gemstone chips Archives - Drakestail Jewellery

work station

This has been a busy week for the both of us. Roxy has started a fantastic and well-deserved vacation that has brought her one time zone closer to me. And what is she doing with her time? Relaxing, and beading of course. She brought her tools along and has created a mini work station for herself.

She has so far made 6 necklaces, 1 pair of earrings and 1 bracelet. The only slight snag is she forgot ear wires but she tells me that just means she’ll have to finish off her sets when she gets back home to Edmonton next week. Here is a preview of a few of her great new pieces.

some results so far — Some fantastic new necklaces, including a whole lot of pearls!

As promised, I’ve started posting the memory wire bracelets. I’ve called these the Little Flower series, inspired by the adorable, tiny pewter flower spacers scattered throughout each of the bracelets. Memory wire is a lot of fun to wear, particularly because it doesn’t require a clasp. The bracelets simply wrap around your wrist, and will actually resize over time to fit their wearer.

Little Flower series bracelets — The Little Flower series: memory wire bracelets featuring gemstone chips & adorable tiny pewter flower beads spaced throughout.

Of course, five new bracelets (and a couple pairs of matching gem chip earrings) means a lot of photography. Good thing we’ve been having such great weather here, as I love getting out and taking advantage of natural light.

Robyn

Quartz Tree of Life pendant "Ice Storm" — Quartz Tree of Life pendant “Ice Storm”

The “Tree of Life” is a motif that has appeared in numerous cultures, religions and folklore. Typically, it appears as a leafy, healthy tree with a sturdy trunk and visible roots. It has represented a variety of concepts, including wisdom, healing, purity, and the threshold between life and death. In Norse mythology Yggdrasil, the world tree, supports the nine worlds and is the focus of numerous myths.

Around a year ago Drakestail started creating our own handmade Tree of Life pendants. Inspired by the depth of meaning and the soothing, earthy appearance, I decided to create a Tree of Life pendant for myself, initially using silver-plated wire and pale green jade chips. I love how it turned out, and wear it often. I got lots of positive comments about it, as well as requests! Since then I’ve created several permutations, using aventurine, carnelian, clear quartz and rose quartz to represent the Tree in different seasons. I’ve also worked some up with copper wire, to great effect. Using gemstone chips and twisting the trunks by hand, each pendant is unique.

Want to see more? We have some Tree of Life pendants in stock right now on Etsy!