My latest pet keepsake bracelets

You may remember on a previous blog post where I showed my latest pet hair keepsake bracelet. Well, last week I was asked to make a similar bracelet for a lady who wanted a keepsake to her pets while they were all alive and well.

This bracelet is sterling silver and has seven charms represented her different pet animals; each bracelet charm is also engraved on the back with the corresponding pet’s name. The bracelet contains animal fur and hair from some types of pet that I have not worked with before and includes two cats, three gerbils, two dwarf hamsters and some snake skin that had been shed.

Pet hair keepsake bracelet

Last week was quite a week for making pet keepsake bracelets and here is three more that I made for a lady in the states. The heart shaped charms are resin and contain the hair from some of her dogs. Unfortunately I cannot engrave the resin charms so instead I have embedded silver lettering within each charm to spell out the name.

This charm bracelet contains the hair from Brutus and his name has been spelt with silver lettering and I have also included some crystals to give it a twinkle!

Dog hair bracelet

This lovely rainbow bracelet includes the hair from three different dogs.

Pet fur bracelet

And finally a second keepsake bracelet in rainbow colours for a dog called Sandy.

Rainbow pet keepsake bracelet

Thank you for looking at my latest pet keepsake bracelets and I hope you all have a great bank holiday!

Mick

Horse hair brooch – Equine jewellery

I have been making horsehair jewellery for quite some time now and I have created quite a few designs for necklaces, bracelets and even earrings containing horse hair. However last week I was given a challenge of making a horse hair brooch (or stock pin) for a lady who has recently moved to Ireland.

Initially I thought I would encase the horse hair within resin and attach a silver brooch bar to the back. But then I like to look for alternative solutions that are a little bit different and decided to make her this:

Horse hair brooch / Stock pin

This sterling silver oval brooch has an extended brooch bar that gives a modern look to the piece. The sterling silver cup holding the horse hair is quite small (so I was quite limited to what I could do with the hair). As always the horse hair has been sealed with resin within the brooch cup.

So that is my latest piece of equine jewellery now in the safe hands of its new owner; hope you like it! If you would like to see more of my designs incorporating horse hair please visit my horsehair jewellery gallery.

Mick

Farmyard Jewellery – Little Piggy Necklace

Old Macdonald had a farm ee-eye, ee-eye oh. And on that farm he had a pig ee-eye, ee-eye oh...

Yes you guessed it; today’s blog post is about my latest farmyard jewellery and in particular a little piggy necklace. I was asked last week to make an item of rice writing jewellery for a lady. She wanted to give it as a gift to her friend who is a farmer and she asked if I could make it farmyard related i.e. to include a farmyard animal within the necklace.

I searched high and low for suitable miniature animals that I could incorporate within the necklace however nothing was really appropriate or small enough to fit within the standard glass vials that I use for my name on rice jewellery. Then I came across this piggy glass vial which is so cute and without hesitation I imported it from the states.

Farm Jewellery - Piggy Necklace

This is quite a greedy little pig as it has five grains of rice floating about including the names of the farming couple, their two dogs and a grain of rice with the year 2011 written onto it. I gave the magnifying oil within the glass vial a slight pink tint to give this little piggy some colour. Although there are five grains of rice floating about in this piggy, there is plenty of room for them to move about and it is really good fun watching them!

So that is my first piece of farmyard jewellery I have made making its way to a farm. I think this little piggy necklace will feel quite at home with all the other animals; what do you think?

Mick

Personalised bridesmaid gifts – Wedding keepsakes

I had an order for my name on rice jewellery before I went away on holiday and I thought I would show it off. The original request was for several of my name on rice pendants for the lady’s bridesmaids. The wedding is due to take place this month, and the pendants are to be given to the bridesmaids during the wedding as personalised keepsake gifts for the special occasion.

As time went by the order grew to also provide personalised gifts for other wedding guests including the Mothers, friends and their daughter (who will be the flower girl) for the couple. I was asked to make each pendant personal to each person by including other objects such as flowers, pearls and glitter. Each pendant contains two grains of rice; the first grain of rice has the recipients’ name and the second grain was double sided incorporating the married couples initials with a heart, and on the reverse side the date of the wedding.

Personalised Bridesmaid Gifts

And here the wedding keepsakes are displayed in their presentation boxes and I also included little card inlays repeating the wedding details and the recipients’ name.

Wedding Keepsakes

It is a lovely feeling to know that my handmade gifts will be given out on such an important occasion. It is also good to know that these wedding keepsakes will be kept for years to come and will be used to bring back the happy memories of such a special time.

