26 April 2011
I’ve spent pretty much all of the Easter break (which has been very long in these parts!) at my bench, working hard on my new range of jewellery.
However, I did manage to get out and about in the Blue Mountains at the end of last week during a couple of sunny days. So I thought I’d share just a few of the lovely things I saw both in Mt Wilson and Bullaburra.
11 December 2010
Today was finally a gorgeous day at my place: clear blue sky, a comfortable temperature and a lovely breeze. It made me appreciate having taken a chunk of time out recently to work in my garden – which very badly needed some love and attention!
So while I was taking a much-needed break away from my bench I decided I’d nip outside and take some photographs of garden happenings – and I’m sharing some of them with you here.
I planted the yellow pansies a while back – just two tiny punnets of them … which have taken off and now take up a big chunk of this garden bed! The larger purple and yellow one grew from one of the seeds I threw in a while back.
Some of the photographs are of plants I’ve put in myself since moving in. Others have been here for a very long time, I suspect – and many have managed to surprise me without any effort whatsoever on my part.
These raspberries are a perfect example of that. I’ve just ignored them, thinking that nothing would grow on them and if it did the possums or birds would get to it first! But right now every day I managed to harvest a few absolutely delicious raspberries – just enough to stand next to the garden bed and snack on them.
Soon these will be ready for eating – can’t wait!
This little violet is native to the Blue Mountains. I picked it up from the Blue Mountains Conservation Society recently – along with some other seedlings – and hope that it will eventually fill in an empty space, along with a collection of other violets.
Sadly climbing roses are a bit of a pest in this part of the world – a weed, in fact, as they grow so easily that they escape gardens and crop up in the wilderness. My driveway is full of them – they’ve almost certainly been growing here for many, many years. And in spite of their ‘weed’ status, I enjoy looking out of my studio window at the wall of pink flowers just now.
I have quite a few hydrangea bushes in the garden and these are one of the plants doing perfectly well without any help from me! The flowers will be really lovely shortly once they are in full bloom.
While I was outside photographing things today, I found myself being much more wary than normal. Yesterday I was sitting on the back porch having some breakfast and coffee. While watching the butterflies and listening to the birds, some unexpected movement caught my eye.
And there, just a metre or so away from where I sat, was a brown snake wriggling its way across my lawn! I sat there stunned for a moment before hurriedly picking up my bowl and cup and racing inside! It was only about half a metre long, but these are the second deadliest snake in the world, so I doubt the fact that this one was young would have helped much if it decided to get cross with me!
Given the type of garden I have and the fact that it’s not too close to the wilderness (it’s a few minutes walk away), I didn’t imagine there would be snakes lurking around in it. But apparently there are! So from now on I’m going to need to be a lot more careful when outside on warm days – especially when digging around, weeding or moving rocks, which I’ve been doing a lot of lately … eek!
You can find more garden photos on my Flickr – but none of the snake (I didn’t have time to get a shot of it!).
16 July 2009
One of the things I’m particularly enjoying (and planning to make use of!) about my new location is all of the little inspirations I’m finding in nature up here in the Blue Mountains.
Whether it be in my fairly densely planted cottage garden or out walking in the national park, there certainly are a lot of them. Also nature seems to constantly evolve fairly dramatically here as the year moves forward, at the moment most notably in terms of flowers, with some disappearing and new ones appearing.
At some point soon I’m hoping to start working on some handmade jewellery designs incorporating some inspiration gleaned from my new surroundings.
So I thought I’d share just a few little inspirations with you. You can find more from the area on my Flickr – including from a long (and exhausting!) walk we took last weekend through some gorgeous rainforest in a ravine not far from home.
22 September 2008
Finally I have a new range of handmade jewellery almost ready to put into production! And I thought I would share a sneak peak of this work with you.
This work is primarily inspired by my fascination with Victorian-era aesthetics – the mish-mash of cultural and historical influences, a hint of modernity and a strong connection between words (or ideas) and visual design and art.
There is also the mixture of culture with nature which seems to be so much a part of aesthetics from this period – something I also find endlessly fascinating.
These pendants have all been created in sterling silver, with some featuring an 18ct gold (or 18kt if you’re American!) highlight, some suspended on sterling silver chain and some on black natural silk.
Many of the pieces are etched with a variety of designs; printed text, handwritten text, a damask-type pattern, an engraved image of plants and more. Some of the etching has had the recessed areas blackened, while some have had these areas left a silver oxide white.
The earrings are all made entirely from sterling silver, again with some of the etched areas blackened and some whitened.
In addition to the Victorian-inspired pieces, I’ve also created a pair of butterfly wing earrings to match my butterfly wing pendants – one of my most popular designs.
As yet, none of this work is listed for sale in my handmade jewellery shop. There’s still a fair bit of work to do to get to that point: creating a few more pieces, photographing each piece of jewellery properly, selecting and editing the photographs, pricing each item and – finally – listing it in various outlets.
I’ll let you know right here once they’re ready for sale. But for now you can see more images of this new work on my Flickr.
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