I hadn’t made a purple 50 Crystals Ring before. This one was another order last week. I love this colour!

I took this photo of a clear 50 Crystals Ring I made for an order last week

I’ve just finished this cluster necklace and I am very pleased with how it’s turned out. I couldn’t resist the gold chain when I first saw it. It is the most beautiful vintage gold colour – very similar to rose gold. I’ve made the cluster using a large peacock coin pearl, crystals , vibrant blue freshwater pearls and faceted labradorite. The blues and greys of the cluster are a perfect match for the warmth of the gold chain.

For details of this necklace contact me at jenni@twinkleberry.co.uk

I made this necklace using a strand of large shell pearls that I bought recently. Shell pearls are very popular at the moment and I can understand why. The colours and shine are wonderful and they also feel substantial when you wear them, I love my strand and find that I wear it a lot.

This particular necklace has some silver dotted along the strand and is finished with a sterling silver toggle clasp. As with pearls, I recommend buying a strand that is knotted between each pearl.

For a shell pearl necklace like this one, contact me at: jenni@twinkleberry.co.uk.

I made this necklace for a client recently – it’s a version of the Baroque Teardrop Bridal Necklace, which is featured on the site in Champagne. This necklace uses the clear crystal teardrop and white pearls and I think it’s a beautiful, very classic bridal necklace. I’m proud of this range as all my pearl necklaces are strung in the traditional manner, which is by knotting between each pearl. It’s a very labour intense way of stringing, but the pearls then drape beautifully and should the strand ever break, you will not loose all your pearls.

I’ve just finished this bracelet for a client who had bought this one from me a while ago and wanted a similar one, but in green.  I used the palest matt mint green chalecedony, one of my favorite Swarovski colours for the crystals and some Sterling Silver nuggets – and to finish it off – a pure silver handmade Rose Clasp!

This ring was an order for Colleen, who wanted a 50 crystal ring in green.  We were both amazed at how many different shades of green Swarovski has available!  Colleen chose this colour and I think it’s very versatile as you could wear it in summer as well as winter. As I only have my lilac ring featured on the site I thought I would put an image of Colleen’s ring here.

Sadie contacted me in February about making her bridal jewellery for her wedding, which was on Saturday 06/06/2009. While I love the idea of making someones wedding jewellery, I am always a little nervous of bespoke commissions. A wedding is such a special day and everything should be perfect and exactly as you imagine it, and it’s sometimes difficult to interpret someone’s vision as a finished piece.

Sadie was a perfect client though as she knew exactly what she wanted and so, as her pieces progressed, I sent her a photo and she and I both knew quite quickly that we were on the same wavelength.

The necklace and bracelet that she wanted were ornate and quite unique. It was very exciting for me as I had never made anything quite like them and I think we were both very happy with the results.

The bracelet was a cluster of larger crystals with 5 cluster drops hanging from the body of the bracelet.

Sadie’s necklace had a body that was very similar to the bracelet, just using hundreds of smaller crystals and although we did add another feature to the necklace I thought that the body as it is pictured here was just lovely as well.

I must have taken loads of photo’s of this piece, but would you believe that I did not take one of the finished product! I think I was anxious to get it posted to her and it simply slipped my mind. I am hoping that she will let me have one of her wedding pictures to post here……..

These Cluster earrings were ordered by my friend Anita, she liked the other cluster earrings that I have made, but wanted the drop to be a little longer and I made these using more of the blues and greens that she favours. Again, with little smoky quartz faceted discs, which I just love, sadly my strand of them is almost finished!

I didn’t really know what all the macaron fuss was about……

Until a friend bought a box for me in Paris this weekend

Oh dear…….now I know what all the Macaron fuss is about……..

Dandelions,

they’re just weeds aren’t they?

Tessa can’t pass by without picking a clock and blowing it apart, so it takes ages to walk anywhere these days……

and inevitably it gets blown all over me……..in my hair and on my clothing…….

But, just look at how beautiful they are!

