J is for Jewellery

One of my pleasures is seeing photos of beads I create when they are used in Jewellery, which is after all what they are made for.

As well as beads I also make glass rings, my favourite one was this one, but sadly I had an accident shortly after it was made before it could be annealed to make it strong enough to wear... it's on my list to try and recreate something similar as I made this one for me!

Here are some others that did survive to make it to the kiln...

Today's post is mostly lots of pictures of jewellery ready to wear - the bangle, silver beads and stoppers that feature in so many of the photos are made by Trollbeads, the bangle is a solid silver cuff and when customers send me photos of beads more often than not they are on a Trollbeads bangle!

Personally, my bangle is my most used accessory as it's really quick to change the beads around for a different look, if you are interested in reading more about this, I did a whole post about it here.

Do you have a "go to" piece of jewellery that gets used time and time again?

Silver & Mud - How to wear great jewellery in a field

Having spent a wonderful few days at Bearded Theory Festival in the beautiful setting of Kedleston Hall, near Quarndon in Derbyshire, all in the name of music, friends and yes, just a little bit of mud, I was mindful of capturing a little splash of silver to bring back to Curling Stones.

As much as I love Trollbeads, a potentially muddy field where you need to keep your valuables with you at all times and lack of bathing for 3-4 days is not really conducive to full on Troll mode.  I had thought to wear a leather bracelet, then I remembered all the elements that it might have the opportunity to soak up during the festivities and I decided against it.  

However I never go anywhere without my rings, I favour big chunks of silver, or white gold, with or without stones and as I love to indulge my passion for rings - this year I decided to ask people if I could take some photos of their hands, and the occasional ear or even an arm to bring some snapshots back to you of what appeals to me about other people's jewellery.

First spotted was the amazing thumb ring of my friend who had popped in for a cuppa, well it was the least we could offer him after he'd kindly saved a spot for us as we were going to be a bit late to the party!

Also popping in for a coffee was another neighbour and friend, in fact this lovely lady gifted us a kettle many years ago, a "sister kettle" to hers, after my photo of her kettle below won us four free tickets to another festival in a sunny/muddy field in Devon.

Both kettles are still going strong 8 years later... although maybe not quite as shiny... the original above and the copy 8 years later below!

And so the weekend was off to a great start, more tea is always called for - then time for another wander...

These rings were a great surprise, not because of the actual rings themselves but because they belong to a lovely lady who almost didn't make the festival, my opening words on spotting her earlier were "oh what a fab surprise, I didn't think you could make it" which I think she must have heard 100+ times that weekend...

Jewellery could be found in many places, there were a lot of photos I didn't take, as I was there after all to have fun and not just on a blogging mission, more a blogging meander.  A lot of rings came to me and I was lucky enough to get a quick snap in.

As the weather turned a little chilly on Saturday it was the peek of some silver in amongst all that wool.

I love the photo below and what a fabulous collection of rings, also impressed that someone still has a perfect manicure after a several days in a field.

Not everyone had a ring to show, and boots can be just as colourful, I love the filigree ring in the centre of the photo, if it's not a chunk then this style works for me too.

Or you can go for a more secure form of jewellery, no problem in keeping your valuables on you with this design...

Next on my travels and last jewellery photo of Saturday night belonged to another friend

As I discovered, a few people I photographed are also keen jewellery fans, it was sometimes necessary to take another photo as the rings had multiplied in the space of 24 hours, check out the new rings below!

I wasn't completely immune to this either, I went for a walk to get some pizza (goats cheese and red onion in case you were curious) and came back with a new ring myself. 

So that was almost my festival over as far as the jewellery photos went, the last day was gloriously sunny and we even had to use the suntan lotion we laughingly had thrown into the huge pile of stuff we take when we camp. 

To the left are some rings that had been hidden by gloves the previous day, the owner having now shed her many layers and spotted enjoying a bit of late afternoon sun...  You can tell I was also a bit tired at this point as I didn't get a large close up of that beautiful ring on her little finger, suffice to say you can take my word that this is a stunning ring, one of my favourites of the weekend.  

In order to take a photo, when I explained that I blog about jewellery, I kept my explanations brief - "I write a blog, it's about jewellery, would you mind if I took a quick shot of your hands/ear for the blog?" as I didn't want to take up too much of peoples time.  I always showed the person a photo of their jewellery, if they were interested, to see if they were happy with the picture.  

