Time flies!

Time flies!  I've noticed that more often than not, some bloggers start their post by "omg, it's been... days since my last post".  I'm starting to follow the trend.  Are we all feeling guilty?  I am!  Not going to make any promises for the future though, I know that's scary and dangerous.  Ha ha!!

So I haven't made a lot of things lately, because I've been otherwise busy taking an exam to become a teacher and.. passing it with flying colours.  I'm so proud of myself, I could yell.  Wait, that's exactly what I did when I got the results.  I got 11.5 for the written part, 10.1 for the oral interview thingy.  Not too shabby. Especially considering that I had barely done any prep work... 'cause of course, when I was told that I was "admissible", meaning I'd gotten a good enough grade on the written part that they wanted to see if I was for real and interview me (lol), I was already snowed under with translation work, and only had a fortnight to prepare.  So yeah, enough showing off, I'm just happy I passed.  I think I was quite lucky.  So I may or may not become a teacher come September.. depending on WHERE they want me to teach.  The French system is quite weird. More on that later.  

I made those for a show that turned out to be a disaster, sales-wise.

Those I made yesterday, just because.

This one too.  I love bangle stacks.  No kidding!

This one is very summery.  Vibrant colours.  Lightweight.  Go buy it.

I also finished this bracelet that I'd been working on for ages...  it was just missing the clasp.

Awwww look at that chubby hand!!!  (the bracelet is too small for me, too big for my lil girl, but you can't tell on the pic :))

And last but not least, I've been working on my wedding necklace.  So work in progress.

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Twelve days since my last post.  Ahem.  To make up for it, here is some eye candy, without foreplay or anything :)

 This is the necklace I made for the blog hop, in a different light (and much better pic).

this one is a double wrap bracelet in green (no kidding) - lots of cool beads there, including a huge Ethiopian prayer vessel, a Hebron bead, and beads/connectors from Grubbi ceramics, ScrochedEarth and a French ceramist named Kristine.

A bit of an experiment here...  lucite, carved bone, ceramic headpin and rainbow titanium nugget, with some patina and paint.  And badly in need-of-a-new-manicure nails.

Look at those meteorites!  Created by the talented Marina of fancifuldevices

Funky bracelet featuring and old bright and colourful fabric thingy with metal that I badly mistreated (can anyone guess what it was, originally?), a connector from Petra's shop, a lucite rose and a gorgeous bead from Bashabeads

Here we have an old coin which comes who knows where, some rhinestones, blue coral donuts, gorgeous nuggety beads from Ragged Robyn.  Yep, I'll provide the ear nuts if someone buys them.  I'd just forgotten them upstairs and couldn't be bothered to run back up so I took the pics without them. Sue me. :)

those I need better pics of...  (above).  The dark/rusty bits almost look orange, and that's weird.
So above and below, similar earrings, with labradorite beads from 4 ophelia (yay! She's back!)
Bobbles from Petra.

A view of the bracelet on my freckled wrist.

Again, need better pics... but I wanted to show you those beauties - Marina's once more!  The blueish circles, I mean.
Doll legs from oscarcrow
Speaking of Harry.. I asked him if he'd create my wedding ring, and here it is:

It's still in transit somewhere over the Atlantic, I can't wait to get it.

In a totally different style, a stack ring that I decided to make out of the blue:

Oh, and look at what I got myself for Mothers day (it's this Sunday in France):

Tee hee!  Hello Jax!  I've always had a soft spot for blonde guys.  What can I say.  

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.  Almost forgot.  This month's giveaway is gonna be simpler - no rafflecopter or anything, just comment here and I'll pick someone randomly.  What do you get?  Surprise!

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Blog hop reveal day!

My first ever blog hop!


