Back to the beach

At the Shore 2016

 

As I said last year I love the beach! When I’m home I try to go at least once a year. I’m from Philadelphia which is just over an hour from the Jersey and Delaware coastline. I grew up going to Wildwood, NJ every year for a weekend or week with my family and sometimes we’d even go down for the day. After 1997 I didn’t go to Wildwood anymore, too crowded. I soon started going to Atlantic City. I would get deals for several nights stay at a Howard Johnson that included breakfast at a great diner next door. I wasn’t in to gambling (back then I was too young anyway) but I just liked feeling grown up, going to the beach and walking the boardwalk.

In my late 20s I started taking day trips to the shore with my younger cousin. We went to Brigantine, Rehoboth and Ventnor. My uncle has a condo in Ventnor and I used to go a couple times a year for the weekend. There is nothing like waking up with the ocean breeze and the call of seagulls. I usually hate seagulls but something about hearing them in the morning is very soothing.

I haven’t found the shore in Britain to be as nice. First off there aren’t many sandy beaches. Second they’re really steep. At home I kept beach chairs in my trunk so at any time I was beach ready. The first time my cousin and I went to the beach we used a plastic table cloth I had in my truck to lay on. I never made that mistake again. The next year I bought my beach chairs. But either way at home you can use a chair or a towel and just lay down. The beaches are soft and sandy and there’s a cool breeze blowing and the sunshine to warm you up. I used to lay on the beach with my Discman or MP3 player. Not the case here. It’s a trek to get to the water and the beach isn’t suitable for sitting or lying. The shingle is painful! When I came to visit in 2011 I went to Brighton and although it was March I had to put my feet in the water. I had bruises on the soles of my feet for the rest of my trip; Not Fun At All!

This year we only made it to the shore two or three times. I did get to collect shells and I had a few left over from previous years so I had another go at making shell jewelry. When I made them last year the journey was just getting started. I didn’t have a lot of experience working with the tools or the materials. I noticed when I was getting ready for the sale that although the joins were artistic they weren’t very functional. Now I’m much better at it. I decided to try to match the shells to beads I have; as you can imagine I’ve collected quite a lot over the past year.

 

So I got all my shells out. First I selected ones that were beautiful. Then I had to sort out the ones that weren’t or weren’t too damaged. Then I had to put the ones left into pairs that were close in size and color. This is very tricky! The birds and fish that eat these delights aren’t tidy eaters, and of course the ocean moves the pieces around. In the end you can’t match two shells perfectly; they may be close in color but not size, or the same size but slightly different colors but hey, this is nature!

 

Once I got the pairs figured out I had to select the beads that went with them. I’m a bit OCD so this was hard, I think that took up most of the time.

In the end I completed seven pairs. Two pairs from Pevensey – a unique clam shell I’ve never seen before but they have beautiful coloring and their shells are shiny.

We went to Pevensey two weeks ago. We went out for the afternoon stopping off first at Wilmington to see the Long Man. We packed our lunches and ate them in the field opposite the man and discussed his origin and history; there’s still a lot of controversy regarding when he was made. You can read more about it on Neil's blog. Afterwards we drove to Pevensey. Neil was reluctant to go there since he’d been over 20 years ago and didn’t think much of it. But I’m glad we went. It was a lovely little town, the kind you’d like to live in. There was a castle just a few miles away from a nice beach with pretty shells. Still a rocky and steep beach but lovely. Best of all there was Rose’s Fish Bar on the street behind the beach. We went and got fish & chips to go and ate them on the beach under the moonlight.

 

  

There are two pairs from Littlehampton – clams again one smaller and one larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I get excited when I see clams. They are a delicacy at home but I can’t find them anywhere here. We make soup with them, bake them in their shells or fry them. We started going to Littlehampton last summer. We went out for the day to Amberley (where I’ve wanted to go since I was 16), then drove to Arundel and ate lunch, then we finished our trip in Littlehampton. This was another case of a town Neil had been to over 20 years ago and thought was terrible. He was reluctant to go again but I was looking for a sandy beach so we went. It’s another lovely town! The beach in Littlehampton is sandier than most and also not as steep. I did get in the water there last year but I forgot my beach shoes when we went this year. Instead I combed the beach looking for shells and found these lovely little clam shells. Littlehampton also has a lovely fish & chip shop called Fred’s. We love their fish & chips so much that whenever we are I the area (and I mean within 20 miles) we go there to eat. The line is always up the street, even in the winter – it’s that good!

