Portia

I was uncertain about buying these red stoned metal beads - maybe too oriental?
The more I looked the more I realised that they had a definite renaissance air to them something that may have come from 16th century Venice. 
Perhaps they graced the ears of the fair Portia as she defends Antonio against Shylock's insistance of a pound of flesh for his debt                                       

 Aged brass beads with blood red glass cabuchons, matt green seed beads and Vintaj brass

Faerie Fragments

This was created for the Art Beads Scene challenge for the month of November.

Chalcadony pebbles.

Bronze,  silver-blue and dusty- mauve seed beads
Vintaj brass
Ancient artifact focal created by me in polymer clay.
However,  I much prefer the story of how an archaeologist, working on neolithic sites in Ireland stumbled upon fragments of stone ruins.
He excavated a section and to his amazement they were richly decorated with carvings of faeries. The buildings were clearly too small for human habitation and he came to the exciting conclusion that they possibly may have been built by the Sidhe.

He removed this small fragment and returned to the University to mount another dig with more resources and people, but, despite clearly marking the ruins, upon his return the whole landscape had changed and the buildings were no where to be seen.
Like many faerie gifts they soon fade away and only this fragment remains.

Beady Goodness!

Warning for all those on a no-bead diet - avert thine eyes NOW!

Some rather nice metal beads. Got these from a local importer from China. Just got a few to see what they were like. My favourite - the ones with the amethyst stones and I will order some more.

 

Picasso finish Czech glass and on the right gemstones. Would love to see the Czech coins in a larger size. I think 10mm is a bit small to show off the lovely finish.

 

Some lovely sea-green czech glass.

Now all I have to do is get creative!

Two Score and One

Today is our wedding anniversary. My husband, life partner, best friend and master of the terrible pun, and I have been together for 41 years - more than half our lives.
We are not ones for fancy dinners or big productions, so we figured a quiet breakfast in the rainforest was the way to go.
We are fortunate that the wonderful Lamington National Park is basically on our doorstep about an hours drive away.
At breakfast we were joined by a Crimson Rosella who knew that the bacon and egg roll I had was HIS and I was just minding it. He flew onto the table and marched up my arm and took control. It was a race to see who got the bigger share!

Right next to the picnic area a male Satin Bowerbird had made his bower. These birds love blue and decorate the bower with blue objects. It used to be blue berries, blue bird feathers and other natural objects. These days it is blue bottle tops , plastic straws and other man made objects. They seem to favour the man made over the natural probably because they last longer.

We then spent several hours wandering through the rainforest,enjoying the cool, the green, the peace and feeling the connection with the wild world and the connection between ourselves.