Turquoise Mermaid Amulet

 

 

 

 

The latest Mermaid Amulet containing a stunning Turquoise gemstone with a beautiful black matrix running through it :) The whole piece is meant to resemble a piece of barnacle covered piece of coral, fit for a  Mermaid on her wedding day !!

 

 

The Eye Of Poseidon - Mermaid Amulet

Finally after about a year of rehab and recovery following a torn shoulder tendon, I have been able to wire sculpt again!!

This piece is a Mermaid Amulet called the "Eye Of Poseidon" honouring the all powerful God of the Oceans and Tempests, which seemed particularly fitting as this piece is a veritable maelstrom of crashing waves and turbulent waters, woven loosely into my interpretation of his eye




I feel this piece fits in nicely with the rest of the pieces in the Mermaid Amulet collection - there have always been stand alone pieces such as Ariel's Voice, and Cascade but all in all I think this is one of my favourites. I won't lie it was tricky to make, as I had to take a slowly slowly approach to making it, rather than my usual 16 hour straight approach lol - but I feel she was worth it in the end :)

Ariel's Voice II

                                 
                      Cascade Mermaid Amulet

 

There are a few Mermaid Amulets still available in the shop at present including these two personal favourites of mine....anyway follow the link HERE to see them all

 

 

 

Seafoam Mermaid Amulet, the blog post on this piece can be found HERE

Yellow Aquamarine Gaudi inspired Mermaid Amulet available to purchase HERE

 

 

I do love photographing my work against natural textures such as river rocks, pebbles, wood and stone - it adds to the organic nature of the work. I hope my shoulder continues to behave from now on and allows me to create this kind of work again soon :) Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the photos

 

 

 

Thanks for looking ...



Samantha Braund

Snow and St Valentine

 

We finally got some beautiful snow fall in the UK this week. Where we are it was just enough snow to make everything look pretty, but not enough to cause any real disruption, i.e. the perfect amount lol. The above shot is of the snow covered loveseat in the back garden, with a lovely view of my Art Nouveau style clock in the conservatory (isn't she elegant)

 

The romantic in me has been getting excited for Valentines Day this year... and I noted that I have such a range of colours represented in gemstones in the shop now, that I had to put together some luscious Garnets, Coppers and Carnelian reds as part of a Valentine's promotion. You can find them here . Below are some of the pieces featured...

This Garnet Gemstone Circle Necklace was purchased straight away, I am happy to say (below)...

 

Anyway thanks for stopping by, I hope you follow the link and see the Valentines themed pieces we have in store :)

Thanks for looking ...



Samantha Braund

Vintage Bride and Dreamcatchers

 

I saw this vintage photo of a bride to be on Pinterest (one of favourite places in cyberspace!), and had to paint her. I drew a loose outline of her in pencil first , then went in with diluted indian ink. I think I prefer drawing/ in indian ink and a brush, it's a lot more expressive than pencil. I then overlayed washes in acrylic paint and added opaque white for the highlights - because the indian ink is so dilute it accepts glazes of overlaying paint, and takes I quite well

 

 

 

I've also posted this image of the Dreamcatcher Necklace collection onto my FB jewellery page 

These pieces are inspired by the legendary Native American artefacts, I created a protective Dreamcatcher style amulet to be worn to bring peace and dispel bad dreams, like a good luck charm

They are traditionally circular hoops containing a woven web, and adorned in feathers, to hang above the bed of the person to be protected. The Dreamcatcher is meant to dispel nightmares, catching them in the web, only allowing beautiful thoughts and dreams to pass through

These necklaces are a woven myriad of golden and silver circles encircling a beautiful luminescent AAA quality faceted gemstone at the centre. You can find them here in my shop :) I am going to periodically highlight different pieces and collections I have in the store, it's a lovely way to see the ideas behind the collections and I personally love seeing all the pieces sitting together on a page lol

 

Rosa Arvensis - A Fresh Hope

I am continuing to do rehab for my shoulder injury and am pleased to report that over the last couple of weeks I have been able to use my arms a lot more and have even been able to do some "art"

I would of course love to be able to take on my wire work, but as mentioned before, this would tax more torn tendon more than any other art form I do. Thank goodness I like to dabble in other media other wise I would be going crazy lol. Art therapy is a major factor in keeping me centred . I have taken to my watercolours again, which has been a surreal experience for me, as this was my only creative outlet back when I was a doctor. I haven't touched the medium in a decade - I had of course discovered the joys of acrylics and mixed media thanks to my stint on the Arts and Design course at DeMontfort Uni in 2012, but I never really thought I'd revisit this old faithful friend lol

My approach has changed though towards the medium, possibly as a result of all those mixed media influences and my love of 3D and texture, so I have taken more of an experimental approach this time. I didn't realise how much texture and vibrancy can be brought into watercolours these days, my old work could look quite washed out. The experimental painting above is of Rosa Arvensis a wild rambling white rose, that runs rampant in the English countryside...I felt it symbolised a vibrant fresh hope for me that I am turning a corner with my health and happiness in general. I have been able to reconnect with long lost family this year, and have managed to achieve significant weight loss in my efforts to address my health - so even though there has been somewhat of a creative drought and not a lot happening with the shop, I would say this has been one of my favourite years so far :) If the current trajectory holds true with my rehab, then I hope to open an Arts shop alongside the jewellery one to sell my other kinds of work , which is a lovely thought for me to hang onto as we go into the festive season



Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

Meet The New Mermaid Amulet Queen!

