Handmade Christmas Decorations Containing Pet Fur

This is likely to be my last blog post before Christmas and most likely the last post of 2022, so I thought that I would continue with the Christmas theme. Following on from a recent post I made about my custom-made Christmas snowflake decorations that I recently made, I have been contacted by several people since who have asked me if I could put cremated ashes and/or hair or fur from a loved one or pet within the hanging decorations.

I was contacted by a previous customer Sarah who wanted me to set the fur from her very much missed pet Hugo within a couple of resin snowflake decorations, and these are the decorations I made for her.

The first custom made hanging snowflake decoration that I made for her containing Hugo’s fur containing a small amount of glitter and is personalised with Hugo’s name.

Personalised pet hair Christmas decoration

And the second snowflake decoration I made for her contains the pet fur, glitter dust and a small amount of blue glitter.

Christmas decoration containing pet fur

After receiving her snowflake decorations containing Hugo’s fur, this is the lovely message that Sarah sent to me:

“Wow what can I say? Thank you so much for my stunning Xmas decorations! I absolutely love them. They’re beautiful (and I love the pretty packaging too, what a lovely touch.)

I am honestly thrilled with how they’ve turned out, they will be the highlight of my Xmas tree every year from now on. They are truly gorgeous. I’m so grateful to you for the lovely things you’ve created for me with Hugo’s fur, keepsakes that I will treasure forever and look at with great love and affection.

I am sure we will be doing business again soon and wish you all the very, very best.

Sarah”

I was thrilled to hear that my Christmas decorations containing Hugo’s fur will be on display, hanging from her Christmas tree every year.

Take care and I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

Mick

Handmade Christmas Decoration Photography Tips

I blogged recently about some custom-made Christmas decorations that I made and that, at the time it was a great excuse to get more creative with my photography. I initially photographed the resin snowflake decorations against quite a plain background. This really do not do them justice and I wanted something that would make the decorations look more Christmassy and bring the snowflakes to life.

Next, I thought about photographing the snowflakes hanging from a Christmas tree, or even having the tree as a backdrop to the decoration. But laziness got the better of me and the thought of having to get our artificial tree out of the garage and assembling it in October made me look for alternative solutions.

The following are some of the backgrounds that I experimented with in photographing the Christmas decorations. Let me know which is your favourite!

The first photo has the Christmas decoration set against a background of an open fire, giving a warming and certainly Christmassy feel to the photograph.

Handmade Xmas decoration - Photography tips

The second photo has the Christmas decoration set against a more colourful background of multicoloured flames.

Colourful Xmas decoration background

And lastly the hanging handmade Christmas decoration is set against a closer view of the fireplace, giving the impression of warmth, without it being immediately obvious that it is an open fire.

Artistic photography of Christmas decorations

Can you guess how I created these effects for the photographs? Read on to find out…

How the artistic background to the decoration was created?

OK, I must admit that I did not really photograph the handmade decorations against a real fireplace. Firstly, I searched through YouTube videos on our TV for ‘fireplace’ and I was amazed by the variety of videos, some many hours long, and very relaxing they are too! So, I selected a few and paused the video at a good moment to take the photo.

Then I began to assemble my photography ‘rig’.  I taped a bamboo cane to our clothes horse and hung the Christmas decoration from it in front of the TV. 

Setup used to photograph the handmade decorations

I attached my camera to a tripod in front of the hanging decoration and took the pictures. Cool tip eh! Thanks to YouTube, a clothes horse, bamboo cane and a good dose of imagination I think I have created to interesting and Christmassy backgrounds to the photographs.

Mick

Custom Made and Personalised Christmas Snowflake Decorations

I realise it is only October but after what we have all been through the last couple of years, I wanted to get into the Christmas spirit early this year! It has been great fun making these resin hanging Christmas snowflake decorations over the last couple of weeks. Making these decorations has also given me an opportunity to be more creative with my photography! These snowflake hanging decorations that can either be hung from a tree or as a standalone decoration. They can be coloured with any colour, glitter added, personalised with names, and can also include personal items such as a loved one’s ashes or lock of hair.

