New Designs in Connemara Marble Earrings

Here's a little glimpse at new, exciting designs in Connemara marble coming to my Etsy shop this month.

Today I listed the tear drops in the centre:

 Connemara marble earrings with Swarovski crystals 'Emerald Isle'

Want to know more about this rare, Irish gemstone? Click HERE for a little info on Connemara marble.

Update, 16/05/2012: just listed the Silver Celtic earrings: 'Mists of Time'

Have You Guessed Who's Coming to Visit?

A crafty visitor 

is coming to stay

On his journey so far

He's come a long way

From Ireland to the States

and now back again

He checks out our crafts

and sleeps in the den

 

Who is this being?

 You'll find a big clue

 on the arty blog of

 Cherry Blossom Tattoo

Who's Coming to Visit?

Something crafty is afoot....yesterday I got word of a special Etsy visitor who is coming to stay with me...Who ...or what...can it be?  Members of the Etsy Ireland Team might guess from the get-go....and that's a clue! All will be revealed....

Treasury Time Once More

Time to share a few more treasuries made by me or featuring one of my items again. Treasuries are collections of Etsy items curated artistically by Etsy members in order to showcase and promote each other. They are an art form in themselves. 

Pack up and Go! by Handmade by Amo'r

 I've been yearning to get away on a holiday and made a treasury to suit the mood. This collection I put together over the weekend showcases work from the Top Treasury Team, of which I am a member.

As April turns to May, colours are becoming softer or more vibrant and there's a definite hint that Summer is on the way.

Spring Favourites from Europe by Ramona of  KnitAndRide

You get to choose your Friends by  Lynn's Creative Crochet

But Black and White is a always in style, all year round.

A Night Out by Marie Michelle's

Thank you all of you for featuring my work in your beautiful treasuries.

Shades of Green Seaglass

Irish Connemara marble is not the only local material that comes in 40 shades of green. Though seaglass plucked from the shore is most often found in bottle green or kelly  green, it also comes in a variety of rarer shades. Some of them are truly beautiful. Here are some examples of what can be found. (Tones may vary slightly from monitor to monitor.)

Bottle green seaglass

 Bottle green is fairly common alongside kelly green. Both these shades mostly come from old wine and beer bottles. Coloured glass was and is still used to filter out light that can deteriorate beer. Green was used less often for beer bottles from circa 1930 as it was discovered that brown glass does a better job of keeping out the light.

Kelly green seaglass pendant 'Emerald of the Sea' (sold)

 Nowadays, beer doesn't generally stay in the bottle that long (and we have better storage and refrigeration) so green and clear bottles have made a comeback. Though common, kelly green can be exceptionally vibrant and makes beautiful jewellery. (readers from this corner at least should understand when I say..Probably the best green in the world....)

Irish sea glass pendant, Ocean Moon 

This dark, forest green piece is one of my favourites. The colour is exceptionally deep and rich and the glass itself is highly frosted. This tells me it is probably one of the oldest pieces of beach glass I have found. It can take 100 years for seaglass to develop a thick frost with decent white speckles.

Pale lime seaglass pendant 'Lime Jelly' (sold)

  Lime is one of the rarer, more valuable colours in seaglass. This one is a pale, citric shade but I have found deeper lime and more yellowy versions in the past. This one really does look like lime jelly.

Olive Seaglass

 Olive seaglass is less common than bottle or kelly green but not as rare as lime or teal.

Teal seaglass pendant 'Wave' (sold)

(sold)

Pale teal seaglass pendant 'Ocean Flora'

Teal is my favourite colour. Teal seaglass is a fairly rare find. It can come in dark or paler tones.

sea foam sea glass pendant, Seascape

Seafoam isn't an obvious green. Bluer versions can be found. This piece, Seascape, has a hint of pale apple in in it, though it is technically aquamarine.

Here are a few more samples. right to left: 2 x blue-green teal, yellow lime, bright kelly green, neon lime, dark olive and in the centre; forest green. (There are alternative names for some of these shades.) Blue and blue-green shades are rarer than most greens, though the neon lime and yellowy lime are prize finds indeed. If you find a specimen in either shade, lucky you!

To learn how to clean seaglass click HERE

To learn how to clean seaglass jewellery click HERE 

For a crafty idea for small pieces of seaglass click HERE

Handmade for First Communion

Handmade, First Holy Communion bracelet

 For many Irish children, May is the month for First Holy Communion. I remember my own, at the age of 7. It was possibly one of the most important days of my young life, next to losing my first baby tooth.

Yes, I was heavily schooled in the religious significance and cultural meaning of the ceremony, but for many a young Irish girl, the social implications are not to be ignored either. We all know too well the pressure that kids can be under to have the right look, the right dress, the right accessories.  And of course,  the pressure is on the parents too then.

Though I felt a bit hard done by at the time, thankfully, my pragmatic parents would not enter the race for the most extravagant outfit or lavish gifts and celebrations. My Mum, adept with a sewing machine, made me a simple, knee-length, white dress. I yearned for a maxi so I could be a princess for the day and I wished I had tonnes of relatives living in Dublin so I could visit and collect 'Communion money' like my schoolmates. My dress may have been simple but it was in fact, very pretty and my mother hand-sewed little white flowers on the end of my veil. It was more than enough. In fact it was very special, even if I didn't fully appreciate it then. I did get a special silver charm bracelet though, which I treasured forever.

Simple seaglass pendant from Ireland

 I'm proud that I grew up with handmade. I'm lucky that my mother in particular, nurtured our creative side and sometimes ignored our desire to have 'the latest big thing'. (click here for a blog post about my handmade childhood posted on Etsy Ireland Blog in 2010).

Is May The Start of the Irish Summer or Not?

Teal seaglass pendant with flower detail (sold)

 Here's a real Irish conundrum for you. May is here, and in this corner of the world it is officially the start of Summer...right?? Well, according to Met Eireann, our national meteorological service, in line with the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, the summer months are June, July and August. Yet according to the Irish calendar (and popular, local understanding it would seem,) Summer is indeed May, June and July.

Celtic, Connemara marble keychain

 I don't believe we're just being awkward or trying to confuse the rest of the world. Nor are we exercising our very Irish sense of individuality...hmmm, well, maybe there is a bit of that.... But the Gaelic calendar dates back to the Celtic system of time keeping.

Butterfly button pendant

Click here for: the full story from good ol' Wiki but in  simple terms, in pre-Christian Ireland, the solstices (longest and shortest days of the year,)  fell bang in the middle of Summer and Winter, not at the start. Likewise the two days of the year where we have 12 hours of daylight and 12 of night, the equinoxes, fell in the middle of Spring and Autumn. Hence, from a cultural stance, with the Summer solstice falling on 20th or 21st June each year, the month of May heralds the beginning of Summer.

So be it. Summer is here! In fact the sun even came out today to prove it.