Artesania J&M

Where is time? Who has taken it from me? I am really hoping that one day someone will invent time machine – but not one to go back to the old days, but to make our day as long as we want!!! Young inventors, I am hereby chalenging you!

But seriously, a lot of things have been happening and I couldn't post as much as I would like to.

Anyway, no more moaning. I will try to organize everything better, after all, we all have 24 hours, why some can do so much with them, while others merely nothing?

Last weekend I reorganized all of my beads and stones and pearls and other treasures and I have loads of new ideas... so beware!

I took part in it and it was real fun! It was organized by a forum I belong to. I was supposed to prepare something for a girl from Germany, and in turn... I also received a surprise from Germany – from someone else, though.

It is wonderful to discover how happy one can be giving – I was so focused on preparing my gift for the person I drew, that I was really awed when I received my package! That is really funny – I simply forgot that it was an exchange, I only remembered that I was supposed to give something.

Anyway, I guess I owe you some pics – just talking about it isn' t enough, is it?

So that' s what we got:

• 2 beautiful handmade kitchen mats. Or at least that's what I think it is! But I have some doubts because they are so pretty, I think I wouldn't dare use them, they would be full of stains immediately! So instead of using them as table mats, we'll hang them on the wall as kitchen or dining room decoration.

• Wooden toys for my two girls

• wooden necklace&bracelet for my older daughter (no fotos because they are lost somewhere among other toys at the moment;))

• a tiny yummy chocolate for my husband (lost in his very own tummy).

Thank you my Santa Claus!:) This is really a lovely present!

And that's what I sent to my “chosen one” ;)

I was really freaking out about the earrings – I didn't even know whether that girl could wear earrings at all, apart from being worried whether she would like them or not. Happily for me, she later told me she was happy with them – a huuuuge relief! By the way, they are made of sterling silver and turquoise beads.

Next year we must repeat it!

I still have loads of old things to show you before I start with the new ones, phew... Last spring I had a wrap-matching-jewelry-madness and here goes the next episode, after Jade Spring from my last post.

A hand woven bracelet made of waxed thread and beautiful blue foam coral beads.

In the picture where both the bracelet and the wrap appear, the colours are not actually the real ones, sorry about that. My friend borrowed me that wrap for a few weeks, but you know how it is, I asked my husband to take the pics just before I had to give it back to her. And that was exactly on that day that our tripod had to break. And when I was able to take some good quality pictures, the wrap was no longer here.

So the real colours (of both the bracelet and the wrap) are more like in the photo where just the bracelet appear. But anyway, both items match pretty well, trust me.

The bracelet is very comfy to wear. At first it seems rigid and rough, but it quickly adapts to your skin and you will even forget that you' re wearing anything because it is also very light. The thread itself is very resistant, so even if your baby takes control of it, it should be safe ;)

The bracelet can be 15 to 25 cm long (adjustable length) and it is 2,5 cm wide.

I have some more wrap matching bracelets to show you in the following posts, so you' d better bookmark this page if you' re a compulsive babywearer!;)

PS. You can OF COURSE wear this bracelet even if you don' t have a jade deli wrap, bah, even if you don' t have any wrap at all - or no children so far to be used with the wrap ;)

These earrings were supposed to be something completely else. OK, maybe not completely, since the olive green peridot beads appeared in my design from the start. But somehow, I wasn't able to make my first idea come true. I mean I was, but I wasn't convinced by the result. And the basic idea was to make some lovely brown and green earrings that would match this woven wrap (babywearing is one of my passions so you will hear more about it here soon!!!):

Pictures taken from ellevill.com

I spent 2 whole days trying to complete my original design, but that just wasn't IT.

So at one point, I simply let it go. I thought I could do something else instead. I looked at those lovely peridot beads I had already installed on silver pins... I knew I couldn't abandon them, I had to use them anyway...

And then suddenly I knew what I wanted to do. I simply knew what stone to choose, what shape, what colour

Yes, I know, this is not the most original and extravagantly wild design.

But I am actually quite fond of these earrings. They are simple and fresh. And I love the colour combination!

They are made of sterling silver, faceted teardrop-shaped amethyst and small peridot beads. They are about 4 cm long and 1cm wide. As always, I made the silver pins myself, that was fun!

But I guess you would like to know what happened with that jade spring wrap idea I had. Don't worry, I worked it all out! I have made some nice earrings that match this wrap just fine, you'll be able to see them in my next post!

My first pendant made with the difficult and time-consuming wire-wrapping technique.

It's made of sterling silver and beautiful greenish-blue amazonite. Even though it is not the most perfectly made piece of jewellery I have seen (when I was making it last summer, the temperature was about 40ºC, ufff), I must admit I really like it and I am afraid that if I don't find another owner for it soon, I will simply keep it for myself, I won't be able to resist :D

The pendant is 3,5 cm long and 2 cm wide, it is neither too big nor too small.

I have oxidized it and then cleaned and polished it in order to give it this nice and characteristic antique silver look. Besides, I also had to solder it and prepare the thin wire myself... and I really enjoyed every moment of this production process!

To see more products visit my online shop.

Con estos elegantes pendientes elaborados totalmente de forma artesanal con la laboriosa técnica de wire-wrapping inauguro mi blog sobre mi pequeña gran pasión: bisutería hecha a mano.

El diseño final ha nacido de forma espontánea a lo largo de la elaboración y tengo que confesar que he disfrutado mucho haciéndolos: un día preparándo las pequeñas bolitas de agata cornalina, otro día dándole la forma al alambre de plata y al final “tejiendo” con el hilo finito de plata. Los pendientes han sido oxidados (efecto “plata vieja”) y pulidos cuidadosamente. Son muy elegantes y originales a la vez. Sus elementos están conectados de forma flexible, así el pendiente “baila” cuando la mujer que lo lleva mueve la cabeza. La piedra negra en forma de lágrima también es una agata y se compone muy bien con el rojo/granate de la cornalina.

Los pendientes miden 7 cm de largo y unos 12 mm de ancho (las lágrimas), pero a pesar de ser bastante largos, no pesan mucho y resultan muy cómodos.

Me gusta mucho mi aventura con el wire-wrapping, es una técnica que deja mucha libertad al creador y requiere mucha imaginación. Es muy diferente de lo que hacía antes (nudos decorativos, macrame, tejido artístico). Poco a poco intentaré ir poniendo más cosillas de las que ya he hecho, espero que os gusten :)