My latest project

If you've read my piece 'spontaneous storage'. then you'll realise I'm not always the most organised of people. And so it was, whilst looking for something amongst all my craft goodies, I came across some pretty little butterflies that I'd forgotten I had.

 I think I bought them originally with the intention of using them on greetings cards. As usual with stuff bought on impulse, they got 'filed' in one of my storage boxes and forgotten. However, having found them, I thought they really should be supping nectar from pretty flowers, and thus the 'Butterfly Garden' necklace was born! 

The main body of the necklace is Kumihimo silk braid in pale green, grey and silver. To this are stitched a veritable herbaceous border of brightly coloured polymer clay flowers and green glass leaves. The butterflies, which have jewelled bodies, are cemented to the flowers. The nice thing is, the wings of the butterflies are sprung, so they quiver as you move, giving the illusion of life.

I must admit to being quite proud of this one, which is available in my Etsy shop for £25 plus post and packing.

Art Deco - worth it?

Every now and then, a trend comes along which shocks the world, and makes us rethink our ideas of fashion - for example, the mini skirt in the '60s. Such an idea was Art Deco.
After the fussiness of the Victorian and Art Nouveau periods, and the rusticity of the Arts and Crafts movement, the clean simple lines of Art Deco came as a surprise to an awful lot of people.
The designers of the period used modern materials, such as chromium steel and Bakelite, the first true plastic. Pieces made from Bakelite were often junked later as being tacky and the materials not worth anything - but they didn't look at the wonderful shapes and designs.

Sadly, in the post-war era, people didn't realise what they had, and important buildings were wilfully demolished to make way for concrete structures with no form or style.
The A40 Great West Road in London is a prime example of this. At one time, it was lined with elegant Art Deco factories, now, sadly, all gone, with the exception of the wonderful Hoover Building, now thankfully preserved.

Much the same as Clarice Cliff's striking Bizarre range of pottery. I bet a lot of folk are cursing now that they threw out their grandmother's hideous teapot!

Well, I love Art Deco. Always have done. And I own several pieces of Art Deco jewellery, that I have either inherited or bought. I've also got several pieces of Art Deco jewellery that are damaged beyond repair, and mostly made from relatively cheap materials, which I can never bring myself to throw away. So I've decided to incorporate those items that I can recover into my own range of jewellery (for sale in my Etsy shop)
This is the first - just two glass beads from an otherwise completely destroyed necklace were recoverable, and so they've been turned into classy earrings. Just a little bit of Art Deco preserved in my own way

And so........................redundancy looms

I was looking forward to picking the time and method by which I chose to give up work, but alas, it has been chosen for me.

After 13 years with this company, I've been made redundant - although I have a few weeks yet, before I actually leave work.

so, what of the future? I must admit that, at the ripe old age of 65, I'm disinclined to look for another job. Indeed, the chances of me landing another decent job at this age is very remote. The increasingly poor state of my wrists precludes me from doing anything too manual, and I really don't think I'd have the patience with other people to do something like part-time shop work.

So, what do I do? I now have the opportunity to try and make something of my little craft business. At the present time, I've been a bit hit and miss with it. I've made stuff when I've had time, sure, but I've not done a lot to promote it, or myself.

Well, now I will have. I will probably split it into 2 separate businesses - one for jewellery, and the other for other hand-crafted items. To me this makes sense, as it will enable me to build more clearly defined brands, instead of it being a mish-mash of ideas all under one 'roof'.

If you've not yet had a look, then please follow the links scattered all over this page to my little Etsy shop. If you have any suggestions or ideas that will help me, please pass them on. I'll be really grateful.

Of course, I'd be even more grateful if you either buy, or commission something!

I will also have more time to pursue my Buddhist studies. Whether this will make me a better person, is open to discussion. I will also not have the finances to travel quite so much as I do at present, so I was really grateful that my last trip to Wales a couple of weeks ago happened in good weather, and was truly memorable. So my other blog, My British Isles, will probably feature more local places from now on.

Actually, this won't be a bad thing, as I've very much neglected the South East so far in the blog, and it has a lot to offer.

Mind, if I'm not working, it will make sense to sell one of the bikes - not purely for financial reasons, but, if I'm not working, I won't actually NEED two bikes. It will make sense at some point to sell the CBF1000 in favour of the Hornet. Although the bigger bike is better in a lot of respects, the Hornet will be cheaper to run, and it is newer, has a lot less miles on it, and has not suffered the indignities of a British Winter so much. And I proved on the Welsh trip, that the little Hornet is more than capable of distance touring - and it's certainly a lot of fun on tight, twisty mountain roads.

