Lambs in Wooly Coats

Hall Hill farm in Lanchester, County Durham, have invested in hundreds of wool coats to keep their Jacobs lambs warms during the prolonged snow in the UK.  Cute and cuter!

Patricia Heirloom Tiara

 
 This is a tiara I made today using a vintage (1950's) crystal and Bohemian glass necklace - it was a lovely colour but over the course of time had lost part of it's original clasp and this is just the sort of piece of jewellery I love to upcycle into something new and fab.  The greens in this tiara are gorgeous - and I can't seem to capture them, no matter how much I fiddle with the settings on my camera.


I love the bi-colour of the Bohemian glass/crystal - it's so unusual - and the original crystal in the necklace is a very unusual green/gold colour.  I made the band (as I do with 95%) of my tiaras, it makes them exceptionally comfortable.  It's always difficult to decide which way to go with a vintage piece - what to add, what not to.  I always, always find myself stumped for a brief period of time once I have the initial components sitting together in front of me - the band made, the piece of donor jewellery.   Then its just rumage and think and accumulate potential beads and components on my desk until I have that 'aha' moment. Sadly this CAN take ages - not always, but it does on occasion.  What I would hate to do would be to rush the process and then decide I hate it at the end.  Its rare that I do, but it sometimes happen and then I have to take everything apart once again and restart.

I had these lovely minty-green Czech glass daggers sitting in front of me.  I'd had the vintage piece sitting on my desk for ages.  Maybe it was because they'd come in proximity of each other that my head started to consider seriously what was going on with this piece.  It still didn't gel until I added the Swarovski crystal pearls, and it wasn't right until I added the blue Swarovski crystal along with the various shades of green.  And then I was having getting the Czech glass daggers to stand upright until I made little 'cups' of gold plated wire.  

Eventually, at just after four in the morning (seriously!), I realised I'd finished.  The first thing I always do when I complete a piece is tweak it, then trot down the stairs from the studio to find a mirror - plonk the thing on my head and pretend I'm not as old as I am!  Who wants to see someone as old as me in a tiara!  But it does give me a good idea of what the fit will be, if there's anything else that needs doing to it - whether there are any stray little 'poky bits - no one wants poking in the head when they wear their tiara.   

I love this - I didn't think I'd like that colour on my head at all - but hmmmm....strangely it brings out just a little red in my hair  which I never knew was there and overall the piece looks fab - it's a bit 'midsummer night's tale' - and I fell into bed quite happy with my nights' work.  Now I'm looking at making a red tiara....maybe...

This tiara is now for sale at my Etsy shop - here's a link - Patricia Heirloom Tiara