Friday, May 28, 2010

a change of season ...



... and more changes for spiralstone. I’ve decided to remove all made to order items from my store for the winter season. I love all the stacking rings and moon cycle jewellery that is in my store, it represents what my store is all about, but I’m trying to reduce my workload and free up my time to create more one of a kind pieces at the moment. On the first day of spring (that’s September 1st here in Australia) all made to order items will be back in my store again :).

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

changes

To enable me to fulfil my creative needs I need a little more time to work on my own designs, so I’ve decided to make a few changes to spiralstone. This means that I’ll be taking a break from making hoop and spiral earrings, and they will no longer be available to purchase in my store for now. I feel a little sad about removing them from my store as they have been such a big part of it over the last few years. My design and method of making spirals has slowly evolved over time and I feel that they are close to as perfect as I can get them now, so I’m thinking of writing a tutorial that I can share with you on how I make them …. and then you can make your own ….well, that’s the plan.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

in search of pebbles

When designing jewellery I always make what I think is beautiful and something that I would wear myself. Some of my designs linger in my store until someone connects with that certain something that compels them to make it their own. Yet other pieces I make fly off the shelf accompanied by numerous emails asking me if I can make another one. And this is exactly what happened when I listed these pebble stacking rings:


Unfortunately the stones I used for these rings were collected in New Zealand. I only had about ten of these little pebbles, and living in Australia I couldn’t go back to collect any more of them. I tried to find similar stones here in Sydney, but I realized that it was the pounding surf that polished those little pebbles to perfection, and gave them a beautiful smooth surface that was perfect for making into rings.

I’d given up hope finding similar pebbles here in Australia and had abandoned the idea of making more pebble stacking rings until I could visit New Zealand again and I could return to the stormy coastline of Birdlings Flat and collect more pebbles battered and polished by the wild stormy seas. But on our way home from our holiday we happened to stay next to a beautiful little beach. As I made my way over the dunes and onto the beach I found that this little beach was covered in pebbles! Pebbles that were being thrashed and thrown around by the pounding surf which tumbled and polished those stones into perfect little cabochons for spiralstone pebble stacking rings!



The colours of the stones are beautiful,




And amongst them I found these spiral shells that I'm looking forward to making into jewellery.

I’ll be making new pebble stacking rings in a few different sizes over the next month :).

Saturday, May 15, 2010