March Challenges - Bird a Month and Four A Month

As I am rather behind on my challenges I have doubled up one piece so this is my Bird A Month and my fourth item for my Four A Month.

The piece above is a fine silver pin made using Art Clay Silver with enamel. It is called Blackbird and Sakura. My inspiration came partly from a song my good friends Lynne Glazzard's father, Jim Glazzard. Not surprisingly the song is called Blackbird :)

You can listen to it here.

The theme for my March For A month was flower pins. They are all fine silver and enamel. I started off with a purple flower ...

then a Blue Flower...

then I made the Mothers Day Flower Pin ....

and finally the Blackbird and Sakura. So here are my Four a Month for March altogether.

I have enjoyed making pins and will do more of them. I think I prefer them to brooches.

If you would like to learn how to enamel check out my workshops. May is Enamel Fusion month and you can read about enamelling workshops being run around the UK on the Guild of Enamellers website.

Bird A Month 2/12 - A Breath of Spring

I'm late!! It is March and I have only just made my February Bird a Month. Things got a bit busy. Must try harder this month :)

Anyway here he is. A cute little bird on a spring branch with some budding blossom. It was lovely here yesterday when I was making this so it seemed just right.

This is a little pin brooch. You can see how small it is in my hand.

I really like this and was quite tempted to keep it for me :), but no, I won't, and he will be in my website shop and my Etsy shop later today. I don't currently have a section for pins and brooches in my shops so I am just off to make one!

The reverse has a sturdy little pin with a clip back which fits nice and securely. The tiny little spike to the left of the pin stops it from turning while you are wearing it.

You could put him onto a scarf, label, jumper or tie. In fact almost anywhere. He would be a perfect Mothers Day gift :)

Fusing Fun

Phew, well here are the results of a couple of glass fusing days. The ones above will be made into earrings and pendants and the ones below are going to be brooches. I love dichroic glass. It is soooo colourful but such a pain to photograph. This lot look miles better than in the pictures. They are sparkley gorgeous. I will not even be listing these on my website until after the craft fairs over the next two weekends as they are always so popular and sell really quickly. I am just finishing off some Art Clay silver pieces I made as well so will be posting a picture of those soon. Don't forget to come and say hi if you are near any of the fairs I am at. (see earlier post)