If you would like to read more about my personalised bridesmaid gifts please visit my unique bridesmaid gifts website page.

Mick

Getting creative on the beach – Sea glass

My apologies for having not blogged for a couple of weeks but I have been braving the arctic conditions on holiday! This year we decided to have a change from our usual visit to Cornwall and visited the East Coast, staying at a friend’s caravan in Chapel St. Leonards (near to Skegness which is a traditional holiday resort for us Hinckley folk). Whilst we did have a few days of rain we made the most of it and probably visited a few places that otherwise we may not have discovered, including a working windmill, a lovely donkey sanctuary and a seal sanctuary.

We also had some very nice sunny days (we later found out that we were very lucky). So I was subjected to the annual ‘bury dad with sand on the beach ritual’ which gave our children great amusement.

Buried on the beach

We also spent many hours creating sand sculptures on the beach and these were all carefully planned and designed by Braden, our five year old boy. This is one is based upon his design for a rocket powered boat. It took hours to make and then lasted five minutes once we allowed the children to board her!

Sand sculpture - Sand boat

My jewellery making is never far from my mind even on holiday and this year I managed to increase my collection of sea glass somewhat; this collection was the result of a few happy hours spent walking up and down the beach.

Sea glass

For those of you are new to sea glass, it is formed from broken glass bottles and other glassware being tumbled and polished by the forces of the sea. The result is beautiful pieces of polished glass that have developed unique colours and textures. I am not quite sure what I am going to make this collection of sea glass into yet; perhaps a few pieces of sea glass jewellery but I quite like the idea of making a mosaic. If you have any suggestions for what I could make with this sea glass please let me know.

I hope everybody has a great holiday this year and for those lucky enough to be going away use the time well to replenish your creativity and gain inspiration from the different surroundings.

Mick

Thank you gift for my Son’s teacher

My children break up from school today for the long six weeks of the summer holidays; so please forgive me if I am a little quiet for the next few weeks as I will be busy entertaining them! The children in Leicestershire seem to break up a week earlier than most of the country. This has its advantages as this first week seems to be relatively quiet when taking them out to visit places and most of the prices haven’t been inflated just yet.

It dawned on me the other day that I didn’t have a thank you gift for my son’s teacher. It has been his first ‘proper’ year at school this year and she has incredibly helpful in helping him to settle in. He will also be having a different teacher next year so I thought it was only right I made her a little gift.

Having a talent of writing names on grains of rice can be quite handy when it comes to last minute personalised gifts such as these. A quick phone-call to the school (to find out his teacher’s Christian name) and then a few hours later of staring at grains of rice and I produced this.

Name on rice pendant teacher gift

It is his teacher’s name written onto a single grain of rice and I have also included a little pink flower and a slight tint of pink to the magnifying oil. A lovely handmade gift for a teacher to receive don’t you think and it also makes a change to the many bunches of flowers and boxes of chocolates that she is also likely to receive!

If you would like to read more about my rice writing, and how it is made please visit my name on rice jewellery page.

Mick

Personalised pet hair and fur keepsake bracelet

Thought I would show off a bracelet that I made this last week as I am quite proud of it. I was asked to make a keepsake bracelet for the owner of six dogs so that she could carry a small piece of her pets’ fur with her wherever she goes.

Initially she was happy with the suggestion of having a charm bracelet with six small silver charms. Each charm would hold a small piece of her dog’s fur and would hang from the bracelet chain. But then I had a moment of inspiration and suggested making this bracelet.

Pet hair bracelet design

The lovely thing about this bracelet is that I could size it exactly with the addition of jump rings. Also each charm is interconnected rather than hanging to form the bracelet. The whole bracelet would be sterling silver including the toggle clasp. The lady was happy to go with my suggestion and I was equally happy to have been given the opportunity to make something different.

Pet fur bracelet

Each of the six silver bezels within the bracelet holds a small sample of the dog’s fur which has been sealed with resin. The bracelet was further personalised with each dog’s name engraved onto the back of each charm.

Personalised pet hair bracelet

She was extremely pleased when she received her keepsake bracelet and also informed me that the fit was perfect. This was brilliant news because I had made a very last minute decision to extend the bracelet a little. She also let me know that she runs a puppy and dog training academy and has subsequently offered me some excellent publicity; and has also given me an idea for a new range of jewellery so watch this space!

If you would like to see some more of my recent commissions for pet hair and fur keepsake jewellery please visit my pet hair keepsakes gallery.