The first custom made snowflake Christmas decoration I made was this clear snowflake containing iridescent glitter and glitter dust, it really sparkles nicely when it catches the light.

Custom Christmas Snowflake Decoration

The second hanging Christmas decoration is the same as the one above, but this example is further personalised with a name floating inside the snowflake.

Personalised Christmas Snowflake Decoration

The third custom hanging decoration is again a clear resin snowflake. This snowflake has a different shape to the previous examples and contains these gorgeous polymer clay snowflake sprinkles in tones of blue and white. Again, I have added a sprinkle of glitter dust to the resin to provide that sparkle.

Memorial Christmas Decoration with Ashes

I can personalise these hanging Christmas snowflake decorations to any requirement, including the use of any combination of colours and glitter, personalised with names/year etc. Like my keepsake jewellery, I can even incorporate a loved one’s ashes or lock of hair into the Christmas decorations, providing a lovely way of having a loved one with you at Christmas time.

As well as having fun making these resin Christmas decorations I have also been experimenting with my photography. It really did not do the decorations justice having them photographed against a plain background and I hope you like the effect that I achieved. Can you guess how I did this?

Mick

Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Coin Paperweight

I was working on this paperweight containing a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee coin when we heard the awful news of the passing of our Queen. It was extremely poignant to continue working on the paperweight over the last couple of weeks, and I finally managed to finish making the paperweight a couple of days before the Queen's funeral.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a gentleman who wanted me to encase a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee £5 coin inside a resin paperweight, and further personalised with a message. This would then be given to the gentlemen's work colleague as a surprise gift. I purchased the commemorative Platinum Jubilee £5 coin from The Royal Mint and encased it within a resin dome shaped paperweight. I set the side of the coin displaying Her Majesty the Queen on horseback facing upwards within the paperweight and added silver lettering for a message around the circumference; here is the finished paperweight.

Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Coin Paperweight

One of my earliest memories I have of the Queen was receiving a Silver Jubilee crown coin when I was at Battling Brook primary school, Hinckley in 1977. I am not sure if this was a nationwide thing, but I remember that the commemorative coins were given to every child at the school by the Battling Brook primary school parents/teachers association. I still have the commemorative crown coin today (pictured below), note that the date on the attached note is 28th May 1977. Now this was not the day when the nation celebrated the silver Jubilee (I think that was on 7th June 1977). Saturday 28th May 1977 is a week or so earlier, which perhaps coincided with the Battling Brook School Spring/Summer fete at the time, and the coins were given to the school children at the fete?

Silver Jubilee coin from Battling Brook School

Many thanks for reading about my memories and I would love to hear about your earliest memories of Queen Elizabeth II.

Mick

Preserving artificial fabric flowers within paperweights

I was contacted recently by a lady who wanted me to preserve flowers that were displayed at her sister’s funeral within paperweights. Sadly, she was unable to dry the flowers in time, but then decided as an alternative that she would prefer artificial fabric / silk flowers to be preserved within the paperweights. The paperweights containing the flowers would then be given to her family members and would then be a lovely reminder of the flowers used at her sister’s funeral.

She sent me a large bouquet of both Carnation and Freesia flowers and asked me to produce four paperweights containing a mixture of the fabric flowers. Unfortunately, the Carnation flowers were far too big for the paperweights, so I had to disassemble the flowers and create miniature versions of the Carnations from some of the smaller petals. I think they looked lovely and were a better size when placed adjacent to the Freesia flowers.

Fabric Carnation and Freesia flower bouquet

I cast the fabric Carnation and Freesia flowers into a domed shaped resin paperweight and the results were stunning. The resin really does enhance the colour of the flowers and the silk flowers also look less 'artificial' once viewed inside the paperweight.

