Jewellery By Shalini

I wrote about my new adventure with Felt beads a few days ago... These are two new brooches I made with the lovely beads from  Felt Artisan Eve Marshall Flower Brooch with a Deep red needle felted bead centre made with copper wire. Flower Brooch with a gorgeous felted bead in shades of turquoise, teal, aqua and dull green made with copper wire.

With the amount of beads, tumble stones and rocks I have collected over the years I am sure I could open a shop just for the things I have been hoarding... as you do... for the next big design idea or spark of genius. And then you find the next "best ever" bead or component and you save it and the cycle continues. So when I saw Lori Anderson's new challenge how could I resist :-) I have signed up for this: I'll post my designs on 20th July. 

This is My entry for the latest “Non-Blogger and Blogger Challenge ~ OMG Renaissance!” on Bead Soup Cafe on facebook "Tree of Life" Brooch - Jewellery By Shalini : 'via Blog this'

23 December 2012 We lost Bullet in September 2012 and it just did not feel right with only one dog in the house. Millie was depressed too and going downhill fast! She had never been the only dog in the house and was not coping well. Christmas would just not be the same without dogs creating chaos shredding wrapping paper all over the place and fighting over toys :-) So on 23 December off we went to The Animal Helpline Dog Rescue in Wansford near Stamford to meet a Husky-GSD puppy. That wasn't to be as Millie was not very impressed with the little one we introduced to her. So this came back with us instead!  His name on the rescue books was "Frankfurt" and he came with NO history at all (like a lot of other rescue dogs.) He came into the house and refused to budge from the hall. Frightened, very thin and with a troubled frown on his face. That was exactly 6 months ago. January - February 2013 We named him Taj after the Taj Mahal because even in his skinny, sc

I have new toys! Needle and wet felted beads :-) Few weeks ago Felt Artisan Eve Marshall gave me a couple of red wet felted beads and said "see if you can make something with it". I mainly work with gemstone beads, rocks, pearls and wire. So this was a completely new medium and I will be honest that initially I thought yeah lets try something but not sure if this will be my thing. Don't get me wrong, they were gorgeous beads but I don't work with fabric type stuff. Wool doesn't like me and yarn hates me. Why would felt be any different? Anyway... I brought the lovely deep red wet felted beads home. They were round so I hammered them into discs and made a pair of earrings. And I was surprised at how nice they looked! So cool that they are mine now! I have been wearing them a lot. Lightweight and pretty, and of course RED! Eve also gave me a lovely purple and blue bead. As a thank you present for being such a good friend I made a little flower brooch

Yesterday I went to see my friend Cathi at her Open Studio and Garden event in Haconby Village in Lincolnshire. She has a beautiful garden! (I WANT A GARDEN LIKE THAT! Imagine how much fun Taj and Millie would have if they had all that space!) And she has a lovely workshop. Yes it is in a shed but what a marvellous shed it is! Cathi's studio is a really pleasant place to be, surrounded by gorgeous stained glass panels, mirrors and decorative hangings. And all the right tools to make these beautiful stained glass designs. Cathi is very good at what she does! We are very proud of of our Lapidary workshop in the garage, but the Shedglas Design studio is something else! One day I would love to have a jewellery and Lapidary workshop like this with lots of natural light, fresh air and space to have open studio days. That's when we could perhaps start teaching as well... Cathi  was demonstrating her craft and carrying out little modifications to existing pieces for customers

My Wire Jewellery has been included in a fabulous summer showcase by Linda Jones of the Wire Workers Guild! I feel so honoured to be part of a showcase which includes so many talented wire-workers. These are the pieces Linda included:   I am posting images of three of my favourites here. Check out some of the other amazing pieces on display via the link below! by Jill from vivant-jewellery.com by Carole Dadswell by Sally Pitman aka Skypixie Design WireWorkers Guild: SUMMER SHOW : 'via Blog this'

We recently bought a mixed box of rocks which contained two rocks we can’t identify, does anyone know what they are please? More pictures on the original post via this link:  Can you identify these rocks? | Rough Rocks, Minerals & Crystals Thanks!  Dave & Shalini 'via Blog this'