Tutorial in "Making Jewellery" Magazine

I have a tutorial published in the current issue (10) of "Making Jewellery" Magazine, so I just thought I'd let you know! It's a really simple tutorial that shows some easy techniques for making your jewellery more versatile so that you can wear it in different ways.

They have also featured some of my pieces in their Readers' Showcase, so I'm quite pleased!

It's a great issue this month and it comes with a fab 2010 calendar, so don't miss out.

On sale in all good newsagents now! I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

What a result!

Wow, what a result! Just over £2500 was raised from the auctions of my jewellery for the David Shedrick Wildlife Trust. I am staggered! With just six pieces being auctioned that's an average winning bid of over £400 per piece.

If you placed a bid - THANK YOU! The Trust really needs the funds to help continue their incredible work rescuing orphan elephants and raising them until they're ready to return to the wild.

If you were one of the lucky bidders THANK YOU for your generosity and I hope your jewellery gives you as much pleasure as it gave me to make it.

If you're still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for someone who has everything, why not give an elephant? Yes, a real elephant! You can find out how to foster an elephant for a gift for someone, check out this link.

New Beads!

It's been too long since I listed new beads, but I have listed some on Etsy today.

I have a Taj focal bead and a Taj bead set. These were an experiment with some colour reactions from some special effetre glass, and I'm quite pleased with the colours that emerged. I've called them "Taj" because they remind me of indian sari silk for some reason. I've etched them so that they're silky soft.

Then I've made more of my "All Washed Up" beads in purple and the palest pink.

The pink beads have been hand-shaped into little nuggets and I really like how the light catches the flat facets of these beads.

The elephant auctions are doing amazingly well, with bids now having reached over £1000! There are just a couple more days to go before they end, so don't miss out!

I almost forgot! Look out for my project in the January issue of "Making Jewellery", which will be on sale later this week.

Have a great week.

Elephant Auctions - now live!

It's that time again and the pre-Christmas auctions of jewellery, raising money for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust have launched today! They run for seven days, and there are six pieces, dedicated to six special baby elephants;

Kilaguni

Mutara

Nchan

Shaba

Tano

Shukuru

The DSWT have had a really busy year, rescuing more baby elephants than ever before, so if you're buying Christmas gifts at the moment, or even thinking of treating yourself, please consider a gift that keeps on giving.

The DSWT are also auctioning some completely gorgeous limited edition bronze statues of elephants, with all profits going to the charity. They are all absolutely beautiful, but Maisha is my favourite.

Or why not give a REALLY different gift this year, and give someone a baby elephant! Or at any rate you can give a gift of a fostered elephant, which is even better (no elephant poop to clear up after!) You can find out how to foster an orphan elephant yourself, or for a gift for someone at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's site.

Good luck if you decide to bid!

Coming soon - Elephant Auctions

Well it is almost that time again when the auctions of the next pieces of jewellery for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust will go live. For those of you unaware of the inspiring and life-saving work of the DSWT, you can read all about them on their website.



Since the Trust was established in 1977 it has successfully hand-reared more than 100 orphan elephants. That's amazing!



There are many reasons why elephant babies need rescuing. In some cases their mothers have been victims of poachers. In others the babies have fallen down man-made wells. How heart-wrenching must it be for a mother to have to leave her baby behind, when despite all efforts she has been unable to rescue her baby.



The DSWT is amazing. It never turns away an orphan in need of help, even when it is bursting full to capacity. And it has certainly been stretched this year as so many elephants have fallen prey to the droughts in Kenya. Without their mums to take care of them the babies can only hope that they are spotted so that they can be taken under the wing of the Trust and welcomed into the nursery to meet their new family.



So this year more than any other, the DSWT needs support. I hope that the six pieces of jewellery I have made raise a record-breaking amount.

The auctions will be up and running shortly, so keep checking here or here to find out when they're live. I've sprinkled some teaser photos of the pieces throughout this blog. As always, each piece is dedicated to a particular elephant, and the elephant's name is engraved on a sterling silver tag.



You can also help to support the baby elephants by fostering one. I foster Makena, a beautiful, motherly female, who I have watched graduate from the nursery in Nairobi to "big school" at the Ithumba stockades. Makena was just 7 weeks old when she was rescued. She is now 4 and loves to take care of the younger ones. She is becoming quite the little matriarch.



I also foster Shimba, a little boy. He's quite an aloof character, and must be one of the few elephants with an aversion to mud baths!

To foster your own baby elephant, or even baby rhino, visit the DSWT's website.

The Moon

I have no new beads to show you this week, so I thought I'd show you the moon instead!

As I drove home from work today the moon was large and low, and had that beautiful golden glow that you only get at this time of the year. I raced home hoping that the clouds would stay away long enough for me to get my telescope out. I was rewarded!



This is my very first piece of astrophotography. It was taken this evening through my telescope and my strategically placed trusty Canon Ixus. It was just an experimental shot, and I didn't expect it to work at all, but it did! Ok, so it's not perfectly focused but you can still pick out lots of features. I need to get my moon map out to navigate my way around.

It's amazing how looking through a telescope puts everything in perspective. All the worries and irritations of the day dissolve as you realise how insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things.

The clouds are coming in now, but it was a treat to have a clear sky to view this beautiful waxing gibbous moon.

I imagine that it won't be long before the image above finds its way into a bead, or maybe an entire set of beads. Or, maybe a piece of silver jewellery. You see, I'm inspired already!

If you would like to begin stargazing there are two fantastic pieces of software that will get you started. The first is Stellarium, and the second is Pocket Universe for iPhone. There's an entire universe out there to discover!

All Washed Up

I absolutely love making organic bead sets, and I love this softly etched set in ivory and black, with trails of silver and a lovely swathe of antique clear. They really look as if they could have been washed up on the tide, so they are my All Washed Up beads. See what I did there?



Staying on the organic theme, here is a fab lentil in one of my favourite colours. The black has laced over the bead giving a deep veiny appearance.



I rarely encase my organic beads, but when I experimented with this bead I was really pleased with the result, so there may well be more of these appearing in future.



Tiger beads are such fun to make, and this is a really hefty-sized focal.



If you prefer more colour in your beads, I can do that too! Pink Lipstick...



and Raspberry and Peach Melba.



That's all for now!