Shhhhh It’s A Secret – The outlook for Spring is BLACK

I have a secret, but you have to keep it to yourselves, well at least just for a little while….lol….a spy camera took these photo’s today. They are of our new spring collection entitled BLACK, also found was a secret stash of black enamel charms, vintage acrylic crystals and cameos, watch faces, and lengths of silver and black chain. But see the full collection and find what all the shhing is about, you’ll have to wait until the 1th of August 2008. ****tip-toes quietly out of the studio, holding secret stash and spy photos…lol****

Give old brass an new charm.

I love to collect old brass..stampings, charm... made from old dies is the 40's, 50's and right upto the 80's. Made from costume jewellery, toy and others orignally design for use in furniture. I buy these from all over the world but most of them come from the US and not in a very attractive state when they arrive. Most are covered in tranish and years and years of dust and oil. but that's part of the fun...sorting out the the usable piece from the junk.....cleaning them up and wondering what desing in can incorpate them into.
I hope to run a series of online workshops during the summer, on selection, cleaning and using brass charms and stampings in basic jewellery design.
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ALICE IN WONDERLAND jewellery is soooo cool!!!

As a child, I loved the story of Alice In Wonderland, and imagined myself finding, by accident some secret place on my parents farm, I never did find such a place, but we have created a number of jewellery pieces inspired by the classic story, including charm and cameo necklaces
Many of the pieces feature vintage materials like Czech glass cabochons and old brass setting. Most of the designs are limited editions as a lot of the material used are getting harder and harder to find
These pieces can be purchase from my Etsy store and from selected stockists.

Making the shiny new look rustic and old.

For the last couple of weeks we have been experimenting with a new technique to antique or raw brass charms, this give the pieces and “aged” appearance but also give them depth and character .

Each charm is carefully selected, these with the most "detail" give the best results, theyare them cleaned and prepared for treatment, the treated takes several steps and the final results are very from piece to piece, but it also allows my customer to choose the level or antiquing or "darkness" of the charm.

These pieces are now available for purchase through my Etsy store and more will be added as we refine this technique, so far we have a swallow, lion (pictures), "i love you" postcard, old tree (pictured) retro TV and a Dachshund dog.

It's also possible to use finished brass piece for decorating old wooden box (jewellery box styles) and to a some charater to photo frames and mirrors. We are now looking into the possiblity of running a workshop for this technique, to be held in our studio this coming summer holiday period.