Energy Rising

Spring has officially hit Australia (I go by what Mrs.Nature does rather than the calendar) and it's making me feel all energised and clean. Things are happening, little cogs turning and gears shifting, shaking off the dust of winter.

southend-on-summer

I have felt this year for the very first time in my life that I am looking forward to the warmth of early summer, and I know it's because of England. Summer in England is a warm and gentle affair, not the volcano island that Australia inflicts upon us. There is news though that the summer here this year will be an English summer (not too hot, comes with rain), so I am glad!

Shallot transformed

I've not been updating the shop much lately, I've plenty of supplies and am making things, but the going is slow. Sometimes it's because the muse is sluggish, but this time it's because she's so busy filling my head with ideas and projects that I can barely keep my mind on one task, let along complete it. I've started to make things for the bridal collection, which so far has included a pair of earrings and a lovely custom bangle and earrings set.

Galaxies


Custom 'tattered vintage' set

In the meantime though things have been swimming along nicely. The thrift shop continues to be haultastic - must be something about spring, people are cleaning out their cupboards and throwing away all their delightful vintage. My friends and I had a morbid theory that a lot of old people die in the winter, and their family donates their goods in spring. Either way the thrift has lately been gold.

clover fields

Left to right- pink roses bedsheet, doilies for murdering, vintage 1940s men's pjs in cherry condition, the most wonderful clover dinner plates that I nearly had a heart attack over, and some over-large handmade steins which suit an antique jug of mine so perfectly that I think the potter must have had the same one and was inspired by it.

They also seem to be having a run on Indian bangles, which is serendipitous for me to say the least! Scored lots of coloured ones, which I'm constantly low on.


I was also recently interviewed for the Folk Reveries team, you can read it here. Kudos to Andrea for choosing such lovely images to go with my yammering. :D

Also, here are some lovely treasuries I've been lucky enough to be in lately:

Diamonds In Rust

Mad Max

Charm and Sorcery

And finally, a prayer is in the works. A prayer to have something belong to me and mine, something beautiful, something so filled with potential, and something I fell in love with more than I have ever fallen before.

She's not much to look at now (the house, not my friend!) but the spark is there.

(estate agent image- edited by me)

Heed us well, spirits of destiny. Sage farm must come to life in my hands.

Inspiration- Allison Bellows

Fanciful stumbled across this website by artist Allison Bellows the other day and passed it on to me.


I've spend the time since then obsessed by it, trawling through every page and reading the details of these amazing creations.

It was hard for me to choose which of the pieces were favourites- I just stuck to the necklaces to make it easy on myself.

It's stuff like this that makes me either throw my supplies out the window and give up...or fall to my knees and pray that one day I'll be half as good.

Oh- and I've started selling everything I own. Some things in the supply shop, some things on eBay. I've got till the end of the year to finish cleaning up current debts, then the merciless saving/slaving begins.

Keep clear and carry on

England is still a heartbreak to write about, still an ocean away, still a destiny I feel with all my heart.

keep clear and carry on

I was scrolling through my Flickr shots just now, thinking about all the wonderful little things I've collected over the years.

union flag collection

And with the exception of a very few precious items, I think I'd sell everything in this picture (and more) for a chance to cross the water and be in England once more. And you know I think that's just what I'll do. Stay tuned.

The Darkest

Dustbowl brides

Made a lovely treasury this morning, in an ode to the dustbowl maiden:


It came about partly because of those gorgeous Beechnut arm warmers, but also because pale dusty colours have been floating about in my head in preparation for a bridal collection:



I have passed the point of thinking about it, passed the point of being drawn to pale colours, filling my favourites with dusty sherbets and saving inspiring images to my hard drive:

photo credit

photo credit

photo credit

photo credit

... and passed the point where I make a big pile of bits on my desk and look at them every day. The time has come to make things.

All aflutter

Man this week is driving me crazy! A custom order, two interviews for online sites, my new bridal range wandering around my head, holidays to think about (but not actually go on) and so many inspirational things I want to show you...

road to freedom

Getting back into photography is high on the list of things to do lately too. Re-opening the Little Brown Sparrow shop for (mostly) photography feels like breathing in a new world, but most of my images are too small to be offered as prints, so I'm working on taking new shots as well as putting together cards using smaller prints.

earrings in the afternoon sun

I've updated the shop, and still obsessed with earrings- smashing something with a hammer in remarkably therapeutic.

Bollywood - big and bold with large metal beads from the recent mybrokenart loot.