Fabric flowers preserved in a paperweight

Gill received her paperweights and sent me the following message: "Paper weights all arrived safely, beautifully packaged! Thank you. I love them! I 'm sure my niece's will be pleased with them as reminder of flowers at their Mums funeral. Thank you for the leaflet, a lovely selection of ideas. Many thanks for all your help".

I am so glad that I was able to help Gill and her family by preserving the silk flowers into remembrance paperweights that they can cherish forever.

Mick

Football ground turf paperweight

Two and a half years ago I made a paperweight containing a piece of turf from Hampden Park. The small piece of turf was gathered by a Hibernian FC fan, following their momentous Scottish Cup win. You can read about the paperweight that I made for him to preserve the piece of turf here: paperweight containing turf

Recently, I was contacted by a fan of Tonbridge Angels FC who play at Longmead Stadium in Tonbridge, Kent. He stated that Tonbridge Angels FC is installing an artificial pitch over the summer to replace the turf pitch that they have used since the early 1980s. The club invited their fans at the end of their last home match to take sections of the pitch as souvenirs to remember the good times of the club playing on the pitch, which had included several promotions and reaching the First-Round proper of the FA Cup in 2020-21 for the first time in many, many decades! 

The Angels fan was able to obtain a small section of the pitch and was looking at how best to preserve it. He had planted a larger section of the turf within his garden, however, was also considering preserving a small piece of turf within a paperweight or something similar.

Knowing how well the turf is preserved within a resin paperweight, I offered to help. The Angels fan sent me a couple of small pieces of the Longmead Stadium turf to be preserved within two paperweights. The following photo is an initial design for the paperweights. The piece of turf would be set within the centre of a square resin paperweight with text 'Tonbridge Angels FC' and 'Tonbridge Angels FC', printed in the Tonbridge Angels FC blue colour above and below the piece of turf.

Longmead Stadium Turf Paperweight Design

And here is one of the finished paperweights containing the piece of turf from the club. One benefit of having a square resin paperweight is that it can either be displayed on its flat base or upright.

Football Ground Turf Paperweight

With more and more football clubs installing artificial pitches at their grounds, it is really good to see that some of these clubs are offering their fans pieces of turf in this way. After all, there is so much history and memories that have taken place on these pitches. I feel honoured to be able to preserve these memories for the fans.

Many thanks for reading about how I preserved a piece of the Longmead Stadium turf within a resin paperweight.

Mick

Converting our shed into a bar

Well, it is more of a summerhouse than a shed, but we affectionately call it the ‘shed’ (so not to sound too posh). We purchased this summerhouse during Spring 2016, and I began work to convert it into a family bar over the summer months.

Construction of our home-made bar

The basic structure for the bar was to install a length of shelving around two internal sides of the summerhouse with a central island that drinks could be served from.

Summerhouse to bar conversion

So off I went to B&Q and purchased shelving, and various pieces of wood for the central island/bar. The shelving was quite straight forward to install. The vertical support struts to the Summerhouse making convenient locations to attach the shelf supports. The following picture is taken internally to show how the shelving was attached.

Bar conversion - internal structure

The central island was achieved by firstly constructing a wooden frame which was clad with pine cladding. I extended the above shelving to form the bar surface and additionally to form an overhead beam. I also included a pine turned newel post to complete the look of the bar area, as well as providing some support. All very straightforward to make, and it took me a couple of weeks off and on to convert the summerhouse into a working bar.

Decorating the home-made bar

Now the fun stuff starts, decorating the bar! Firstly, for the optics, I purchased a wall mounted spirit drinks dispenser from Amazon and a lovely bar mirror, advertising my favourite tipple, Newcastle Brown Ale. I also sourced bar drip towels, bar mats and a Carling ice bucket amongst other things.

Home-made bar - decorations

My greatest expense by far was an Angram beer pump, complete with beer tap and engine that I purchased directly from the manufacturers.

