bedazzling beads

I love beaded jewellery and I love figurative jewellery so I especially love it when the two are combined. I have so much admiration for the skill and patience involved. Here's a few that have caught my eye over the years...

firstly the flamingo bracelet... much more naive than my other choices but I just love the dangly legs. It's by an American lady called Linda, that's about all I know

The next is broken fab - I found this designer on the Kabiri website... and when I last went down to London I cashed in all my scrap silver and then sauntered over to Covent Garden to treat myself to one of these beauties. I love the colours, the tribal references and the boldness of it, I feel like a super hero when I wear it!

And then there is Clara Francis I first noticed her many years ago - maybe about 4 - I fell in love with her beaded hummingbird earrings, tried them on in a shop but alas I was too poor. My current favourite is the fox, I may have to drop a few hints for Christmas...

I've just discovered the jewellery of Servanne Gaxotte. Surreal, slightly macabre and miniature. They make me feel slightly uneasy which I think stems from them reminding me of those tacky pendants you get in very thin 9ct gold of clowns that they sell in Argos (and places like that) that 60 year old traveller women with dodgy taste wear... However the skill and attention to detail in Gaxotte's pieces means these little figures would be much more at home promenading around the parks and boulevards of Paris than hanging around a trailer park!!

Creepy Crawlies

Here's a little sneak preview of the new collection of spider jewellery that I've been working on over the last few months. I leant it to my friend Sam Barker to use in a shoot she was directing and she came back with some stunning photos, I just couldn't resist sharing them. Plus there's some photos of the work in progress in my workshop and the inspiration for the collection - I seem to have a lot of spiders for company down in my workshop/cellar at the moment.

The collection has taken a long time to put together, the spiders are made from pieces of silver slotted together over black onyx stones and then plated with 18ct gold. A lot of playing around with different shapes and sizes was needed to get the designs to work, then the chains on the large necklace and earrings (not yet shown) were another story... lots of measuring, counting links and mathematical formulas involved to try and get them to hang well... needless to say it was not how I'd intended it to look originally but never-the-less I was pleased with the outcome. Hopefully the spiders will be hitting the shops and the website in about a month.

photo shoot credits:

photography - Georgina Robinson
make up and Hair - Siân Revill
Model - Rebecca Sampson
Stylist and Creative - Samantha Barker

working on the designs at my bench

a little spider in my filthy sink - I'm hoping the chemicals will mutate it into a jewellery making superhero

A few pics from my recent holiday to not so sunny Wales, lovely still all the same.

a little bit of fairy dust has been sprinkled over my website

At last I have put the fairies online (with a big thanks to Sam!!). The silver and gold plated fairy earrings are up and so is the gold plated fairy pendant and some tiny flower earrings and pendants as well. More will be added over the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled!!

I should say a little about my inspiration for this collection... as anyone who is familiar with my jewellery or me for that matter, I love miniatures, tiny worlds, fantastical places and seeing beauty and intrigue in otherwise ordinariness - it helps me get through the day.

I have always liked the idea of fairies, fairy tales, magic castles and so forth but not in a saccharin Disneyfied manner but more of a Victorian pretty and playful but sometimes dark and dangerous...!

I was inspired by an exhibition at the Royal Academy I saw when I was studying in London about 13 years ago (yikes - so long ago!!) It was all about Victorian fairy paintings and featured the most amazingly detailed paintings by Richard Dadd amongst others. Although I did not want to rush away and make fairy jewellery at that point I think the fantasy world of the paintings struck a chord with me as it has been a theme that has always existed within my jewellery. It was not until about a year ago that I started thinking about these Victorian fairies again, probably mostly inspired by the birth of my real-life fairy daughter. I started looking at the illustrations of Arthur Rackham and another artist I discovered called Warwick Goble. It was mostly these that I based my jewellery upon. So beautiful, graceful and innocent but without the schmaltz... take a look, I hope you agree x

Coming soon...

coming soon.... a new blog all about the life, loves and jewellery created by Amanda Coleman. Please check back later