 

The rest of the shells I collected last year. One pair from Margate - I had to make this pair, one of the shells is absolutely gorgeous, perfect in fact. You can see lines throughout the shell almost like rock strata laid down over time. And two pairs from Hastings – one tiny and one larger. I love these mini conch shells. Overall I think they are the best quality shell. They don’t have noticeable holes or cracks and you can usually find them intact on the beach. Unlike the other shells that are sometimes battered, broken, chipped or damaged in some way. These almost always look pristine.
 

These all took a lot of time, effort and materials so they will be a little pricier. But they are so worth it! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

$13.50 including US Shipping, £8.00 including UK Shipping

The Journey's First Stop

What can I say?!

Saturday was the Wraysbury Indoor Car Boot Sale. We’d seen an ad for it a few weeks back and both of us got very excited. There are stalls or tables for rent at church fairs and things but they are always SO expensive. My church fair runs £25 for a table – I know it’s for my church but considering how much you’ll probably make it doesn’t seem worth it. So when we saw this one for £5 we jumped at it. All I needed to do was sell one pair and the stall would have paid for itself.

 

Neil decided to get rid of some “brick a brack”, he brought along a collection of pottery he’d collected, some cool shot glasses I think I sister would love and even a cool glass fish that looks like it belonged in my Aunt Pearl’s crystal collection. Then Neil decided to make some marmalade, he’s done a lot of stalls at fairs and such and he said it’s always a draw. It is yummy!

 

So we went to the indoor car boot sale. There were over 20 vendors there. Some selling old rubbish, some selling cool vintage tools and stuff, some selling DIY essentials, some selling DVDs. The lady next to us was selling natural household products that I think my friend Pam would appreciate like laundry detergent, deodorant, smoothie and drink mixes. None of the vendors sold too much. In the end one of the vendors started giving things away to the other vendors. The man next to us yelled out he’d take any offer on his cool vintage tools and stuff. I really wanted the set of optics he had for sale but Neil wouldn’t let me get it; he said “I can’t afford to stock it”.

 

I’d never been to a car boot sale before. The day before Neil started having reservations about it. Part of me wish we’d pulled out then. People go to car boot sales to buy old tat and rubbish. They don’t go looking for new things. I wanted so badly to start talking to everyone who walked up. I did talk to a few people, which made them walk away before they got a good look. Neil said English people do not like a hard sell. I don’t know what’s hard about being friendly and courteous. The clientele in Wraysbury probably aren’t interested in repurposed or upcycled jewelry anyway. I had several ladies stop and look, a couple even asked questions. One said to me "They are very nice but I wear the same jewelry every day" and "I don’t like to stand out anymore". And when I watched the ladies walking around the sale I noticed a lot of them didn’t even have pierced ears. 

So, what can I say? I took it as a huge blow. I’m trying to decide if I should even carry on doing it. But maybe it’s like Neil said; this was just the wrong market and the wrong audience. The Car Boot sale was heavily publicized on Facebook but that’s all. They didn’t even put up signs in the village or send out fliers. Also as the lady with the natural products said the village is very cliquey, which I have experienced myself and Neil has had to deal with his whole life. I think that played a big part in it too. She said I would do better at the Christmas market so I may give it another try; especially since I just invested in my Christmas designs for this year.

So we shall see how the journey moves on from here.

*** As a side note I just want to thank my dear friend Pam for being an inspiration to me. I hope your next journey is as successful as your previous one. Go with your heart! Thank you for sharing your beauty with us.

Loose Ends

Bits & Pieces Pt. 3

 

The fair is this weekend and I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for it. I’ve been putting all my earrings, or most of them, on a card then writing the blog post they are from on the card. I thought that I’d written up all the earrings I made so far but it turns out there were still a few that had been left out. That doesn’t mean they aren’t nice. 