Home-made bar - Angram beer pump

I asked a fellow crafter to make me a bar-sign to hang on the outside of the bar, and he did a fantastic job! The sign read 'The Cluley Tavern Est 2016'.

'The Cluley Tavern' home bar sign

Connecting a bag of Ale to the pump

I managed to get some real ale from my local micro-brewery 'The Elliswood Brewery', and the Ale was supplied to me as a bag in a box, with the Ale was aptly named 'Just One More'!

Elliswood Brewery Real Ale

I removed the bag of Ale from its box and placed it within a cool box, drilled a hole into the cool box lid and fed the hose from the beer pump to the bag of ale.

Real Ale bag connected to beer pump

Several ice packs were placed around the bag of Ale, and I even included a simple temperature monitor so that I could ensure the temperature of the Ale remained suitable. 

The grand opening of our garden bar

I arranged July 10th to be the Grand opening of our bar and invited close family to attend. My Mum and Dad were asked to perform the task of cutting of the ribbon, I even tied balloons to the corners of the shed, I mean bar!

The garden bar grand opening

Everyone had an enjoyable time, and it really did feel like a real bar inside the shed, and I had fun pulling pints!

Home-made bar - me pulling pints

Many thanks for reading about our home-made family bar and if you want any information about how I made the bar, please ask in the comments below.

Mick

Earring studs containing hair - smallest hair keepsake?

I made these earring studs containing horse hair recently and they were very fiddly to make! The sterling silver earring studs containing the horse hair measure just 10mm in diameter and each individual strand of hair is meticulously positioned with resin inside the circular setting. This makes the earring studs one of the smallest items of jewellery that I currently make!

Horse hair earring studs

Another example of the horse hair ear studs can be seen below. Individual strands of the hair have been set within the earring settings, forming a criss-cross pattern.

Ear studs containing horse hair

And for completeness, here are similar ear studs containing a loved ones human hair.

Earring studs for a loved ones hair

But the circular horse hair earring studs above are not the smallest item of jewellery that I make, this honour is awarded to my rope edged silver earring studs that can be made as small as 5mm in diameter. The example below contains the smallest curls of hair that I have ever seen, also demonstrating how the resin setting containing the hair can be coloured to any colour.

Rope edged stud earrings for hair

And here is a picture of similar earring studs containing pet hair.

Earring studs containing pet fur

Slightly bigger, measuring just 6mm in diameter are these bead-edged earring studs. The hair or fur is again encased in resin within the circular settings and is surrounded by a single row of silver beads. 

Bead-edged earring studs for hair

The earring studs can be made larger to accommodate larger locks of hair and therefore creating a statement piece of jewellery. These teardrop shaped earring studs are approximately twice the size of the above, measuring 10mm x 7mm and the locks of hair are encased within resin inside the teardrop or pear-shaped silver setting.

Teardrop earring studs for a lock of hair

I am not sure if there is a world record for the smallest piece of jewellery containing a lock of hair? Although very unlikely, but if I ever make anything smaller than the 5mm setting, I will let you know!

Mick

Musical Themed Hair Keepsake Pendants

 I was contacted recently with a request for me to make a hair keepsake pendant with a musical theme. I was asked to make a resin heart shaped pendant containing a small lock of hair. In addition to the hair, I was asked for the pendant to contain a small message and a musical reference such as a musical note or cleft.

So, this is what I made; a resin heart shaped pendant containing the lock of hair a small message and a musical clef placed within the top corner of the heart.

Musical themed hair keepsake pendant

Inspired by making a musical themed pendant (I also had a small sample of unused hair that I could use), I decided to make another pendant as an additional gift to my customer. This additional pendant is sterling silver in the form of a musical note and contains a small lock of hair, encased with resin within the sterling silver setting.

Musical note shaped hair keepsake pendant 

If anyone could let me know if this musical note symbol has a better technical term, please let me know?

