Photoshoot: Summer Solstice

Central to the Summer Solstice, is the sun.  This sun catcher is one my husband brought while we were in Canada a few years back, in Nova Scotia.

In front of it is a little sun brooch.  It's one I have had since I was pretty young.  My Gran used to go to the Darby and Joan club in her village and one time she took me to a tabletop sale there.  I don't know who donated the brooch and so I have no idea of it's story or age, but on that day, it became mine.  It's not in any fancy metal with a makers mark.  I doubt I will ever let it go, but I like to think when I am old, it will pass in to the hands of a young child.

I had to look up Darby and Joan and I discovered that they were an idealised couple, living out the latter years of their lives in quiet contentment together.  Social clubs for older people are still often called Darby and Joan clubs.

I wanted some artwork for the photo and I choose this lovely design by Mycelium23.  I brought several cards, so I am sure they will feature in the future too.  I like the idea of exploring the year as we go.  It's a bright happy picture!  I think my favourite is the Halloween one though!  I love Halloween...  Any holiday with fancy dress and sweets is bound to be great as far as I am concerned...

The bag on the left is from SupaChicDesigns and was something we very much needed right now.  My husband's daily work routine has changed a fair bit over the last few months as infection control has become so important.  He goes to and from work in his own clothes, carrying his uniform in a fabric bag he was gifted by some of the many wonderful volunteers who have been crafting away to make bags and masks.  When he gets home, the bag goes in the washing machine and he goes in the shower.  One bag is often not enough though when he has a run of shifts, so I decided to get him a second one.   The card came with the bag :-)

I hope with everything going on that we continue to stay safe and well, that one day, we get to go to a Darby and Joan club together.  Right now, the sun is shining and everything is good in my little world.

Inspiration: All That Jazz

So when I named my All That Jazz bracelet, I plucked the name out of the ether.  It's a glittery bracelet, full of silver lined beads in sumptuous rich colours.  It reminds me of Quality Street wrappers when they used to be foil, the colours so rich and indulgent.  There is just something glittery and alluring about it, it's hedonistic and glitzy.

Looking up the roots of the phrase has been interesting.  It was originally the name of a song from the musical Chicago before being the name of a film made in 1979.  In Chicago, it's the opening number which shows Velma Kelly dancing on stage and it is clear the production is missing her sister.  Velma found her sister with her husband and killed them both.  The other main character Roxie Hart shoots her lover at the beginning of the show as he attempts to break off their affair.

The play is set in the Jazz Age which was a time of carefree hedonism and exuberance but it also overlapped with Prohibition Era.  Chicago in the 20s was run by infamous gangs who controlled alcohol supply and the underground scene of the speakeasies was the home of vaudeville and scantily clad ladies who you could pay to dance with you.  The Capone gang looked after the south and 'Bugs' Moran's gang ran the north.  The officials of the time were particularly corrupt in Chicago.

The 20s saw women having increasing freedom.  Fashion was suddenly much more revealing and designed for new dances.  The flapper was born, with revealing clothes and I love the way the fringeing of many of the dresses moves as they dance (I am a huge Strictly fan!).  They drank and smoked and were much freer with men than previous generations.  They had spirit, but they also courted trouble.

In the musical, one of the themes is the pursuit of celebrity.  The two main characters are celebrity criminals but their fame is fleeting.  They were in pursuit of more.

While part of me loves the idea of the freedom and creative growth of the 20s another part of me sees an awful lot of shadows.  I think the dancing, music, clothes and freedom would have been great fun but you link that to gang culture and a society that largely wasn't ready for woman's liberation and there was also the potential for great suffering and misery.  

The misery of extreme hedonism is also explored in the film All That Jazz, which is semi-autobiographical of the director Bob Fosse who directed and choreographed Chicago in 1975.  The main character, Joe Gideon, is a chain smoker, workaholic and womanizer who uses stimulants every morning.  He develops heart issues but refuses to change his ways and despite surgery, eventually dies.

When I think of All That Jazz, it's that rich over the top creativity, the women in their beautiful dresses and the incredible art deco movement of the time.  It is an inspiring time and looking back, the excess and darkness is just as fascinating as the beauty.  

I made a 20s board on pinterest!

Photoshoot: All That Jazz!

