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Hello!



Welcome to my blog!


I'm a UK based jewellery designer living in Eastbourne, on the South East coast. Eastbourne is a busy seaside town, situated on the edge of the beautiful South Downs. It's also famous for the cliffs at Beachy Head ~ a notorious suicide spot!


Browsing the internet looking for earrings one day five years ago is how my jewellery making adventure started. I found lots of handmade earrings & thought to myself ~ I could do that! Armed with a book & the internet I bought the tools & beads I needed & started making basic glass bead & Sterling Silver earrings. I discovered a whole new world of beautiful beads & findings via the internet ~ Lampwork, Semi~Precious, Swarovski, Freshwater Pearls......... I became addicted! I taught myself new techniques & started stringing bracelets as well. I decided to start selling, mainly to justify buying more beads!



Three years ago I was given Sharilyn Miller's book Bead On A Wire & that was it ~ I was hooked on wirework!

I love the freedom working with wire allows, and the fact that you are only limited by your imagination. My favourite metal has always been Sterling Silver but I've recently discovered the beauty of oxidised Copper ~ previously only used as my "practise" wire.


Making jewellery is a kind of therapy for me. I get out my bead boxes, tools & wire, become totally engrossed & completely forget about everything else ~ lunch is forgotten, endless cups of tea are left to go cold & before I know it the day has gone & it's dark outside! I take a lot of time & care over my jewellery, making mostly one~off pieces that I would be happy to buy myself. I'm always looking at new techniques to learn in order to progress my skills & designs ~ there's so much more I want to do!

When I'm not letting cups of tea go cold I also enjoy reading crime novels, swimming, horse~riding, visting family on the Northumberland coast (where I picked up the pebbles I use in my photos) & checking out beautiful beads on the internet

I sold my jewellery on eBay for 4 years before taking a break for about a year. I now sell on Folksy & Etsy which I prefer as they are aimed more for the handmade market .




I love my family, my cats & chocolate (not always in that order!)

I hate rude people & parsnips


Comments

  1. I really like your blog, and it was fun to read. As always, I love your wire work! So Huge Hugs to Spiral Chick!!! Yay!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Harriet!
    Thank you so much! See you on LB!
    Spiral Chick x

    ReplyDelete

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