Yes, what I named it. No, this mini collection wasn't really planned. But once I started, it just went on and instead of getting my new site ready, I ended up with all these earrings. Humph.

I rather like working with brass though - pure solid brass, not plated lightweight stuff. An alloy of copper and zinc, brass I usually choose would be bright gold (a.k.a. raw brass) or antiqued (usually treated to protect the patina) bronze. And it's such a joy to team them with bright jewel colours. I do also love the look of verdigris (please note current theme of blog, heh), but I understand not many people would be quite so receptive towards wearing something that's essentially rusty and crusty near their skin. Oh well, maybe in future.

Haven't had the time to do up individual photos or listings yet, but here's a preview of what should be in store soon:


If I don't resurface again this week, happy 2011 to one and all - maybe some of you will be ringing in the new year with Tellurus goodies :D - and thank you so very much for your gracious support!

A couple of new necklaces for this week, inspired again by faraway places, sunny climes and slices of history.

These necklaces are a long 36" and feature a wide variety of vintage/semiprecious beads and solid brass components, each one wire-wrapped and then connected by heavy antiqued brass rings. Sorry about the heftier price tag but it has to reflect the time that went into selecting the components, placing them in a workable pattern, and then wiring them all up individually. They are also limited edition, which means there are only 2 pieces each.


I love putting together bead mixes, and it's even more fun when you get to choose from vintage beads. And speaking of vintage beads, forget the candy colours and jewel tones in plain old shapes. If you've noticed, I tend to pick out the more uncommon ones, especially those with etched designs and gilded accents. Just like bits of archaelogical treasure.

In other news, I'm dreaming up a new collection ~ of personal affinity and interest, might I add. Am gathering the materials now. Watch this space.

Some stuff coming next week. Love the names (I guess you can also tell I love typography).


Anyhow, it's been pouring, I had another excruciating night of interrupted sleep, and I'm seriously considering crawling back to bed now.

-- updated May 19th, 1:20AM --

It's been a while - and I got sidetracked with gems along the way - but I finally got round to making the third in this series, and it has now been listed in my Etsy shop.


We don't have autumn here in (wretchedly hot and humid) Singapore, so I love to travel during spring or autumn (more so the latter) where places are actually have nice cool weather, nothing too extreme. Far from the fiery shades of fall foliage, the colours I prefer for this season are muted and more subtle. So I fell in love with these adorable lucite leaves - they have fantastic contoured detail and gilded etching on both sides, and make a soft tinkling when you move about. On a hand-linked solid brass bracelet, and fastens with a large leaf charm ~ which is not shown here so you'll have to see in the listing itself :P

--- Update April 21st: this item has been listed in the Etsy shop :) ---

OK, I was going to wait a bit but the first one, Kyoto Spring which launched a couple of days ago, already got reserved so I feel bad. This is a sneak preview of the next one which will only be up in my Etsy shop probably next week or whenever I get round to preparing the listing.

Summer Sorbet was the actually one which started me off wanting to do all four seasons. I wrapped the glossy rounds to each other to form the chain (oh gawd this took longer than expected - it's not quite so effortless to wrap with thicker gauge wire!) and finished off with a large slab of aventurine, tangerine jade (which is not actually jade - only jadeite and nephrite are true jades - but some other stone, damn I forget what BUT it's still really pretty and vibrant!) and a handmade swirly hook.


The combination of colours was too juicy not to make me think of an icy cool sorbet on a hot day. Such relief! Yuzu would be my first choice. And, you might find it nerdy but I actually like lemon gelato. So let's see... in the bracelet above I would imagine tangerine and yuzu of course, but I also see blood orange, grapefruit, lime, pineapple, and even mint!! What do you see?

And this kicks off my "Four Seasons of Bracelets" series... I love making bracelets. Unlike earrings, they don't need to be perfectly symmetrical (in fact even better if they're asymmetrical), and unlike necklaces, they aren't quite as tediously long. Lots of interesting things can happen when you design for a single 7-8" piece, and it's even more fun when I make it OOAK because I generally dislike churning out repeats.


