telling tales: beachcomber bib necklace

For a while most of my wire crochet work was quite "small" - small beads, nothing too chunky or 'in your face'.
That all changed when I noticed in some of the style magazines (yes, I do read them ..... but mostly ignore them!) that jewelry, especially necklaces, was getting bolder.





So how to incorporate that look with wire crochet? I'm always up for a challenge to get me thinking out of my normal comfort zone. Custom projects are a great way to do this, working to someone else's colour palate, for example. It's also fun to interpret current trends in your own way too.





Of course the ocean once more provided the inspiration and voila! the beachcomber necklace was born. Featuring fewer but bigger beads than normal, this was my interpretation of casting a net into a particularly lush ocean and bringing the catch aboard caught in the mesh.





It's become one of my favourite styles, worked in all colourways including silver, gold, copper and black artistic wire. I have a copper version of my own (seen in one of my avatars as above) and wear it with both casual and formal outfits.It's a shorter necklace or choker but can be worn longer if required. It's bold but classy, and certainly adds a 'pop' to any neckline.

telling tales: mermaid multi strand necklace

Mermaids always wear oceanic jewelry IMO, and with all that swimming, diving and siren-singing going on it's bound to be a little 'worn' and tangled.
Thus my mermaid asymmetric multi-strand necklaces - a thorough tangle of strands, featuring a plethora of jewelry-making techniques from wire work thru chainmaille to simple beading.



I have no idea why I decided to make a multi-strand asymmetric necklace one day ..... but when the piece was finished, the name 'mermaid' was firmly fixed in my mind.



I've made them in silver wire, gold (as part of a recent jewelry design class) and tinned copper. My own personal mermaid is in copper and features a rather handsome wired glass cabachon as a clasp.



The number of strands varies but they all tangle as part of the style, and they're all called mermaid.

wordless wednesday: from the bench to the neck

on the bench - wip, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

photo credit: Amber Strocel with thanks!

a custom necklace project, from beads to completion

telling tales: sea glass wire collar

sea glass woven wire crochet collar

This week's theme is 'from the sea' - pieces inspired by the ocean which are currently featured in the Blackberry Gift Shop. One of the reasons I started making jewelry was homesickness. Emigrating to the west coast of Canada placed me 8000km away from family and where I grew up.


sea coal and sea glass

I grew up in a small seaside village and spent many a happy hour playing at the beach. Now, whenever I go back home I spent many an afternoon walking along the same beach picking up pieces of beach glass. These pieces remind me of home when I'm far away. Some of my first pieces of jewelry were my attempts to 'wear' the sea glass from home, to keep it close to me.


wire wrapped daisy chain necklace

 When I started making wire crochet pieces naturally I tried to incorporate my beloved sea glass. Crocheting a wire bezel around each piece is fiddly but effective. I've made many of these sea glass collars through the years now. On show is the latest in an evolving line.


sea glass constellation collar - part of a custom order

telling tales: drilled sea glass

drilled sea glass cufflinks in a sterling silver chain setting

I've decided (cos it's up to me anyway) that this week is going to have an ocean theme and I'll tell the tales of the 'from the sea' section of featured work.
Both the cufflinks above and the pendant at the bottom of the post are made from scottish sea glass which has been drilled then mounted in a custom sterling silver setting. I'll talk about where the glass is collected from in another post but for now let's concentrate on how I got the holes in the glass seeing as it doesn't just turn up on the beach like that!


a typical beachcombing view

Putting holes in sea glass is relatively easy as long as a. you have a diamond coated drill bit, b. a drill, and c. patience. This is not something that can be done in a hurry or broken glass/broken drill bit is likely to happen.
Each piece is held underwater on a plastic mesh kitchen scrubby while drilling. This helps cool the drill bit in action (drill bits do not like heating up). Once I'm about halfway thru the thickness I flip the glass over and start drilling from the other side. The reason for doing this is to avoid pushing out a flake of glass and ruining the piece. Once through, I smooth out the bore hole with the drill then dry the piece and make the custom setting for it.

drilled sea glass pendant in sterling silver setting

telling tales:in the garden wire and fibre ring

in the garden wire and fibre ring, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

This wire and fibre ring is from my "into the garden" series, inspired mostly by my parents' lush scottish back yard and with more than a slight finger poke at the Etsy-hipster terrarium fad.

Thus, the terrarium you an wear on your hand - a little garden for your fingers!

needlefelted fibres with metal and plastic elements on wire crochet base

telling tales: fine silver maple leaf pendant

featured!, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

This piece is a happy marriage of parenting with crafting. My other blog deals with my daily life, trying to fit in some crafty moments in, around and in spite of family life. Making these fine silver pendants actually fits in with family life without too much disruption.

Autumn walks with my Wee Guy usually generate a large number of 'found' objects coming home. He collects rocks, twigs, pinecones and I select maple leaves from the ornamental trees near our home. Once collected they are vaselined to an old margarine tub lid to prevent them drying out then painted with art clay silver slurry.

Once a few layers are on and dried I can continue the painting at a more leisurely pace. My studio for this project is up on an old bookcase with all my tools at hand. Whenever I pass I paint on another layer then go and fold laundry or whatever.

Once enough layers have built up the leaves can be fired and polished leaving a 99.9% pure silver 'cast' of the original leaf.

Each one is truly a one-of-a-kind and cannot be repeated since the original leaf burns away in the firing process.