TRICK OR TREAT?

The nights are drawing in, the skies are decidedly grey and there's definitely a chill in the air....AUTUMN IS HERE!!! Luckily for me, I've managed to keep the kiddies entertained during this rainy half-term with lots of Halloween crafts and decoration-making, there's snippets of paper everywhere!

But why let the kids have all the fun this Halloween? There's plenty for us adults to enjoy too. Spooky story-telling, Halloween cocktails, cakes and sweeties, and my personal favourite Halloween activity; Dressing up!! There's no other time of the year where we can dress as wildly as our imagination will allow with absolutely no hang-ups!

So grab those stripy knee-highs, falsies and ankle-breaking heels....go to town with lashings of ultra shimmery eye-shadow, deep wine-coloured lippy and of course, finish the look with gorgeously individual jewellery!

Tis' the season to buy jewellery!.....and other trinkets

We're nearing the end of October, and as our Christmas fairs start in November, we now have less than a month to prepare some gorgeous gift ideas. Obviously we have jewellery in abundance, but we're broadening our horizons and making other little stocking fillers that we hope will prove to be popular.

We've been using wire work to make things such as wine glass charms and napkin rings. These will make lovely gifts for family and friends, or possibly even a beautiful addition to your own Christmas dinner table!

We will be displaying our brightly coloured polymer clay lentils that were such fun to make, and are hoping to make some wands for our younger customers too.

In all, it's going to be a hectic time, but we can't wait! The atmosphere at the Christmas fairs is always wonderful. We're looking forward to returning to some fairs that we have previously enjoyed exhibiting at, and also are really excited about displaying our pieces at some amazing new venues too.

Roll on Christmas!

There's something very traditional, almost historic about a piece of turquoise jewellery and I think everyone can appreciate the smooth beauty of this stone. It has been used for protection since the beginning of time and was often fashioned into good luck charms and amulets.

Turquoise has a wonderful waxy texture which makes it irresistible to touch, and a depth of colour unusual in a naturally occurring stone. Personally, I love the more subdued greeny hue of Tibetan turquoise, but sometimes the brightness of the more familiar version is great for really lifting the mood.

Here at Ostara Jewellery we are very fond of turquoise, its simply so versatile! The beads can be strung very simply, with silver for a really traditional look, or we can create some ultra-funky modern pieces by being brave and mixing bright turquoise with other 'candy' colours...the effect is stunning! We find the multitude of colours of dyed turquoise serves us very well in this purpose.

Dyed turquoise retains its gorgeously glossy texture and depth of colour including the beautifully natural veins running through each stone, with the added benefit of providing an entire rainbow of colour for our jewellery palette!

As much as we love our stones as nature intended....we can't help but fall in love with the sweet spectrum of colour offered by dyed turquoise!

A beady Challenge!

Well I vowed this year, due to a 'bead overload' not to buy any new ones until I'd used them all up to make some beautiful creations! This worked well until recently when I was left with only beads I found totally uninspiring, didn't like much, or were an odd shape or colour. This didn't fill me with much enthusiasm to sit and get creative, but with Christmas round the corner, and several fairs in the pipelines, I wanted to make some stunning new pieces.

It turns out, this is possibly the best thing I could have done! It has forced me to look at all of my beads much more closely, and spend a lot more time considering which colours and textures compliment each other well. I've even added a few bits of wire work to an odd agate bead I had, to create a gorgeous pendant. I then added some chain to make the necklace a bit more interesting.

I even had my three children getting creative with me one rainy afternoon last week. They made a necklace each from a big plastic bag filled with odd glass beads that I've collected over the last few years. They really enjoyed making them, and have proudly shown them off to anyone and everyone.

I've learnt a lot more about jewellery making this year, and how to create some truly unique, unusual and beautiful items of handmade jewellery. I now look forward to my next big order of beads, so i can start the whole process again :-)