Thursday Throwback. What comes around goes around

The ancient Egyptian style is very in style at the moment just look at Katy Perry in her video for Dark Horse.

The Ancient Egyptians have fascinated peopled for centuries and numerous revivals of their style have been invented and reinvented over the years and probably will continue to for centuries to come.
Ancient Egypt was a Civilisation from around 3100BC that was one of the first big civilisations to become powerful in the world.
Everyone wore jewellery from the very poor to the pharaohs, this was mainly because they believed in evil spirits that could harm them. The jewellery was a way of protecting them from the evil. Jewellers would need to know what the person needed protecting from, certain colours of gems or metal could mean different gods or goddesses and it was important he got it right or it may affect the spiritual value of the piece.
Amulets and charms where worked into pieces of jewellery to protect the wearer or infuse them with power. Some amulets were made to take with the person into the afterlife as well and where placed on the body and wrapped into there mummy's binding. One amulet that was a favourite for the afterlife was the heart scarab, placed on your heart. This amulet would help protect your heart from becoming separated from you in the underworld. The heart was believed to record your life on it and would be weighed against the weight of a feather by the goddess Ma'at. If the scales balanced you gained entry into the afterlife, the heart scarab stopped your heart betraying you when you got to the goddess.
The picture below is of a necklace recovered from the pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb. He was wrapped with 35 different objects arranged seventeen groups and between 13 different layers. This necklace was the last of four, and shows hawks heads with tubular beads between.

 

The main materials used to craft jewellery would be gold and copper which were readily available to them, the gold was mined in the Nubian desert. Stones were inlaid into the pieces and they used pearls and emeralds the most although they also favoured lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet, obsidian, rock crystal and carnelian. I imagine their jewellery must have been really striking when they where first made as all their materials have very strong vivid colours.

The poor couldn't afford the gold and precious gems so opted for copper and painted clay, bone, shells, stones or animal teeth to look like the gems.
The most popular among the ancient Egyptians and quite possibly the most well known of the jewellery was the wide collar necklace. made with beads that were worn around and were as wide as the shoulders. It is this necklace that has made a resurgence back into the popular eye. Some dresses even come with it already sewn in around the neck.
Here are some modern examples of the ancient Egyptian style.

Selena Gomez

 

 

 



Folksy Friday. Top 5 Animal themed pieces on Folksy

Today is the top 5 animal themed pieces crafted by Folksy artists and chosen by me. I've tried to make sure I have a mix of crafts and have ended with number five as my favourite piece. Think I've found some shops I'll definitely be revisiting when I need some gifts.

(1) To kick off the count down I've chosen this little brooch. I like the sailor's tattoo kind of feel to this piece. It's called Swallow Bird resin Brooch literary vintage and is by EllyMental Jewellery. (A totally genius name by the way!)

 

(2) Number two has to be this beautiful lampshade, I love the colour. It's called Folky Animals - Lamp and Lightshade and it's by Busyblackbird.

(3) The third piece is a PUFFIN Watercolor Print - 8x10 inches portrait format by the artist Eastwitching. I love this type of drawing, I've always been drawn (no pun intended) toward it and it's a puffin. What's not to love about puffins!

(4) Piece number four made me smile when I found it. It's called Chilly Llama in Blue and is by FabFunky.

 

(5) With out a doubt this is my favourite photo print I've found when choosing what to include in this post. It's truly stunning. It's called Tranquility Giclee and is by FizzStudio. This shop is definitely one to keep an eye on.

That concludes my list of the top 5 animals, I've found some wonderful shops doing this count down. Let me know what you think.
 

Thursday Throwback. Congratulations Kate and WIlliam!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last week you should know Kate Middleton is pregnant with baby royal number 2. It's lovely news so I decided the best Thursday throwback I could do this week is the Princess Diana/ Kate engagement ring.
The ring belonged to Diana, princess of Wales, Prince Williams mother.
It consists of  14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-karat white gold. It was made by Garrard and  unusually for a royal ring was part of the Garrard catalogue and not a one of a kind piece. Diana picked it because she liked it and she wanted a ring with a sapphire. This ring just appealed to her.

When Princess Diana divorced Prince Charles the ring came back to Charles and was put away. After her death in 1997 in a car accident in Paris, Prince William and Prince Harry where allowed to pick pieces from their mother's collections. William picked a  £18,000 yellow gold Cartier Tank Francaise watch and Harry picked his mother's engagement ring. They eventually swapped mementoes  and that is how William came to own the ring he proposed to Kate with.

It was in October 2010 that William proposed on a 24 hour stop over in a remote Cabin in Kenya. The cabin is one of Williams favourite places to stay and is as basic as it comes, it doesn't even have electricity. After proposing their said to have enjoyed a glass of champagne from a box outside acting as a fridge, then sat back to enjoy it beside a roaring fire.
William is quoted as saying ‘It’s very special to me. As Kate’s very special to me now, it was right to put the two together,’ he said. ‘It was my way of making sure my mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement, and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.’
The rings value just sky rocketed up to £300,000 from it's original value of £28,000 when it was brought for Princess Diana in 1981, the new value is as a result of the announcement of Kate's pregnancy.
This pregnancy will be the young couples second child and I'd like to say congratulation to them both.

What's Fashion Magpie Jewellery all about?

It's been a while since I've done a post saying just hi, so I thought seeing as I've got a few new followers it was time to say hi.
Hello! My name is Leah Wilkinson and I'm a jewellery maker.
I first got into jewellery making when I made some for Christmas one year for relatives and the rest as they say is history. They loved them and I began making to try and sell.
Fashion Magpie Jewellery is my company name, I make vintage inspired pieces like my newly listed Art Nouveau inspired ladies, made into a bracelet and earrings set.

