cat inspiration

Is there such a thing as reverse inspiration? My cat Zip was wanting to keep an eye on the weather without going outside this week, and was sitting on this chair when I realised it was the perfect pose for one of my cat brooches....

And for once he didn't move whilst I went upstairs for the camera to take this.
Which I think show very well where the idea for this brooch came from originaly.

I'm not really sure which cat looks the most ungainly.

Perhaps some cats like snow..........

"there's something under here"


"maybe if I just roll around a bit...."
"I'll manage to catch it!"
"blimy this is deeper than I thought"
"ok this isn't fun anymore can I come in now?"I dont think this cat has ever been out in snow before, our other cats have refused point blank to go outside never mind running round like an idiot as Spot is doing here.

New shop opened..................

http://www.hollowbourne.com/
My own shop is open at last, everything (ok nearly everything ) all under one roof so to speak........I have been working on this for the last 3 weeks, listing that many things at once can be very boring.I have also had to contend with the fact that my computer decided it didn't want to cut and paste anymore in the middle of it all, computers are such temperamental things. I'm sure there are lots of things that need tweeking so if anyone finds any obvious faux pas let me know please.
I decided to make it including delivery as the delivery thingy was driving me nuts, especially the foreign bit. So for now anyone from outside the U.K. will need to email me and I'll do it as a special listing.

Otherwise its been a dog and bird week............
I visited a lovely artistic lady in my day job capacity to sell her a boiler, she had a very cute dog that insisted on sitting on my lap at every opportunity,as a result of which
this little chap was born .Dont ask me what sort of dog it was I havn't a clue, it was too big for sitting on my lap though ,I know that much. Oh and if you are interested I did sell the boiler ...
Dog no 2 is altogether fiercer

I think he's a guard dog , guarding your pocket, yes one leg is longer than the other. I didn't notice until I was choosing the photos for the listing.It isn't so obvious in real life. This is one of those pieces which is impossible to photograph as there are reflections from everywhere....
In addition to the 2 dog brooches, I made 3 little bird brooches.



I had some small bits of brass to use in between larger pieces, birds are good for using that sort of space up,the original idea was to make a robin, but I decided I liked them better plain in he end.
A couple of christmas trees are waiting to be photographed tomorrow if the weather is a bit better.........more about them next week,
That's it for now, I must find out how to do a proper link for my shop but its a bit late at night for that now .

Hearts and Flowers

Jewellery with a message, hearts and flowers; symbols of love and affection.
Anyone who knows me is aware that I am not a particularly soppy person, so I was suprised at how many different items I have made this year with a romantic theme in mind.


I made this early in the year in the hopes that it might go for Valentines day.along with these......

The brooch went to someone in the summer, it was bought by a man, I hope the recipient of this,(I was going to say his girlfriend but I suppose it could have been for a mother or boyfriend ) liked it. The flying kisses reminded me of a flock of birds especially in this picture where you can just see the reflection of the sky in the heart and the blue wooly background is like the night sky, with the birds flying home into the sunset at the end of the day. The earrings I still have, maybe they dont fit well with the rest of my work so no one notices them.
My next foray into the realms of lurve was the cat with a heart..........


This cute kitty lying on his back is just begging for affection, he has a little pink copper heart. He looks very happy, perhaps he's high on catnip! My cats look at bit like this after a teaspoon or two of fresh cat mint.I suspect he's just inviting you to tickle his tummy so he can grab your hand with all four paws and pretend he's caught a pigeon....Too cynical?

So next I was doodling a new robot, thinking to do one from the side for a change and I was looking for a reason for him to be sideways on, presenting a flower seemed to be a nice idea. Thinking on it again now , maybe I should have made the flower from a watch cog wheel, perhaps next time after this one has sold. In case you are wondering he is standing on the windowledge of the shed that I work in, just about visible behind him is a clock I started making 20 years ago,(o.k. clock case) and standing on top of that the clock I use to time my etchings.And yes those are cobwebs.........


This handsome fellow came next, a new cat again with a flower in his paw. This is the second flower as I melted the first beyond redemption. He looks very pleased with himself. I feel he has just stolen this flower from someones's garden, I dont think cats would have the patience to grow their own flowers, (if they could) but his heart is in the right place. He means well, he just wants to make his owner happy, so that they will tickle him behind the ears and open a nice smelly can of whiskas for him. He knows that that smile would melt the hardest of hearts.



Lastly a new robot who shows off its heart to prove its humanity..... a Wizard of Oz tin man type robot. Its little copper heart is encapulated in clear resin like a tv screen, it's trying to show the world it has feelings too. Maybe it needs the heart becuse it has no mouth. I say it but I think it looks more like a she, as the body is a bit dress shaped. You dont seem to get too many tales about female robots, is it because mechanical things are usualy seen as the domain of males? I'm sure someonee will prove me wrong. There's the one in the old silent movie, Metropolis, and one in that Robots animated film that ran the boarding house. Them aside female robots seem to be weird japanese fantasy items and I'm not going there in this blog...You could read a lot of different things into this image, none of them intended. It was/is intended as a geek present, nothing more or less.
And it has been the springboard for this blog. I just want someone to love him/her/it.
Let me know what you think.

random ramblings and assorted jewellery

I find I have some new followers and thought I just ought to say welcome.
I am a bit neglectful of my blog as there never seem to be enough hours of the day to do everything I want to do for my jewellery and do a "real " job too.
Perhaps it is the perfectionist in me that wont normally post anything until I've agonised over it for a while.
So I'm glad someone likes what I've done so far.
This week I've made a few new items and remade some one old favorite and one that sold quite quickly.
The small friendly dragon has sold already so I've done a slightly different version, facing the other way and with different wings.