In 13 years of making jewellery, these are the first musical themed hair keepsake pendants that I have made, and I am incredibly pleased how they both turned out.

Mick

Paw print pet memorial jewellery

Understandably I am often asked to add a paw print to my pet memorial jewellery for pet hair and ashes. This is usually a single silver paw print inside the pendant and is often accompanied by a silver name or initials. An example of a pet hair keepsake pendant that I have previously made containing a single paw print can be seen below.

Pet hair keepsake keyring with paw print

I was recently contacted by Kathryn who wanted to preserve some hair from her much loved pet within a resin keepsake pendant. Kathryn supplied me with a sketch for her personalised design for the pendant and said "I attach a photo of a basic idea of what I am thinking about - the main question is do you think you will be able to get the four paw prints in as I've drawn? I was just thinking I like the idea of the four as if he were walking / standing there!"

This is the first pet hair pendant that I have made to contain four paw prints, and it is a lovely idea!

Pet hair pendant with paw prints

After receiving her pet memorial keepsake pendant, Kathryn sent me this lovely message:

“My jewellery has arrived safe and sound - I absolutely love them they are exactly what I wanted and just perfect. I cannot thank you enough for your amazing kindness in sending the additional pendant and charm - I was overwhelmed! For the first time in so long I cried happy tears...

Thank you so, so much. Now he will not only be forever in my heart but physically close to me as well. I miss him so very much - knowing I have a little part of him with me all the time helps. 

Once again thank you...

Kathryn"

I have been making pet hair remembrance jewellery for many years and I love how the designs keep evolving. Also receiving lovely messages like this after people have received their keepsake jewellery means the world to me. 

Mick

Jewellery Containing Hedgehog Quills (or Spines)

Did you know that the hedgehog quills are made from a protein called Keratin, the same protein that can be found in your nails, skin and hair? An adult hedgehog has 5-7 thousand quills over its body, and the hedgehog sheds the quills over time, with new quills growing back to replace them...just like your hair!

In 2015 I made my first resin pendant containing hedgehog quills (or sometimes known as spines). The lady had sadly recently lost her pet African pygmy hedgehog called Orinoco and sent me the quills so that I could form them into some remembrance jewellery for her. I received the quills and set them within a resin heart shaped pendant (after handling the quills very carefully). I set the quills fanning out from the centre of the heart shaped pendant and included silver lettering for the name of the hedgehog across the centre of the pendant.

Hedgehog Quill Pendant

Since making this pendant I have been asked many times to make similar pendants for people (I did not realise how many people kept pet pygmy hedgehogs, with the UK African Pygmy Hedgehog Facebook Group having over fifteen thousand members at the time of writing this). The following example resin pendant was made for the owner of a pygmy hedgehog called Milky. Fewer quills were sent to me this time however as you can see the effect is just as lovely.

Hedgehog Spine Necklace

And finally, a sterling silver circular pendant containing a small selection of hedgehog quills; even though very few quills were incorporated into this sterling silver pendant, they create a wonderful effect.

Silver Necklace with Hedgehog Quills

Many thanks for reading about my jewellery incorporating hedgehog quills. Quick question, do you refer to them as Quills or Spines?

Mick

Setting white hair in resin jewellery

Some customers mention to me that they have received advise that white hair or fur does not work within resin jewellery. This simply is not true. Depending upon the texture (and whiteness) of the hair, sometimes it may become less visible within the jewellery, however this is not always the case. White hair or fur can be just as visible as coloured hair within the resin jewellery, which is why I always ask people who want me to preserve white hair within resin to email me a photo of the hair so that I can advise further.

Where two colour tones of hair are required to be preserved within resin jewellery, where one of the colours is white (i.e., white/brown hair or white/black hair), there is sufficient contrast in hair colours that the white hair or fur will be visible. Here is an example of white pet fur being displayed against the brown fur within a resin pendant. As you can see, the white fur is clearly visible due to the contrast in colours when set against the brown fur.

