Another jewellery dose

Well, the past few weeks have been hectic. To prove how busy I've been, I bought a skirt for my Aerith Gainsborough cosplay which came three weeks ago... I haven't even had the time to take it out of the packaging yet!

Heres a few more items of jewellery which I completed recently:

 

Oriental earrings. Sorry the camera flash caught the coin charms a bit. For sale, £5.99.

Elephant earrings with goldstone and adventurine. For sale, £5.99.

Commission for a charity auction, with all money raised going to the NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk. The pendant is amethyst with hematite beads, and the earrings are purple miracle beads and Swarovski hearts.

I never properly posted the hairpiece I made for the May Ball, so here it is:

 

I chose to pick up on the baby blue on some of the flowers on my dress and work with that. The dress was high necked so didn't need a necklace, but I made a pair of earrings as well.
The earrings were made using glass flowers and chain, with some sparkly rondelle beads.

 
The hair piece was made by attaching a carved blue agate flower to a hair clip with wire, from which a length of chain could hang. This was braided into my hair, with glass flowers and silver dragonflies hanging down at intervals.

 

I was very pleased with the way it turned out, as I'd never done anything like it (both with jewellery and with my hair) before!

Hope you like the new jewellery!

Becky x

Some new jewellery

I've been on a real jewellery making spree these past few days! Unfortunately, I've been hit by the curse of getting halfway through a piece and then realising you don't have the right beads or findings to finish it, so I cant share everything with you just yet :(

Here are the things I have completed:

These were done during term time because I needed a break from revision. I quite like the wire spiral spacers.

Made this morning, a gorgeous bracelet with triangular blue-centred glass beads and purple miracle beads.

 

 

 

I absolutely love this bracelet. I may keep it for myself :P The contrast of the colours against the silver wire works beautifully. I'm currently making more in different colour combinations.

One colour combination I tried was pink and black:

These will be for sale. Please let me know which colour combinations you think would work!

I found these silver sharks teeth earrings for a bargain at River Island! They reminded me of Megalodon teeth, so I had to buy them! I'm not sure whether to leave them as they are or replace the cream acrylic bead with something prettier...

 

Let me know what you think!

Finally, a few items have sold recently so I've updated the for sale page :)

Hope you like the new jewellery :) More to come!

Becky x

Still alive.

*bows to floor*

I am truly truly sorry for neglecting my blog for so long. I really am.

The reason? University work (yay) combined with some unforeseen medical issues.

I can only apologise and try again, although I cant promise anything.

So... things to update on! Theres quite a lot!

It has been a good year :D Cambridge is a lot of fun (despite being hard work) and I've made some amazing friends. I even managed to pass my exams!

Stuff I'm working on at the moment...

I have a commission for a charity auction which is currently in progress. The bidder wanted amethyst and hematite, which is a lovely colour combination, so I shall post pictures when its finished!

I'm also working on a tiger eye and hematite pendant, as well as some other stuff.

I made my own hair piece and earrings for the May Ball:

Me and the boyfriend, looking very smart in white tie.

I discovered a passion for baking! Which is awkward as we don't have ovens at uni... If you know any good no bake cake recipes please let me know!

 

This is my Sticky Mars Bar Calorie Cake Of Doom, described by my friend as the amazing chocolate heaven thing. Who needs ovens???

I haven't forgotten the steampunk stuff, I promise! Things got in the way!

There has been some good fancy dress however...

Pirate punting races on the Cam! I wish I'd got a better picture of my hair, it was epic :D

I'm currently working on River Song and Aerith Gainsborough cosplays. River Song is for a uni charity event I'm planning on doing next term (with my boyfriend as the Eleventh Doctor), and the Aerith one is for the off chance that I have enough money to go to a convention in August. Plus I have been told I look like both.

River Song cosplay, work in progress.

I hope you all have been well :D I look forward to reading all the blog posts I have to catch up on...

Becky x

University!

I've started at uni! Its fantastic, but pretty damn manic. I have to fit 12 hours of lectures, 12 hours of practicals and 4 hours of supervisions into one week! And on top of that in each 1 hour supervision I'm normally set an essay which will take around 5 hours (if not more) to complete. And then theres practical write ups, revising lecture notes..... AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH IM GOING TO GO INSANE.

So the blog isnt going to be updated anywhere near as often as I'd like! I'm sorry about that!

Heres a bit of an update while I have a few spare minutes (shock horror), just sharing a few things about uni life.

 

 Punting! Its so much fun! If you ever come down by Cambridge, you definitely need to give it a go!

 

This shop offers free samples of fudge, so we had to start a new tradition: matriculation fudge. We also did matriculation McDonalds, which was pretty surreal in gowns.

Plenty of Harry Potter photo opportunities.

General matriculation madness.
(Oh, I probably should have explained sooner. Matriculation is like graduation, but before you start. Its an Oxbridge/Durham thing)

My new mug! Behold its awesomeness!

Using the whole range of opinions in my first Evolution and Behaviour essay.

 

My Dad bought me this! Its a graze box, and you get 4 different types of snacks. In mine I've got salsa mexicanos (little biscuits with salsa), natural vanilla seeds (mixed with sunflower seeds), festival fruits (pear, apple, plums and blackcurrants) and after dinner mint (sultanas, chocolate, almonds). How lovely is that?? They all look so nice, I dont know where to start.... www.graze.com is the website on the box, if you wanted to send your own as a gift.

Aaaand finally, an update on my Genesis Rhapsodos earrings, all of which are now reserved!

Because I wont be able to get any more of the beads, this means this item is now unavailable for the forseeable future. If you still would like one, please do get in contact with me and then if one of the other potential buyers cancels on me I can tell you!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Off to university!

I go to uni tomorrow! I'm dead excited, but a little nervous too!

