Enamelled Copper and Sea Glass Earrings

What do you get if you mix old water pipes with some cold fire enamel, sea glass and recycled sterling silver wire? 

These dangly earrings emerged through the layer of tools, off cuts and shards coating my work bench and I did enjoy pairing a pop of colour with the pale, white sea glass.

The aforementioned studio clutter forced me to find an alternative photographing position and lo I discovered that if I open the bathroom door, our landing gets light from two windows on opposite sides of the house thus squeezing as much possible light out of the not always bright Scottish skies. Sprawling out on the landing with camera atop elbow propped hands may become my default jewellery photographing style. We shall see.

Recycled Sterling Silver Wedding Rings

What an honour to make wedding rings!

 I love making such special pieces of jewellery and it delights me that more and more people are taking into consideration where the precious metal for their precious wedding bands comes from. This pair are made from 100% recycled sterling silver and were exchanged in a super special sea side ceremony on the east coast of Scotland this summer.

♡

Sea Glass Bottle Stopper Necklace

Finding bottle stoppers on the beach is one of the most exciting discoveries! Especially when they are beautifully weathered but whole. Over on instagram I have been enjoying sea glass posts from across the world; in a sea glass challenge, yesterday's prompt was stoppers and instagrammer posted an image of the most wonderful collection of stoppers including a purple one. Purple!

I made this pendant from what I believed to be the base of a bottle stopper and finally got round to photographing it with a complete stopper R found at the beach at the weekend. I must say it is very nice to have actual weekends again!

You can see the central round impression on the pendant piece of sea glass where, at one time, the rest of the stopper would have protruded. If stoppers are a rare find, perfectly rounded stopper bases are even rarer; this is the only one I have ever found.

Winter Warming

Now we are into January, the media warns us of impending thundersnow and, even if there's only a sprinkling of snow it is distinctly chilly.

My lovely mother in law treated herself to a sumptuous woolly poncho before Christmas and this week declared it was no good as she didn't like the flappiness of it all. So, the poncho was kindly given to me, the daughter in law of frequently purple hands with a penchant for drapery; it's lovely!

Before the cat spotted the poncho lap of joy I took a few winter inspired shots of some jewellery. I then spent the afternoon editing them with the laptop perched on the arm of the sofa with the cat claiming her rightful spot on my lap!

Wishing you all a very happy new year!

Blue Sea Glass Ring

New blue sea glass ring, this unusual triangular shaped piece of blue was a joy to set and this one is available directly from Coldstream Gallery.

Stacker Sea Glass Rings

recycled sterling silver pebble ring

recycled sterling silver and sea glass stacker rings

recycled sterling silver rope, band and heart rings

Rings have been stacking up on my workbench ready to be photographed and worn as lovely little stacks of recycled joy! I will be listing the pebble rings in the shop soon; you can see one worn in a stack with a sea glass ring and a hammered silver ring in the middle picture. With thanks to my gorgeous sister for sending me the picture of her wearing her Christmas present!

Stacked Sea Glass Earrings

Aqua Stacker Sea Glass Earrings

Good news: I have found a good selection of small aqua sea glass ready for drilling so I will be able to make more stacker earrings!

Each pair feature three sets of aqua toned sea glass found here along the Berwickshire and Northumberland coastline. The glass is thoroughly cleaned and a tiny hole drilled through the centre creating little sea glass beads.  The beads are then stacked on a hand forged, long line, recycled sterling silver wire before being polished and hardened in a tumbler.

Aqua Stacker Sea Glass Earrings

Each pair is different with variations in shapes, sizes and order of sea glass depending on what washes up on the beach at the time! I make these to order over in my shop and they can be made to your preferred length, usually between 4 and 6cm from the top to base of the ear wire.

Thank you to all who have ordered these already and I hope you are enjoying wearing them! I know I do ;)

 

Chunky Aqua Sea Glass Ring

New in my new web shop; an eco friendly and lovely chunky silver and aqua sea glass ring.

Sea Glass Pendants and Sumer Jobs

Hello, hello!

How are you all?

Things are rolling along well here working away on new pieces for the Crossing Borders Art Trail including a host of bezel set pendants like these ones which are in various stages of completion:

The blue on the top left is going to be oxidized so the texture on the copper stands out. I did a repair on a bracelet last week and forgot how much I love the blackened, textured look when you oxidize silver so there will be more.

The bracelet to be repaired was a very pretty Macintosh inspired piece and the roses were originally oxidized, however, after soldering and pickling as part of the repair the whole surface was back to silver. With a bit of liver of sulphur (pongs!) followed by polishing the bracelet was returned to its owner.  I dotted the liver of sulphur onto the roses directly(that's what you can see in the picture above) and then put the whole piece in warm water. This meant the whole bracelet became patinated, however it was more concentrated within the lines of the rose and then easy to buff off where the patina wasn't wanted.

So, yes, more textured, patinated work is on the way.

In other news I have a summer job! I will be working at the beautiful Number Four Gallery in St Abbs on Wednesdays so do come and say hello!  If you are longing for the sea and are on fb, following the gallery page might help with some beautiful pictures of St Abbs and the fabulous Art work too!

Green Sea Glass Earrings

New in the shop! Pretty deep green sea glass and recycled sea glass earrings.

I love green. Even though I spent my formative teenage years forced to wear a bottle green uniform to school I ended up loving the school and green! It is on my list to make a pair of sea glass earrings fro myself and I might go green. Also on the list is to make a weeny stacker ring to wear with my wedding ring when I feel like being a bit fancy but which colour of glass. Hmm, I'll see which find takes my eye! R and I are having a road trip down the coast this weekend and I'm hoping for some interesting finds.

Blue Sea Glass Jewellery

Hello!

I have been listing a number of blue sea glass jewellery pieces in my shop including

 A blue sea glass and recycled sterling silver bangle

 and this pendant which features a deep blue piece of sea glass set in recycled sterling silver. It's one of my favourites of late, probably because I don't often find such well smoothed blue sea glass. I created a circular hole in the back of the silver setting so the light shines through showing the depth of the blue colour.

Lastly my large blue sea glass and recycled sterling silver ring sold in the week and I'm very happy it's gone off to its new home. Am also slightly relieved by an online sale meaning that after all the tinkering things are working, phew!

Blue Sea Glass Rings

Two ready-to-polish blue sea glass and recycled sterling silver rings.  I love them stacked together like this and have been sorting through glass to make more in greens and aquas.  Yum.

Day 5, 6 and 7 Sea Glass Brooch

Day 5 -soldering, forming and tidying brooch structure

Day 6 - Setting sea glass, attaching pin and . . . 

. . . tumbling to get a shiny finish 

Day 7 brooch ready to deliver

A delayed series of photographs for project 30 as they feature a custom order for a sea glass and recycled silver brooch which was for a birthday gift and I didn't want to risk ruining the surprise!  I do hope the recipient liked it!

White Star Earrings

Yesterday I spent a while photographing new pieces of jewellery and updating the website and these little wintery beauties have sold already. Hooray! I love this style with the frosty glass against the light catching hammered silver.

Pretty and eco friendly jewellery joy.

I'm not sure if you've noticed but . . .

Christmas starts tomorrow!