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.

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.

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.

Rings

Good evening and happy weekend to you all!

I've been hard at work making rings and helping R sand our floor boards back. A hefty job but we are nearly, nearly orange varnish free.

And I have more rings than I did at the start of the week.

Last Friday we took a jaunt to Peebles where you can see a display of my jewellery and Rich's fine, witty and wonderful drawings at the Eastgate Theatre.  We also made it over to Moy Mackay's gallery which now has a new selection of my jewellery in its lovely cabinets of splendour!

It is Friday evening and I'm done for the day and heading for the sofa for a glass of wine and some Monty Don, good night!

New Jewellery

Work in progress for the upcoming Art Trail! Lots more on the go! These photos all resulted from having to take a thumb break before carrying on making, shaping, filing, sanding... Always seems to be my poor left thumb gets a battering, although I did stab my middle finger with my new, very shap file the other day, right under the nail, ouch.

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!

Beach Finds Jewellery Workshop

Last week as part of Berwick Arts and Crafts Festival I ran a beach finds jewellery making workshop teaching two main techniques for creating wire wrapped glass, pottery or pebble charms.  These charms can be used to make earrings or pendants or bracelets and there was a full range on Friday.

A special mention to two participants who managed to complete the workshop, one with a migraine and one with a broken thumb! Dedication!

If you would like to arrange a workshop just get in touch; the next one will be part of the Crossing Borders Art Trail on the 6th, 7th and 8th September when I will be at Allanbank Arts near Allanton.

Drilling Sea Glass

Good afternoon!

I have been doing a bit if experimenting with drilling sea glass as a way of using some beautiful finds that are do not have smooth edges.

With the larger drill bits and extra vibrations I was having trouble holding the shards still. So, my ingenious father in law made me a clamping device complete with reservoir to keep the shard submerged in water while drilling.

Yesterday was the first go with it and it was successful! Next up is further tidying up of the little glass rounds and making new jewellery with them. It will be two pendants and a ring first I think.

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 55 - 57

Day 55 - A new recycled sterling silver sea foam necklace featuring a beautiful white piece of Scottish sea glass.  Oh, I do love the bubbles!  I've started photographing new pieces for my shop and will be adding new categories so you can look at all necklaces together, all bracelets together and so on.  Hopefully I will be able to integrate this into the current display of  jewellery by material and make it easier to browse.  When looking at jewellery online do you prefer to look search by collection (eg sea glass and silver) or by type (eg. earring)?  Would love to hear what you like!

Day 56 - A pile of freshly drilled and still wet sea glass.  There is something so pleasing about having a big pot of glass drilled and ready to become some jewellery.  There have been so many times when I have been delayed working on a piece because I need to go and drill a particular piece.  Now I will be steaming ahead with the plans for this lot.  There will be autumnal copper earrings on the way.

Day 57 - The newly christened twin bangle; a gift commission of which I shall say no more for now . . .

Day 27 and 28

 Day 27 - Time for a bit of a sea glass sort.  With one thing and another I had not sorted the recently collected piles of glass and pottery and they really were starting to mount up!

Day 28 - strange crystallization after soldering a loop through a piece of blue willow sea pottery.  I think it must be from the salt water, anybody know?

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!

Rainbow and Sea Glass

We've had a lot of rain and wind over the last week or so and even a few rainbows. Fortunately there has been no damage for us or our neighbours apart from a few flattened daisies and a timid little cat looking a uncertain of being outdoors.


Yesterday was finally a bit calmer and we went for a breath of fresh air and a poke around the beach. It is one of my favourite beaches nearby and even though we were only there about an hour we got a decent collection of glass and pottery and a pebble that looks like a thumb - look at the top left of the image below and use your imagination . . .
Some gorgeously smooth nuggets in green, aqua and white, a piece of pottery with the word 'SERVE' still visible and, if you look closely right in the centre of the photo, a tiny piece of purple glass. The purple is tiny and a bit rough around the edges but it is purple so I had to bring it home. I think it is the first piece of purple sea glass I have ever found and I'm going to have to find a use for it!

I am (still) waiting for my first delivery of recycled silver so it's all a bit slow at the workbench until it arrives. I have a number of pieces at various stages of completion which I can't do any more with until I've got the silver. I think my next order will be a year's supply to avoid these lengthy waits, ho hum, lesson learned.

Sea Foam Earrings

New for 2011 is my Sea Foam range all featuring handcrafted silver bubbles and sea glass collected locally.

The bubbles are created by soldering together loops of silver wire and gently hammering to create a lovely light reflecting surface reminiscent of the shimmering surface of the sea.

This pair are currently available at Crown Studio Rothbury and new pieces will be coming to my website soon.

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!

St. Abbs Winter Wool Festival

In August I had the good fortune to meet a lady who runs a fabulous wool shop in St Abbs, which led to me having a stall at her Wool Festival and tomorrow R and I are returning for the winter Wool Festival in St Abbs Community Centre from 10am - 6pm.

We're both looking forward to a fun day and will have plenty of gift and card ideas ready for you to peruse, including the skinny bangle pictured above. I soldered three half loops to the bangle frame before wire wrapping the sea glass droplets so which ever way it drapes on your wrist their will be a visible piece of pretty sea glass.

Beach Foraging October

A quick shot of last Sunday's collection from a trip to the beach still all sandy before the first wash and sort. I can spot at least one piece which has been used in a piece of jewellery already.