I’ve been seeing lots of cool ideas popping up everywhere using chalkboard paint and I thought “I’d like to make something with that stuff”. So the idea popped into my head to add it to something I already make, soldered jewelry. So today I made a chalkboard necklace, it turned out just like I had envisioned, don’t you love when that happens?
Draw or write something new every day, aren’t they fun?
These are now available here in my Etsy shop.
Wow, where did the month of December go?……..:)
I’ve really been enjoying making more of the round glass bubble charms, they are so tiny and sweet. Here’s a few of my recent favorites.
These can all be found in my Etsy Shop.
I’ve been very busy making lots of collage art soldered pendants for Halloween. I’ve done lots of witches, women and little girls, a bat fairy and some little wizards too. I think some of these would be great for Harry Potter fans also 🙂 Each hand cut collage is mounted on vintage Italian book paper and sandwiched between glass and soldered around the edges. I added black patina to the solder. These pendants are currently available here in my Etsy shop.
I adore the little grumpy witch asking “who are you calling a witch?”, I almost kept her for myself 🙂
I’m really happy with the bat fairy, I think she’s so cool.
The vintage children’s books I use for alot of my solder pendants sometimes have very tiny but cute art in them. Too small for even 1″ square pendants I thought I could find a way to make some teeny pieces with them. So recently I got some flat backed round glass bubbles that are about 3/4″. I soldered around the edges and back and they are perfect. Like a little window with a tiny surprise inside it. I adore the way they turned out!
These can currently be found in my Etsy shop.
A while ago I had found some lovely small vintage photos at an antique store. I think they must have been a type of model shot, some had the same girls in different outfits. They are the perfect size for jewelry. I turned this pretty girl into a fairy by adding blue wings to her. I didn’t want to cut the actual photo so I cut the edge of the wings to match her shoulders and applied them onto the photo. I also added the word “fly” from a vintage book and mounted her on vintage French book paper. The tiny collage is sandwiched between glass and soldered around the edges. Because the photo is black and white I added black patina to the solder to pull everything together.
I’ve got some new pendants being listed in my Etsy shop, just in time for the holidays. Here’s a couple of new vintage dictionary illustration soldered pendants. BTW if anyone is looking for a certain animal or illustration for a custom pendant let me know, I might have it and I’m glad to do special orders if I can.
Here’s a cute koala bear:
this hedgehog is so fun, although he looks more like a porcupine to me 🙂 :
and I love this tapir, he’s really cool and unusal:
I made lots of pendants with vintage horse illustrations for the arts and crafts fair during the World Equestrian Games and have a few that didn’t sell so I’m listing them now in my Etsy shop. Here’s a few of them:
from vintage children’s books:
and from a vintage dictionary:
When I was little and asked my parents what something meant they always told me to “go look it up”, i.e in the dictionary, encyclopedia, etc. It’s not that they didn’t want to help me, they wanted me to learn to use the books and find the answers for myself. Maybe that’s why I now love old dictionaries? I remember mine was red, with little cut out half circles on the pages where the letters where, funny how things like that stick with you.
Here’s a few soldered pendants made with illustrations from a wonderful vintage dictionary from the early 20’s. I added black patina to all the soldering and the backs of the pieces are their definitions.
a really cool raven:
a fat little toad ( I just love him!):
and a lovely bird in flight:
Here’s a couple of new charm necklaces I’ve made recently. I’m enjoying mixing altered and soldered game pieces and charms together.
The first one is sort of a pun, it’s a skeleton key necklace. A large metal key with a skull charm and a soldered domino charm with dancing skeletons.
This one is all Alice, a tiny glass bottle filled with blue beads and three soldered game charms, a domino with Alice on a blue background, an “A” scrabble tile with vintage “Alice” text and a vintage bingo tile with vintage “drink me” text.
These are both currently available in my Etsy shop, click here to visit.
Ok, I also can’t seem to stop making things with Alice in Wonderland either 🙂 I’ve been making Alice jewelry and collages for years now and am happy to see a big jump in popularity because of the new Burton movie. Somerset Studio even did another issue with lots of wonderful Alice art, the first Alice issue some years back is still one of my favorites and I still have my dog-eared copy.
Here’s a picture of all of the Wonderland character soldered domino charms I posted about recently:
and here’s a domino ring I made with Alice:
and here’s my favorite, a charm bracelet. It has charms made with shrink plastic, soldered wooden game pieces, a tiny glass bottle, soldered dominoes, vintage King and Queen puzzle pieces, vintage text and silver charms.
All these items are currently for sale in my Etsy shop, click here.