Good Luck necklace

Ladybirds are a sign of good luck and I was recently asked to make a ladybird necklace for a customer. This one is made using silver and color anodized aluminum.

The aluminum leaf is impressed with the veins of the leaf.

Hope you like it - and hope it brings the wearer good luck.

Leaves of green...(and pink, yellow, black......)

I made some new earrings for my upcoming farmers' markets. I wanted a lower price point and an item that was a good intro to color anodized aluminum jewelry.

Aluminum is such a perfect material for jewelry. It is very lightweight - you can barely feel these earrings when you wear them - but it is tough too.

So today's little series is entitled "leaves of green"..... but with a bit of artistic license, I added some other colors too!

My favorite is the pink/purple pair. What about you?

Sunshiny days

We had a sunny day!!! Yippee!  Yes, it's been a little grey and rainy here in England but our final day was warm and sunny.  There we were, out in only shirt sleeves! No jackets or raincoats or sweaters....We had a lovely day in Broadway, doing a bit of shopping. Broadway is such a pretty Cotswold town - so picturesque.

But we fly back to California today after a busy couple of weeks. It's been a great trip and we've enjoyed all our visiting and catching up.

We're not sure whether we'll be flying back to sunshine as it's been drizzly in CA recently too!  Maybe my sunshiny bangle will help bring the sunshine out? What do you think? I showed you the pink and blue ones last week and this is the third in the summery series.

The three different colors make me think of a sweetie shop....quite mouth watering. What do you reckon?

Blues skies

Following on from my "in the pink" bangle, here is another colored version - "Blues Skies".

Do you remember the song "blue skies" by Irving Berlin?. Quite a few different artists have recorded it.

Blue skies smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see

Bluebirds singing the song
Nothing but bluebirds all day long

I never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you're in love, my, how they fly

Blue days all of them gone
Nothing but blue skies from now on 

This bangle is blue skies AND blue flowers!  No more blue days here :=D  And I also  made some simple earrings to match.

Here's a little Ella Fitzgerald as a reminder of Blue Skies!

In the pink

I'm feeling in the pink today!  After flying over to the UK from CA yesterday, although I was up in the night for a couple of hours, (reading my Google reader at 4am this morning), I've felt good today and not tired at all.  We went out with family last night for dinner and they were entertaining so we stayed up until 11pm, not even noticing what time it was!  Hopefully tonight will be a good night's rest too.

So to match my mood, I thought I'd show you my latest pink bangle! "In the pink" - a pink background with pink flowers.  I did a couple of other colors too so I'll post them later in the week.

Our friends from the US also arrived today - managing to get through the volcanic ash on the way! They didn't sleep at all on the flight over, so are having a nap now.  We'll have to work hard tonight to keep them up - and ourselves!!!

Hope you've had a day in the pink today too!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

I remember my sister Mary teaching me the song "little bunny foo foo" quite  few years ago - complete with hand actions.  As I recall, we weren't all that little...and she learnt it when we were on choir camp!!! Obviously the singing of it was superior then!!

Anyhow, when I made another bunny for a bangle today, he looked so small and cute as he hopped through the grass, that little bunny foo foo came to mind!

He looks much too sweet to bop field mice on the head however. What do you think?  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the Youtube video below for a child safe version of the little song.  Yes, some Youtube videos for Little bunny foo foo contain warnings of blood and violence!




Rest assured, my sister and I sang it much better!!! and the actions just make it!!

See what a huge influence my sister has had on my life???

 

Maybe this could be the start of a new series of story/song illustrations as bangles! Any suggestions for a song from your childhood that you'd like to see on a bangle?

17/52 Bird a week challenge - Rustling through the leaves

Doesn't "rustling through the leaves" conjure up a lovely picture.... and while it's normally associated with autumn in our minds,  as that is the time of year when we rustle,  for birds, it is a year round occupation as they look for grubs and little tasty bites to eat.

We see them all the time out in the wooded area - towhees, robins, quails, jays etc....kicking their little feet through the leaf litter looking for insects. This is why it is important to not clear all the fallen leaves away around your property. It is an vital habitat for birds (and of course insects!!).

And that is what my bird this week is doing...he's wandering around, in between the leaves on this bangle, looking for some tasty treats!

I wonder what he'll find?

Week 17 of the year long challenge and I can tell you - it's impressive how many of us who started this challenge are keeping up with creating a different bird each week. Even those who had never created birds before! Take a look at what the others who joined my challenged have created this week:

Happily Hopping through Life

2011 is the year of the rabbit.  People born in the year of the rabbit ( 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 and 2011) are said to be calm, gentle and persistent.

They are admired for their tactful and considerate dealings with all who know them, and therefore often depended upon for their wise counsel.

Romantically, people born in the year of the rabbit are not quick to commit to any one person right away, but once they do settle down, they are a true and sweet spouse.

