ghost of ideas

I missed a day! Probably for the best, things might be starting to look a little repeatitive lately, what with me working on the same bloody pendant clusters for the whole week. Really though this just goes to show you how long these things can take sometimes. It's a heavy process meditating on what goes where. Even some of these pictures show things that have since changed.

Here's some unfamiliar bits- (l to r) cattle charm from a few posts ago, a big gumnut from down the road, long strips of hemp cord (which is going into the quill tip off the feather, as seen in the first image), a carved-down bead on bronze stick, howlite with 18k gold triangle and a clay pipe head from the Thames.

Look at that giant feather! I'm using it to figure out weight and drop and just how large I can make these things. It's one from my Dad's 1970s collection, from the peacock in residence during his time at Coal Creek (the ghost town I was caretaker of a couple years ago). Actually since Dad's feathers and mine have been in one pot for about 15-20 years, it might actually be one I found from the peacock in my time!

Here's something interesting- sometimes when I'm stuck on something I like to draw out what I feel it needs by just sketching right near the piece; it gives me a ghost of the idea fitting and then I can work on finding it in my stash. I'd tried rings, driftwood chunks and that hulking great lump of shell to the left before I stopped to sketch and figure out the shape I needed.

I dummied up a shape from some bangle scrap that was laying about- didn't take me a minute to realise this wasn't going to work, the shape had to be solid.

A quick mock-up with some leather scrap...yep, needs to be solid. So tomorrow when Mr.Sun comes back I'll get to sawing and carving to make a plate in that shape, maybe a lighter colour and set a stone in the middle...then I can get to making a 'chain' for this piece which at this point will be antique cotton sheeting and suede leather.

Anvil, so funny that you said my work desk is really clean, Fanci is always marvelling over that. Admittedly it's because that particular surface was only a couple of days old. Now it looks like this (above) and that's about as mad as I can take it! I'll probably clean it tomorrow and lay out some earrings- I need a break from these charm clusters. Incidentally the Georgian lass on my laptop there is telling me all about the history of the bathroom in Le Olden Dayz. Here's the first part- she does bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom from the Middle Ages right up till now. I've only watched bathroom so far but it's fantastic! Very lively and well-paced.