Whimsical Circle Creations

What fun I have had creating this jewelry.

Necklaces with one or two circles 

that may or may not

 be adorned with a small brass decoration 

to create these whimsical rustic necklaces.

I have been trying for days to take pictures of them

 but there is not a lot of daylight lately.

I came home from work at lunch time today 

to try and get the most daylight I could to take some pictures.

Even then it was a struggle, as there wasn't much natural light coming in my windows.

But I did what I could.

Most of the necklaces are adorned with a bee 

or a dragonfly or a flower or a bird

But some of them were just left as circles.

I do love circles.

As well as a few more of my hand forged copper circle necklaces 

and earrings.

A number of these circle creations have made it into my Etsy shop.

Blacksmith Jewelry

In October I went to visit my sister in Nova Scotia.

Besides having a wonderful visit with her and her family and the farmyard animals

We spent many wonderful hours together in her blacksmith shop.

(Her husband builds these wonderful cement dome building - and built her one to create in)

Her 'Smithy' (as she affectionately calls it)

is a wonderful place to spend time in.

Here I am heating up some copper and ready to do some pounding

(note my very small hammer!)

I hammered many copper rings while I was there.....

And when I got home made earrings

and necklaces.

My sister though,

wields a much bigger hammer

and bends much heavier pieces of metal.

She creates hardware for doors (see the dome smithy image), many different styles of hooks

as well as hangers for signs..... she also created the beautiful sign to go on this hanger.

But while I was visiting she worked mostly on jewelry

And what a beautiful collection she made.  

I do hope to go again next year!

In case you would like to see more of her creations, you can visit her at

Hilltop Forge Blacksmithing

Book Binge II

I am still busy making hard covered books

But these one are much smaller in size then the ones I showed last week. 

I still used water colour paper for the pages

as this makes the pages able to support a variety of techniques.

I decorated the covers with some layers of stamps

some paint - some bits of paper

and a final decorative layer of my hand carved stamps.

Four more items to add to my 'completed' pile

 for the upcoming sales I am attending.

(unfortunately the uncompleted pile is still very very big - so much to do, so little time!)

Bookmaking Binge

Since I made hard covered journal style books in a book making workshop 

just over a month ago, I have been wanting to make more of 

these type of books.

And I finally had some time to do that

Below are images of the three hard covered journals I recently finished.

These books are about 6.5 X 10 inches when closed  - pages about 12 X 9.5 inches when open

The inside pages are made with watercolour paper

and can be painted on, glued onto, or drawn onto with a variety of mediums.

The outside covers are decorated with paint and ink as well as paper I decorated, 

and copies of my drawings or photographs .

I am now finishing up some small books that I hope to share soon.

A definite bookmaking binge!