The film in question was Stryknine and Old Lace, a Frank Capra Halloween comedy with Gary Grant and a couple of old dotties. May I present, Stryknine on the left, Old Lace on the right.

Both are made with my ole true and tried favourite ever rope technique, ie 2A+B, 3A+B in complementary colours. It's nice and lacey and has a nice amount of air to it, so that the rope doesn't get too poncy and grannyish.

Swarovskis, fresh water pearls and silk are go as per usual procedure. Stryknine has some lovely Tabac bicones, and Old Lace Morion AB. I think I got these rather strange but lovely colours from an sale a year ago, and they may, unfortunately, be unavailable these days. I don't usually go for fancy treatments, as I don't know how to handle the over the top blinginess, but I think I got a nice balance between over-the-top and understated here.

Daily Bling is made from coffee jasper, black seed beads and crystal rondelles just stuffed on a wire. Although not my usual style, this looks quite good accessorized with t-shirt and jeans.

Welcome to my Jungle Palace. 6mm Palace Green Swarovski 5000 and sterling links from Bali with just plain sterling. I love this colour, it's misty and mysterious and very, very green. Also one of the very few sets I've made lately. I don't generally do bracelets as I don't wear them often, but the necklace required one, and who am I to say no.

Here's a teaser, just in case these people win (or lose, depending on how you see it) at the Karma lottery and find my blog.

Sterling silver & amethysts. Also my first attempt at patina, which unfortunately stayed kind of spotty at places, but I thought it sort of adds to the bohemian look of the set. And I couldn't figure out how to unspottify it.

Kind of symbolic to the whole marriage business, too, I think. As long as the love is there, it's not perfection that counts, but affection, commitment and effort. Giving it some time will help.

Typewriter key cufflinks. No actual old typewriters were mutilated in the production of this product. Silver plated parts, polyresin cabuchons. This photo is from the phase when things got stuck but were not yet completed, as these are gifts and the receivers are very internet-savvy. Still, kind of nifty already, innit?

Hence, I've found I love some lampwork beads, but I'm still struggling with composing them into jewelry.

My first lampwork bead ever was a present from Maikki of Helmitaulu. Dainty was completed by sterling silver parts and 4mm black Jablonex. I made this just before Christmas, so the sterling has taken a bit of patina already. I think a semi-dark patina will suit this one very well.

This Feathery one I was given by Lea, a friend in bead with an awesome eye for colour and proportion. I strung it together with palest baby blue fresh water pearls I got from another friend  to bring out the purples and some Bali silver beads duplicating the featheriness of the glass bead. Somehow, the necklace reminds me of an albino peacock.

Gusty was also given to me by Lea, and it is divine. Also horribly hard to work with, I spent a good few hours in ordering matching seed beads and trying different compositions to make the lampwork bead shine. In the end I had a nice rummage in my bead stash and found these matte dark sapphire 4mm glass beads. They don't match at all, and that, as well as their matte surface makes them disappear to the beackground very pleasantly. I then only needed to add a couple of complimenting Bali silver beads to compliment the design of the glass bead and give a little light.

I'm so greatful for having such awesome and talented friends. Another of the wonderful blessings of this silly little hobby.

Which is why I also love colour changing jewelry. This alexandrite crystal one's all the more fun, as it's got an intaglio of a dragon. Lots of spirit in a sizeable crystal chunk and a very nasty piece to portrait.

Trixy on sunshine. Constructed from said crystal slab, sterling, Beadalon wire, alexandrite bicone rondelles and almost round grey fresh water pearls.

Trixy in cold light.

Trixy in warm light.

Didn't I get stupendously lucky with those crystal rondelles? They match really well although they are 2/3 of the pendant's thickness, tops.
This one's going to be awesome to wear in a candle-lit dinner or any other occasion when it'll bathe in two shades of light at the same time.

So one day, as I was re-reading "A Game of Thrones" for the second time, inspiration struck. Weirwood heart tree. I need to get me one. Sterling for the eerie white tree, and tumbled garnet chips for the red leaves and and haunting red dried sap eyes. I've done "Tree of Life" pendants before, so I know how to make one, but of course the design needed to be extraordinary, weirwoodlike.

I read the books for descriptions of the trees, here's the first one, p. 23 of "A Game of Thrones" (Bantam Spectra, 2005): "At the center of the grove an ancient weirwood brooded over a small pool where the waters were black and cold. "The heart tree," Ned called it. The weirwood's bark was white as bone, it's leaves dark red, like a thousand bloodstained hands. A face had been carved in the trunk of the great tree, its features long and melancholy, the deep-cut eyes red with dried sap and strangely watchful. They were old, those eye;s older than Winterfell itself. They had seen Brandon the Builder set the first stone, if the tales were true; they had watched the castle's granite walls rise around them. It was said that the children of the forest had carved the faces in the trees during the dawn centuries before the coming of the First Men across the narrow sea."

Then I googled for inspirational, yet natural shapes. Let the idea brew and take shape quietly in my subconscious for a half a year or so.

Then, I realised GRRM was coming to appear as a Guest of Honor to Finncon, the biggest Finnish SF and Fantasy convention. I simply had to give him one, as he has given me so much, and I wanted to thank somehow. Thus, materialization time.

Mine is the one on the left, it's a pendant I made as a test version. The oval pendant shape was so feminine, that I decided to make a round pin for GRRM instead. It's always very awkward for me to give any of my trinkets to anyone, and I pretty much fled the scene in an agony of timidity and greatfulness after I handed my version of a weirwood heart tree over, but I later found out he and his companion-in-life both liked it very much. In fact, on Sunday he had pinned it on his hat as a cockade, which I found amaizingly smashing.

It's definitely been one of the greatest weekends I'll ever live through.

This idea has been waiting for its manifestation since Christmas 2008, when I got the fresh water pearls in a swap. The final push was given by the theme for this months Helmetti challenge, "b & w", to which I entered the piece 7 minutes before the deadline. It's real tough to let go, sometimes.

Black tie is compiled from 3,5mm and 2,5mm white fresh water pearls and a fairly large and heavy faceted black onyx pendant on Accu-Flex. Sterling parts, naturally. I meant to knot it on silk, but the heftiness of the pendant would have soon stretched the silk, so I decided to give up on the glamour a bit for the sake of longevity. 

I really do like the tension between the heavy and light here, as well as the architectural art deco shape. It's also surprisingly versatile, looking good with a t-shirt as well as a fancy top or a jacket (yes, I tried). And what do we learn from this (again)?  Shiney things look so much better on than in a stash it's really quite a crime against pretty to marinade.

However, here's a double feature regarding summer weather here in the north. Unfortunately the latter has been in short supply this summer.

After rain is a middling-length rope made of green keshi, faceted clear quartz and a sterling toggle assembled in wire. It's one of my most favourite pieces ever, and some of its luster has lately been tarnished (though not permanently I hope) with sun screen.

Delight is one of the oldest and dearest briolette necklaces I have and I still wear it weekly. It's just lemon quartz on sterling chain, but it looks like permanent rays of sun on one's neck. Love it.