Fire seed - delicate loops for people who like shine without show.

Lanternlight - made with really sweet little charms picked from a vintage bracelet.

I'll save the inspirations and bridal stuff for another post- I've got amazing things to show you and I don't want them all crammed in the bottom of a busy-bee report. They deserve their own posts!

Treasury time and a shop rebirth

I couldn't sleep last night so I made a treasury! I'm trying to get my schedule to more like a normal persons (I currently sleep from 4am to midday), but it's a hard road and I often end up laying in my bed thinking about Etsy and making things and buying things, so most nights I end up going to bed, and then getting up around 2ish and tinkering about online till 4. Which you know, is no great thing but hey- at least I'm in bed by 1am! Even if I do get up an hour later.


I've also re-opened the Little Brown Sparrow shopfront!


I feel my art and photography gets a bit of a back seat in my shop, because it's all about the jewelry. Hopefully this will not only put more focus on my art (having it's own shop) but also prompt me to spend more time on Photography and illustration, which I just can't seem to find time to get around to. Now I can make time.

So if you have any art or photography of mine that you've hearted in Sparrow Salvage, it will be moving to little brown sparrow in the next couple of days.

Shop update and scores

Four more lovely pairs of earrings in the shop...

Prayers- made with mis-matched hoops from this rusty haul, bound in copper wire and tiny lustre coat glass flowers. The striped beads are sand-cast from Indonesian villagers.


Cobra kiss - made from the wide hoop earring seen centre in this image (from the above linked post) - I cut and shaped it with tin snips- the closest I've come to working with sheet metal and I loved it!! I can feel metal cuffs coming from these hands very soon...


Nomad - are made from thrifted Indian bangles- they're a real round the world trip with beads from Czechoslovakia, Tibet and Java. The gold glitter on the purple metal really gives a royal touch.

Kali- very sexy and dark with the most amazing red velvet premium Czech beads.

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The bangles I used to make the Kali earrings are really thin- I scored more of them on Friday from a little thrift shop in the mountains. The woman working there was overjoyed I bought all of them, apparently they'd been there for weeks!



Just waiting for me. You can see there are a few sherbet coloured 80s ones in there, they'll be perfect for my upcoming bridal collection, as will these earrings:


Can't wait to get stuck into that, but I'm waiting for some special wire.


I scored some wonderful candlesticks too- they're antique, but they only cost me $1 because some bright spark has lopped the tops off them! Some people shouldn't be allowed near beautiful things. The huge beads resting on the candlesticks are called Rudraksha beads- they're from Tibet, used traditionally in Hindu rosaries. They came from a beautiful little shop near here, owned by an Aquarius age lady who used to sell authentic tribal objects, but now peddles bohemian clothing. Every now and then when I bury my head in the right corner and ask nicely, she sells me something that's been hiding in her shop for 20 something years. These Rudraksha are a lot bigger than any I've seen on Etsy- almost twice the size of the usual offered!

Barbarian hoarde- once more with feeling

I flew into the dance of joy yesterday, as my package from mybrokenart arrived and I got to sort through a whole big batch of rusty crusty broken vintage thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings!!!! :D :D :D

bits of hoops- none of them have matching friends, so there'll be lots of mis-matching in the way I did with sunflight.

This crazy thing is an earring- I'm going to try to set some crystals in it for pure primitive futuristic space age tribal goodness.

Lovely lovely coppery brassy rusty chain and some great tribal plates.

Various bits of crusty goodness- I think that square one might be passed on to a certain fancy person because I can see her doing something fantastical with it. She's good at squares and I can envision some sort of relic happening.

wonderful wobbly wavy things- I'm hoping to hammer these but they're pretty stiff. Might just have to sew them directly on cuffs.

Beauuutiful Mosque like architecture with a blue finish.


Om nom nom nom! Rusted feast.

Now I have to go make things with it. I woke up thinking about it I was so excited!

Fathers Day

Yesterday was father's day in Australia, so my brother and I drove down to have lunch with our male parental unit.

On the way back there was a pocket storm- just in one big fat cloud over our car.

Sudden and intense, the storm lasted only a few minutes. I like storms, and I love being in the car when it's raining.

Dad's house is filled with amazing things- some of you have seen his shed, but his house is where all the stuff that's too good to keep in the shed is kept. Antique books, furniture, games, toys...

If you ever wonder 'where I got it from'...this is the place.
And I think that blue and gold book up there gives a mantra for us all! It's certainly my theme this week.