Red Art Nouveau inspired Ladies Bracelet And Earrings Set

 

I mainly work with bronze but I do make the odd piece in silver, which is nickel free. I have an allergy to nickel in silver and I know from talking to others that it's a common thing so always look where possible to use silver without the nickel in.

Purple Dichroic Earrings and Necklace Set

 

My absolute favourite thing to use when I'm creating jewellery is Jewel Enamel. Jewel enamel is a UTEE resin which comes in powder form and you melt it down in a melting pot to make it turn to liquid. The liquid can then be poured into a mould or setting and goes solid within seconds. It glitters and resembles marble when its set and if you don't like what you made just throw in the melting pot and remake it. It's that versatile!

Blue Bird Brooch On Bronze

 

I'm always looking for new techniques and trying to learn to new things, my newest thing, as avid readers know, is glass globe jewellery. You can read my tutorial here.

Glass Glitter Globe Necklace

 

I love taking Fashion Magpie Jewellery out on the road to different craft fairs and I've started looking into Christmas fairs now (yes I know it's only September!)
I'm looking forward to meeting everyone this year and I'm looking into how Etsy works to (check out my shop here) it's a work in progress in but I'm getting there and so far I'm impressed. Etsy seems to cater more to what I'd like from my business which unfortunately Folksy, who I trade with now doesn't seem to grasp. Anyone who does look at my new Etsy shop should know I have a limited time offer on at the moment, if you buy something use the promo code NEWSHOP and you will get free postage. Again this is only a limited time offer.
Over the coming weeks I'll be listing lots more new items as I've just finished stocking up on supplies. Well I say finished but don't think I'll ever be satisfied I have enough!
I love this company and if I had my way I would do this full time unfortunately that's still at the dream for the future stage of my life. One day though I hope it comes true.

Folksy Friday. My Folksy Pinterest board

It's September and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees. I love autumn, it's my favourite time of year, so I've decided to try find as many Folksy finds as I can on Pinterest to make up a autumn themed board. I'm planning to send it to folksy when I'm finished to see if I can get it on the main page.

Here's a preview of the pieces I've found so far. What do you think?

Artful autumn

Autumn patchwork bear

'Woodland Walk' Autumnal charm bracelet with glass beads. Perfect for Autumn.

Anodised Aluminium earrings on stainless steel wires Autumn firefall

Woodland WalkAutumnal charm bracelet with glass beads Perfect for Autumn

Thursday throwback. a guide to Edwardian jewellery

Edwardian jewellery was the last big trend in jewellery named after the monarch of the time. 

To the Edwardians jewellery was status and was aimed toward the upper classes, it was in this period the jewellery changed drastically. Before this jewellery was large but with the Edwardians, it became delicate and intricate and lace like.

One of the major reasons it changed was because of a new invention called a oxyacetylene torch. This invention meant that platinum could be used in ways never before, the torch was the first time platinum could be heat to the high temperature it needs to be worked in. Before this platinum was backed with gold, the same as silver. 

The new way of working with platinum meant that more intricate designs that looked like lace could be made. The favourite designs of the Edwardians were, bowes, garlands, laurel wreaths, lace and tassels.

One of the biggest trends of this period was the 'dog collar' something that reminds me of the wicked step mother in Cinderella. What do you think? It started trending in France, then England adopted the trend and made it famous when the Princess of Wales started wearing them.

The lasting legacy of Edwardian jewellery has to be the earrings. Before this the earrings worn were studs of diamond or pearl, the new earrings being made where made to move when worn and sway with the lighter designs. I for one, am very grateful for this I love long dangling earrings.

Tiaras became popular and essential for the elite classes, the new platinum designs meant that tiaras where now lighter and easier to wear. From tiaras came bandeau, worn on the forehead and tied with ribbon at the back.

Rings became bigger and worn on more then one per a finger. Most where Bowes or garlands with a large centre stone.

After 1910 the fashion was to have monochrome jewellery. This black and white trend used platinum and black stones like onyx. The colours also meant that it did not violate mourning etiquette.

The Edwardian period ended with the death of the king and the start of the First World War.

Folksy Friday Navigating the Main Page

The Folksy main page is full of things to look at so here is a quick guide to the main page.
Starting at the top you have your favourite finds and Recent activity. the recent activity feature shows you what is selling and how long ago it sold, this can be quite useful as a market research resource if you want to see what's doing particularly well. The favourite finds consists of the pieces folksy has found is featuring in the newsletters, such as the different themes they have such as the beach, back to school etc.
Mixed in with this is how to find folksy on other social networks like Facebook, twitter, instagram and so on.
The next feature is one that I especially like. Pinterest is a raising force in the social networking sites and folksy has grabbed hold of this and made a feature of it. All you have you do is make a Pinterest board of your favourite folksy items and don't forgot to make a theme. Next submit it to folksy and the successful boards are added to the main page. You get exposure for your shop as the creature of the board and everyone in your board gets exposure because you liked there items enough to include them in your board.  
Next Folksy has a feature known as featured sellers where they promote a seller they have chosen to put on their main home page for a week.

In that week the featured seller has a place on the home page all week and does a meet the maker article on the folksy blog. There items for sale are also starred for easy finding and so everyone else knows they where the lucky people to be featured.
Near the bottom of the main page is the recently added feature. This is the place where your items go when you first add them to your shop so everyone browsing the main page can see.
At the bottom of the page is the Best sellers, these are the people to look up to!
The only thing below that is the magazines folksy has been featured in other the years.
So that is it a quick guide to the main page.