Next in Line

Toot toot! Update train!

Aestra

 Empress

Trying out a new background, I felt the other one was a little too heavy for the stuff I've been doing lately- needed more light and softness.

Dreamer 

Is this boring? I feel like it is, it's all update posts here lately, I should be showing you works in progress.Thing is though, I've not been doing anything WIP that's blog-worthy. I know you all probably think these pieces are brilliant -and I want you to! I mean they're nice n all, but the fact of the matter is I've been churning this stuff out cause I don't have to think about it. It's just pretty trinkets.

Sangorrah

Bones of the Maya

I just find some bits that work with each other and do it- I don't fuss, I don't meditate, I don't umm and ahhh and wait what if there's something better... I just make it. Which is nice really, it's nowhere near as draining as usual, and it fills up the shop a bit too, since I've less than 50 items in there (apparently 80-100 is the ideal).

Ruin of the Aztecs 

(love the crushed look of these, like gold jewelry from Pharaoh's tombs.)

 Moon Tribe

The pieces that I make with all the fuss and bother and thinkin' are still hibernating in their tins, all gigantic and meaningful. I'm still stewing - it's a complex recipe of theories in there *taps head*

Heaven and Earth

Pillars of gold

Man, I had no idea how many things I updated and hadn't shown you...

Pupurak

I'm such a slack blogger. Too busy making things, it would seem!

Painted

More....

Orasha

Earrings earring earrings- quick, easy, fun. Necklaces are so complex- why?! I mean you have to make two the same (well nearly) when you make earrings, why is that easier than a necklace? Weirdo.

Neolithica - these are really sweet, very simple but the shell bits are so perfect, I just wanted a little framework like you'd see in a museum. 

 Moon gate

There's this too- a cuff! 

 A trip down memory lane style wise, it was a custom order for a lovely girl who missed my Dickens style. Does everyone else miss that too? I don't like working with the darker colours lately but I enjoyed this one, getting back to that old way of nesting rags. I made a couple more cuffs, they should be in the next update. I tried to go for something different- this 'old cottage' vibe I'm going on.

 

(sneaky peaky)

Okay that's enough- there might be more, I lost track of what's already been blogged.

I'm in a strange mood today- I feel dull and unfulfilled, but not sad. It's a good feeling though, probably-  when I find myself feeling like everything is rubbish, that usually means I'm ready for more than what I have, and that's motivational for me to go get more. Or it could just mean my expectations of myself are far too high. OMG FEELINGS

more soliders for the stable

Another shop update! Yes I'm fair churning it out lately, the muse is back in town! 

Indigo Mountain - double terminated Tibetan quartz

Crow moon - this is probably my highlight piece of the week, it came together literally like a story. One day I'll tell you the story. 

Warriors - good ol' Kuchi bits, they always look fab!

African coast - getting back into the hammered hoops...

Masai - big tin drops with hammered bangle sticks

Yeah...I got nothin' else to say!

Shop update - earring festival

I updated a whole bunch more stuff today! Let's check it out...

Avalon - amethyst earrings- so pretty and simple, I'm thinking of making another pair! I've had these stampings for ages and never really 'vibed' with them, of course after I smashed them with the hammer and cut them in half and aged them and sanded them back, we got along much better. :D

Rings of Akathros - rock crystal rock n roll!  There's some serious tribal sci-fi happening in these babies- wish I could make a few of these but the long twisty bits came from the thrift, so I'm unlikely to find more. Sad face.

These are simple and super rustic - bones of the ancients - it's getting really hard to find decent Tibetan bone beads now, most ones available seem new made for the craft market and therefore not quite as grungy.

I appear to be on a bit of an earring festival this week- I'm tinkering with bracelets as well and I have some cuffs I want to finish, but necklaces seem to elude me. For some strange reason there's so much energy required to work a necklace- nothing I come up with sits quite right. But hey whatever- everyone loves earrings!

Tunisia - hammered metal hoops with the most amazing raw amethyst flints. I love how the purple of the amethyst enriches the orange on the metal- and then that little flash of real gold..!

 

And then there are these babies! Woodstock! I love these, I wish my neck were longer so I can wear them. The huge discs of shell came from the thrift, hopefully I can hunt down some more. 

I have more to update but quite frankly that will do for now.I want to clean off my desk and get some more stuff up in Fagin's Daughter as well. Oh I do love to set out more daily tasks than I can handle...

Dusty Corners

I'm back! I know I go away here n there, I haz challengez. But I'm back now, and hopefully on a more regular basis. I've been having a making spree these last couple of days, all earrings so far though tonight or tomorrow I hope to dig through my box of 'half-dones' and see if i can't get some necklaces done. In the meantime...

 

These earrings and plenty more are up in Sparrow Salvage, with more still coming in the next couple of days. 

 

I've also finally written my About page over on Fagin's Daughter, and I've given the shop it's own blog! If you like being updated with all the delicious antique things I list there then you'll want to follow that blog, where I'll be showing you things I pick up that are of a vintage/antique/junk nature- sort of a sneak peek deal.  

 Finally, this amazing necklace is the first listing in a new project of mine called Star Tribe. I've been wanting to branch out and try new things with my jewelry for a while now, to develop myself beyond what I've been doing for 4 years. I wanted to go deeper- jewelry that's more art than everyday trinket, something that explores ideas about the human tribe, our relationship to this planet within reference to the galaxy (and it's other inhabitants), and the vague question 'what does it mean to belong to a place?' We belong to towns, cities, countries...not necessarily where we grew up or have spent any decent amount of time. I belong to England and always will, I feel like an intruder in Australia, an unfamiliar and harsh landscape- an alien world.

 

The pieces going up in Star Tribe will be more raw, more bold and more arcane than the Sparrow Salvage stuff; Sparrow is going back to her roots a little to Victorian tribal assemblage. This time without the black bleak that once hung over- now it is more colour and light. That's just fancy talk for 'junk stuck to other junk'. My new found sense of creative fire is indiscriminate of late, I just pick up the closest thing to me and make something, without spending an eon debating if it's really what I want to make. At the end of the day what I really want is to be able to make a living off this jewelry lark, and this is the year (albiet late in proceedings) where I intend to give that a bloody good go. Lately I've felt I treat my work as something that lays between a stale hobby and a apathetic dabbling. No more! I said way back in January that this was the year of the Sparrow, and gaddunnit- I mean it!