White and brown fur resin pendant

When there is no contrast in hair colour available, for example if the hair is only pure white, the resin behind the hair can be coloured to any contrasting colour to allow the white hair to become more visible. Here is an example of quite fine white fur being displayed within a resin pendant that has had a black colour applied to the resin behind the fur.

Coloured resin pendant with white hair

Similarly, white horse hair will be visible within resin jewellery if the pendant is coloured to a contrasting colour, here is an example of white horse hair set within resin pendants or charms that have been coloured blue behind the hair. Any suitable contrasting colour can be used to create this effect.

Coloured resin pendants for white horse hair

Setting the white hair within a sterling silver pendant bezel can also improve the visibility of the white hair. here is an example of white (or cream) hair set within a sterling silver backed pendant. As you can see, the sterling silver backing of the pendant provides sufficient contrast to allow the hair to be visible.

Silver backed pendant for white hair

And lastly, here is an example of three hair colours (cream, black and white) from a brindle-coloured pet, set within a sterling silver and resin pendant.

Resin pendant with brindle coloured hair

Many thanks for reading about my methods of setting white hair within resin jewellery and I hope that it gives you confidence that it can be achieved.

Mick

Horse Tooth Paperweight

I recently blogged about the items that I made in the past for preserving teeth (both human and animal) within resin keepsake jewellery and paperweights. Since writing about this subject, I have recently been asked to preserve a horse tooth within a resin paperweight, so I thought I would show it off.

I was contacted by Janet who had a horse tooth that she wanted preserved within a resin paperweight. Sadly, she had lost her darling horse at the grand age of 30 (which is approximately 85 in human years), and the tooth had fallen out just prior to him passing. As you can imagine, the horse tooth was incredibly special to Janet, and she looked forward to having it displayed on her desk.

Horse tooth paperweight

Horse teeth is not something that I have worked with before (it is the most unusual equine object that I have made), and I was quite amazed at the size of the tooth once I received it. To give you an idea of scale, the resin paperweight containing the tooth measures approximately 1.25 inches high and 3.0 inches in diameter; and the tooth almost fills the entire paperweight!

Equine paperweight containing a horse tooth

Many thanks for reading about my horse tooth paperweight, if you would like to read more about the types of jewellery and paperweights I have made with teeth, please visit my resin keepsake jewellery for teeth blog.

Mick

Keepsake Jewellery for Bird Feathers

I last blogged an article about resin jewellery made with bird feathers almost 10 years ago to the day. So, I thought I would show you some recent examples of jewellery made with preserved bird feathers.

I love incorporating bird feathers into my jewellery because the resin not only enhances the natural colours of the feather but has a magnifying effect upon the barbs that make up the feather. Fun fact: Did you know that a bird's feathers are connected to muscles that are attached to the skin. This allows the bird to move their feathers independently and not just by flapping them!

Helen contacted me recently who sadly lost her Green Amazon Parrot. Helen wanted the tip of her Parrot feather set within one of my resin heart shaped pendants; this is the selection of pendants that I made for her, containing different sections of the feather that was sent to me.

Resin Parrot feather pendants

The resin really does show off the beautiful colours that make up the Parrot feather. Here is a keyring that I made containing two bird feathers, side by side.

Keyring containing bird feathers

And a similar teardrop pendant containing black and white budgie tail feathers.

Budgie tail feather pendants

And I am not just limited to preserving the feathers into items of jewellery for keepsakes. Here I have encased the feathers into a resin paperweight. 

Paperweight containing bird feathers

Finally, proving that it is not just feathers from domestic birds such as parrot, budgie or canary,  here is a feather that was sent to me from an incredibly special chicken!

Chicken feather resin pendant

Many thanks for reading about my items of jewellery containing bird feathers. If you would like to read how important my jewellery is for the owner of a bird, please read my Mangos Last Feather blog post.

Mick