I love these Cluster earrings. They are very similar to the ones I made on gypsy hoops and I think are just as nice. These ones were made using small smoky quartz discs and a combination of swarovski crystals and fresh water pearls.

I have a group of my best friends coming over this evening and it was just the excuse I needed to buy some wine glasses that I have been eyeing out at one of my favorite shops in Winchester – The Hambledon.

As usual, at the very last minute, I rushed into Winchester yesterday – and dashed in 5 minutes before they were due to close.  I picked the glasses I wanted, had them packed up and when I got to the counter to pay found that I had left my purse at home!

Finn, the lovely lady who helped me, not only took my payment using the “cardholder not present” facility, but also very thoughtfully gave me some change so that I could get myself out of the parking garage I had parked in! So these Cyber flowers are for the very lovely Finn at The Hambledon – and some real flowers are on their way to her too!

We are in the middle of the English Asparagus season, It’s one of my favorite things to eat and so my friend Jane and I drive to Durleighmarsh Farm near Petersfield every week to buy boxes of these delectable spears.

I’ll eat them any which way I can, whether its wrapped in smoked pancetta and roasted, dipped in hollandaise or smothered in risotto.

More often than not, we gobble them, lightly steamed, dressed in olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled with shaved parmesan – delicious!

What’s your favorite asparagus recipe?

One of the necklaces that I made to send to Quick and Crafty magazine was a rose quartz cluster – I liked that it uses my twinkleberry brown and pink colours. It’s made using a faceted rose quartz stone and the cluster is a combination of pink,white and champagne coloured pearls, smoky quarts and silver.

Thank you Elizabeth, for the very lovely things you said about my jewellery!

The petals from our apple trees are all gone now, I should have done a post called “Poppy the puppy in the petals” as for a while there was a carpet of petals under the trees. Linda sent me these photo’s of her beautiful tamarix tree, one in bud and one 1n full flower, truly magical! I think that this must be my favorite time of the year and I can’t imagine a nicer place to be than England in the spring time. I am loving the wisteria and the lilac trees that are in bloom now.

Images courtesy of Linda

When I wake up in the morning

and open my curtains

I am greeted by the most glorious sight

My entire bedroom window is filled with the softest pink apple blossoms. It’s a view that I look forward to and never fail to appreciate when it arrives.

What’s your favorite view?

These earrings were made for Jackie, for her birthday. I made them using small champagne crystal hearts, beneath a cluster of champagne crystals and pearls. They were made to match the large Champagne Heart Necklace that her daughter Kate bought for her.

Poppy arrived on the 30th of March and our lives appear to have changed immeasurably! Things like slippers and socks are no longer safe and shopping involves debate on bling collars and safe chewable options. There is nothing like a wagging tail to greet you in the morning though. She is a happy, friendly, playful pup and we are completely besotted!

We’ve decided that it’s time to get a puppy. We’ve our hearts set on a Cairn Terrier and so today we are driving to Derby. Will Poppy be for us and we for her?

I love living where we do, which is in a very beautiful, small village in Hampshire for many reasons, but it’s also perfectly positioned as it’s only an hour from London (by train  that is – about 2 hours by car). I LOVE London! From the minute I arrive in the City I go into complete sensory overload and am aware of all the wonderful things I miss out on by living in the country……..

We went over the weekend, one of our clients – Auditel Franchise -  was nominated for a best website award and the award ceremony was on friday night  and also, my sister Rosy was arriving for a visit from Australia.

Tessa’s only request for the weekend was to go to the Tower of London, which we did on Saturday. What a beautiful day it was, we have been treated with some glorious days lately and it was perfect to be wondering around a place of such historical importance.

When visiting the Tower, you can join one of the tours which are given by various Yeoman of the Guard. This is well worth doing – the Yeoman are interesting, full of  fascinating details and entertaining too. Our guide was Chris.

Now, I know that sometimes I do ramble on about things unrelated to jewellery, but this is not one of those posts because the Tower of London is where the Crown Jewels are kept!

