Where my head's at...

Kwon Seulgi - Untitled - Brooch - 2011
silicone, pigment, plastic, thread, wood, stainless steel


Kwon Seulgi - Untitled - Brooch - 2011
silicone, pigment sterling silver, thread, stone, glass bead, stainless steel


Kwon Seulgi - Cell 10 Brooch - Oct 2009
silicone, pigment, plastic, stainless steel



Chanel Spring 2012 Under the Sea


Studio Bertjan Pot - Cluster Light 2009


Ernesto Neto - "Simple and light as a dream...the gravity don’t lie...just loves the time" 2006
Installation view fromTanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
Photo: Fabian Birgfeld, photoTECTONICS.
Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (Via Moment/C)

Minerals - grey, gold, black, silver

Galena with Chalcopyrite, Sphalerite and Quartz
See many more photo's and details here on Mineral Classics


Metastibnite via Mineral Classics


Pyrrhotite on Galena from Russia via Mineral Classics


Sphalerite on Chalcopyrite via Surrey Minerals


Pyrite in Slate via The San Francisco Gem & Mineral Society

Pyrite via Mindat


Stibnitewith Barite via irocks


Skutterudite via irocks

Myung Urso

Myung Urso - Brooch: Dialogue - 2011 (via Klimt02)
Natural dyed silk, thread, sterling silver, lacquer


Myung Urso - Neckpiece: Gray Scape 2011 (via Klimt02)
Natural dyed silk, thread, sterling silver


Myung Urso - Brooch: Hometown 2011 (via Klimt02)
Natural dyed silk, thread, sterling silver, lacquer

Great pieces, I always like when you can see the hand of the maker in the construction, and white/grey/red is always a colour combo I love.

Silvery foliage

At this time of year the Silver grey/green foliage of Saxifrage, Sesliria nitida and Scenecio Cineraria in the garden fit well with the cold temperatures. Gales and winds have been almost non-stop this winter so I've not been out much at all for fear of being blow all the way to Edinburgh. There have been several expected casualties but I've been really surprised by just how many plants have held on tight. Many look a bit bedraggled but I'm confident there will be a happy resurgence of life in Spring. As always you can see all my plants and gardening goings on over on Folia.

Silvery grey and gold

Neckpiece by Brooke Battles (Via Velvet da Vinci).

Brooke's neckpiece made me think of my Senecio Cineraria, also known as Silver Ragwort. Books and TV gardeners often describe it as a plant that is grown for the folliage and that you should chop of the flowers, but I never do, the bees love them and I think they look lovely at every stage. My main plant has all these stages happening on it just now so there's lots to see.

Scottish jewellers

Iona Brown - Ring with salt crystals - DJCA graduate 2011

I love making crystals, haven't done it for years, so it was nice to be reminded of them and even better to see them incorporated into her jewellery. I don't know how wearable or lasting it is but that is part of the beauty. Lots of my own paper and twig jewellery pieces are still going strong after 20 years despite everyone telling me they would fall apart quickly.


Merlin Planterose - Necklace, Ring and Silver Bowls - DJCA graduate 2011

As someone who liked working with nature to create my own metalwork, bowls and other works I'm really liking the techniques used by Merlin Planterose to, in her father's words, turn silver into stone. She used stone as both hammer and anvil to give a beautiful natural texture to her pieces, which includes stone dust from the process which gets embedded into the silver. I'd love to see and feel the effect in real life.

Scottish jewellers

Not posted jewellery/metalwork in ages, in fact, for the first time in my life I actually forgot about Degree shows entirely this year (says something about the 'brain fog' taking over me this year, which I find worse than the physical symptoms of M.E./CFS).