Kyoto Spring is a romantic allusion to cherry blossom season in the ancient Japanese city in a charm-style bracelet dripping with nature-inspired baubles: coral pink 5-petal flowers and blue-green pods in glass, really lovely and lustrous white freshwater pearls, faceted prehnite rondelles in the palest of greens, as well as tiny freshwater pearl buttons in baby pink and shimmery bronze. Available in my Etsy shop, one piece only.

Do stay tuned for the next instalment :)

P.S. Yes I am trying to model the bracelet there... it is SO hard it's not even funny. I might have to start training T to take the pics for me :\

If time seems to pass faster the older one gets, then I must have aged 6 months this week. It's already Friday and I'm not sure where it all went! Definitely not into jewellery, because I still have a couple of commissions waiting to be finished. I feel so bad.

Here are some new things - I made 4 sets of these Terra Strata Botswana agate coin earrings yesterday. I've always loved this stone. The natural banding is there to satisfy the geology/chemistry geek in me, and what's more, it's found in very subtle neutral tones which is perfect because I don't like things that scream for attention. And I am obviously still in my patina phase, as you can tell.


The minty pink Eden Hoops sold out quickly for some reason... is it something about that colour combination or do people just like pastel pink? Or pastel pink flowers?? Anyway, I don't have any more even if I wanted to list them (that is why they were very LE and why, if you want an LE or OOAK item, get it the moment you see it :P), so I've put up a new colour - Eden Hoops in coral pink and golden brown swirls. Also in another fruity hue are the Muscat Earrings in aventurine, sporting a very pretty and calming shade of green. Here's a story - I was doing my photoshoot and clumsy ol' me knocked over the prop, a matte black earthenware sake cup, and of course it shattered my heart along with itself. Almost unperturbed, I picked up one of the shards and draped the earrings over it. But it will have to go. It's not a stable prop and it has sharp edges!


Last but not least, I've been browsing around Etsy (as you do) and finding it hard to resist all the lovely jewellery out there - yes, even though I don't wear much, it's insane, really - so I gathered them up and made sure I snagged a treasury spot when it came up the other day (learnt my lesson with the CNY one). Check it out... all this stuff is absolutely gorgeous and SO utterly covetable. Patrick Irla in particular was a great find; I want his hydrangeas so bad and I don't even care if that sounds wrong LOL!


Oops, this post turned out longer than expected... and here I am still sitting with my damp hair in a towel. I have no doubt it will dry funny as it's been left that way far longer than necessary. Ner-night now!

More new goodies to show you... the Seraphim Bracelet in particular features a plump golden rutilated quartz specimen (which can't really be seen in this shot but I have taken a couple of closeups) and a large variety of gemstones like aquamarine, turquoise, amazonite, yellow opal and freshwater pearls. Lovely palette to go with your neutral clothes. The Athena Earrings feature the cutest 9mm baroque coin pearls, which I think is just the right size and texture - smaller than most coin pearls so they don't overwhelm your face and with an interesting grain that goes well with the antiqued brass accents.



These, as well as the Eden Hoops and Cherubim Bracelet from yesterday, have already been listed in store :)

Back to work!

Today was the first day back at "work" for me after the long(ish) Chinese New Year holiday break. And although I'm supposed to be working on commissions and planned designs, I got distracted (as usual) and did a few more pieces to add to my growing Rustic Charm collection.

Here are two of them which I managed to photograph this afternoon. It was a bit cloudy and then got too dark for me to do the rest, which I'll attempt tomorrow morning.



Are they "springy" or "Eastery"? :) There are 2 one-of-a-kind bracelets and 2 pairs of limited edition earrings, which will be available at my Etsy shop shortly. Stay tuned...

