New Beginnings

I'm back! :D

Well... there have been a lot of changes round here over the last couple of years. Major personal upheaval for one, time is a great healer as they say! I am still making jewellery, commissions only at the moment but that may change soon :) And as usual I have managed to pick up a few more interests along the way... I've decided not to fight this compulsion any more and just go with it - I'm obviously not meant to just stick to one thing. Variety is the spice of life!

So firstly, another shop on Etsy! This time selling beautiful decorative paper. I have Japanese chiyogami and Italian at the moment - a lovely selection and hopefully more to come soon. So many uses - from book covers and boxes, scrapbooking, card making, origami, decoupage, or just wrap with it! Lots more ideas, and I'm hoping to show some here too from time to time as I have one or two projects of my own on the go ;-) Visit the Paper Tree to see more gorgeous paper!

Sitting Pretty is still going strong too - I have lots of vintage postcards and photographs waiting to be listed, but even so the shop is pretty well stocked, so if you love vintage do go and have a browse!

I'm enjoying a few days off at home at the moment, so looking forward to catching up with a few projects this week, as well as enjoying some welcome spring sunshine here in the UK - it makes a change from snow!! I had my first bbq of the year this weekend with some friends, looking forward to lots more! 

Blowing Hot and Cold

Well we've been having some very odd weather here in the UK, a tropical heat wave that brought some lovely temperatures and got us all out and about in our summer wear, not to mention the almost daily smell of barbecues - we certainly know how to make the most of it!

Alas it was not to last, we're back to spring temperatures and back in our woollies - c'est la vie!

Some new goodies to show you - 'Glacial Falls' cluster earrings with wonderful plump green amethyst briolettes and a cool Swarovski crystal mix of blues and greens.

For the next pair 'Honey Bees' I've soldered some chain to the bezel cups and set them with smoked topaz Swarovski crystal cabochons - very sweet, and just right if you don't want to wear anything too long.

This next pair are gold-filled - 'Tropicana Earrings', it was really hard work wrapping the beads on these compared to working with lovely soft fine silver! I was pleased with the colour mix though, a fruity mix of Swarovski crystals with raspberry chalcedony briolettes.


Finally a pair from a couple of weeks ago - 'Tutu Earrings', combining silver sheet and wire again, I've topped these off simply with faceted moonstone beads.

More photos and available to buy in my etsy store - Amari Jewellery :)

Mermaid's Tears

Quick little pair of earrings here - these gorgeous turquoise-blue apatite briolettes caught my eye, maybe a bit too early for such a summery colour but I kept coming back to them when deciding which stones to use!

I love the wrapped jump rings at the top, they are just over a centimetre in diameter and remind me of little daisies. I've added a freshwater pearl in between, along with tiny freshwater seed pearls at the bottom of the coiled tear drop frames. I'm really enjoying wrapping again! :)

Winter Skies

Well the snow has finally disappeared from our part of the UK, and the temperatures are definitely milder! It made for a very pretty and festive Christmas and New Year though - I hope everyone had a good break! :)

My first job after the holidays was to give the workroom a bit of a spring clean after all the frenzied productivity coming up to Christmas. I often start projects and then lose interest or get distracted by something else - I found these long teardrop frames in one of my storage boxes and decided to finally finish them!

I've coiled round the frames and added a swirl of fine silver and some tiny sterling beads. We had a little hint of sunshine this morning with the palest blue sky, which inspired the soft colour combination. I've used scapolite beads in a diamond shape which have a beautiful cut and subtle pale gold colour with lots of sparkle, tiny mystic blue briolettes and black diamond Swarovski crystals.

These should be up in my Etsy shop soon!

Tick Tock Earrings

Some more metalwork this time, from one of the many sketches/designs I have littering my desk! I'm beginning to feel a little more confident about setting saw to silver now, without worrying that I'm going to waste a perfectly good sheet of metal by making a horrible mistake. If I do, so be it! There is only one way to get better at it... :)

Hand sawn, shaped and filed from sheet silver, with black onyx cabs.

These are about 4cm long but still quite lightweight, and I love the shape - they remind me of clock hands.

Spice Trail

Spice Trail necklace - Swarovski crystals and freshwater pearls in lovely autumnal shades of warm copper, gold and rich burgundy, sterling silver and wire-wrapped.

A pair of matching earrings, again with Swarovski crystal and freshwater pearls, wrapped onto handmade fine silver headpins.

Black Onyx Earrings

Some more sterling silver earrings, again hand sawn and pierced. These have black onyx - I love the contrast between the deep black of the cabs and the shiny silver! I was hoping to give the appearance of the stones being 'held' at the bottom - I *think* I've achieved that! :)

Spring Bling!

I've been busy creating to stock up after the Christmas sales, the jewellery shops I supply haven't done too badly at all - despite the credit crunch!

Unfortunately it doesn't leave me much time to play with the silver sheet I've just bought, and the lovely new toys tools on my workbench...!!

More of that soon... :)


So... first a long cluster necklace with Swarovski crystal (I do love this flat briolette shape!) in a gorgeous cranberry red, with garnet, rock crystal, aquamarine and crystal bicones on a sterling chain...

... and earrings to match!



I love the spring colours in this Y-necklace.... I can't wait for my garden to wake up from the winter sleep! I really could do with some early flower bulbs, but typically I remember in the spring, when of course it's too late to plant them..! (Mental note for autumn... plant snowdrops, crocuses, grape hyacinths...).




With matching earrings... in amethyst, aquamarine and vibrant turquoise apatite, on sterling silver chain.






I love wearing bracelets myself, if I'm wearing any jewellery it's nearly always something round my wrist, although for some reason they don't seem to be as popular as earrings and necklaces so I don't tend to make many (and even then I often end up keeping them for myself!).






