Saturday, January 31, 2009

Relaxing wire wrapping....


Ahhhhhhh - I just needed to relax this evening, so I did some 'good old' wire wrapping in argentium sterling silver (a new form of sterling which only tarnishes very, very slowly). Its kind of a bit like knitting - you get into a rhythm.

This a stunningly beautiful piece of fossil coral which I bought from Heart of Stone Studio (www.heartofstonestudio.com) - the colours really 'zing' and it has gorgeous flower head patterns.

I LOVE my stones - they have taken over as my #1 shopping passion (which used to be designer shoes and boots - mmmmmmm).

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Faux Bone - loving it!


I've been experimenting with Faux Bone - a type of non-toxic PVC. Its great stuff - you can saw it, drill it, hammer it, texture it, heat and bend it (just don't burn it - that releases yucky fumes) and put resin in it. To get the 'bone' effect you rub brown shoes polish on it - then rub it off and sand it when its reached the desired 'age'.

This is a brooch I've made with etched copper frame, craft wire in pink, crystal quartz heishi and metal silevr coloured beads (Fair Trade from Ethipia). And brass micro-screws (I also LOVE micro-screws - must be the engineer in me.....)!

The gorgeous stone is a porcelain jasper from Heart of Stone Studio in the US.