New found inspiration

Upcoming road trip seems to have influenced me more than I realised!

Itchy feet have struck again readers!! This summer, my friend and I are planning our second road trip and this one will be even bigger and better!

We're jetting off to Vancouver to begin almost a month of traveling around the West of Canada and flights were promptly booked last weekend so it certainly feels more real now. Here is our rough route:

One big ol' loop from Vancouver taking in the best of the National and Provincial Parks

We absolutely loved our time in Yosemite NP on our last road trip around California and so are making the most of what BC and Alberta have to offer and I think it's fair to say that the wilderness has definitely made its mark on my jewellery recently.
Plus, new tools arrived from the States last week so I had to have a play!

Bear Face // The cubes of pyrite reminded me of a sheer cliff or mountain side!

Be Wild // Clear rock crystal and kyanite to give an icy river or lake feel

This bear paw stamp is one of my absolute favourites at the moment - I love how deep the claw impression is giving a sense that the silver may actually have been clawed at!

A couple of new designs too utilising my solid acorn charm:

Simple, but effective and on leather it can even be unisex

The ever popular tree illustration with acorn charm - I never tire of making these!

If you click on the images they all link to the website where these are available to purchase.
I am curious to know peoples thoughts on whether they enjoy reading this blog or would perhaps prefer a weekly newsletter? If you would like to throw in your tuppence feel free to leave me a comment on here or Facebook - thank you!

Until next time......

New designs for Graceful Deviant

Although there is still some work to be done!

I have been wanting to doodle some more of my own illustrations for use in my Graceful Deviant work for a long while now but, as always, I thought too long and too hard about whether or not the designs would 'fit'.

Then I decided 'sod it'! It's my business and I can draw what I like! Ok, so what if some things are a bit more rocky/tattoo inspired as opposed to pretty/nature inspired - the name is Graceful Deviant after all and if I like it, there must be others that will too (she says!).

And because I tend to use only my black ink drawn ideas I think it still ties in to an overall 'look' which is what I'm panicking to achieve!

So the pen and paper finally came out and I got going.

I love all of them but unfortunately, once minimized to charm or stud size (just a wee 8mm for stud earrings!), the detail is lost. But that's ok, I know what I need to do to get these to work!

The star-like design was one of my favourites (along with my facebook fans too) but I could really only use the central part of the design.

I think I just started with a design that was too large and the lines are not wide enough so that when you shrink it down, you lose resolution.

This is why my peacock feather design worked so well. I drew it smaller to begin with so that once shrunk, the resolution was perfect.

It's strange but they look sooo much better in person! The camera makes them look slightly grainy but the clarity is spot on in real life!

Star Design Print Earrings now available on the website - click for link

When I first began Graceful Deviant I used to sell peacock feather studs in colour - it was just a photograph of the eye of the feather but through changing printers/papers/ making techniques over the years I never quite got them to look as good as when I made the very first ones.

So, I discontinued them but am so pleased I now have a hand drawn version.

I may add colour - what do people think?!

Peacock Feather Print Studs are now available on the website - click for link!

These are the designs I need to work on - they're almost there, just not quite perfect!

Just a few more tweaks and I'll have these ready - fingers crossed!

Weekly round-up

Custom Orders and New Ideas

This week has seen a few custom orders, the largest of which was a set of four of my Mighty Oaks Necklaces but with an additional acorn. This was for a lady who had given birth to twins very prematurely and had since spent a lot of time in hospital under the care of four exceptional nurses. And so these necklaces are for those nurses.

 

Sterling Silver Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Necklaces

I have also been playing with my metal hole punch and doming tools. The soldering torch will make an appearance again next week and hopefully with some better results than last time as I'd like to turn these into studs. I'm thinking they could be mini moon and black hole studs!

Sterling Silver Mini Moon and Black Hole Domed Studs

Lastly, I wanted to share a photograph of my latest card make - for my Valentine ;)
I used a new stamp from the Gorjuss range and coloured with distress ink and layered with some of the papers from the range. I have, however, had to scribble out the little sentiment to the right - it's just too naughty for general consumption!!

Handmade Valentine's Card

Hope you've enjoyed and join me next time for new ideas!

Ellen

New designs from a slightly better week!

A lot more productive!

The soldering torch has gone away for the week so as to concentrate on some more of The Blue Starfish designs as several deliveries of gorgeous handmade goodness had come through my door in the last few days not least these amazing glass creations from Linda.

Handmade glass headpins and large glass rings from Earthshine Lampwork Beads

The first thing I set about doing was using the rings to team up with the lampwork saucers I got from Helen to make more Relic Necklaces but the weather has been so gloomy I'm afraid piccies will have to wait :(

But, those gorgeous purple drops were soon turned into pretty little flower fairy earrings:

Flower Fairy Earrings

 Plus I had an exciting delivery of ceramic goodies from Petra including these fantastic petals - they look sooo much better in real life - the glaze is very hard to capture.

Hydrangea Earrings

I also managed three bracelets, each very different from one another:

You can find my bracelets here.
This heart pendant has been in my stash for months - sometimes you just have to wait for the inspiration to strike and also have the right combination of beads on the go too:

Romance Necklace

And because I am already excited at the prospect of springtime, longer days and less miserable weather, I have introduced some green to Graceful Deviant!

Tiny 3mm Sterling Silver Peridot Studs

Sterling Silver Beaded Bracelet with Peridot, Oak Leaf Charm and Black & White Floral Art Charm

That's all for now folks, thanks for stopping by!