I really love rich purples and this bracelet reminds me of the crinkly foil of Quality Street chocolates and the rich purple foil of Dairy Milk (before it became wrapped in plastic).  It's so beautifully rich and metallic.  It glitters and sparkles from all those lovely silver lined beads.  It has enough Pizzazz to attract any Magpie to steal it away!

So it seemed fitting that it would attract a Magpie to come say "Hi!"  This little Magpie came all the way from Scotland where it was made by Samieston Ceramics.  I adore Magpies.  It's easy to think they are black and white but look closely and they have spectacular multi-coloured plumage.  They seem to have a sense of humour the way they look at the world, and just a little bit of sass.

The Magpie wanted to show off some treasure and some of it's glittery stash sits on the left.  Pearls from GJ Beads.  The Swarovski crystal come from all over as there isn't really a specialist in the UK, different shops have different bits.  For the really unusual things though, I tend to go to Dreamtime Creations.  The postage is prohibitive though from the US so I tend to wait and buy things in one go.  Swarovski changes it's range frequently, so if you see something unusual, buy it will you can...

The short strings of purple bicones are part of Swarovski's Spark range and they are really sparkly.  While some are still available, it's stock suppliers have remaining rather than the original full range now.  I have also included some bicones in Indigo, Rose and other colours.  There are a few rivoli's which are so sparkly because they have foil backs.  The largest stone is a Solaris with eight sides and bands of frosting.

On the right are the sorts of sumptuous fabrics that a human Magpie would appreciate.  On the bottom is a tunic, not quite a dress, by Joe Browns in a beautiful dark blue almost purple velvet.  Above it is a purple velvet tunic which was a bargain from Crazy Clearance I think.  The pink scarf was a Tesco buy and is white with bright pink butterflies.  The scarf on top, at the back, has more of a story.

We had been to Canada, flying back in to Bristol Airport.  We have a lovely little Airbnb we like to stay at to get over jet lag, or break our journey when we leave Cornwall.  It was a hot day as we left there and we were still a little lagged and low on supplies.  We were on the M5 when we realised we were going to have to stop and we were not near a service station so we pulled off at Wellington and headed for the centre.  We stopped at some traffic lights and there was this amazing shop, so after we parked, I of course had to go and have a look...

The shop was Chandni Chowk and was full of beautiful things.  They are a fair trade and ethical company with a range of textiles produced in India.  The scarf I brought was hand printed using traditional block printing methods.  The designs are so lovely.  Their website has details on the techniques used as well as the range of designs for sale.  They also have a whole bunch of other things too and as a bonus it was lovely and cool in there...

At the back is a nice pink glass from Tesco with Vimto in it.  Vimto is one of my favourite drinks but I don't let myself buy a bottle too often!

Inspiration: Summer Solstice

So at the weekend it was the Summer Solstice and I watched the clouds and morning rain live on English Heritage facebook page as they streamed footage of Stonehenge live around the world.  About 100,000 people watched the sunset and about 50,000 watched the sunrise.  The sunset was glorious, even though you couldn't see the sun set as the clouds were amazing.

We think of the Solstice as being a day, or even a couple of days but the truth is, it's a moment and this year it was on the 20th June at 21:43 (GMT).  The earth orbits the sun, but it also has a tilt which means that when it is one side of the sun, one hemisphere gets more light and when the earth is the other side, the other hemisphere gets more light.  This is why Australia has summer when the UK has winter.  

The Solstices are the points of the Earth's journey round the sun where the tilt is at it's maximum in relation to the sun.  So at the summer solstice in Australia, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away and so has shorter days and experiences winter, while the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun and has longer days and experiences Summer.  There are some diagrams here on pinterest.

As we head from Spring Equinox, which is the point in the Earth's orbit where the seasons are equal in both hemispheres because the tilt is at right angles to path of light from the sun, to Summer Solstice, the sun climbs higher in the sky every day and the length of the day increases also.

At the North Pole, Summer Solstice means that it faces the sun constantly so the sun does not set while the South Pole is plunged in to darkness.  The Equator has a latitude of 0 degrees while the North Pole is at 90 degrees.  Where I live in Cornwall is around 50 degrees.  On the 20th June 2020, the sun set at 21.35 and then rose again at 5:10, giving us 7 hours 35 minutes of night.  In Aberdeen, which is further North at 57 degrees, the sun set at 22.08 and then rose at 4:12, giving 6 hours and four minutes of night.  At the North Pole, the sun does not set during the Summer Solstice, in fact it will not set until the Autumn Equinox when it finally sinks below the horizon.