So, there you have it. Let's wait and see what 2014 brings

Om Mani Padme Hum

And So.......Toward Winter

It's getting colder. The nights are getting longer.

Well, except my bikes don't think so. Both of them still show British Summer Time. The reason? I'm getting as bad as a man. I haven't read the handbooks, and I can't work out how to alter the time settings on either of them. Oh well, I suppose I'll have to get the books out and read up on it.

So, what's new? I took my usual jaunt to the annual NFL match at Wembley last Sunday. It was such a lousy game (Patriots beat the Rams 45-7) that I almost resent the exorbitant price of the ticket. I say almost, because, despite the terrible game, the atmosphere is just so uplifting and joyous, and Wembley is such a great stadium. It's also nice to get the chance to spend a day with my son and his beautiful wife. Days like that are few and far between at the moment.

Also new is my bathroom. Yes, finally got rid of the old one, installed when the house was built in the 60s, and got a nice new shiny one. The building firm have done a marvellous job, even if they did paint the walls totally the wrong colour! I chose a soft, creamy yellow - and they decided to paint it blue! They did say they'd redo it of course, but having seen the finished bathroom, and the way the blue complements the floor covering, I've decided I actually rather like it!

It wasn't an easy life whilst they were doing it though. They literally gutted it - right back to the brickwork and floor joists. They very thoughtfully put down carpet protectors throughout the house, but absolutely everything is covered in a thick layer of just - despite having been hoovered twice since they finished! And trying to sleep when you're on nights, with a jolly workman singing at the top of his voice, is not easy!

Won't be many more days this year when I feel inclined to go for a ride just because I can, but I'm determined to get at least a couple more in before the Winter hardens the ground and softens my resolve. I treated Jack to a pretty new windscreen a couple of days ago, and hopefully he'll get treated to one or two extras for Christmas to pretty him up ready for next year.  I'd also like to get a couple of runs out where I can take pictures with my new camera. I've not had much chance to use it yet.

What else..........ah yes, the American Presidential elections are upon us once again. I've not discussed it with my daughter-in-law, Brooke. We sort of have a tacit agreement that politics and religion are not generally discussed. That way, we don't fall out with each other ;) I assume though, being a Mormon, she will vote for Mitt Romney. Maybe I assume wrongly, I don't know. I know Obama has not been the best president ever, but in my opinion, he's not exactly been the worst either, and I do think he's probably still the lesser of two evils. Some of Romney's statements have done little less than horrify me. And Obama's reaction to the terrible destruction caused by SuperStorm Sandy, were 1000% better than George W's reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the terrible plight of the people of New Orleans.

And so, update on my various hobbies. As far as the genealogy is going, I'm still trying to piece together my father's family, and it's proving to be a nightmare. As well as being one of the largest families in Lancashire, they have some given names that propagate throughout the different lines and generations. I've lost count of how many Johns I've got married to Marys! The good thing to come out of this whole project though, is that I've re-established contact with the branch of my family that emigrated to Canada when I was very young, and I have a whole raft of previously unknown cousins and other various assorted relatives.

My jewellery shop is ticking along. I'm not pushing it too much yet, as I don't have time to keep making stuff for it, but it's very comforting to know that it is there, already established, for when I retire, or if I fall prey to redundancy. I've been spending a lot of time learning and practising new techniques, and expanding my horizons. There's absolutely loads of tutorials on websites, blogs and YouTube, so I've not needed to invest in many expensive books and so on. Which, of course,means I've got more money to spend on beads, doesn't it? ;) As one of my suppliers has it, 'money can't buy happiness, but it can buy beads'!

Anyway, enough drivel, I must get on with some work. Or perhaps, instead, I'll do the next episode of the A-Z..............

This and That

Really, I shouldn't let life interfere with writing my blog!  However, it does seem to have happened a lot lately, mostly because there always seems so much to do.

To catch up, I had a very wet week in Somerset on the LittleInsect, followed last week, by a wonderful few days with Pat and Peter on the Devon/Dorset border. If you're looking for somewhere to stay down that way, then go to my other blog 'My British Isles', link on the right - and pick up the signs for The Old Black Dog. I can promise, you won't regret it.

No matter how often I go to Dorset, I never tire of riding the Dorset roads and poking around the gentle little towns and villages. An absolute 'must' for me down there, is to ride the B road that runs from Burton Bradstock through Abbotsbury, to Chickrell on the outskirts of Weymouth. It's such a pretty route, with wide views over Chesil Beach, to Portland on one side, and rolling hills on the other.

Another 'must' is an evening down at the harbour at West Bay, where all the bikers hang out. There's a branch of Helmet City just opened up there, and I made Dick promise not to spend any money if he went in there, and then promptly bought myself some new gloves! - a mere £80 or so........