My final photo was taken just as the last but one band were playing on the main stage.  The lady concerned was traveling with a friend of mine and I asked if I could take a shot of her hands, a question I had asked many people over the course of the weekend.

The last person was interested in my new phone as she was in the market for one and I showed her the photos I usually take for the blog, imagine my surprise when she immediately identified random bead shots as Trollbeads.  Turns out her sister is a fan too!

It was a pleasure to finish on this pair of hands, the jewellery being worn has great sentimental value and in particular the second ring in the photo which she has had since she was a little girl.  When the band broke on the ring it cost many times over what the original ring cost to get it fixed but worth every penny.  Reminded me of the time I crawled around in the rain and dirt under my car to recover my favourite thumb ring rather than risk losing or driving over it by moving my car.

So that was the end of my jewellery shots, just the rest of the festival to enjoy... don't mind if I do!

Jewellery I love!

As you might have guessed I quite like trollbeads... certainly enough to start a blog about them!  I also love pendants and rings and thought it would be fun to show you some of the jewellery I love and wear with my beads.

I regularly combine this bracelet with some amber to compliment my Baltic Gold bead (from the World Tour Collection).

Up until my recent holiday I didn't have an amber ring, although I've been on the hunt for the "right one" for many years.  Last month when I found this splendid chunk of amber in silver in a little shop in Gaois Harbour I was delighted.  I've seen a great many beautiful rings in my search for "my" amber ring but I find with jewellery I instinctively know when I've found the right piece for me.

The necklace pendant, by contrast, is quite a delicate piece, (and has it's own bracelet to match for when I need something delicate to match), it was only when I brought the ring home did I realise the twist in my necklace and the shape of the ring were a great pairing.  My pendant has huge sentimental value because it was a present from my parents-in-law, shortly before my father-in-law passed away.

In this blog post I made 2 more bracelets that have remained made up ever since, the first one I think of as my dragon bracelet.  This tends to get worn with another favourite of mine, labradorite.

I can't remember when or where I found the pendant, but Wales is probably a good guess!  This was the second labradorite pendant I bought, the first wasn't quite the right one (but still lovely) but at the time I bought it, many many years ago, labradorite was quite hard to find in jewellery, or at least it was for me.  The ring I found on a jewellery stall at a festival a few years ago, I love the strong, bold silver setting.

The next bracelet was a multiple attempt at using up leftover beads to create a colourful combination that I was inspired to make by seeing a rainbow bracelet made by another collector.  Whilst I wasn't trying to copy the design I wanted to create my own kaleidoscope of colours.

With this bracelet I tend to wear my all time favourite pendant, this one gets used so much and nearly always creates a comment from other people, there seems to be a great need to touch this stone and I too find myself caressing it's surface when I wear it.

The ring was bought earlier this year when I met a very old friend for lunch in Wales and we did a bit of shopping before parting company; just like old times when we were teenagers.  Just like now, I often bought a ring, or pendant, in some lovely independent shop found in a little side street tucked away from the main shopping areas.

Another pendant that I sometimes wear with this bracelet is my amethyst one, which in turn matches my wedding ring shown in the photo to the left.  My wedding ring was found in a jewellers that specialised in clocks!



The blue/green opal ring shown above also gets worn with this bracelet, (it really is a very versatile bracelet), I found this beauty whilst on honeymoon in Greece.  I'm also wearing this as I finish this blog piece, along with my wedding ring and the silver footprint thumb ring so I'm having a strange visual experience of seeing double from hands to screen.

I've had my silver footprint thumb ring for many years, where I discovered it, well that has become lost in the mists of time.  I'll take another guess at Wales though!  I almost lost the ring a few weeks ago when it fell off after I'd managed to knock it getting into my car outside a restaurant.  I heard that "plink" and then I could hear it roll away, on a very rainy night in a dark car park in Newcastle...  I'm not sure what passing folk must have thought when I was scrabbling around on my hand and knee in the rain under my car trying to balance on them like I was playing a solo invisible game of Twister.  Thankfully I did find and retrieve it; I would have been so upset to lose this ring, it's not in any way valuable, just precious to  me.

These are all pieces of jewellery that I love, and are some of my absolute favourites.  Those who know me well will not be at all surprised to see which pieces I chose to show you in my blog today.  In reality it was very hard to write this article and to bring it to an end as I have so many other pieces that could have been included too.  Maybe I shall write part II some day.