Chris, gave the girls in the group this advice regarding the Crown Jewels:

” Take a long look at those massive diamonds, look into your husbands loving eyes, look back at the Crown Jewels, look at the minuscule diamond ring on your finger and then slap your husband!“

I know that spring is on the way when little daisy princesses appear in my garden!

Empire of the Sun – the Aussie band who’s debut album – Walking on a dream  was released here last month.

Listen to it here

Billy and Desiree were married on Saturday. Desiree wanted necklaces for the 5 special girls from their families who were included in the ceremony in various ways. In the end, Desiree decided on 4 Murano hearts for the older girls and a little czech heart for the little one in the group. Instead of suede I used a contemporary silver chain to hang the hearts on.

Kirstie Allsop – from “Location, Location, Location”  has lost her engagement ring and has set up a website to try and find it.

I know I would be devastated if I ever lost my wedding band. When I got married we couldn’t afford a diamond engagement ring and it never really bothered me as I prefer coloured stones ( I can’t tell you how happy David was about that!). For our 10th anniversary David designed the most beautiful ring for me as a surprise, it has 40 small diamonds set into a rose gold band – I could never imagine a more beautiful ring. Isn’t it funny how there are some things that are so precious and sentimental.

Kirstie, I hope you find your ring.

Have you come across Bookmooch.com yet? If, like my family, you are readers then it’s worth looking in to.

Bookmooch is a site, where you can list books that you own, but no longer want. Other members can then “mooch” your books from you and you can “mooch” any books you might want. It is all based on a point system, so if you mooch from someone in you own country, it costs you a point, but if you mooch from abroad, it’s costs you 2. If someone from abroad mooches from you, you get 3 points.

You don’t have to agree to post abroad, set up your profile carefully as there are various options you can choose.

I have been a member now for a couple of years and love it.  We all read a lot and while I think the library system is amazing here, sometimes I like to keep a copy of a book. I earned a lot of points posting abroad – I always say  that I will only post by surface mail, as it’s much more affordable and that postage will take 6 – 8 weeks but  it’s been lovely to see more people from the UK joining and using Bookmooch.

Normally when I buy semi precious beads I buy a whole strand of them. Because you are buying something that was  created naturally it’s unavoidable that there be flaws and imperfections in it, unlike things made in a mass production factory, where everything is churned out “perfectly”.

Unfortunately the Briolettes that I buy for my Smoky Quartz Briolette earrings are often a bit too irregular or the stones have scratches, and because I  think that earrings components need to match perfectly I end up with stones that I can’t bring myself to use for this particular pair of earrings (sometimes as many as a quarter of the strand!)

It’s such a waste – these are still very lovely stones – I made this pendant last week, out of a less than perfect smoky quartz briolette, and an explosion of a cluster of  really unusual matt green Swarovski crystals.

Dave took me to dinner this week, at a very special restaurant in Winchester called Chesil Rectory. The building that houses the restaurant is the oldest house in Winchester, with many of the original features.

Now, while I love globe artichokes, I am a bit nervous about Jerusalem artichokes.

However the starter that I had at Chesil Rectory was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, a winter salad of green leaves, Jerusalem artichokes, dried tomatoes and rosary goats cheese, embraced with a heavenly dressing.

Does anyone out there know the Head Chef – Damian Brown? Because I am begging for the recipe!

Linda, very kindly shared some of her photo’s of this weeks snow with me. I have to post them as I have just loved seeing them.

This one is exactly as I imagine Narnia to be…..

These must be the best snowmen I have ever seen. Linda and Sue don’t know who made them, but I think they are awesome!

Linda and Sue are from St Neots, and have enjoyed this weeks snow as much as I have.

Images courtesy of Linda and Sue

The UK is experiencing the heaviest snow falls in decades. The economy – already fragile – is losing £billions a day, schools are closed and public transport has come to a standstill. There is nothing else you can do, but bundle up, and go out and enjoy it! Dave and I went out this morning for a walk, come along with us……..

The cottage at 9.30 am, surrounded by pristine whiteness and us without a toboggan…….

