Oh, but January has been cold. This last month I've seen a blizzard in the dark, defrosted the bird bath countless times, and woken to a hoar frost that reached the tops of the trees and sounded like tiny bells when it eventually began to melt and fell to the ground around me. Magical, but cold, so I can't help hoping February will be warmer and show some early signs of Spring...
To keep me warm and indoors until then, here's what I'm recommending or reading this month.
~jewellery links~
Fancy trying enamelling but not sure where to start? This tutorial looks a good place to begin.
Changing the colour of copper.
Simple tutorial for a bracelet made from rope and embroidery threads.
A Roman pendant made of silver and carnelian was discovered by a metal detectorist.
If you can't get to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London then this is a substitute, with wonderful photographs; a brief history of beautiful jewellery.
Interested in metal clay projects? I plan on checking out this list of PDF tutorials.
~non-jewellery links~
How tiny hummingbirds survive winter.
Wonderful photos of snow-clad Scotland.
Playing with colour online - Pictaculous lets you upload any photograph and get a custom colour scheme from the image. Colors on the Web lets you build a whole palette around one colour (knowledge of what hexadecimal colour codes mean is handy though - if you're not sure what I'm talking about, have a read of this). And if you're just looking for wonderful colours to inspire, then Design Seeds is always worth browsing.
Beautiful botanical art.
The web is full of 'handy hints', many of which aren't that handy. This list of things to do with an old mascara wand is pure gold though.
Crafting, creative and just downright fun-loving commuters, and how they fill their travel time.
Fantastic art, featuring zombies... and available on Folksy.
~latest reads~
Winter is wonderful for curling up and reading, reading, reading... I've just finished two great fiction books -
A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan (I read her earlier novel The Gracekeepers last year), which is a series of short stories tied up in a sweet plot about waiting for a baby to arrive.
Phil Rickman's The Wine of Angels is suitably spooky and about wassailing, amongst other things. This in book one in the Merrily Watkins series, which has been recommended to me by more than one person. I inadvertently read book 2 first but I decided not to let that stop me starting where I should have started...
I'm also reading The Snow Child again, a beautiful book by Eowyn Ivey, and perfect when the ground is frozen outside and you're warm indoors with a mug of tea...
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Hope you enjoy the links and hope your February is a good, if short, month.
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If you want to pretend it's summer already then take a look at my Jewelled Web from June 2015.
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