Commissions and sales are now closed. See my previous blog post for the details, but if theres something you want I'm more than happy to reserve it for you, provided its not already been sold in the shop.

Here are a few new pairs of earrings I've made:

 

These are made from miracle beads strung in a chain. I wanted to use ear hooks but I'd run out so had to use studs instead.

 

When wearing earrings, do you prefer studs or hooks? 

 

 Secondly, two lovely pieces of shell hung on wire with acrylic shell beads. My camera whitewashed this picture, sorry, the shell beads have a lovely streak of bluey green running across them which is a lot brighter than you can see here!

A few purchases for university:

Found this on ebay, its supposedly a limited edition Square Enix product. Whether it is or not I dont know (it does look authentic, but I dont know enough to judge), and I dont really care, because its awesome.

 

I couldnt find a decent bag to take to lectures anywhere, so I bought a cheap plain one and decorated it with lots of badges. Again, my camera kind of ruined this picture and you cant read the Game of Thrones badges (which are the best, especially the House Stark one). I bought those badges in Waterstones for £4.99, which was a bit expensive, and I got House Baratheon, Stark, Tully and Greyjoy. I'm very tempted to go back and get the other pack, which was Targaryen, Lannister, Arryn and a picture of the Iron Throne.
The other badges are mostly steampunk or random ones I bought at the Nemacon Artists Alley, and a few from David and Goliath (I love that shop).

 

Apparently my face when I saw this jumper in H+M was priceless! I just had to buy it...

Puppy love!!! Her name is Poppy and she's very mischievous but I love her to pieces. Here she is investigating the camera.

Have you all gone to university yet? What did you get up to in Freshers Week?

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Jewellery reshuffle

Hello all!

As I go off to university within the week I've placed a few of my items up for sale at a local shop.

If you're interested in any of them, let me know asap and I will ring the shop to ask them to put them aside for when I get back. This means there is the possibility they may have sold before you reserve them, and I wont be able to organise postage and packaging until December when I'm back at home.

 

This goes for all my other jewellery too - I wont be able to sort out payment or postage until I return home. You can still reserve anything you like by getting in contact with me (providing its not already been sold or reserved) and I'll get in touch when I'm home and things are up and running again! 

 Also, I recently learned that my local bead shop is closing down :( I went back to the shop today to stock up on the beads which I use a lot of, and there shouldnt be too much of a problem for most of my jewellery.

The only problem is my Genesis Rhapsodos earring, which uses a bead which I have only been able to find there. Until I find a replacement, these earrings are limited edition. I have three left, and two have already been reserved over deviantart, so if you want the last one get in contact asap!

 

 All commissions will be closing on Wednesday! Sales will still be available, to a certain extent. I can reserve an item for you, but I will not be able to organise shipping until December (because I'll be at the other side of the country to my jewellery). Due to the very high workload of my course I have decided not to take my pliers/wire/other jewellery making stuff down for the first term, but I may change my mind at Christmas depending on how things go.

However, I still have a few pairs of earrings to post about and a newish pendant to put up for sale. There is also a good bead shop in Cambridge so expect some new and wonderful things at Christmas!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Octopods

The next part of my jewellery update. This started off as an experiment with the oval shaped beads, but I really like how they came out!

 



The beads are glass and the eyes are made from hematite. These little guys are super cute and every one is unique as the tentacles are always different!

I couldnt decide between pendants and earrings, so I'm going with both. Earrings are £12.50, and pendants are £6.99. If you dont want one in red or blue, let me know, and I'll see if I can get hold of the beads in different colours for you!

So, in honour of my new octopus-themed jewellery, this blog post is all about cephalopods!

A group of octopus is called a consortium. The correct version of the plural is either octopuses or octopodes, with octopi being incorrect as the word does not have a latin origin.

Octopuses have three hearts; two of which pump blood through the gills and another which pumps blood to the rest of the body.

In our blood cells we have haemoglobin as the oxygen carrying molecule, which is stored in our red blood cells. Octopuses, however, use haemocyanin dissolved in the blood plasma (the liquidy stuff which blood cells are found in), and this makes the blood appear blue.

Octopuses are very intelligent creatures, and are the only invertebrates which have been observed to use tools.

This one can use a rubiks cube, which instantly makes it more intelligent than me. I cant solve them at all :(

 

Although several species of octopus are venomous, the only one which is deadly to humans is the blue ringed octopus:

 

 

Octopuses are poorly represented in the fossil record as their bodies are almost entirely made up of soft tissues which decompose very quickly after death. The precise conditions needed for a fossil to form are rare - no scavengers, anoxic conditions (lack of oxygen which would prevent bacterial action) and rapid sedimentation rate (the body is buried quickly). However, fossils have been found.

 

 

This specimen is around 95 million years old, and shows very little difference to modern octopuses. Due to the extreme rarity of fossils, the evolutionary history of these animals is unknown.

 

I hope you like the new jewellery!

 

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

 

Becky x





New earrings

I've quite a bit of new jewellery to post about but I've decided to split it up into several bits to make it easier.

I was inspired to make these after seeing a lady wearing something similar at work. The stars are lovely and sparkly, which makes them perfect for a special occasion.
These are for sale at £5.99.

A while ago I made a pair of earrings like these in dark blue, and they sold the same day. The girl who bought them off me is a friend of mine, and she told me how many of her friends had admired them. I cant believe its taken me so long to make some more!
Either as a religious symbol or just as fashion, these dangly earrings are simply stunning. The colours here are purple and aqua, but I can also make them in red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, dark blue, bright pink, light pink, light purple, black and brown, so let me know if you would like something different and I'll happily make them for you!
These are £4.99 each.

These will all be going up on my for sale page soon, so if you're interested in buying any of them, drop me a message!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x