There is a lovely walk we do, which takes us out of the village and through the fields and woodland, we thought it would be the perfect walk to do today.

I love the way the snow collects on the bare branches.

We are lucky to live in a village which is surrounded by farmland, this field is covered with inches of snow and the backdrop of this row of trees is a spectacular sight.

There – you see, I did actually venture out of the house!

And so, whew, an hour later, here we are back in the village, at the duck pond which has frozen over.

Poor ducks!

What a lovely suprise earlier today to have an email from Quick and Crafty! magazine drop into my inbox. Every month they feature a blog in the publication and they are (hopefully) going to feature mine in their April issue! How exciting is that!?

These very elegant earrings are made from some silver shell pearls, topped with a little bit of sparkle. Apart from the silver pictured here they are available in White, Champagne and Rose Gold. Contact me at jenni@twinkleberry.co.uk for details

I love christmas, when we have chosen our tree and unpacked the decorations. These days I don’t get to do any of the decorating, but that’s okay, because I love watching it being done as much as I enjoy doing it. Every year I try and find just one or two special new baubles to add to my collection. My worst nightmare would be buying new decorations every year. I have some, which might not have been very expensive, but that I just love seeing on my tree from year to year…….

I bought these handblown glass baubles last year, they are a plum colour with beads of gold – and lets face it, you can never have enough gold at christmas time!

A handmade red glass star. An absolute classic.

This is a glamorous fabric and bead creation, handmade by a very talented sister-in-law.

These were a dime a dozen a couple of years ago, but I still loved mine, it’s such a whimsical Santa and his shy reindeer.

A dragon – what do you mean you don’t have a dragon? It’s a must, an absolute must! Trust me – go an buy yourself a dragon now! Every tree should have one!

The most beautiful angel on my tree – a vintage, handmade lovely, bought for me, many years ago by a very dear friend.

I bought these beautiful feather birds many, many years ago at the fabulous V&A gift shop (an absolute must when in London) – they are much, much nicer than the ones you can buy now.

And lastly, a child for whom Christmas is still a magical time!

I’m not having a very good morning! What I really feel like doing is stamping my foot in frustration, however that doesn’t really work for someone over a certain (say 10!) age.

My trusty, well used, coffee pot has come out for the second time today. I LOVE coffee – but too much is bad for me, I get all trembly and that’s not a good way to work – but hey? What’s a girl to do?

And then really – a mince pie? of course! It has been a bad morning and I do need a little pick me up!

Is chocolate going too far do you think?

This pair of earrings has been very popular, especially with the colder weather closing in and the warm sumptuous colours coming out in our woolies – delicious cranberry coloured pearls hovering over a bronze coin pearl.

This must be one of my favorite Swarovski crystal shapes – a baroque teardrop, which I have used for this Bridal Necklace. I can’t think of a more beautiful shape to add sparkle to a Christmas tree or adorn a festive window.

I made this stick pearl cuff bracelet to match this necklace. It should fit really snugly on the wrist and this one fastened with a silver toggle clasp, but it could equally be made on stretchy elastic. I LOVE these pearls!

I have made this necklace using a very unusual silver chain – it has oval links with a flattened link in between and then I have wire wrapped some wonderful faceted oval labradorite into the silver. It’s a really substantial piece and perfect for winter, the silver grey of the labradorite is flecked through with fire colours making it a very interesting stone.

My wee girl, who has just turned 10, is having to have some orthodontic treatment done. Today she needed to have 2 baby teeth extracted. Fortunately I have a very good friend who is a dentist in Winchester and that does make it easier, but it’s still not much fun for a little girl (or a mum…..)

Michael, thank you so much for getting it done as painlessly as possible.

This necklace was made for Theresa, whose wedding was over the weekend. We decided on a Stick Pearl Necklace as the dress had a low neckline and needed a bold necklace. The Pearls were a perfect colour – iridescent white with pink tinges.

I love this as an option for wedding jewellery as it is definitely something you could use again afterwards – perfect with jeans and a white shirt!