little house 'embrace' brooches

brass house brooch with sea glass

the "home is where the heart is" exhibition closes tomorrow evening

The series of little house brooches are part of the 'embrace' collection within "home is where the heart is".
Each of the metalwork houses hold a tiny shard of beach glass as a window. The windows are formed from a modified claw setting made by raising 'claws' from the sheet metal of the brooch body. The two holes above the sea glass are for the rivets which hold the brooch back in place.


There's a neat tutorial here for a more traditional claw setting for a regular gemstone cut.

the 'treevolution' brooch series

four seasons 'treevolution' brooches

These mixed media brooches sum up my conflicted feelings about making a new life as an immigrant in Canada, while being so far away from the land of my birth, family and friends.
The roots of the homesickness (heimweh) tree grow around a chunk of Scottish sea glass from my childhood beach.
The “i shall live here” tree has its root stock embedded around Sunshine Coast sea glass and tiny copper maple leaves flourish on the branches.

'treevolution' heimweh tree brooch

sea glass and faux pearls necklace

wired sea glass with vintage faux pearls

This was the first: my attempt to wire the sea glass from my childhood beach and make it portable.  These little chunks of washed glass were gathered on my ‘final’ trip back ‘home’ to sell our London maisonette and embark on Canadian residency and property ownership.
It seemed significant – we were cutting ties and making a new life. Suddenly, after four years of playing at emigration, our relocation to Canada was permanent.
Homesickness kicked in.

copper mermaid necklace and earrings

My father’s mother was a redhead so naturally I inherited a lot of her jewellery. She had a fondness for yellow, warm reds, amber and citrine. The vintage yellow glass beads in this set are from an amazing multi-strand necklace of hers, incorporated into new heirlooms with a modern slant.

chainmaille charms, new from old

Cast-off and out-of-fashion jewellery make great additions to a simple chainmaille byzantine weave bracelet. Each charm has a story to tell – old coins from a great uncle, luckenbooth charms from an aunt, found beads, broken earrings, … history.

sisters necklaces

My mother’s mother was a twin; she and her sister were as different as chalk and cheese but they insisted on matching accessories. So if one twin got a crystal necklace, so did the other. This necklace and bracelet are made from cut crystal and tiny glass flowers beads on two separate chokers belonging to the sisters. The originals were falling apart when I was given them. Instead of re-stringing I decided to incorporate them into wearable modern pieces. Since I am also a sister, I mingled the two chokers and made two sets to share the inheritance.

fresh from the garden

flower G, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

Some more garden-inspired digital art.
Although some basic shapes are used in this outline, the flowers were created by hand then coloured and resized to suit the project.

MS Publisher