Gems

Migraine day yesterday - and still today - means everything else takes a back seat. But prior to migraine day was find some new gemstones day! So I've got some lovely colours to look at and get inspired by and try and figure out what to do with.

In this sweet little shop I firstly found . . .



. . . which is called red lined agate but looks quite orange, more like the richness of carnelian.

I found this amazonite bead too.



I'm not sure I'll be able to part with that one . . . It's wonderfully chunky, a gorgeous shape and I'm falling in love with the colour.

I bought a few other things, a few more nugget shaped beads but of a good size, that I'm tempted to turn into focal pendants. I used some silver yesterday, before the migraine struck, to create headpins.

Now I just need to find that inspiration.

Sprung!

My leaves are ready. They've been soldered, filed, polished, hammered, even bent a bit - on purpose, I hasten to add. I've put some up on Folksy but I've one I'm not sure I'll be able to part with so have held that one back in reserve.

This isn't it, although I rather like this one too . . .

Deceiving clouds

I was sent this photo from a mobile phone yesterday - hence the not completely wonderful quality!


A little cloud-watching is something I have a lot of time for. I plucked a cloud book from my shelf (everyone should have a cloud book! I have two . . . ) and discovered that my vague hunch was right, and this cloud is called Altocumulus Lenticularis. Okay, I only got the lenticular bit from memory. Unsurprisingly, it's often mistaken for being a UFO.

Leavings

These aren't quite finished yet, still need some filing and polishing, but they're on their way now . . .

Spring, snow, sun, blue skies . . .

It has been a slow silver week. I've got things done but only by edging forward, one step at a time. I had a good spell yesterday, worked on some more leaf ideas, developing the theme, playing around with it.

But the week feels dominated by weather and the results it's created in my world.

I found this earlier in the week . . .



A flower! Having seen snowdrops a little earlier, I felt all kind of spring-like.

Then this happened.





I added to the prints, inspired by some of the photos I've found through this wonderful blog



Yesterday, the sun came out. It didn't melt all the snow, which I was glad about, but it did make the sky glow.

A leaf from start to finish

A work-in-progress gallery of a new pendant I've been working on.

Perhaps not overly fitting given the weather lately but when venturing outside I've found a few small crop of green shoots pushing through the snow, and some buds, just waiting, on a plant . . .



This is the pendant after it's been soldered. Not particularly attractive but the shape I'm trying to achieve is emerging. The small 'veins' were not easy to solder.



Fool that I am, I decided on soldering another 'vein' in. I think it looks more balanced, perversely, and more natural and authentic with an odd number.



How the pendant looks after it's been pickled out, the dark oxidisation from soldering lifted away by the acidic pickle solution.



A couple of rings have been attached (for hanging on a chain necklace) and excess solder has been, carefully, filed away. I tumble polished the leaf to give it a bright shine and then lightly hammered it to impart some leafy-looking texture.

Snow, frost, cold, silver

Someone has to mention it. It's not been on the news at all and the papers haven't commented on it. But it snowed quite a bit these last few days in the UK . . . I even have proof . . .



Nowhere near as much as in some areas but, despite sun the last two days, it's still hanging around for the most part. Which is kind of nice, if a bit chilly.

Watching snowfall is a wonderful way to pass the time. I spent a while on Sunday watching it come down and, as I slowly became hypnotised by the dizzying flakes, I remembered a book I'd looked through in a coffee shop within a bookshop some time back. So I did some searching and found the guy who wrote it, Kenneth Libbrecht, has a website full of everything snowflake related.

It even has a link to a place where they grow their own snowflakes . . .

I also made these as the snow fell, which I think of as how snowflakes may look if they had curved and not straight edges (and, yes, were made of silver). I'm as yet undecided what to do with them so all suggestions welcomed!