I've also made a flat cat............

I started making these in about 1986, I used to call them Splat cats, but daren't anymore since a certain pottery had started making mugs etc with splat cats on them. I just wish I had some proof it was my idea first!
What else...oh yes I was in a military mood on sunday and made these........

not perhaps my normal fare but I like them, they remind me of the sort of thing the Queen gives out.
and lastly and best of all I have been a featured on the Folksy "featured seller" slot this week which has given me lots more views and more importantly a few new sales so thank you to whoever chooses the front pages.
As a consequence of which I have started listing some of my "olde" collection hitherto unseen on Folksy, just to gauge reactions. And one of the cheaper ones has sold after a couple of days, interestingly it has been on etsy since july and only been viewed 10 times. I cant decide whether to list another on there or not.
The other items I did this week are being saved for the next blog, which I have in the course of writing this decided will be about romance..watch this space.

Dragons (and hoarding)..

This plastic pipe clip above is the unlikely inspiration for my
dragon brooches. I found this in 1988. I know the date as
my early brooches are all dated. This brooch on the right
was made in December 1988 for myself,just after I came
across the clip,the link with the pipe clip is fairly obvious.









After this brooch, I made a simpler cheaper version
of which this brooch which I sold on Dawanda earlier this
year is a descendant. Sadly when I started to write this
I thought "I wonder if I still have the pipe clip?", it
took me all of 5 minutes to find it, even after all those
years. Dragons are said to hoard precious metals and jewels,
is it sad that I hoard anything and everything which I think is
interesting and might possibly come in use one day?
Does anyone out there have a use for 2 dozen vitamin bottles?
No I thought not, but I might one day.





Last week I decided to make some more dragons, in my quest to see what things would interest Etsy buyers. I went down to the library and looked at a few books for inspiration, I found our library is sadly lacking in photographs of real dragons, maybe I should have tried the children's section? So it was down to the drawing board, and several pages of doodling later I came up with these. Descendants of my earlier dragons, these have grown wings.


One (the left) is larger than the other which you cant tell from the photos.
I think of the smaller one as being an immature dragon, he hasn't got the spiny bits on his back yet...(this is fantasy after all, so I can create my own dragon biology).Or perhaps he is one of those swamp dragons a la Terry Pratchett, who knows .



This dragon can hold something in its paws if you want, an artificial flower perhaps, the stem of this lavender is a bit thin, it is all I could find in the garden. One thing I don't hoard is artificial flowers, but you get the idea from this. A romantic rather than macho dragon if he's holding flowers. Perhaps he should be holding a little flag, or an armorial banner. If you buy him you can take that decision yourself.(hint)



Looking at the pipe clip again I see a barking dog.....but that's another story altogether.




.

Rabbits plus red, purple and gold

Red,purple and gold, the glorious colours of late summer.

My latest rabbit brooch, which is for sale on Etsy, and some photos which reflect the colours found in this brooch.

These photos were all taken in my garden , mainly today.

The gooseberrries and redcurrents are destined for the freezer, to be made into warming winter pies and crumbles. The damsons I will make into jam.

The tulip and the sarracenia I have included because like the brooch they both have the wonderful contrast of red and gold

I like the redcurrant picture because they look like they have eyes, They remind me of the blackcurrants in the Ribena ad, its actually the lights on my extractor reflecting off them.

The last picture is a close up of a gooseberry, it reminds me of those shots of nebulas as seen via the Hubble telescope. Move back from your screen and half close your eyes to see what I mean!

The leaf with the raindrops on it is a Heuchara in case you are wondering.

I would like to have included a picture of a sunset with these but it is grey and miserable outside. We do not get good sunsets here as we like on the wrong side of a hill.

Thankyou to my husband who helped with the html with this, I haven't a clue about such things.

I'm not particularly fond of real insects I must admit .I can admire the beautiful colours and weird shapes but I couldn't bring myself to touch most of them . I've always liked caterpillars though ...........

I have been making some jewellery based on insects ,but first the real thing.This is as far as I can tell the caterpillar of the lime hawkmoth which I found in my back garden next to the bin.(this is it on the bin) it squirmed about like mad when I picked it up. I think that would be very off putting for a bird in search of a good meal. We have three enormous lime trees in our garden, there's certainly no shortage of food for this beastie. The blue horn is at its bottom end I think....

This on the other hand is a leaf beetle that I have made up. I think it is pretending to be a leaf and 2 berries.

He is made from brass and has silver feelers.

I'm not sure whether to add colour to this millipede, blue and green or red and blue? I think it wold be fun to have a trail of these running up a jacket and down your back.


Ok a ladybird, the obvious insect to make, everyone likes ladybirds, except when they crowd into your house in the winter, this one is a little different as he has a translucent back and you can seen stripes under the cold enamel.

A copper and brass bug , viewed from underneath this looks like an alien, from on top he's quite cute I think.


And the biggest of the lot a staghorn beetle, not terribly anatomicaly accurate, I think the top set of legs are supposed to higher up, they got joggled a bit when I was soldering them on and I didn't want to ruin him by trying to move them. This beastie is 7 cms long and about 5 cms wide toe to toe. He would look great crawling up a black coat, or you could just frame him as a picture.....

Introduction

I make graphic funny jewellery and more serious jewellery with a medieval or ancient feel to it.

This will be the occasional musings of a craftsperson, artist, catlover,would be gardener,d-i-yer, and wife.

This is me making brooches in my shed.

You can find me at uk.handmade.ning.com, Folksy.com , Etsy.com and en.dawanda.com.Please follow my links if you want to see my work.