peruse the strange and ordinary memorabilia and castoffs of today and yesteryear.

What a combination of things - makes me think of a circus...

I bet this appeals to the child in all of us!

I think even the Easter bunny is on this table, which shows a slightly more exclusive selection.

No, not the ruins of Pompeii. Old columns and objects, possibly from India or Indonesia.

Lovely old lace parasol.

This painting reminds me of Esther!

A dollhouse collection.

And now for my loot! Following are the treasures I haggled over and brought home:
Antique glass beads and glass stones. Oh, these are just fantastic!

Some antique rosary beads, watch parts and another souvenir bracelet from France!

Some faux pearls and vintage rhinestone pieces.

Some wonderful secret keepers!

I hope you enjoyed the flea market today as much as I did. Have a lovely Sunday!

(Comment: I wish this flea market was every weekend - although that would be bad for my pocketbook. This one is once a month - which is why I so look forward to going!)

Another resin focal

I worked on another piece with a resin focal yesterday - this time I turned it into a bracelet.


This is a pale grey mother of pearl resin focal, combined with freshwater pearls in pale grey, rhinestone rondelles, crackled rock crystal beads and copper.

Now I have to get ready for another weekend of Advent exhibition. I wonder if anyone is going to come? The newspaper printed last week's advertisement again, instead of the new one I sent; meaning the dates are wrong. Do you think there is a chance nobody will notice that detail???

Finished necklace and some earrings

Finished the necklace early this morning!!! I am pretty happy with this piece - serendipity had her fingers in on this one!

Woodland Necklace detail

Woodland Necklace
Freshwater pearls, agate teardrops, mother of pearl focal with resin, copper, metal, rhinestone rondelle, silk ribbon.

Woodland Earrings
I was having so much fun, I made some matching earrings too!

Drops of Honey
I am so in love with the colour of these chalcedony briolettes!

Firefly Briolettes
The glow of these chalcedony briolettes is just amazing - it really reminds me of fireflies... combined with jade and fused copper rings.

Work in progress

It has been quite a while since I have been able to share some of the jewelry I have worked on. Most of what I have done in the last few weeks was for our Around the World Necklace Round Robin - and that is still top secret, until we are all done.

I have been experimenting with resin focals lately, embedding images and words in the resin. I wanted to share with you a work in progress with one of the focals.

As you can see, this is not yet completed. But I like the direction it is taking.
I made a clasp for this today, which doesn't really fit in with the rest of the necklace, so I have to start over again. I guess my work style is sort of organic - the pieces just kind of "grow" from a starting point, which is most often the focal point.

Image transfers

A couple of days ago, I showed you some chandelier crystals with images. Some of you have asked how I went about it and I am happy to share my experiments.

Technically, these are probably not really transfers. I do not have access to all the wonderful supplies that are available on the US market, so I have to experiment in my alchemist laboratory.... The transfer fluid I was able to locate did not yield the anticipated results, probably because I have an inkjet printer. The colour went off with the paper, leaving me a rather yellowish shadow of a transfer. Not quite what I was envisioning. We don't have a copy shop any where near here either, so I can't run out and photocopy my images.

What I have done is print on tissue paper. To do this, I cut out a piece that is smaller than the paper for my printer and tape it on the sheet, which I return to the paper tray of the printer. This is because the tissue paper is too thin for my printer to transport. You will have to experiment to see if this functions with your printer. So - I print the image on the tissue paper, cut it out somewhat larger than the crystal it will be adhered to (at least half an inch all around). I then spread a coating of Diamond Glaze on the rear side of the crystal and then quickly lay the image on the glaze. Smooth it all down with a brush, so that it adheres everywhere and no air bubbles are trapped. This can be a bit tricky with very dimensional crystals, because the tissue will tear easily. There will be some folds in the tissue paper, due to the shape of the crystal (unless you have one with a flat back) - try to get the folds where the facets meet. They are less conspicuous there. Let dry. Now you can cut the excess paper closely around the crystal and put on another coat of glaze and let dry.

This was done with a colour intense image.

A view of the rear side - you can see just how transparent the tissue paper gets.

The image I used here was very light - making the image almost invisible on the crystal.

rear view
So I used some buff acrylic paint, just a little and spread it over the rear of the image with my wet finger until I had a semi-transparent look, which made the image more visible.

I hope this was helpful!

Advent, Advent

We are getting off to a slow start. A few details - just for fun!

Advent preparations

Just a quick preview of some of the things I am working on for my shop, all the while I should be decorating:

Linen heart with vintage lace and an image transfer (from DigitalAntiques on Etsy) on unbleached cotton - oh, not to forget, a vintage mother of pearl button

image transfers (from piddix on Etsy) on large! vintage chandelier teardrops
These are an amazing 8 cm (just over 3 inches)! I think they are too heavy for jewelry, but would look great on a wreath or in a bowl of spruce branches and Christmas ornaments...

detail

Back to the shop - now where did I put my icicles???

WHAT? HOW many more days until Christmas??

It is that time of year again. In Germany, the four weeks before Christmas are called Advent – the four Sundays before Christmas Eve are Advent Sundays and first one candle is lighted, on the next Sunday two and so on. You might have heard about this tradition. In Germany, this is the decorating highlight of the year and in November - before Advent begins - there are Advent “exhibitions” in shops and at florists etc., which are visited by swarms of women (sometimes with their husbands) looking for those special extras to decorate with and to get started with Christmas shopping. In the past couple of years, I have had a little shop here at the grange, where I sell home and garden decorations, gifts and such things. I have an Advent exhibition on two weekends in November. Starting next weekend, to be more specific.
So, what am I doing on the blog?

Well, I just wanted to let you know that there will be a shortage of flea market treasures here for a while. Because I am cleaning up the shop and decorating and decorating and decorating... Well, you get the idea. As you can witness below, I still have a ways to go. Nothing but chaos yet.





Wait, wait - I still want to show you the earrings I received via the Thanksgiving Treasure Earring Exchange, that was organized by dear Leslie of Bei Mondi! Take a look at these beauties!



Sent to me from Shelby of Sundown Bead Designs - thank you so much, Shelby, these are fabulous!
Gorgeous copper earrings with fused circles. I love how the Swarovski crystals and the olivine jasper exactly match the colours in the beautiful lampwork beads!
I apologize for the poor quality of the photos - we are having very dreary weather and I can't seem to get any good macro shots, either with or without a flash.

Anyway, I have to get back to jingle bells and Santa s.... no, no, snowflakes and pine cones and that sort of thing!

All Hallowed - quiet Sunday

No - didn't go to the flea market today. It is a dreary grey day and I wanted to stay home...
This is a common sight in my house these days:

Casanova sleeping on the window sill.

I still have some beads to show, that I bought on Friday.

citrin nuggets and facetted labradorite

freshwater pearls

assortment of silber beads

facetted mother of pearl and more freshwater pearls