Azure

Azure

I hope you enjoyed your 4^th of July (if you celebrate it), we had a pretty good day too. Even though I’m not in the US anymore I have celebrated the holiday every year I’ve been here. The first year one of my friends from University had all the Americans over; she cooked and we just sat around talking all evening.  The next year Neil and I actually had a BBQ; shish kebabs, potato salad, deviled eggs, grilled corn on the cob, sangria and watermelon for dessert. That year was the best! Last year was right after the wedding and my mom was still here so we just had burgers and maybe potato salad. But this year I wanted a BBQ again, only extenuating circumstances prevented us from getting the grill out so I made everything in the kitchen. I made potato and pasta salad the day before along with some minty simple syrup for the mojitos. So yesterday all I had to do was make the deviled eggs and cook the hot dogs and burgers (all veggie). It was great! During the day (between meals) Neil watched the Tour de France and I watched American movies and TV shows on Netflix.

 

This is the last of the designs I made several weeks ago. I love the dark blue glass of these. Again, none of the bead heads were small enough to top these beads. And since these beads are flat they probably wouldn’t look right anyway. The beads hang from a short length of chain, which of course I can make as long or short for you as you’d like (or take it away all together if you’d like); that’s the advantage of handmade jewelry.

 

Each dark blue (somewhere between Navy and Royal) glass bead is half an inch long. As usual all the findings and the chain are silver plated, and the earrings can be fitted with either fish hooks, kidney wires (shown) or clip-ons (at an additional cost). Each earring will hang an inch and a third from the ear.

Well, now I need to get back to work since I no longer have a backlog to publish from. I have a few ideas in my head but they need to be worked out, which is the fun part but it’s just finding the time to play around.

 

£4.00 including UK shipping, $7.95 including US shipping. One pair left

Layers

 

Today is our first wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it. We were so busy last year getting ready for the big day that I didn’t post anything for about two months. This year has gone by in a flash and yet it seems to have taken an eternity to get here. Strange, huh? Well if you’d like you can take a look back at our wedding pics.

Years ago I bought a cheap pair of earrings from a plus sized clothing store which I used to buy all of my clothes from (hint: it’s what real women wear). I wore them all the time especially when I was wearing royal blue which a lot of my summer wardrobe is. Over the years the long kidney wires turned and they didn’t look so good, but the beads were fine so when I started making earrings I put new hook on them.

I love these earrings and I have been trying to make some similar, which is why I bought the bead heads last month. But I made this pair while I was waiting for the bead heads to arrive. Once they arrived I realized none of the heads were small enough for the top of this bead since it’s very small on top.

I love the natural tones of this bead. It looks like there are layers in the beads like the sedimentary layers you may find in exposed rock on mountains or cliff faces. But the beads are not made of stone, they are glass. All of the findings are silver plated and they can be fitted with fish hook, kidney wires (shown) or clip-ons. They earrings hang just over and inch from the ear.

 

Hopefully we have a busy day ahead of us; recreating our wedding picture, going to dinner and having the top tier of our wedding cake.

 

£4.50 including UK shipping, $8.55 including US shipping  One pair left

 

Jasper Beauty

Jasper Beauty

Back to the designs I had lined up before my bead heads arrived last week. I made these a few weeks ago when I first received the large pack of glass beads. The pack has so many different color beads I figured I could find something to go with the Jasper. I’ve had these Jasper beads for a while and since they are so earthy I couldn’t think of anything to do with them. I did sneak in a pair when I had the stall at the fair in March, but I couldn’t come up with an idea for another design. You may remember I started the year off with birthstones. I made several pairs of garnet earrings, I even made a pair that has both mine and my husband’s birthstones. I bought these jasper beads to continue the birthstone theme. Jasper is a birthstone for March or October. There are many different types of Jasper, this one is called Leopardskin Jasper because of the pattern in the stone.

This pair has one burgundy glass bead about 8 or 9 mm I’d say, with a 4 mm Jasper bead on each end of it. The burgundy of the glass bead picks up the streaks of burgundy running through the Jasper. The earrings hang approximately 1 1/8 inches from the ear. The findings are all silver plated and can be fitted with kidney wire (shown), fish hook or clip-ons.

I recently started an Instagram account and thought it would be a good idea to share my designs on Instagram a day earlier. So if you’re a fan of #TDJ or just want another way to keep in touch follow me on Instagram @robyngmh_tdj where you’ll see my picture. I hope you all like these as much as I do. I enjoyed making them and enjoyed photographing them.

 

£5.00 including UK shipping, $9.15 including US shipping

 

Tuxedo

  

I made these earrings at the end of last year and thought about releasing them for New Year’s Eve. In the end time got away from me and I only released them on my local FB buy & sell page, because that was the only way I knew if someone ordered them I could get them to the customer in time.

 A different name Tuxedo but that’s because to me these earrings look like something you would wear on a formal evening out (like New Year’s Eve or a wedding). If you were wearing a black dress accentuated with crystals or sequins or even a tuxedo, these would be a lovely feminine but not too gaudy way of accessorizing a ladies tux.

