Sea Foam

I had so much fun making this pendant, it combines my two favourite types of jewellery techniques of silver-smithing and wire wrapping. I can see this being a bit of a theme in the future, especially as I have a page full of designs just waiting to be created! :)

After hand sawing the 'wave' out of sterling silver sheet, I soldered and then wrapped the wire part of the pendant with tiny white seed pearls and silver seed beads, and faceted aquamarine along the edge.

You can find this in my Etsy store - Amari Jewellery :)

Azurite Flower

I did a bit of pottering in the garden at the weekend in some unexpectedly warm spring sunshine - it's nice to see some colour appearing, especially in my rather unkempt plot which has been sadly neglected in terms of planting!

This first picture is of a beautiful purple/blue periwinkle flower, or 'vinca major' to give it it's latin name. It holds a special charm for me - when I was a child we moved from the city to a small rural village, and the cottage we lived in was called 'vinca' as the garden was full of these pretty flowers. They make great ground-cover plants, the variety I have has variegated leaves.

I also spotted these lovely pink scented hyacinths in a pot that I'd forgotten about!
I've been creating again too - the sterling silver flower on this necklace has been set with a fresh blue/green azurite cabochon, and hangs on a pretty oval link chain. More pictures on Etsy - Amari Jewellery

Nice Weather for Ducks...

Well we did have some lovely spring weather here in my part of the UK last week - lots of blue skies and warm sunshine, not sure where it went but the rain and clouds are back far too soon! :(

I'm very fortunate to have a small lake just round the corner from me, I did manage to grab a few of those rays with a couple of nice walks before the weather turned, I'm in desperate need of blowing off the winter cobwebs!

I'm making lots of brighter, more colourful gemstone and Swarovski pieces for the shops I stock at the moment, ready for the spring and summer - my favourite time of the year. Everything in the garden is starting to burst into life again, not nearly enough colour though - I really must plant some more spring bulbs, especially daffodils! Lets hope it brightens up for the easter break :)

Vintage Postcards

Just a quick one today to introduce a new Etsy shop selling vintage postcards and photographs. - this one indulges my passion for history and antiques! You can check it out here - Sitting Pretty :)

I've been so busy just lately - we've been doing some alterations and redecorating in our lounge, I meant to take a photo of the lovely Victorian tiles in front of the now disused fireplace but forgot! They were a faded inky blue/white in colour with a floral pattern - oh well, next time! We've left them 'in situ' as most were damaged sadly, but they are nicely protected underneath the flooring. It's mostly finished now, just a few little odds and ends to do :)

I'm also trying to catch up with orders this week, and of course the bridal season is now well under way! As well as revamping the lounge, I've not been well the last couple of weeks, so I'm slowly trying to get through the backlog of paperwork, housework, you name it! New jewellery soon, I promise... :)

Handmade books

I think like most creative people I'm interested in all kinds of arts and crafts, I've done so many different things in the past, and I'm sure I'll try many more! I've recently found a renewed pleasure in painting (just for the sheer enjoyment of it, I don't think I'm particularly good!), as well as trying various paper crafts and scrapbooking.


I've had an interest in making handmade books for a while - I've made plenty of little matchbooks, but have finally moved on to something a little more complex (as usual it takes me forever to pluck up courage to just do it!). This book is the third one I've bound, as a gift for my mum on her birthday :)



I've used white linen thread using a chain stitch to bind the pages to the covers.
I added some bead work while stitching, and then some hand-sawn flower motifs in brass, and finally some silver shade Swarovski crystals. The covers are black book cloth, and I've used some green Victorian-patterned paper inside. This was fun! :D

Busy Busy!

We are busy with alterations and decorating at our house at the moment, which is why unfortunately I've not had much time to create much just lately! The air seems to be constantly full of dust too, it's a nightmare trying to keep everywhere clean. Still, it will all be worth it in the end!




These are just a couple of the pieces I did coming up to Valentine's Day - a cluster set with ruby Swarovski crystals and garnets, and a commissioned sterling silver heart necklace with rose quartz and crystals.

Stud Earrings

Yay - my first pair of stud earrings! I quite like to wear stud earrings myself, especially for everyday (and with long hair much safer of course!). These are nice and lightweight too.

Sawn by hand from sterling silver sheet, then I added some light amethyst Swarovski crystal cabs for a delicate colour and some sparkle. I'm quite pleased with these!

This pendant is similar to one I made before in copper - here it is in sterling silver, with a beautiful Swarovsi crystal cabochon surrounded by a serrated bezel.

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! :)

Indigo Dawn

A cluster necklace with a difference - I've coiled some sterling wire round a pretty petal-shaped soldered frame, and added the most gorgeous green amethyst, or prasiolite, briolette in a delicate blue-green.

The clustered beads include faceted aquamarine and iolite rondelles, with Swarovski bicones in montana blue - this is one of my favourite crystal colours at the moment, I have lots of colour schemes with them in mind!

Sunshine Award

I had a lovely surprise yesterday from Vicki White who has passed on a Sunshine Award to me! The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world - I feel very honoured! :)

The rules for accepting the Sunshine award

~ Put the logo on your blog or within your post

~ Pass the award onto 12 bloggers ~

~ Link the nominees within your post ~

~ Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

~ Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

My Award Winners:

Alibongo's Anecdotes

Beads by Laura

Coburg Crafts

Crafted Gems

Daisychain Jewellery

Gemheaven

Gemwaith Nia

KS Jewellery

Kerrie Slade

Kiamyka

Marika's Jewellery

The Crimson Moon