Amelia

 

 

This first pair I’ve featured similar ones on two different posts; Beady Eyes and A few of my Favs. I’ve made this style in several different colors using different beads as the centerpiece. My favorite one is the silver one. I have to admit I’ll be sad to see them go but I can always try to make another pair. I may have made this style with different colors but I have to admit the marble effect bead is really nice.

Londyn

 

Next is this lovely little blue number. I made them the same time I made my wedding line  but when it came time to post the earrings I wanted to keep them all white so I didn’t post these. I had them sitting out ready to be written up and then I forgot I hadn’t posted them. I guess I thought I posted them with Something Blue. They really are sweet.

Dionne

 

Finally, this pair is fairly new. I made them the same time I made Karen’s Orbit, so I guess I thought I posted them together. When I went to check the other day and saw they weren't there I couldn’t believe it.

Taken from WPG's fb page

Hopefully the fair will be a success on Saturday. It's called the "Indoor Carboot Sale" and it will be at The Wraysbury Village Hall from 11am -1pm this Saturday (Sept 17th) admission is £1 for adults,  free for children. There will be food, prizes to be won and giveaways. I'm really looking forward to getting the foot traffic and having more people see the earrings in person. If you're in the area on Saturday please stop by, it would be lovely to meet some of the people who read the blog, or follow us on twitter, facebook or Google+.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odds & Ends

Bits & Pieces pt. 2

 

When I told my mother that I finally got a stall at a fair she told me to make as many earrings as I could and just sell them. I did have a day when I was pretty productive but mostly I’ve been trying to tie up loose ends. This week I’m putting up a few more pieces that I had laying around as well as some I made since last week.

 

The first pair I made last fall when I was experimenting with recycled materials. It combines my love of crafting with my love for music. I was making plastic circle designs and decided to try a G-Clef. This is the only pair of these I ever made. I think I had intended to make more but then I got caught up in my Christmas inventory and forgot about them. They are rather nice though!

 

 

The next pair is also from my recycled material trial. It show my fascination with spirals. Really, if you look at my stock there are a lot of spirals, swirls and curls. I’ve done them with craft wire, sheets of HDPE that I treated and then curls and now these. I won’t say what they are in fear that people might cringe but let’s just say it’s something most of us use every day, at home they used to advertise missing people on them. Nowadays they are made of plastic, I guess the Amber Alert put made it redundant.

 

 

The next one I hinted to last week. I got these red beads a while back and I decided they reminded me of cranberry juice. So I decided to make a pair based on one of my favorite drinks, also it could be based on my mom’s favorite drink (minus the Cointreau). These are vodka and cranberry with a twist of lime or Cosmo (Cosmopolitan). Well, I guess when you mix up the vodka, cranberry, lime and Cointreau you end up with a lovely pink concoction but Vodka and cranberry with a lime twist is too long of a name for a pair of earrings.

 

 

On Thursday I was panicking about something so I decided to make some earrings to take my mind off of it. This pair I just made, however they are based on the first pair of earrings I ever made and the first to appear on the blog  you can read the story about them. Over the past year I’ve acquired a lot more hematite; some magnetic and some not, some blue and some gray, some shiny and some chiseled. These are a little different from the originals but they are in the same spirit.

 

 

Now, what can I say about these? A few months ago I purchased a kit of glass beads, I wrote about it wrote about it then . I really like making earrings that are a bunch of different sized beads that dangle. The great thing about this kit is that it consists of shiny and matte beads. I love using a mixture of both when make a pair with them. I like grapes, but only white (or green) grapes which these remind me of so I’m calling them a Bunch of Grapes.

I was inspired by the last two pairs on a walk with my husband  last week. We were walking through our village on our way to pick up our Chinese food dinner. I saw this adorable curl with a little “bump” on the end or along the curls. I think that eventually the “bumps” will blossom into flowers but I’m not sure. I asked Neil what it was and he didn’t know. I think however that the curls were on some kind of vine, and last week we also passed some vine weed which I thought was beautiful, I never would have thought it was a weed. So that’s what I’m calling them; Vine Weed.

 

This is your last chance to get these before the fair.

All pairs $8.08 or £6.15 Including shipping
   

To make a purchase please leave a comment with your email address. I'll send you an invoice through paypal. Items will ship once payment is confirm. Prices include shipping.