This post has been updated from the sneak preview a few days ago :)

I got a new shipment of brass supplies a couple of weeks ago and have finally started to think about using them! And I don't really care that they look like an autumnal collection (well it's coming up autumn in the southern hemisphere, right?) - I'm so pleased with them. These pieces are the start of a new series featuring affordable trinkets in Vintaj antiqued brass for that distinctive rustic flair.


Glencoe Earrings - Oh, bonnie Scotland. I love the place, and wouldn't mind going back especially to stay a little longer at Glencoe. It is windswept, isolated and unreservedly rugged. Perfect ingredients for a loner/nature buff like me. These earrings are similarly rugged and kind of have this "lonely" feel. They just do. Must be those blue-green glass pods.

Ambleside Earrings - I have actually visited Ambleside twice in my life; once to stay during a school trip, and the other time for a trip down that particular memory lane when we were staying in nearby Windermere. The Lake District is such a special place with loads of walking trails along which tumbling waterfalls, lush vegetation with carpets of wildflowers and farmed livestock can be discovered.

- OK, this is where the holiday brochure ends LOL -

Clementine Earrings - Well, who can resist clusters of gemstones, right? And it being this near to Chinese New Year, these are done in an utterly festive and juicy orange shade of carnelian. Just look at them... they positively glow. I think they'll look great on all skin tones, and because they're petite, the bright clusters won't overwhelm.

Flint Hoops in antiqued brass - Brass has a different shade of yellow from gold. Sometimes it looks more greenish, sometimes more orangey. I've used pure brass wire that was antiqued with a dark brown patina, formed the hoops, hammered in the flinty facets and polished it up a bit. Not quite as bright as the 14K goldfill version, these are a little more "matte "and organic-looking.

These earrings are all available in my jewellery boutique as well as Etsy shop. I hope you like them, and stay tuned for more :)

P.S. Any comments about the photos and styling? Are they too "in your face"?

Made from more supplies that have been languishing away - I recently realised I hadn't touched my brass findings for a long time and that the brass-based items in my shop had been depleted. Also, I happen to have too much Swarovski crystal lying around from previous impulse buys. Fortunately, the two pair well together. I thought so, anyways, when I made these last Thursday. Swarovski crystal has rich colour and faceting that make for guaranteed perfect sparkles every time, unlike natural gemstones which can occasionally be irregular and lacklustre. Antiqued brass lends old-world charm and enhances the richness with a comforting and earthy warmth.


From L-R, top to bottom:

Vernal Vestige - In addition to the Swarovskis and brass, I have a small stash of vintage beads I've been wondering about (I've kind of stopped collecting them already). I'd used these lucite flowers in a couple of necklaces but the large 18mm size always put me off. But they are really quite pretty, with 3D detail and a luminous wax-like appearance. So I tried to streamline them a bit by adding a splash of Pacific Blue Opal and attaching a briolette. One-of-a-kind because I don't have any more lucite roses.

Panopeia - Indicolite must be my favourite Swarovski shade. It's a gorgeous teal-ish blue whose tone I find suits antiqued brass/gold colours pretty well. Randomly bundled up in a mass of complementary blue, green and bronze shades, dangling from those versatile hammered hoops I love. I certainly hope the earrings bring to mind the sea's broad panorama and whose nereid they were named after! One-of-a-kind because I don't think I can exactly replicate the placement of the dangles...

Nesaie - Never thought I'd buy AB-finish crystal because they were always too iridescent for me, but I had to for a custom order. The good thing about them, I suppose, it they add a really big punch in terms of sparkle because those facets are extra reflective. Featured also are the last Peridot cubes from when I was making Absinthe. Named for the nereid of the islands, largely because of the lush green and blues, and the AB colours reflecting the diversity of island life. One-of-a-kind because I don't think I can exactly replicate the placement of the dangles...

Muguet - Another hoop-and-dangle ensemble. I always prefer the doodad placed below the hoop as it makes for a more elongated and universally flattering shape. Imagine a person with a round face wearing hoops that face forward... sigh. I do try to make my designs wearable!

And there you have it. Proof that I subconsciously work in collection/group-based phases after all. Aaaargh...