My partner is Solange from Ahowin

Here is what I got from her, back in March:

Clockwise from left to right:  abalone shells, green aventurine, MOP beads, various shell beads, handmade polymer clay headpins, a huge slab of agate and another pair of handmade headpins.  Lucky me :)


I spent a looooong time trying to decide how to best use the focal. It wasn't drilled, and I didn't want to take my chances with it, so it was either glue it on something or glue a bail to it.
But... I chose a third option.  Using crystal clay, I made a cool (hopefully) assemblage using an old and rusty metal lid as backing.  I inserted the agate, a few bits of abalone, used some gold leafing and patina/paint, sealed the whole thing.. Voilà!

The trade beads are from my stash, I added some gold patina. 

Itty bitty earrings, with MOP and shells.

 I added some moss agate, and a couple components from my stash, plus some gold leafing to match the necklace.  So that was my first blog hop.  I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Now I'll go visit as many blogs as I can.  

If you'd like to view the list of persons taking part, here is link to Lori's blog

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April giveaway winner, and earrings galore

Morning!!!!

First things first, the winner of the April giveaway is my friend Harry Wood, of oscarcrow.  My favourite shop for all things Charlotte and vintage....  Go take a look if you haven't already.

On to the earrings:

 the two pairs above and below feature polymer beauties by fanciful. Above, ceramic beads and enameled headpins by Kristine @ kangooroobijoo, mala beads and a chunk of prehnite.
Below, reclaimed tin cut and filed by yours truly, blue African glass rondelles, Tibetan amber.. rondelles... rhinestone... rondelles, and lampwork headpins by 4ophelia whose shop has disappeared???

different views:

 Yeah yeah, I know, light, fotofuze... lol. But the weather has been very nastly over here lately, so I'm doing my best. So there.

Baby shells with semi-precious nuggets and vintage lucite!  How cool!  right?

 More semi-precious nuggets!  Apatite I think.  I'll have to check.  I get confused sometimes (old age).

Gypsy fun with sari ribbon, Scorched Earth dangles and Indonesian beads.

 This one sold in like... half an hour.  I have to admit I was quite proud of it.  There's another one in the making.

 Those uber simple earrings feature African krobos beads, rhinestone rondelles and cool driftwood shards from Petra

 More fanciful rondelles!  Reserved as well.

And because I'm a proud mama, I'd like to show you my daughter's production.  She's a budding polymer clay artist, and quite talented I think!  She's been making all sort of art stuff lately, along with foodies, but she refuses to make me cool beads, because "we don't have the same style". Pfff. Brat.

Finally, a couple pics from my last show:

Toodles!

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Spring and summer colours

Hi!!!!
I'm back after a long-ish hiatus due to a combination of factors (fancy way of saying, lots of work, couple of shows).
The shows were fine, the first one was disappointing, but the second one was cool. I made lots of friends (I tend to grow more social as I grow older ah ah), gave lots of cards, got invited to a couple more shows during summer that sound promising and even sold a few things.  He he.

I have pics somewhere, I'll try and find them.
In the meantime....

here are few newbies...

Bangle stacks!

 Pwwwwetty in pink

Forever blue

(yeah those are working titles, please comment and give me suggestions I have no brain capacity left right now).

 Basha beads earrings!!!  The beads are more blue than they look on the pic.  They're from the Labradorite series so.. yeah, blue.

 Those wonky saucers in the middle come from RaggedRobyn's shop on Etsy.   The green gems are kyanite, and the strange pink beads are UTEE headpins I made following another one of Marina's tutorials

This one I already showed you a preview of... 

here it is in its final version (I think).  Shall I call it Rainbow? :D

 This one I'm quite proud of... Simple but effective. I think. :)  Patinated torque, aquamarine beads. Nothing else.


And finally.....  April giveaway is here!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This time you can choose whether you'd like the necklace below or a $35 gift certificate to my shop.

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Linzi's giveaway

My friend Linzi Alford got her book published recently, it's called "Jewelry for all seasons"' and it's gorgeous, full of amazing projects and cool stuff...  and you can win a copy!
If you want to enter the giveaway, go here, scroll down a bit and you'll find all the info.
Easy peasy, and a great opportunity !

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