Brass Friday

It's Friday! Hooray! And Wellington has well and truely turned it ON today, summer is coming...
I think for the first day since May I'm not wearing a thermal top, woot!

Last night I made some brass earrings to wear with my brass ring (seeing as this 'brass' thing is new territory for me). They are made of two triangles; one large one small, one in front of the ear one behind, and I love that it sort of looks like it's hooking right through my ear! I can't take full credit for the concept, I've been majorly inspired and madly pinning as of late, but I'm still pleased with them all the same!

In even more exciting news (hah! cos' new jewellery is always exciting, especially when I made it!) I have decided to 'invest' in myself and am now starting to put together my own set of silversmith equipment so that I can continue to make pieces at home once my course finishes next week - so excited!! This is a big step for me, as it is definitely not a cheap hobby, but I'm hoping that it's going to lead to future ventures. I've had so many awesome comments from people both in blog land and in my day to day life so I'm excited to see what's around the corner!

Batty

 
Little bat earrings for a lovely blogging friend!

Colour Block It

Trying my hand at colour blocking today - this outfit would be 100 times better if I owned a mustard colour cardi like this one! But oh well, navy will have to do...at least I managed an entire outfit with no black, go me!

It's also my first attempt at the 'stockings in open toed sandals' thing... it's always weirded me out a bit until now, but like I've been saying, I'm staying open minded!

Oh, cute wedges too, eh?

Starry Earred

Last night's creation - little sterling silver star earrings!

Music Love: Little Dragon 'Ritual Union'

Some musical goodness for the day. Enjoy!

Style Changer

I'm covering a fair bit of ground in this post - first up - a little about my outfit today. This post should probably be titled something like 'What I Wore Thursday' except Thursday doesn't have the ring to it that Wednesday does, and obviously, I missed Wednesday...so meh!

I've been experimenting a bit more with my personal style lately, my style being that thing that I don't think I have one set version of. Just the same way I like a huge range of music, I like trying out different styles in fashion too, just depends how I feel! Today's outfit is a new combo for me - OK so it's made up of black, black and more black, but I dug out an old Supre singlet from the back of my closet that hasn't seen the light in over 3 years - and combined that with my bear claw necklace and new 'X' ring... I'm pretty happy! I'm going for comfort at work today as I've got a pile of upholstery sewing to get through, (using an industrial sewing machine in heels is a co-ordination nightmare!) so got the brogues on and a 'House of G' blazer. Noooice.

And yes the ring! It got a little bit of a patch extender put in the back of it last Thursday night, so it is finally wearable, hooray! I never wear brass, but this has grown on me a lot since I made it, so I'm thinking of making some earrings I can wear at the same time. I've been a silver/white gold girl since day dot, but, along with my explorations into clothing style lately, I'm feeling like changing it up a little. Cool huh?

Oh and on one more completely random note - you will see in the background of my mirror shot photo (taken at work) some styling in a visual merchandising context behind me, all done by moi. Just another area I'm having fun playing with a bit more these days. Maybe I should do a bit more posting about my V.M. work... another day perhaps...

Shark Doodles

I've been doing some design work for my lovely fiance this weekend, and it involves drawing sharks. Lots and lots of sharks... [insert menacing 'Jaws' shark music here].

Hello, Big Rock

 Last night I finished my druzy ring. It's a monster!
I ended up setting it quite deep in the bezel as the stone itself is a really awkward and uneven shape.It's all finished, and though it's an absolute top heavy whoppa on my finger, I like it. Well, I think I like it because I made it, but it's perhaps not something I would buy for myself... it may grow on me some more!

New Zealand Jewellery Show: Little Sister Designs

 

I went to the New Zealand Jewellery Show this weekend, and to be honest... I was kind of underwhelmed. The big glitzy jewellery companies had all the good display cases in the centre of the exhibition space, and there, with their shmoozy sales lines and fake laughs, they tried to sell me diamond rings and necklaces. I mean, really people. Do I look like someone who can afford to spend $40,000, just randomly, on a piece of bling that I'm never going to wear? I don't think so. I was THIS close to telling some of them to stick their shmancy sales pitches and jewels somewhere nasty. But I didn't. Bet my mum was glad of that! haha

What I did love, was all the smaller, boutique jewellery designers who were wedged into these tiny little aisles around the edges, in ways that made it practically impossible to see their stuff, and much cooler stuff I must add. So unfortunately, I missed a lot of it because I wasn't going to feff around waiting my turn to look at things.

BUT my favourite designer that I found was Little Sister Designs (L.S.D) by Charlotte Burkhart.I have a thing for bones and animal parts in my jewellery. Yup, maybe a little weird I know, but this chic's stuff was very cool. Some of it was a little too grim for me, (human teeth and hair in some pieces!) but I still appreciated it all the same, especially because it was different! So above are some of my favourite pieces...

All images from http://www.charlotteburkhart.com/#!

Music Love: Annah Mac 'Celia'

Absolutely loving this new song from Annah Mac, woooo!

New York & the Week of September 11th

It was exactly 12 months ago that I was in New York, enjoying some beautiful late summer weather with both old friends and new. Isn't it crazy how fast time flies!?

And of course as everybody knows, the end of this week marks 10 years since the September 11th tragedy, so I decided to post/re-post some photos from our 4 days in the Big Apple.

Music Love: Birdy - 'Skinny Love'

Found this over at Petite Sabine, love! This girl is 14... yup 14. What was I doing when I was 14? Hmmm...doesn't bear thinking about!

Clogged

 I swore to myself I wouldn't get in on this; clogs will just be another go-around, come-around fashion fad like all others... but then I caved. I have clogs. ♥

A Successful 2AM Dress

After Corey and I dragged ourselves home from a fire brigade 'do' at 2am this morning, (yes, we're complete nanas, that is very late for us...) I thought noooooo! I haven't taken photos of my dress in action! So here it is, in all it's 2am glory, (complete with plasters, hairbrush and cat's ass) and hence I'm not too concerned that you get a camera where my face should be, as it's probably not a pretty sight anyway. But you get the gist, I hope! Got quite a few lovely comments about it so successful outfit? Tick!

Coming Up... It's a Druzy!

This is my next project - a ring using a piece of druzy. You can see I've started making the bezel already (piece of stirling silver to set the stone into) but it is still very much in the early stages, obviously! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out...

A Kiss on the Hand

Finished product today - my brass 'X' ring. Mwah! Pretty pleased with how it's turned out, except that I can't model it properly for you as I made the ring part slightly too small for my fat fingers. I could probably get it on there, but getting it off? hmmm... probably not. FAIL! So until I make some amendments next week, you get the idea. It's a prototype, right!?