I always love when there’s a great story behind a piece of jewellery.
This article from the Daily Mail shows a simple amber necklace that’s going up for auction that’s likely to fetch £10,000. Why? Because the beads are 40 million years old, containing fossilized ants, mosquitoes, and other ancient critters.
Fossilized insects set in 40 million-year-old amber
What a fascinating piece of history to have! I love amber, and I’d have a hard time parting with a unique piece like this, but the collector who buys it at auction will have an incredible necklace for their collection.
We at Drakestail Jewellery have been rather quiet for the past few months. What gives? We’ve had a few changes going on in our personal lives which have unfortunately cut into our creative time. Never fear, we’ll be much more active and visible now that the dust has settled.
What has happened, you ask? One of us has moved across the country again. This means, of course, that while we won’t be appearing at shows together, we’re spreading our creativity across Canada! The other half of Drakestail has a new addition to the family, a sweet little baby girl. As you can imagine, she’s a huge priority, and so we’ll be changing our focus here at Drakestail Jewellery a bit to accomodate our new circumstances.
For the next few months, we won’t be attending any Ottawa craft shows. The first one we’ve got scheduled is in November – details to be posted very soon in the event calendar. Our focus will be on the Etsy store, bringing more items online for you to enjoy, and on keeping the website up to date. Check back regularly for blog posts and other updates, and don’t forget to like our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter!
If you’re a crafty sort of person, you’ll understand how easy it is for supplies to take over your crafting space. And I don’t mean having a few extra pens that don’t fit in the desk caddy. I mean REALLY take over. For myself, I have a few mini cabinets of nuts-and-bolts hardware drawers to sort some of my beads and findings into, as well as a Rubbermaid tower of drawers for larger organizers and pieces. My dad, being a woodworking hobbyist (I come by my creative side honestly!), made me a worktable with a drawer for all my tools. Excellent! Now I’m organized.
Beyond being organized, however, it’s important to have a few things that can inspire as well. Working with gemstones, I love to have images that inspire new ways to combine colours, explore shapes and textures, or spark a theme or feeling. There’s nothing better than getting inspiration from the space around you, when you’re having one of those days when your creative mind needs a little kick.
This little gem (*cough*) on Etsy caught my eye as a perfect addition to my jewellery workspace. Always keep your eyes peeled for decor that inspires your creativity!
It has been pretty crazy in our household for the past little while, but for all the best reasons. After a whirlwind two months of planning, we tied the knot this past weekend! I got to put my organizational skills to use, making lists of tasks to be done and tracking payment dates, pick-ups, and tastings. Through some solid planning, good friends, and some serendipity, our big day went off as smooth as silk.
If all that talk of lists planning makes it sound like more of a job than anything else, let me change your mind! If anything, it gave me a framework of what needed to be done, and gave me the freedom to have a lot of fun with the process. The best part? I got to put my own personal touches on our day through some of my own creativity. Of course, I made my own wedding jewellery. For myself, I went with some gold-filled chain and added clusters of Swarovski pearls and Preciosa crystals, with a large teardrop crystal pendant on my Y-shaped necklace. The matching earrings had the same crystals, dangling from short lengths of chain. Even better, I built a great hair comb to accessorize my ‘do, featuring more of the teal- and honey-coloured crystals in swooping twists of gold wire. It gave a great peacock effect that turned out just like I’d hoped.
Handmade wedding jewellery, made to match our colour theme.Peacock-inspired bridal hair comb
I also made the matron of honour’s jewellery. For her, I went with a floating necklace using the same teal and honey crystals and pearls, and some simpler cluster earrings with the same crystals.
Our ceremony was mid-morning, outdoors at a beautiful estate-turned-museum. Running with a tea party theme, the groom, a good friend and I took the afternoon before the wedding and made our centrepieces – mismatched pairs of teacups filled with flowers.
Teacup centrepieces, made by the bride, groom, and a good friend.
Other great personal touches came from our fantastic caterer, Gourmet To Go, who really ran with our tea party theme and made some spectacular scones and shortbread as a part of our garden luncheon. Also, a great friend, Trisha, made a fantastic Mad Hatter-style cake, topped with a teacup filled with handmade icing-sugar flowers.
Mad Hatter Cake, complete with teacup and handmade sugar flowers.
All in all, it was a fabulous day and we both loved adding our own personal touches to make it an extra-special handmade wedding.