The parts of the planet that get more sun warm up and those that get less, cool down.  It takes time for things to heat up though.  At the Summer Solstice, most of summer is ahead of us (in theory, it isn't always like that in the UK).  The land reaches its warmest shortly after the Solstice in mid July, but the sea takes longer reaching it's warmest in late August.  This is why the coldest part of winter is after the Winter Solstice and January is often the coldest month.  It's known as lag.

So for now, the effect of the decreasing day length will not be very noticeable.  The greatest changes in day lengths occur around the Equinoxes and the smallest changes in day length around the Solstices.  On Saturday, the sun set at 21.35 and it won't set at 21.34 until the 1st of July.  On the Equinox this year the sun will set at 19:18 while the following day it will set ay 19.15.

I began my most recent bracelet with the Stonehenge sunset in the background and it seemed very fitting to name it after the Summer Solstice.  It has a softness to it the light often has early on Summer days.  The sun's path gradually climbs higher and higher across the bracelet.  It has to be said though, the sun does not take a zig zag path...  I really love this bracelet and I know I am going to wear it loads this summer, because the best is yet to come!

Photoshoot: Copper Tree!

I love copper.  It's such a great colour and add in that beautiful metallic quality.  It's such a warm and rich colour.  I often pair it with green and this time I decided to pair it with olive green because I had some beautiful Olive AB delicas.  The lustre on these picked up the copper tones beautifully.

I originally wanted to call it olive tree, because olive trees are amazing!  I love their gnarly beauty.  They are not generally known for their copper tones though, so Copper Tree it became.

One the left me have a generic glass ramekin dish with copper leaf in it that I think came from the Range.  It's beautiful stuff.  I brought one of those plain wooden decoupage boxes and painted it black before patchily adding the copper leaf over the top and then varnishing.  It came out looking lovely and I know the friend I made it for still has it.

It is however pesky stuff.  Don't breathe at it or it will all fly away.  Don't let it near damp surfaces and I really would not recommend using a fan around it.  In fact, maybe just don't move!

The two candles are olive and thyme from Yankee Candles.  The holders are cheap glass ones I think I got from Tesco.  The card is also from Tesco, because being badass is a daily goal!

My husband loves a good bargain and he found this in a charity shop locally.  It's so pretty and I have never seen anything quite like it.  It reminds me of the stone, serpentine, but it's pottery.  It has no markings and I can not say anything else about it.  Except it's lovely.

The purse is made from cork and I got it from a tourist shop somewhere around the bottom of the toboggan run in Funchal on the island of Madeira.  I like the idea of cork trees finding a new reason for being kept around so that they do not get ripped up...

The snake is Voldermort's snake from Harry Potter taken from the lego minifigure set.  He is called Nagini.  

Photoshoot: Light Combined

I had thought of basing this on the primary and secondary colours of the wheel but instead I ended up using a primary and a secondary and the tertiary that lies between them.  Roughly speaking...

One issue I have with some colours, is not that that I do not have anything in that colour but that the things I have are too big or unsuitable.  Teal for instance is a colour I love and one I needed for this photoshoot.  I have a bunch of teal in my house, concentrated in our bedroom.  Duvet set, sheets, pillows, curtain and even one of those printed fabric hangings.  That's why the item in the top right is a pillow case. 

It's a lovely set of bedding from Dunelm Mill.  Luxurious.  The underside is cotton but the top is velvety, or velour?  I am not sure of the difference.  It was actually my husband that spotted it and it was an instant love for both of us because of the colour.

On top is a piece of patchwork I made by hand, because I am not really sure about sewing machines...  yet...  My Mum liked to do machine quilting and she was part of a local group that would put on these days she would take me to.  There would be five or six groups so you could do different things.  Generally there would be something that did not require great sewing skills.  One time I learnt Kuminho and another time I learnt how to make thee little quilted blocks from a circle and a square.  Pretty sure it was Japanese.  Afterwards I made two of these mats.

My husband and I have grown in confidence the more we have travelled.  The first time we went to Canada to stay with friends we booked all our flights with one provider and travelled all the way to Heathrow for the privilege of direct flights.  Last time we went, we flew from Bristol, which is much closer and the parking is a lot cheaper.  We have found that if we are willing to do a little transfer on the continent, it may delay us a couple of hours but reduces the price considerably.  

