Anyone can stay connected

After writing my latest Merry Go Round blog post at the end of May all on the topic of Networking, I was inspired to make a piece of jewelry that embodied all that we do nowadays to keep in touch with people and stay connected....whether that is through Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, emails, text messages, the phone... and countless other ways.

So I came up with "anyone can stay connected".  It's a bracelet - you can add charms to it if you like - but the closure/toggle is my little "anyone" figure - making the connection!  His arms are raised and go through the ring and keep the bracelet connected!!!

Hope you like him!  I think he's quite a sweet (and skinny!)  anyone!!!...arms up, ready to connect... He'd make a great gift for someone you want to stay connected to...

What's your favorite way of staying connected?

Birdhouses

So here are the little things I was working on yesterday that I mentioned in my blog - three little birdhouses. A round one with a shingled roof-top, a square one, and a rectangular one - each with a little post for alighting on before you pop inside!

My idea is that I will combine them with birds and make a birdie charm bracelet - three birds with three houses. But there again, I might make earrings as I never seem to make earring anymore...or else .........

But there they are unassembled and I'll show you the final piece(s) when I decide on it.

The silent charm bracelet

While I was at a metal clay conference last month, I was lucky enough to win a charm bracelet with all the charms made by different instructors. It's a great bracelet - but not one I can wear everywhere. You see it's really noisy! All that jingling and jangling makes quite a racket - even when I'm just moving my arm slightly - never mind if it is a longer motion!

So when I'm not wearing my prize - I wear one of my "silent" charm bracelets. A single charm on a solid bangle - like this one with Wattle the chicken on it. Yes, Wattle is a quiet little chicken - no clucking from him!!!

A friend of mine, Jo, is just starting a new e-commerce business called "choirgear" where she will sell all things to do with personal goods for choir and chorus members. She kindly asked to include some of my items too - so the silent charm bracelet will be one I recommend. It's a great resource so if you sing, do check out Jo's website. I sing a lot and am always carefully to not wear jangly stuff but hate having to not wear perfume!! For an evening out, I always want a little spray of my favourite scent, but have to forgo it for the sake of other singers who have allergy problems....

I make the bracelet sometimes with clips - so that you can buy different charms and they are interchangeable so if you aren't feeling like chicken one day...you could have bird instead!!
That way, as your mood changes with the day, you can add whatever charm you feel like.

Right now, I'm not having a particularly good day nothing really wrong - but maybe I need to be wearing my bottle of wine charm!!! Too early to have a drink - but maybe the charm will do something for me!!

But maybe the correct choice would be a teapot charm - a nice cup of tea - that would sort me out!!! Yuck! Hate tea!! (see my previous post about tea).

Anyhow - for those "silent" moments - consider the silent single charm bracelet!

My family and other animals

A few months ago in the spring, we went back to England to see our family. We go back twice a year and spend a couple of weeks catching up with everyone. On this last trip we met up with my sister and her family at her new holiday home at Windrush - Heronslake (be sure the check out her website as I built it!!!). Anyhow, the first evening there we went to the local brasserie with my two nephews, Matthew and Peter.....and so this charm bracelet came about.

I had had the idea of making some silver animals - whimsical animals but wanted them to all have individual names. I'd begun naming a few - but then mentioned it to my nephews and sister as we were sitting over dinner - and the rest of the evening was then taken over with coming up with animal names for all these different animals. I think I could spend a year making animals and I would still not use up the names.

We decided on two names per animal species so that if they were earrings, each would have a different name.

I think the first name that came up was Matt the sheep and Ted and sheep - ie Matted...as in wool???....
Now I'm not going to explain all of them to you - you have to read it and figure it out...... My eldest nephew is Matt - or Matthew - and so after all the naming, and creating the animals, this bracelet became "my family and other animals"!!!!

So - the names - we have:
Matt and Ted the sheep
Curdle and Cud the cows
Trotter and Truffle the pigs
Wattle and Comb the chickens
Welsh the rabbit and his friend Jack (ever had Welsh rarebit?)

and the not on the bracelet...and in many cases not even created yet....we have:

Ebony and Ivory the zebras
Mozzarrella the mouse
Greg and Gruff the goats
Bill and Trill the birds
Claude and Claudia the cats
Dig and Doug the dogs
Pete and Pilchard the penguins (Peter is my nephew!)
Cliff and Bob the seagulls
Gulp and Fin the goldfish (Fin is my brother in law!)
Over and Fore the bears (not my nephews contribution as you can imagine - but their dad!!)
Lionel and Lilly the lambs
Eg and Bert the chickens
Ee and Ore the donkeys
Spike and Needle the hedgehogs
Clip and Clop the horses
Giddy and Up the horses
Crispy and Peking the ducks
Tad and Pole the frogs
Incy and Wincy the spiders

You can tell that we have amusing times when we get together! I have yet to make Peter the penguin - but I was drawing him out yesterday...so he will be the next creation I think. I've sold Matt the sheep, and Matt and Ted the earrings...and Mozzarrella the mouse. And not forgetting of course, Quentin and Queenie the Quails...!!!

Do feel free to offer up more naming opportunities for animals... I'm sure there are plenty more out there....and all I need is more silver... or maybe there are some bronze animals waiting to come out in the new bronzclay????