Bracelet and matching earrings... with chalcedony, apatite, Swarovski crystal and a Hill Tribe shell charm.






I managed to dazzle myself with this one... I'm normally quite conservative with my colour schemes, but amongst other things I've resolved this year to move out of my comfort zones. This is as daring as it gets for me!




In these then... carnelian, prehnite and green fluorite cushion beads.

Roll on summer!!

Winter Snowdrops

I always seem to have huge problems photographing anything with a lot of shiny silver - these in particular were incredibly frustrating! I started these a while ago, I have quite a few unfinished projects that I'm determined this year to complete.

I wrapped a fine silver 'art nouveau' style motif to the coiled wire frames, with peridot briolettes, and fine trace chain drops with tiny seed pearls, and vibrant green chrome diopside. Very shimmery and glamorous!

Black Magic

I have come out of hibernation finally... looking forward to getting the rest of winter out of the way! I made these earrings back in November, then hit a bit of a wall as far as creativity and inspiration goes (blame the weather!), which is why I haven't been around much.

But... I have lots of projects on the go, and lots of ideas to kick-start the New Year - I am determined to make more, and post more!

Back to these earrings, wire-wrapped on hand-made frames, lots of fine gauge sterling with tiny Hill Tribe faceted seed beads, and wonderful black faceted onyx which have a great sparkle and contrast beautifully against the shiny silver. I've selectively oxidised just the centre of these earrings to show off the twisted wire.

Spiced Pear

In the autumn my mum and I visit the fruit orchard at my uncle's farm, which used to belong to my grandparents. There was an abundance of apples this year - we timed it just right with the blackberries, and we managed to pick a lovely warm, sunny day too.

As well as pears, lots of different varieties of eating apples, cooking apples, blackberries and rose-hips, earlier on in the year there are plums, damsons, crab apples and elderberries. I was lucky enough to grow up in the same village - helping out on the farm sometimes collecting eggs, picking potatoes, or riding on the trailer stacked high with hay bails ( I fell off it once - or rather the bails did, with me sat on top of them! Amazingly I came away with just scratches...).

I remember my dad went through a stage of making home-made wine, he used to pay us for every pound of elderberries we could collect. That included using a fork to get all the little berries off the stalks - it took us forever. Talk about slave labour! When I was old enough to drink it though, I did appreciate the wine ;-)

These earrings I've made with both sterling silver and gold-filled beads - I'm really liking the look of mixed metals at the moment. The tassel is made up of citrine, tsavorite, and tiny freshwater pearls, with gorgeous beer quartz briolettes at the bottom. Apples, pears, and sunshine :)

Persephone Earrings

I thought I'd take the plunge with some gold-filled wire... beautiful to work with, and the colour seems so warm after working so long with sterling silver!

I'm really pleased with this colour combination - I've used pale blue chalcedony and aquamarine, with some rich ruby garnet to contrast.

Periwinkle Earrings

It's been far too long again since I last posted any new jewellery! I have lots of gold-filled wire and findings waiting to be played with too....

Some lacy earrings edged with faceted sapphires, gorgeous denim-blue colour! I've added some tiny peacock freshwater pearls, Hill Tribe seed beads, and mystic blue topaz briolettes.

Lemon Merengue

That's merengue the dance, not lemon meringue... (a play on words, I'm not really that bad at spelling!).

Phew... not especially difficult these ones, once I'd worked out how I was going to do them, but quite simply a lot of careful coiling and wrapping several times to get the effect I wanted!

Gorgeous sunshine yellow citrine, with lemon quartz and freshwater pearls. How fab would these look with a suntan?!

Orange Grove Earrings

Something fresh! The simple, but very effective weave round the soldered circle makes a really pretty, lacy frame for these summery gemstones!

I've added clusters of vibrant faceted sunstone that has a gorgeous iridescent shimmer, leafy green peridot and faceted vesuvianite drops.

Mint Choc Chip Hoops

Some more fun little earrings - hammered and textured sterling silver circles, with vesuvianite, smoky quartz, peridot and prehnite.

Oh, and a big bunch of white lilac blossom I pinched from the garden :D

Raspberry Ripple Earrings

Some more bits and bobs I haven't got round to posting yet...

Some summery cluster earrings... I was so pleased with these chalcedony briolettes when I received them a while ago - the raspberry colour is amazing, and they really seem to 'glow'.

The cluster is made up of faceted rock crystals, very pale blue topaz beads and Swarovski bicones in 'paparadscha'.

Lavender Crystal Earrings

Some more hammered and textured circles - this time in graduated sizes, very lightweight and again look really shimmery when they catch the sun!

I've added some Swarovski crystal heart pendants, and bicones in violet and light amethyst wrapped on handmade fine silver headpins.

The flowers in the background are some gorgeous bluebells from my garden, which are now gracing a little glass pot on my desk and giving off the most amazing scent!

Blush Earrings

I really enjoyed making these earrings, it's nice to take a break from the kind of wire-wrapping I normally do. I soldered and lightly hammered the sterling silver rings - they have a really nice texture that catches the light, although I haven't managed to capture it in this photo :(

I've added some wrapped pink tourmaline beads on fine silver headpins, these are so dainty and very lightweight - perfect for summer!

Champagne Truffle Earrings

I'm loving these Swarovski crystal briolettes - the sparkle is amazing. These are golden shadow, which has to be one of my favourite shades as far as versatility goes - I use it a lot in my bridal jewellery as it goes so beautifully with pearls.

I've clustered some lovely faceted rock crystal and lemon quartz beads on some handmade fine silver headpins for a bit of girly luxury. If someone doesn't grab these soon, I may just have to keep them ;)