Dick had only been to Dorset a couple of times before, and hadn't seen much of the towns at all, so one day, we spent the morning poking around Dorchester. It may be the county town of Dorset, but it's not exactly huge, and has a faded, genteel quality about it.

We then took a lovely ride from there, up to Sherborn and then through to Shaftesbury, where Dick had expressed a wish to see Gold Hill, the place that pretended to be 'oop north' in a certain famous Hovis ad. My eyes lit up when he said that, and he couldn't understand why I was so keen to show him Gold Hill...that is, until we got there and found the Beadster bead shop at the top. Of course, as we were in the area, I just had to, didn't I?

Talking of beads, and my jewellery-making, I've been spending time recently, learning the art of Kumihimo, or Japanese silk braiding. I'm quite pleased with some of my efforts so far, and there are one or two necklaces in my Etsy shop (link at the top of the page). See what you think. My friend Sheila, who owns Blueberry Glass, made me a couple of stunning pendants, and I've used one with toning silk braid to create a very stylish necklace.

I've started to carry a small pad and pencil around with me, as I see things which give me an idea for a piece of jewellery, and then by the time I get home, I've forgotten it. It's my age, don't ya know! I've got designs in mind for two more necklaces in The Weather Collection - these will be 'Snow' and 'Fog'. Are you intrigued yet? There's a pretty blue bracelet just waiting for me to have time at the weekend to photograph it, and add it to my shop, and, as usual, more ideas in my head than I actually have time to produce!

Two weeks time, we're off on our travels again - this time to Northumbria and North Yorkshire, so I hope to come back with even more ideas. I'm also hoping for a change in the weather..........................

Don't take us for granted.............

I've just closed my Folksy shop, and am in the process of opening a new one on Etsy.

The reason? Well, Folksy decided to make some changes to the way they conduct business, without consulting their users or clients first. The changes in question have resulted in there being effectively no seller protection in place, even if you sell via PayPal, and send your parcels recorded delivery.

The only reson I found this out, was I had a spare 10 minutes, and was browsing the Folksy user forums - something I don't usually have time to do. There has not been a word from Folksy admin sent to us - and we pay them for using their service.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've always been of the mind that if a firm (or MP) doesn't deliver on your expectations, you vote with your feet.......... It seems more and more these days, companies take people for granted, and think they can ride roughshod over their clients and/or customers. A quick bit of prior communication would have been helpful, and, of course, for them to have got the conversion correct too.....or is that asking too much?

So, I'm gradually transferring all my stock over to my brand new Etsy shop, and the link down on the right has been changed accordingly. Not everything has been moved over yet, as some of the items I'm not too happy with the photography, so I want to refresh the images before posting them for sale again.

Meanwhile, pictures of all of my items are on Facebook, and if you want something, please, just put 'SOLD' under the picture, and send me a quick message.......

Etsy have been around a long time, and speaking to friends who use it as a marketing tool, they all seem to be very happy. The only drawback, is that it is huge, and primarily dominated by the American contigent. Ah well, I shall just have to work hard to get my stuff seen (and bought!)

Jewellery update

Been quite productive lately, and, with a head full of ideas, there's a lot more to come!

Just recently, I've been making a lot of stuff inspired by the natural world. One of my big loves (along with millions of other people) is tigers. This is one of my tiger-inspired bracelets. There's two different versions in my shop (see link in right column)



This necklace, I love. I found the beautiful handmade glass acorn and oak leaf in another Folksy shop, and immediately was reminded of a little verse that I learnt as a child:

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he heard, the less he spoke
The less he spoke, the more he heard
Why can't we be like this old bird?

So, here is The Owl In The Oak Tree necklace, made with Kambaba Jasper:



The other piece I want to feature today, only has a loose connection with nature. The English language has many words with two or more completely different meanings. The words 'Spring' and 'nuts' are just examples. So, here is 'Nuts In Spring'. And you thought nuts only came in the Autumn? This bracelet has coiled springs of green wire, hexagonal motorcycle nuts, and carved nuts of the fruit kind from Africa.



The above bracelet is from my 'PunkyRider' collection - bling for biker chicks

As always, they can be found in my Folksy shop - LittleInsectProductions

Jewellery time again

Had an idea for a range of jewellery based on the changeable British weather. This is the first - 'Thunderstorm'



Mind, if you intend wearing an appropriate piece for the current conditions, you'd better carry a huge bag of assorted jewellery with you and be prepared for a quick change!