It's been a good thing.  We like food.  Our transfers have allowed us to buy chocolates in Brussels, sausages in Germany and stroopwaffels in Amsterdam.  We had frankfurters for breakfast in Frankfurt and Kroketten in Amsterdam.  Kroketten are delicious potato filled croquettes which also had some tasty meat and cheese inside.  In Amsterdamm we also brought a set of fridge magnets, two of which are in this photo, centre back.

On the left is a glass vase that was my Nana's.  I don't know anything about it, except it has attractive swirls of colour and I really don't ever want to have to give it a good clean inside...

The dish in front of it is from Malta where they have a long history of glassmaking stretching back to the Phoenicians.  We visited the Craft Village at Ta'Qali and had a pleasant time wandering around.  I don't know the name of the glass shop we visited but we enjoyed it.  They had a seconds area and we picked up a couple of things in there too...  I am sure they will feature in a photoshoot!  This dish, I think must have come from that shop, but I am not really sure, it is a few years back.  We may have brought it in Valetta otherwise.

I added some silver foil lined beads in various colours from my bead stash for some extra sparkle and colour.  I think these all came from a friend who was reducing the size of her bead stash before moving.  She always says buying beads and making things with them are two different hobbies....

Combined Colour

There are lots of different colour wheels that have been developed to help us understand colour theory.  I studied Physics a little way back when, so I was aware of two colour wheels, but there are more!  A lot of the other wheels look at the relationships of colours so that we can pair colours together better.

The two wheels I was most aware of are more about mixing colour, one for mixing paint and the other for mixing light.  If you mix lots of colours of paint together you get an icky dark colour that isn't exactly black but is sort of headed that way.  Light is different, the more you mix together, the lighter it gets and the closer to white it becomes.

The wheel for mixing light is called the Light Wheel and it is part of the additive system where colours are added.  Primary colours are those that can not be made by mixing and they differ between wheels.  The light wheel uses three and these are green, blue and red.

We don't often get to play with the light wheel but in Olafur Eliasson's, Your Uncertain Shadow, which I saw last year at the Tate Modern, you can experience it first hand.  Several lights of different colours are setup at one end of the room and as you walk in front of them, your shadow is cast on the wall beyond.  Where there is no shadow all the colours combine to give white light.  Where all the shadows from each light overlap, no light reaches so your shadow is black.  The shadows inbetween are coloured and the colour is based on which lights combine at that point.

There are several different wheels that have been developed for mixing paint (and colours in general that are not light), but perhaps the most commonly known is the Pigment Wheel which has three primary colours, red, blue and yellow.  The Process Wheel uses yellow, cyan and magenta because mixing these colours gives brighter hues.  These wheels are based on the subtractive system, because the more colours you mix together, the more light is absorbed and so taken away.  

I wanted to do something with colours combining because Zig Zag 7 was created by a happy accident where the pattern was accidentally copied and offset.  This meant the lines overlapped and if treated as coloured paths there would be points where the colours combined.  I loved the idea of it being about light, so I decided to use white where no paths of colour were.  

So I used the three primary colours and started colouring. Where two primaries overlapped I coloured in that part as one of the secondary colours, orange green and violet (although I used purple).  My colouring was large scale and rough as I just wanted to gain a perspective and was using it for planning, but here it is...

I realise now that I used the pigment wheel.  It also quickly became obvious that to use the three primaries in a way that would give a complete pattern would make a much wider bracelet than I would want to wear.  I decided to narrow it down and combine two colours.

This time instead of using primaries to create the secondary colours inbetween, I decided to use one secondary and one primary to give a tertiary colour.  I decided to use blue and green to make blue - green or teal.  I really love teal.  I initially used quite a dark blue but as my green was a lime, it looked unbalanced, so I very quickly switched to a sky blue.  I love how it's looking and promise to post pictures soon!

This pattern would work great with combining any two colours to give a third and you could use any of the colour wheels, including some of the ones I have not mentioned here.  I may have initially thought my colours were related to light combining but as I look at the colour wheels, it's obvious that light is not what inspires my knowledge of colour.  I guess I learnt more about colour by mixing paint rather than light because mixing cyan and green light would not result in teal, I am not sure what it would give exactly but it would probably be lighter...

I have more to learn about colour theory that's for sure!

Photoshoot: Mysterious Mauve

This bracelet is in some of my favourite colours and I love the subtler slide of the colours, one in to the next.  It isn't finished though.  It's clasp is on it's way but it might take a while, given everything going on right now.