Having been immersed in making Pirate Treasure chests for the past week, it was only natural for my strange mind to turn to making another Mermaid Amulet for the shop. This one started as a rather modest composition around the central green pearl, then it started to grow, and grow , and grow!

The piece has cascades of my signature swirls and embellishments falling from the pearl, culminating into this Art Nouveau style sculptural feature. It is a real statement piece and the new Queen of the Mermaid Amulet Collection in my mind. You can find her here in the shop . I've included plenty of views so that you can appreciate the detail and intricacy that has gone into the piece. I hope you love her as much as I do!


















Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

AAA Olive Quartz Dreamcatcher Necklace

This is the latest Dreamcatcher Necklace which is already in the shop . I completed the piece yesterday and was so thrilled with it that I had to list it today. I am really enjoying getting to play with Goldfill wire (which is 14 karat gold) , and if ever there was a gemstone begging to be sculpted in gold, it's this one!

The gemstone itself is a very rare quartz, it is my understanding that you have Lemon Quartz and Smokey Quartz which brown, and often coexist. Where they meet you can on the rare occasion get a range of beautiful greeny gold hues as a result of the merging of the colours. I have used Bicolour Lemon and Smokey and even have one in the shop right now (in another showstopper piece) which also does a similar thing, but usually you see distinct bands of Lemon and Brown, but not in this one...it is totally a homogenous stunning intense olive green. Nature is wondrous isn't it?

I've taken several shots and included a few extra props including Pete's distressed Jade Gothic book I made this January. Enjoy the photos :)











Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

New Acorns and Golden Oldies

Smokey Quartz gemstones and Sterling silver acorns

This post shows pieces going into the shop that represent new beginnings while reflecting on the past. I read in a Psychology book recently about how it can be beneficial to look back at the ups and downs of your life and work out how you got through the toughest times, and to acknowledge that you always did get back up again. You are meant to learn lessons from your own history and take reassurance from it. Bearing this in mind I created this piece as an ode to new beginnings . I have a strand of these smooth tumbled Smokey Quartz gemstones, that resembled acorns, others can see grapes, buds and even olives - what can you see? I sculpted the stalks , vines and tendrils in Sterling silver. You can see from the picture of the piece in my hand how small and intricate the piece really is (below)





By way of a coincidence, I also found this significant piece I made years ago. This "Golden Oldie" was created at the height of some really tough times I was going through, and had no sense of control over my situation. This piece represented something of a creative breakthrough in my wirework, which gave me such a sense of hope and serenity in the midst of all that hate being thrown in my direction. I guess I should value the fact that my art and creative outlets have always comes to my rescue whenever I have fallen down, I will always be grateful for that. I hope to get these two pieces in the shop within the next few days :)


14 carat gold and microfaceted  Citrine gemstone





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Samantha Braund

Sea Urchin Mermaid Amulet Gone To A Mermaid!

I had to post about this piece, one of my absolute favourites in the shop, has been sold
Inspired by the textures and form of a Sea Urchin I constructed the radial wire sculpture and fused it to the fine silver sculpted metal base. It is a technique I have pioneered and is unique to me , which makes this piece totally one of a kind. I know this amulet is going to a good home for a very special occasion and I am thrilled about that :) I even made a little certificate card to go with the piece as she  travels across the oceans onto her new Mermaid owner

I hope you love the photos...she will be very missed...






Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

Grey Skies Seafoam Mermaid Amulet

This is the latest necklace I finished making today. It is the follow up piece in the Seafoam Collection, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid short story. The first one as you may recall contained Aqua Blue Chalcedony gemstones, this one contains White Chalcedony gemstones



These gems arrived in the post a few days ago, and I was instantly captivated by the milky grey - white hues, and I especially loved the luminescent glow that seems to emanate from within the gems themselves. They reminded me of grey rainy skies with the sun peeping from beyond the clouds. I had to start making the necklace within two hours of opening the parcel! I used 5 of the gemstones for this piece, and tried to emulate coral and barnacles with my woven swirls and beads, to create a piece suitable for a Mermaid.

It was a tricky piece to photograph, I do have some high contrast images against a white background, but I personally prefer the grey against grey...for the shop I used a close up crop shot for the primary image. Anyway I am in love with this latest precious and may even anoint it the new "Queen of the Shop" (there is always one lol) . The hubby is very enamoured with this one too which kind of clinches it for me. It is strange though how much I adore colour, riotous bright hues all the way through to sombre darks, and yet my new favourite piece is such a watery, cloudy desaturated coloured piece...very ironic

I hope you love the rest of the views of this piece, which is already in the shop (I've been pretty efficient with listing lately, how unlike me lol)









Thanks for stopping by :)




Samantha Braund