Artistically they have an impeccable eye for color and line which is often evident in their fashion sense.

They are also quick to bolt from any perceived danger and intuitively know when to run!

We have several large jack rabbits who live in our vineyard and we love watching them nibble away on the weeds between the vines, their noses twitching and their ears ever alert...and then they'll start running and chase each other and play.........

But they weren't the inspiration for this, my latest bangle - "Happily hopping through life".  Instead it was a wonderful repeat customer, Gail, who always offers me lots of suggestions and ideas. She was born in the year of the rabbit and as this year is also the year of the rabbit, she decided that she wanted a rabbit bangle.  So do you fit into the above description of people born in the year of the rabbit Gail? Tell us all!!!

Doesn't he look happy hopping through life?  A big smile on his face! What a lovely bunny!!

Animal tracks bangle

My animal tracks and bird tracks silver bracelets have always been popular so I thought I'd try using tracks on an aluminum bangle.

I dyed the background a new color - it is called olive - but actually came out grey - but I quite like the smoky color effect. It's not very different from the aluminum color itself but does add a little something.  I know, I've been using a lot of color in my aluminum, so this one is a little different as it's just greys and black, but I like the subtle grey with the strong black. What do you think?  

And can you identify the animal tracks?  Go on, give it a go......

The perfect bangle for a hike in the woods.....

Adding texture to aluminum

I got a little package this past week from my mum.  No, it wasn't a food parcel - it was little bits and bobs of lace, fabric, paper cutouts etc.  I had been telling her about my rolling mill and how I wanted to try using it with the aluminum - so all her little strips of goodies were things to try running through the mill with the aluminum for my bangles to create texture on the metal.

I haven't tried them all yet, but here are a couple:

 This first one is a lovely rich orange color - as that was always my mum's favourite color.  Is it still I wonder????  Anyhow - a happy color.  I put the aluminum through with a piece of thick lace.  I hope you can see the texture that came from it in the photos.

The other was just a small piece of aluminum I colored but hadn't made anything with.  This went through the mill with an open weave ribbon.

It'll be interesting to add texture to some of my bangles and also other aluminum pieces I make. I'll be trying the other goodies later so will let you know how they work out.

Yes, the aluminum experiments continue!

Thanks mum!

14/52 Bird of the week - Quentin relaxing in the garden

Quentin is here again for another week of "bird of the week" challenge.  Last week we saw him strolling in the garden, but this time, he's having a little break, enjoying the sunshine and taking the weight off his feet! : Quentin relaxing in the garden.

Yes, little Quentin Quail, sitting down amongst the flowers.  What a sweet scene.   Maybe we can all take a leaf out of Quentin's book and go and sit amongst the flowers some time this week?

And if you are concerned about Quentin possibly falling off the flowers, please don't be.  I secure him by making a silver screw. Then just a little surgery in Quentin to make the threads.  He says it's not painful at all!!!. Then he is securely threaded onto the bracelet.  A threaded cold connection is the technical term.  See  - here is him showing off that he can stay on!!!:

The links below connect you to others who joined in my bird a week challenge.  I hope you'll take the time to see what their birds are up to this week.

Rose windows revisited

I've been working a little more with resists and the aluminum dyes and decided to try  a different version of my rose window, using only aluminum and no silver.  Here is it in progress:

It creates quite a different effect to the silver ones - and I'm not sure where I'll go with it, but it's fun experimenting.

What do you think?

Happy Flowers

I finished a few more aluminum bangles this week. Here are a couple of "happy flower" ones.

I'm thinking at least one of these will end up with a little creature on them....as I now have a little stash of fine silver bugs. 

 

The colors make me think of summer...blue skies and yellow flowers. What do you think?

Spring is definitely here: there's another ladybird!

Well, the first day of spring was this week and all we've had is rain, rain and wind.....but I saw another ladybird today.... so maybe there is hope?  You may remember there was a ladybird/ladybug on some flowers earlier in the week, but today's is just on a leaf:

I have some other similar pieces in progress too.....but you'll have to wait until they are finished.  I just love the brightness of the color you get with anodised aluminium, and then by mitering the edges, the silver of the aluminium shines through, and picks up with the fine silver sculptured ladybird.

Have you seen signs of spring at home yet?  Is the sunshine there? Maybe you can share it a little??? Can't really complain - we normally have lovely weather here in Northern CA, and these rainy couple of weeks are quite out of character.

Ladybirds

I do think the British term "ladybirds" is so much nicer than the American "ladybugs". It just conjures up a lovely image - not a buggy one.  So I guess it is one British word that I still prefer to use, over the American.

And so it is a ladybird who has decided to land on my dogwood bangle.

I've been thinking about different ways of combining silver with my color anodised aluminum, like the rose windows I posted about yesterday.... and now attaching silver to the bangles fills me with new ideas! 

Better keep this post short and get back to my studio before my head bursts!!!

I hope you like it. Look out for more :=D