The candle at the top left is one I brought from a stall at the local Healing Light Festival.  They have all sorts of sellers there, including craftspeople.  This candle smells amazing and I have kept a lot of the wax that is left. Part of me doesn't want to finish burning it.  Unfortunately, I have no idea now of the stall name that made these.

Just in front of the candle is a little Lego figure of Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter stories.  I am more than a little bit of a nerd and I have a few Lego minifigures in my print case on the wall.  Luna is one of my favourites, she is just such a good character and she was wearing the right colours....

Beneath that is a bit of my mouse mat.  It has a galaxy print all over it and I love galaxy print.  We have galaxy print curtains in two of our downstairs rooms and my mouse mat pretty much matches the lounge curtains.  Our house is a terrace and we have huge windows.  There were not many curtains that were cheap and ready made and not white that were long enough.  Amazon came to the rescue though and I love my curtains and my husband came round.

The bowl is a vintage ebay buy and I really love the undulating shape of the pink glass.  In the bowl we have some vanilla marshmallows by the Happy Mallows company.  I brought a bunch to try because gourmet marshmallows are so much nicer than mass produced and I had a real craving for them during lockdown.  These marshmallows did not disappoint!

The mug was from Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in Cornwall, sadly now shut.  They did a lot of good work there.  It was a little expensive for us most of the time but we saw a lunchtime offer one April.  We had a lovely meal and it was a beautiful warm day so we also had a great walk along Watergate Bay.  I am really glad I have this little piece of memorabilia of somewhere that may be gone, but won't be forgotten.

The notebook was another amazon purchase but the pen was part off my adoption package from the Cairngorm Reindeer.  Many animal attractions and charities are struggling with costs, so if you have been thinking of adopting an animal, now is a really good time to do it.  I won't tell you the name of my reindeer, because he is mine, but he is so cute!

The scarf on the left is my favourite winter scarf.  One really wet day, we decided to have a day out in St Ives, out of season, when it's so much quieter.  I brought this scarf in Hudson Art which is one of my favourite shops.  They sell all sorts in there. They used to sell beautiful African prints by Tony Hudson.  I am not sure why they stopped.

The necklace at the back is a design by Jill Thomas of GJ Beads called Maryke and I used bright pink miracle beads to give it a real pop of eye catching colour.  I made it nice and long so I could tie a knot in it.

Photoshoot: Monochrome Magic

I really love this bracelet.  It has such a classy feel.  The white zig zag that dominates is really striking.  So I wanted a classy sort of photoshoot too!

On the right is a lovely black shawl a friend knitted for me.  The wool is a black sparkly chenille and its so warm.  This particular friend was my favourite person to bead and chat with a mug of peppermint tea.  She moved just before lockdown however and I won't get to that much any more.  She will be opening an amazing shop in Dulverton soon called No. 17, The High Street.  Obviously with the current situation, she cannot open yet, but I have seen the photos and I know she is going to have a ball!

On top is an infinity scarf I brought in Canada from a really lovely shop some friends took us to, somewhere between Ottawa and Montreal.  It also sold really beautiful bedspreads.  It's a really lovely light scarf and one of my favourites.

Below the shawl and scarf is a beaded lariat to a deign by Heather Kingsley-Heath called That Lariat.  I love it so much I have made three!  I really like lariats and this one is so classy.  I choose to edge them in little Swarovski crystals which really gives so much shine but not in a really obvious way.  This is a necklace that twinkles as it moves.

The glass is a really old Ikea purchase from when I first left home.  It's a lovely flute with frosted stars on it.  It's not alcohol in my glass though, but Kombucha.  I love Kombucha.  I first tried it a few years ago in Canada and since then it has been becoming much more common in the UK.  This one is a Raspberry and Elderflower by Equinox.  My favourite is the Pink Grapefruit and Guava but it's always the first to go when I get a selection box.

The hands are an incense holder and were an ebay purchase.  I like the feel of peace and mediation they have.  They are I believe buddhist in design  and the item description includes the word Guanyin.  According to Wikipedia, Guanyin is the most common translation of the bodhisativa associated with compassion and mercy.

The little horse is by an etsy seller called Demiurgus Dreams who sells the loveliest creatures.  Some like the horse are painted but there are also plain white animals too which you could paint if you wanted.  I have a set of tiny white foxes which I won't paint and they look lovely in my print case.