Each earrings are made of two 6mm pearls beads, one 6 mm onyx bead and two crystal rondelle spacers. The findings are all silver plated and the earrings hang 1.5 inches from the ear. Like all of the earrings on offer they can be fitted with fish hooks (shown), kidney wire or clips (additional cost).

Hopefully this formal pair will serve as an introduction to this year’s wedding line. Last year I did release several designs but this year I will only do two. Last year I was getting ready for my own wedding and dabbling around with ideas to make for myself. This year there won’t be any as extravagant as those but if there are any brides out there looking for something new to wear on their big day just pop back to the Wedding line from last year and I can make any of those for your big day.

£8.00 including UK shipping or $12.75 including US shipping

Aqua Marine

 

These are not Aqua Marine! Let me say that up front. These are beautiful blue glass beads that I got last year. A few weeks ago when I was having a creative streak I made these one evening while watching TV. I had just watched a video of someone making jewelry and thought I’d try this specific setting. Then I bunched the beads up together; I wanted a range of sizes and shapes of the colored beads. Once I was finished I knew I’d save these for March since this is really close to the color of March’s birthstone Aqua Marine. But again these are glass beads and not Aqua Marine.

 

Really I was messing around trying to come up with an idea for wedding earrings this year. I have given it a try but that will wait a few months. But I love blue! And these earrings are lovely.

 

As I said they are glass beads of different sizes and shapes. The clear beads are a mixture of glass and acrylic beads. All of the findings are silver plated and the fitting can be is kidney wire (as seen), fish hook or clip on (additional cost). The earrings hang about an inch from the ear.

Just one more week! Next Saturday (18^th) We’ll be at the Wraysbury Village Hall for another coffee morning fair. There will be tea, cakes and coffee on offer and lots of stalls selling fabulous merchandise (including us!) so come on down!

£6.00 including UK shipping, $9.75 including US delivery.
Only one pair available

Clusters

I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine’s Day!

These are the last of the garnet earrings I made at the end of last year. I love these as well. I had a similar pair at home that were all pearls. But I think the contrast of garnet and pearl is cute.

 

Again these are smaller than the first few I posted at the beginning of January. They are just over an inch long so they would even be cute for a little girl. Each Cluster features 3 - 6mm garnet beads and 3 - 6mm pearls. All the metals and findings are silver plated.

 

While this may be the last pair in this line I may produce more garnet earrings in the future. I wanted to start off the year showing you all some really nice styles. Now I have to get working on my March idea, fingers crossed I can actually do it.

 

£7.00 including UK shipping or $9.75 including US shipping
Don't forget you can get any of the earrings in kidney wires or clips (clips are an additional cost)

Breaking News!!!

We interrupt your scheduled broadcast for this special report.

Clip on earrings are now available!

Last year with the two fairs we attended I came across a reoccurring theme. “They’re nice, but my ears aren’t pierced.” Well, now there is no excuse.

 Just after Christmas I ordered more silver plated findings because I was running low. I didn’t notice it when I received them but when I put them on the first pair  this year I realized the new fishhooks are larger than the ones I’ve been using since I started. I must say that I like the smaller version better myself. But I looked on the site and there is no size specified so I guess it’s just what they have when you order. So I decided to try something different. I acquired Kidney Ear pieces. I have a pair of earring with these and I love them! I haven’t seen earrings with them since but my supplier has them so I got some.

 

 

 

I guess I should explain why I use the type of findings I do. When I was an infant my mother had my ears pierced, properly at a doctor's office. After a year or two she noticed that I took them out of my ears in my sleep. After several mornings getting down on her hands and knees to look for the lost earrings under my bed she gave up and stopped putting them on me. She only used 24 karat gold so it wasn’t the metal I was allergic to. After awhile the holes closed.Years later (and I remember this) I wanted to wear earrings. I was about seven or eight. After months of begging and pleading my mom re-pierced my ears (herself, at home). It didn’t hurt or not that I can remember. Once again she only used 24 karat gold post earrings, and sure enough after a while they bothered my ears.

 

 

I rarely wore earrings after that, but the holes never closed again. Sometimes I would see some cute ones that I liked and try them but most of the time they still bothered me. One Easter as a teenager I bought myself a cute (cheap) pair at a clothing store. Funny enough they didn’t bother me. So I tried going back to earrings I already had (posts) but they still bothered me. So I went through my earrings and took note of the ones I could wear with no problem and the ones that bothered me. Sure enough the ones that I had a problem wearing didn’t depend on the quality of the metal but the type of earring. Earrings like the fishhooks and kidneys don't bother me. But post earring still do, so I only wear those types (thus dangling – because they are both dangle earrings).

 

I transferred two pairs that were already made to clips and one pair to kidney just so that you can see how they look. If you are interested in any pair already made over the past year and a half in the clip on or kidney form just let me know. The clips are more expensive, so the clip on earrings will be as well. But at least now every one has an opportunity to wear a pair of fun, unique, handmade earrings.