Unusual Christmas Gifts

Just finished and posted the last of the Christmas orders that I have made for people this year so thought I would take a breather and write a blog post about some of the more unusual gifts. It is such a great feeling that on Christmas morning people around the world will be opening their presents and some of them will actually be made by me! I wish I could be there to see their faces although the satisfaction of knowing that I have been involved means so much to me; certainly a more satisfying feeling than working behind a desk like I did in my old job!

Here are a couple of the more unusual Christmas gifts I have made for people this year. Both of them are custom made paperweights and the first involves a Pork scratching! Yes I received this Pork Scratching through the post from a lady who wanted it encasing within a paperweight for her husband. Why I do not know but I had great fun making it. Firstly without knowing how it would react with the resin I first had to go out and buy myself a packet. My neighbours must have thought I was odd sitting outside on the patio spraying lumps of Pork Scratching with Acrylic sealant...but then they are probably used to it by now!

Unique Christmas Gifts - Pork Scratching Paperweight

This second paperweight incorporates several items that I received through the post. The items included a pound coin, table confetti, a photograph and a blade of barley. Again I am not sure of the connection these items have but I am sure somebody will like it when they open it on Christmas day!

Unique Christmas Gifts - Barley Paperweight

I do like giving and receiving unusual gifts at Christmas time; I think the most unusual gift I have given was a big lump of fossilised Dinosaur dung which I gave to my wide a couple of years ago.

What is the most unusual gift that you have given or received at Christmas?

Mick

Pet bedding fabric pendant

I was asked recently by the owner of a rabbit themed magazine called ‘Bunny Mad Magazine’ if she could feature me and my work within an issue of the magazine due out in the spring. The editorial that I sent to her focused on the pet rabbit tributes that I can offer but also went into why I started my little business.

As a thank you for featuring my work in her magazine and in exchange for a copy of the magazine when it comes out, I offered to make her a pendant. Sadly she did not have any rabbit fur however she had a sample of fabric from one of her bunnies bedding that she had kept. The fabric is very special to her since she has many memories of my bunny Fern sleeping in her leopard bed!

She sent a sample of the leopard print fabric to me and this is the pendant I made for her, hung from a leather thong style necklace.

Pet bedding fabric pendant

Lovely isn’t it! I am looking forward to the ‘Bunny Mad’ magazine coming out in April and sharing it with you. I have already forgotten what I wrote for her and hopefully it should be an interesting read!

Mick

Fossil Cupuladriid Bryozoans Pendant

Cupuladriid Bryozoans now that isn’t a word you get to hear every day! The Bryozones are small aquatic creatures that have chalky skeletons and can be found all over the world and are often preserved as fossils when they die. The lady who introduced me to the world of Cupuladriid Bryozoans actually wanted some of the fossils making into a pendant and a paperweight.

Cupuladriid Bryozoans

She had studied fossil Bryozoans for her Ph.D and part of that study was researching climate change and the effects on the Bryozoans. Apparently there is a relationship between the Bryozoan size and the temperature it was formed in; so they can help identify the Earth’s temperature at different times in history....that is all I know!

Cupuladriids

I do not normally agree with setting fossils within resin. I have bags of fossils at home from my fossil collecting days when I was younger and I wouldn’t dream of setting them in resin. I have always had the opinion that they have survived millions of years so why should they end up in there? She put my mind at ease by telling me that thousands of them exist in the world today and that she has lots of them doing nothing in her loft. Also as part of her research the Cupuladriids are often crushed for testing purposes... this made me feel better!

Anyway here is the pendant that I made with some of the Cupuladriid Bryozoans:

Fossil Pendant - Cupuladriid Bryozoans

...and here is the paperweight made using the Bryozoans:

Fossil Paperweight - Cupuladriid Bryozoans

So there is your introduction to the world of Cupuladriid Bryozoans isn’t it fascinating? I love the unusual requests I am getting for my custom made paperweights at the moment; I have received some unusual things including a pound coin, a blade of barley and pork scratching!

Mick

Unusual Mobile Phone Gifts

I had an unusual request this last week from a lady who wanted a mobile phone themed Christmas gift making. Initially she wanted a mobile phone top-up card to be encased within a paperweight however the top-up card would not fit any of my designs. She then suggested having a mobile phone SIM card to be incorporated within the paperweight and here it is:

Mobile Phone SIM card in a paperweight

As well as the mobile phone SIM card she also wanted a message within the paperweight. You may remember a few weeks ago that I developed a technique of using transparencies within my jewellery and paperweights to form personalised messages. Well these are proving to be a convenient way of incorporating messages and I have used them on several occasions since.