As ever, it's available through my Folksy shop (link down there on the right somewhere)

New additions to my Folksy shop

As expected, I've had lots of spare time following surgery, and these are just some of the items I've made for my Folksy shop. (link down on the right-hand side). There's more to come, but I'm waiting for a delivery of gift boxes.
I'm a great believer in supplying items, especially jewellery, properly packaged, ready to give as a gift.

a pair of Christmas bangles in festive colours. Wear individually, or as a pair.

Autumnal necklace, with large detailed brown wooden beads, interspersed with small orange and brown beads, and strung on threads of silver-lined crystal-clear rocailles

A pair of embroidered Christmas gift bags. Sturdily made in cream cotton, with carrying handles

4 table mats or napkins, each measuring approximately 14" square, hand embroidered with sunflowers and with fringed edges

Delicate necklace of brecciated jasper, peridots and emerald green rocailles. The necklace is gently curved, so that it sits flat against the skin
Pretty silver-plate chain maille bracelet, with pretty pink facets at the heart of each flower

I made this necklace with Halloween in mind, as the pendant reminds me of a vial half full of blood!

Zodiac necklace for Cancer, featuring a ceramic plate mounted on a silver disc, and with the silver chain enhanced with matching beads

This Zodiac necklace is for Leo, and is made in much the same way as the one above

Big, bold, chunky monochrome necklace, which is tied with deep red and cream ribbons. Being monochrome, the ribbons can easily be changed to match your outfit

Tiger striped beads matched with big black pearls and mounted on silver for this matching bracelet and earrings.

As I said, they're all available in my Folksy shop. If you are outside the UK and would like to buy anything, just contact me, and I'll sort out postal charges etc.

Should I, or shouldn't I?

As you will already have read, I've opened up an internet shop to market my handmade jewellery and stuff.

Reading through the advice they give you, they recommend that you start a blog, to widen your market, and to help prospective buyers to get to know you. I was going to, but then I thought, I've already got 2 blogs going, and if one of the reasons is to help folk get to know you, then this blog probably says it all about me.

Quite what they'll make of me when they read this blog, I'm not sure..............

Anyway, the link to my shop is over there on the right, but here's a taster of a couple of items




I do seem to be having more success with these big, bold bracelets than some other items, but I shall keep trying new ideas. After all, this little venture is to amuse myself as much as to make money

Well I never.....................(well, actually, I did)

You may have seen the occasional post about my timid footsteps into the world of handmade costume jewellery.
Well, it's taken off rather well, and I now suddenly find myself with an internet shop!

If you want to keep up with what I'm doing, design-wise, you can find a link to it down the right side there.......
At the moment, I'm only selling to the UK, but if you're elsewhere and want to buy something, just contact me, and we'll make arrangements...............

I suppose now I've opened a shop, I've got no excuse to not spend hours in my workroom.................:) and spare time is something I'm about to have plenty of, as next week I'm off to hospital for some quite major surgery. So if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know why!

More Jewellery

Finally, I feel like I'm beginning to succeed at this. I'm quite happy with some of the pieces I've produced lately, and I'm hoping soon to be good enough to market them. Here's some samples, anyway

gold butterflies and hearts on a silver chain

I really like doing chain maille. Don't see why it all has to be in precious metals though. This bracelet is a combination of silver and brass, of all things

And keeping to the theme of mixed metals, the above bracelet is made from stainless steel bike circlips, with a silver-plated and enamelled crash helmet.

A fun bracelet, this one is stretchy, one-size-fits-all, with Lucite calla lilies and leaves

and finally, the above is silver wire, strung with Honda 10mm mirror nuts and Czech glass beads. Soon, I will have a whole range of biker-oriented jewellery. Why shouldn't bikers be glitzy and fashion-conscious?

more sparkly stuff......

Punk Egyptian bracelet. Made from safety pins, no less! Had a lot of fun making that one

Aqua Marine - tiny variegated blue rocailles and bugles, with silver findings

Jewellery........

Been busy, me. Been learning to make jewellery. Not very good at it yet, but I will get better. Well, it'll keep me out of mischief!
Here's a few tentative first steps:
a Pandora-style bracelet, made to represent my bike club, the 'Hornets Nest'. It features a silver-plated motorcycle, two little enamelled silver hornets, and Murano glass beads striped in yellow and black, all on a black leather thong with silver clasp

Bridal necklace. This actually looks better in the flesh. The chain is silver, and the pearls are tinted in the palest pink blue and green, with iridescent clear droplets

Another Pandora-style bracelet, this time on a silver chain, with a variety of pink Murano glass beads and gems, and a dangling pink dragonfly

'Night Sky' - various shaped beads in a dark dusky blue-grey on silver wire

'Spring Equinox' various glass beads in different shades of green, again on a silver wire

I'm not yet bothering to sell anything, but hey, if something takes your fancy, make me a sensible offer.....................