The last item you can just see on the right is a candelabra that holds three candles.  This was a more recent Ikea purchase and has the look of pipework.  I have two of these, either side of my fireplace.  You can see it better in the second picture.

The second picture has a couple of different items in it.  The picture is a print I brought for my husband and it's silver ink on black paper.  It was part of a series produced by an etsy seller called Print to the People as part of a 10th anniversary series.  This one is by an artist called Bev Coraldean.  My Dad was a printer and there is something about prints that I love.

In front is a snow globe with a spaceman inside!  This was from Tesco and I love it.

Photoshoot: That Blue Bracelet

I have started doing little mini photoshoots for the things I make, partly to inspire people to play with patterns and enjoy them, but also because it gives me an opportunity to enjoy some of the things we own and promote and appreciate others work and efforts.

Top left is a picture by calligrapher Suzi Smith who runs the etsy paper shop, Tornedgepaper.  I am lucky enough to call Suzi a friend and she is very talented.  at some point I am hoping she gets her moon photography shop up and running again as I regret I didn't get around to purchasing a set of her moon prints on aluminium...  She actually wrote a blog post about this canvas when she created it and I can't believe I have had it so long!

In front of the canvas there are three small items.  On the left you can just see a typical evil eye, often seen in Mediterranean areas.  This one did not come from the Mediterranean though but the island of Madeira.  It was actually attached to an owl originally but they have parted ways and the evil eye sits in our kitchen window.  They are traditionally used for protection and were often painted on the prows of boats.

Next to it is a small raku bottle with bison on it from the Crafty Bead.  The choice in their etsy shop is staggering...  I know bison don't typically fit with the ocean theme but the colour does and I sometimes think that grasslands are a little bit like oceans and bison are just really cool!

Lastly is a tiny little jade turtle given to me by a good friend that lives in Cleveland, Ohio.  The colour was perfect for it to be included and turtles are such an iconic ocean going species that I really relate to.  I have a number of wooden cases that were originally used to store printing type and they are great for displaying small things.  The turtle lives in one of the little cubbies.

In the right corner is a mug made by the potter Marius Roux which was brought as a wedding present.  We have been married some time now but Marius still has his pottery at Mullion.  We have several mugs and plates and I love the natural variations in colour you get from the firing process.  I would have to include closeups for you to see!

Next to the mug is a big chunk of Blue Obsidian.  This is a man made stone although it is possible to get natural blue obsidian.  I cannot remember where I purchased it as I have had it a long time.  I love the way it catches the light with it's irregular surfaces.  It is very watery, for a stone!  Obsidian is volcanic glass, which explains why this looks like a rough piece of blue glass.

I added a few chunky blue glass beads and some glass that looks like sea glass but isn't actually.  I think it was tumbled to create that effect.  I think the sea glass may have come from GJ Beads some time ago.  The blue glass beads were a gift from a friend with a large bead collection who was destashing.

That Blue Bracelet

For this bracelet, I took my Zig Zag Pattern no.2 and combined it with a bunch of sea coloured size 11 beads from my size 11 seed bead drawer.  Some of the tubes are so old, I can barely read what they say and I am not sure where they came from.  They were a mix of Matsuno and Miyuki and a variety of finishes.  This meant that there was some variation in the sizes of the beads and resulted in a slightly irregular bracelet.

Irregularity often bugs me, but, in this instance, it was great because it evoked some of that sea effect.  I remember when I first started beading I didn't expect precision and beads to line up perfectly.  Delicas are so beautifully perfect...  It was actually really nice to play with something less perfect, more bumpy.  A little nostalgic...

So I had ten different colours but you could use more or less.  Whatever colours you have in your stash.  This sort of pattern can be a great way to use left over beads, even if they are not blue!  I altered the order of the colours, which adds to the irregularity.  I always like the effects you can get from this as colour can shift in relation to what it's next to.  My colours included slate grey and seafoam which is more green than blue.

The different finishes gives it an interesting effect as well as different parts of the bracelet reflect differently to the light.  I used, two silver lined, three opaques, a matt opaque, a frosted AB finish, a galvanized, a matte metallic and an iris finish.  I love how matte beads soak up the light in a way that makes them look softer.  I love the glitz of silver lined beads.  The subtle shift of colour in the frosted AB and iris beads.  