On this occasion the lady wanted the message ‘Break glass in an emergency!’ within the paperweight. Now this has given me a great idea; it would be great to make a paperweight with a cigarette inside, and to add a similar message as a gift to somebody who is giving up smoking. How frustrating that would be since you would never get it out!

Mick

Personalised Bracelets

I must have far too much time on my hands because I have been investigating recently if there are any patterns to the types of custom made jewellery that I am asked to make for people. It is always good to be prepared so I looked into if certain months of the year are dominated by a particular style of jewellery. There are certainly jewellery buying trends that are driven by events in the year such as Christmas and Mothers Day, but then there are other buying patterns of my jewellery I can’t really explain.

For example September is repeatedly the month where personalised bracelets dominate. I can’t explain why and it is not related to a particular style of bracelet but this generally repeats itself year after year. So the following are a few examples of the personalised bracelets that I made for people last month...

Personalised Name on Rice Bracelet

I have been making Name on Rice Jewellery for a while now however have always made pendants, so this is my first bracelet containing rice writing. Originally the ‘Dad’ asked me to make three individual pendants, with each of their children’s names written onto grains of rice. Subconsciously I probably knew it was ‘personalised bracelet month’, because I suggested attaching the charms to a bracelet which would at least give the option of having individual pendants at a later date.

Personalised Name on Rice Bracelet

Lock of Hair Keepsake Bracelet

I was initially asked to encapsulate a lock of hair within one of my sterling silver pendants and to engrave the back of the pendant with a message. However the message became a poem and not something that was going to fit onto the back of a pendant, so again it was suggested to incorporate the hair into a bracelet instead. (Are you seeing a pattern here? I am now beginning to think that it is me that is influencing the seasonal buying trends of my jewellery!).

Hair Keepsake Bracelet

Horse Hair Bracelet

I am now just satisfying my initial statement that there are seasonal variations in the type of jewellery that people buy, and indeed September is the month for personalised bracelets. Now I am confident that I didn’t influence the decision to have this horse hair set within a bracelet, it was asked for I promise! I did suggest having the glitter within each charm though (but then if it was me I would have glitter in everything!).

Horse Hair Bracelet

I began writing this blog post convinced that there were patterns to the type of jewellery that people buy throughout the year. As the blog post has gone on I have become less and less convinced... is it just me that has been influencing these decisions?

Mick

Handmade Poppies for the Poppy Appeal 2012

No I haven’t taken up knitting just yet, although I wish I could as it would save a fortune on buying clothes! This hand knitted poppy arrived in the post last week and it is lovely, it is also lovely to know that all of the money paid for it (they are on sale for a suggested donation of £5) goes to the Poppy appeal 2012.

Hand Knitted Poppy - Poppy Appeal 2012

Laura of Tiny Stitches and her team are knitting poppy brooches in support of the Royal British Legion and the work that they do for the armed forces. Laura is aiming to make as many Poppies as possible so is also looking for knitters who can help her too.

Tiny Stitches Poppy Appeal 2012

If you haven’t got your Poppy yet they can be purchased from her Etsy shop and please help spread the word if you can. Her poppies really are lovely; they are handmade and help such a great cause.

Mick

How to preserve wedding flowers

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a huge box of pressed flowers that the lady had pressed following her recent wedding. The box included flowers from her wedding bouquet as well as a sample of her lace wedding dress material. She wanted both the flowers and wedding dress material preserved within necklaces for her and her bridesmaids as keepsakes of their special day.

Over the next couple of days I began to sort through the flowers and prepared various designs for her pendants. I had so much choice because of the beautiful selection of flowers that my design document grew at such a rate and I produced a 14 page design document, all annotated with the different possibilities. There was so much choice!

Wedding flower jewellery design

We settled on a couple of designs however first I needed to check the feasibility of embedding the fabric within the resin. I have made several pendants in the past incorporating wedding dress material but nothing as delicate as this lace material. So I made a test pendant incorporating the material and here it is.

Wedding dress lace pendant

The pendant was given as a freebie to the lady and we agreed that the fabric would look good as a backing to the flowers within the pendants. So over the next few I started to incorporate the wedding flowers within the pendants and here is an example.

Wedding flowers and dress pendant

And this pendant was given to one of the bridesmaids.

Wedding flower keepsake jewellery

They were all given a little bit of Shpangle by incorporating some glitter dust; I do like my glitter dust and would add it to everything if I could!

Mick