There’s a new section in my shop – jewellery I don’t make jewellery that often, but I had enough supplies in that I’ve made some necklaces out of copper and my beads featuring wildflowers.
The reason for doing this is that I wanted to find a way to raise money for several animal welfare groups, and jewellery seemed a bit more accessible than bead sets.
I’ve set a base figure of approximately 90% of the purchase price being sent to the animal charities, although it will always be more than 90%; basically, the lowest amount I can afford will be deducted for packing and Paypal fees, and that will probably only amount to 6% of the purchase price, but I wanted a nice round number to write on the site 
Here’s the direct link to the section: http://www.continuumdesigns.co.uk/shop/category.php?id_category=15
And here’s the charity I’ll be sending the money to this time: http://www.bramcote-rescue.co.uk (note: it’s not an official affiliation, simply a donation)
If you decide to buy a necklace for this cause, and would like the receipt from the donation forwarded to you afterwards, that can be arranged.
I’ll update the Facebook page whenever there’s new jewellery/items and a new charity, so please ‘like’ the page to keep track.
Also, I’d really appreciate it if you’d share this post or the link with anyone who may be interested. Thank you!
This has been looking at my across my desk for a few days while I waited for more clay to make the other parts to a face cane:
I followed Donna Kato’s tutorial for this particular cane – I didn’t dare wing it on such a large piece!
Sometimes, you want to write something that you’re pretty sure is not a good idea. It might alienate people, or rub them the wrong way. Am I going to publish this post? I’m not sure – if you’re reading this now, then the answer was yes. If you don’t like this post, I’m truly sorry, because I don’t like to make people feel bad.
We all have aversions to words – sometimes we have a reason for it, sometimes we don’t know why.
There are several terms I have a dislike for; feminine is one, girly is another. I don’t feel comfortable with the connotations that these words confer, because they imply that the reality of ‘woman’ is synonymous with, for example, softness, daintiness, and as such, weakness. I’m very much of the ‘gender as a mask’ school of thought, and I don’t believe that we need to ascribe gender stereotypes onto neutral concepts. There is no reason at all that someone with xy chromosones couldn’t wear dangly earrings, except for the cultural baggage we all put onto sex and gender.
Short point I have two xx chromosones and breasts. I don’t need a ‘feminine’ necklace to make me a ‘proper woman’
Don’t leave me hanging here with this post though: if you agree, please share this (social media buttons are below). If you disagree, tell me why – I’m really interested and despite the evidence to the contrary, I’m not a judgey person 
I know some of you may have seen these already, but I thought I’d do a bit of a post about some things I’ve been working on in the past year, polymer clay rings.
This is the latest:
And these were the first few, done quite a while ago:
You can probably tell that in appearance they’re based on a particular style of paper and fabric flowers, but made from polymer clay so that the flow and undulation of the ‘petals’ is kept in shape.
The ring band is also polymer clay, and they appear to be holding up well through my tests; admittedly, I haven’t tried seeing if they survive, y’know, being punched into a brick wall (you have to assume people may wear them at clubs, and well…you know what can happen after a few drinks) but they’ve survived being dropped onto a lino floor and being worn during general work.