One thing I noted as I sat and looked at the sea at the weekend was how the colours stacked in lines.  Darker colours where the water was shaded, not catching the light or stirring up debris.  Lighter where it shone in the light.  At one of the beaches, there is a quayside and under it, where the light didn't fall directly, it appeared more inky.  

So the bracelet takes the shifting light effects and colours, the different layers and attempts to say something about what I was admiring...

I wanted the bracelet to remain casual and decided not to add a metal finding.  I also didn't want to do a toggle loop clasp.  I decided to use a button instead and I went to get my button collection and identified the button I wanted at first glance.  It's pearly light turquoise that fits with the bracelet but yet is different to the other shades in the bracelet so it becomes a focal point.

I decided the button needed to be lifted above the surface of the bracelet so that the loop could go behind it without making the button sit at an angle.  So I sewed through a size 11 under each button hole.  This has the added benefit of protecting the thread holding the button on from rubbing by the loop.

I also took some size 15 seed beads and the put them on the thread, the last time it passed between the two button holes, to cover the thread.  I actually used five because they are small enough to sit in the button holes themselves.

My button collection is special to me as my Mother gave me the buttons.  I know that my Mother inherited buttons from both of my Grandmothers and it is likely that these buttons came from a variety of female relatives.  My only regret is that I only took the interesting buttons.  I don't know what happened to the other buttons and wish I had kept them all.

I normally make a loop from one point so that it is a narrow loop, but I decided to do it differently for this bracelet, making a wide loop.  It makes it easier to fit round the button and I think it really suits the look of the bracelet.

The pattern sheets for this bracelet are available in my etsy shop and this is Zig Zag Pattern No. 2.  I hope you have fun with this pattern!

That Blue

At the weekend, we went to the beach.  It's the first time in weeks due to lockdown and we purposefully chose out of the way beaches to visit.  It was a beautiful hot day and the colour of the sea was divine.  I couldn't get enough of it.  I took so many pictures, trying to capture the colours.

It's been noted by many that the colour of the sea has been exceptional this year and it's so very clear.  It actually has nothing to do with human activity (or lack of), it's all about the weather.  The period of high pressure has had a noticeable affect, allowing everything in the sea to settle.

Cornwall also has shallow waters that gain that lovely turquoise colour and there is a lack of sediment to cloud the water.  The sand is heavy and remains at the bottom.  We also don't have huge rivers bringing masses of fine particles in to the sea.  

When the conditions like this, there is something about the blue that is just perfect.  It's not just the colour, but the quality of the light and that is much harder to capture.

I remember a few years back, my husband and I went to Malta and a visit to the Blue Grotto, also known as Il-Hnejja was at the top of my list of places to visit.  As a teen I had been to Malta with my family but the day we visited the grotto, it was too rough for the boats to go out.  I was really upset.  I guess, notably so...  One of the gentleman at the cove remembered me after all those years.

I remember being stunned by the colour.  The light shines under the water in to the cave and it's like...  floating in blue light of the most amazing colour.  The photo's I have seen struggle to capture the quality of the light.  

There is another such cave on Capri which has a similar affect on the light but I have not been there, though it's on my to do list.

Although water is clear, it absorbs light that is in the red part of the spectrum.  The blue light is not absorbed so it is the light that reaches our eyes.  It is actually the water in our atmosphere that makes our sky look blue.  Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light and this also means it is more likely to be scattered and this means it is more likely to bounce back and reach our eyes.  

There is a clip of Brian Cox on youtube from his BBC series, Wonders of the Solar System, where he goes up in a plane to see the thin blue of the atmosphere around our planet.  In fact, the whole episode, The Pale Blue Dot is great.  He also goes diving in incredibly clear water in a rift in Iceland and demonstrates how it gets bluer the deeper you go.

The colour of the sky does have a huge affect on the colour of the sea.  So often in winter the sea has a slate blue grey colour.  Sometimes its a green grey colour.  On darker days or in shadows, it can appear inky.  The way the ocean interacts with light is fascinating.  Endless patterns across it's surface.  I went on a cruise one time and spent a lot of time just photographing the surface of the water where it was disturbed by the ship.

I also love how the surface of the water looks from underneath, light glistening.

Honestly, I always loved that colour...  but after the weekend I really wanted to attempt to bring it in to my work and That Blue Bracelet was born.  It's a mix of blues, some edging beyond turquoise to green.  The beads also have a variety of finishes which helps give it a mixed response to light.

I have saved a few images on a pinterest board here.