Cinderella

I made this necklace a while ago for a competition "Australian Designer of the Year Awards 2007" organised by Beads etc... magazine, and it came first in the wire work category. The piece was designed around a couple of gorgeous labradorite cabochons I had, which I teamed up with chalcedony and labradorite beads, Swarovski crystal stones and beads, and small sterling silver beads. The components were wrapped using sterling silver wire. The pendant depicts the carriage Cinderella rides in. In Chinese, Cinderella is known as "The Grey Lady", hence the blue-grey colour scheme. The piece looks much prettier in real life with all the sparkly crystals and silver, and the labradorite cabs have beautiful flashes of blue. It's hard to capture the colours in the photos.

Sakura

This is a necklace I finished today for this week's Year of Jewellery Challenge on the Australian Beading Forum, the theme of which is "Geisha". I've only just come back 3 days ago from overseas and have tons of washing and housework to catch up on, but I could not resist making a piece, as this theme has brought back some fond memories.

I've been to Japan twice, and on both occasions we saw Geisha performances. The first time was in a small private dinner tour with just my husband and I, our tour guide, and a Geisha and her maiko. It happened to be our first wedding anniversary that day, and the whole experience was magical. When I came home after the trip, I was obsessed with Geisha for a while and bought all the books I could find on Geisha. The second time I was holidaying with my husband and parents, and we saw a stage performance. When I think of Geisha, I think of cherry blossoms, Sakura, its scent and colours, its petals falling down in slow motion, and a Geisha holding a paper umbrella walking beneath the trees towards the setting sun.

I got the pattern of the cherry blossom petals from a Japanese beading book by Kumiko Mizuno, and it was done in brick stitch. Made up some leaves using similar techniques, and assembled the whole piece with pearls, cloisonne beads and Swarovski crystals. The pendant is detachable and has a brooch pin attached to its back, so it can be worn as a brooch as well. I would've liked to make a few more blossoms but ran out of time (the closing date for this challenge is today). You can click on the picture for a larger view. I hope you like it as much as I have enjoyed making it.

The Gypsy Dancer

Made this necklace last week for the "Year of Jewellery Challenge" of the Australian Beading Forum. A theme is announced every Friday, and the participants have up to Sunday the following week to submit a piece. I started by drawing a gypsy girl with colour pencils. Then took a picture of it, reduced it in size, made some coloured and black and white copies, and turned some into cabochons with polymer clay and resin. For this pendant I used a cab without resin, and made a bezel and decorated it with polymer clay, brass stampings and Swarovski crystals. Assembled the whole piece with more beads and chains. When I have time, I would like to do a different and maybe more elaborate version using one of the coloured cabs and seed beads.

Ying Ying the little owl

Made this wire wrapped pendant a little while ago using a charoit cabochon, Swarovski crystal beads and stone, and steling silver wire and beads. In Chinese, owls are called "Mao Tao Ying", and as I didn't like "Mao Mao" or "Tao Tao", I decided to call him "Ying Ying". Because of the shape of the cab, he became a rather chubby little owl.

Vintage poster pendant

Here is another necklace I finished using one of the resin paper cabochons I made a few weeks ago. The picture in the cab was from a reprint of a Chinese vintage poster. Beaded a bezel around the cab, made a few little polymer clay roses, and added metal stampings, Swarovski rivolis and stones, and different beads. It's difficult to photograph the cab well because of its glossy surface. I just love anything from the 1920's-40's era from China, especially memorabilia from Shanghai. (If you would like a larger view, just click on the picture.)

Emergence of a Fairy

I made this piece for a competition a while back. The story behind this was a little creepy. For a couple of months prior to the closing date of the competition, I kept having an image in my mind of a young girl looking out of a window with an emotionless face and with her hands pressed on the window. The image was so strong that I felt I just had to translate it into something. Anyhow, made the pendant with silver clay, polymer clay and wire, and assembled it into a necklace. A couple of months later, I heard on the news on TV that a young girl was abused by her parents, locked up in a room and eventually starved to death. When the reporter interviewed the neighbours, one neighbour said that she had on occasions seen the girl looking out of the locked window, with her hands pressed on the glass. I know this probably was just a coincidence, but it did give me goosebumps when I saw the news. I named this piece "Emergence of a Fairy", to symbolise the fact that the girl's spirit had been set free and she flew away and lived happily ever after in a fairyland. This piece came second in the metal clay category of the 2008 Australian Jewellery Designer of the Year Awards organised by Beads etc... magazine.

Lately, I've been playing with paper. Made these cabochons using Japanese washi paper, prints of Chinese vintage posters, polymer clay and resin. Beaded around some of them, glued bails on a few, gave some away to friends, and have a few left to play with. I think the resin actually accentuates the colours of the paper and makes them more vibrant. I think I'm addicted to making these at the moment.