Found a few online that I liked. Some from this year, some from previous years, here are two and I'll post more when my brain gets going:


Hannah Eccles - Brooches - ECA graduate 2010


Roisin Connolly - Edinburgh Street - DJCA graduate 2011

Brooches that look like rocks & minerals

Maria Lóbez: Brooch, L'invisible 1 2008
Silver, methacrylate (via Klimt02)

Marielle Ledoux: Brooch, Untitled 2008
Rubber (via Klimt02)


Célio Braga: Brooch, Untitled 2007 (via Klimt02)
Textile, felt, glass, hair
Looks like it's covered in Boulangerite crystals.


Yu-Chun Chen: Brooch, Flowerness of the bird II 2007
Iron, paint, horn, steel (via Klimt02)


Flora Vagi: Necklace, Untitled 2007
Wood, silk (via Klimt02)

Update: I thought I should include some real minerals too...

Ferberite from Bolivia via Mineral Classics


Ferberite (rare doubley terminated twin) on matrix from Bolivia via Mineral Classics

Faces on brooches

Constantinos Kyriacou: Brooch, 2008


Inês Almeida: Brooch- Diálogos e monólogos 2 2004-2005
Wood, silver and coins (via Klimt02)


Fabrizio Tridenti: Brooch- F. Guelfi 2007 (via Klimt02)
Plastic, oxidized silver, paper, electric wire


Bettina Speckner: Brooches, 2007+2004


Eija Mustonen: Brooch (via Hibernate)

Beautifully wrapped...

Mr P forgot that he had saved lots of post for me while I was away, one of them was a most exciting package from Daphne filled to the brim with treasures and treats of every kind. As you can see, I had to photograph the packaging before even opening them, the entire box of goodies was exquisitely wrapped with a huge variety of hand stamped papers, all of which will be kept, many of which will be framed or used in collages in the future. Poor Mr P was on the phone when I opend the box and had to try and hear over the sound of increasingly high pitched gasps and ooh's. Daphne knows exactly the kind of things that put a huge smile on my face - thank you madam!

I forgot to update on a few things. The trellis is back, and without neighbourly wars. There's a new fence in Mr P's garden replacing the one the gales smashed. The first lambs were born in the nearby farm at the weekend... and today they were skipping in the surprise sunshine, with daffodils smiling nearby. And lastly, I have reduced the migraine to a general tension headache by chopping off 1/3 of my hair! Sounds extreme but I hadn't cut it in months and it was down at my bum again.

Nic Bladen - jewellery

Nic Bladen: Necklace with single Heuningblom or honey flower

Delicate cast flower neck pieces from Nic Bladen's Botanical Jewellery collection thanks to a link from Four Walls Design.

Pairing: Irina & Lucy + Giveaway at 50,000

Well, there we go, January whizzed past in a matter of moments. How can we be 1/12 through 2008 already? I'm glad so many of you enjoyed the white posts. I will continue to post some of them through February, after all, it is still a wintery month here in Scotland (as evidenced by the second day of snow gales outside. But there will be a lot more colour as well, I need the colour.

I'll ease into the switch over with what I think is a good wintery pairing. I'm such a huge fan of Irina's illustrations, and this one looks so good matched with Lucy's brooch. I do like a good pairing, watch this space for more in the future. Happy February everyone.


Irina Troitskaya: Frost on flickr


Lucy Sarneel: Brooch Ensemble, 2004 via Klimt02

Now, in other news... Today, or tomorrow I will be getting my 50,000 visitor since adding the Clustr Map to my blog last May (see side bar).

My Clustr Map 7 Jan 2008 with 'show smaler clustrs' option on, Europe has totally disappeared! Hello everyone.

As far as I understand it doesn't include people viewing through rss feeds like bloglines, so I'm pretty thrilled and astonished. To mark the occasion I'm going to give away one of my little handmade books to one person who comments on the day it hits th big 50. I'll get Mr P to draw a name from a hat at the weekend and I'll contact the winner to get their address details.

Only one problem... you may have a long wait for your prize! My books are still packed up so I won't be sending it until I find them all and start posting out the pieces for the book collaboration this year, which is all a bit health dependent just now. Good luck, I hope you win!