Creating my Logo

 Lately I have been trying to develop my brand to match the jewellery I have been making. I wanted to have a logo that felt earthy, yet high quality. At first I designed the logo below, and although I like the use of primitive patterns which make it look almost talismanic, it's a little busy for me!

I decided I wanted to have something more simple, perhaps some text with a small botanical drawing of some seaweed. I wanted to use seaweed because not only does it relate to the seaweed and buddleia bioplastic I have been making, but it could be linked to the sea and my recycled sea glass earrings. Here are some of my seaweed drawings!

I used the knotted wrack drawing to create this logo design, and although it is more simple than the first attempt, I still didn't feel it was professional enough. 

I really like the uppercase letters of this font, and they remind me of old text printed on apothecary bottles. I think the apothecary theme suits my work well because of the scientific way that the bioplastic is made. I think it also suits the talismanic aspects of some of my jewellery. I love the logo design below because it has a lovely simplicity about it, and the font and drawing match the earthy/talismanic feel of my work. 

Perfect Sunday

What better way to spend a sunday afternoon? Cuddles with Mossy, spinning her wool, and dying it with indigo to use in my jewellery! Lush.

Angora Wool Bracelet

Recently I have been attempting to make jewellery using wool from my angora rabbit Mossy. Here are a couple of images of the results! I have dyed the wool (fairly unsuccessfully) with turmeric, beetroot and logwood, but am hoping to try more colourfast dyes such as indigo :)

Red Recycled Sea Glass Droplets

Hurray! After over 3 years of trying, I have finally managed to make red recycled sea glass droplets! Red is a very rare colour, and even when I do find it, it normally turns clear when melted. For some reason this one turned from a clear scarlet to an opaque coral colour.

Jewellery from Nature

I have been using seaweed to create biodegradable jewellery, however, by taking seaweed out of the natural landscape, I am taking away a resource that is beneficial to local wildlife. Although I was only using very small amounts, I decided to experiment with materials that either had a negative, or no impact at all on wildlife. These are wild clay, the invasive shrub buddleia, and wool from my angora rabbit Mossy.

Buddleia is a very common shrub in the UK, which outcompetes with native plants and destroys habitats. I initially attempted to drill beads into the wood using a specially designed drill bit, however, I have found it hard to find wood thick enough to do this with.

Then I decided to add the powdered buddleia wood to the seaweed bioplastic recipe I have been developing. The seaweed used to make the agar I use in the recipe, is grown specifically to make it, so I don't think I am depriving wildlife of I food source. 

I made this necklace using alternating three different kinds of buddleia and seaweed bioplastic. The yellow and red beads contain the powdered buddleia wood and are coloured with turmeric and beetroot. The black beads contain the blended leaves of buddleia, which makes them bright green when fresh, but become dark as they dry. 

I have also been using wild clay which I collect myself. The white clay is from a small stream leading into a Devon estuary, and the red clay (green when unfired)comes from Bristol.There is something so magical about finding clay in nature. It is so widely used in our daily lives, yet few of us realise we have this free resource right at our fingertips!

I made this test bracelet to show the beautiful contrast between the white Plymouth clay and the red Bristol clay. Although I used a clasp I had left over from a broken necklace, if I decide to make and sell more of these, I would use recycled silver to make it sustainable.

I also started rolling the clay into shaped beads, and dying them with natural plant dyes. My favourites to use are elderberry, logwood and turmeric!I have threaded them onto my handspun alpaca wool, which is not as fragile as angora wool, but not as itchy as sheep wool.

The other material I have been attempting to make jewellery from is wool from Mossy.I started making braided cords using her spun wool, dying some of it with the natural dyes.

I came up with this design to include the braided angora cord, and planed to dye the different parts with different natural dyes. As you can see from the bottom image, the colours did not come out as strongly as I hoped they would! In the future I plan to use some different darker dyes, as the grey colour of Mossy's wool makes the lighter ones slightly muddy.I will also think about other mordants I could use to help to mix the dyes. Thanks for reading! 

Jewellery made from Seaweed

Hello! I just thought I would update you on some of the jewellery I have been making recently. I have been focussing on using seaweed to create biodegradable jewellery, and have developed two ways to work with it: sewing the air pockets of Knotted wrack seaweed onto fabric, and making bioplastic beads using agar (made from red seaweed. Here are a few images:

This pendant was made by sewing knotted wrack seaweed air pockets onto velvet with silk thread. It hangs on a leather cord and is almost all biodegradable. I have created tear shapes from sea glass from

the same beach as the seaweed, which are sewn into the velvet, and although these are not biodegradable, they can be thrown into the sea once finished with, where they will slowly break back down into sand and become part of the landscape.

I made this bracelet using the sewn seaweed air pockets. To make this piece biodegradable, it is made from all natural materials: cotton, silk and angora wool from my rabbit Mossy.

Here are some samples of my seaweed bioplastic with different natural colours. The bottom left is turmeric, the bottom right is red cabbage, the top left is red cabbage and vinegar, and the top left is red cabbage and baking powder. I took a long time to develop this, with much experimentation and discussing smells, but have come up with a recipe that does not smell, and will not dissolve in water. It is also biodegradable.

These beads are made from the seaweed bioplastic.When they are fresh they are bouncy and shiny, however, once they dry, they become hollow and have a light catching quality.

Easy Blackberry Jam

What better a way to capture the joy and sweetness of summer than by making a jar of blackberry jam? There is something so comforting and luxurious about being able to have this rich deep crimson preserve on a cold winters day, smothered onto a slice of toast or stirred into rice pudding.

Despite the rain, I had a lovely walk and saw lots of other fruit ripening. Hopefully I'll be able to use some of them too later this month!

 Betty was having a great time jumping over long grass and chasing Ruby but she did NOT like the rain and once she got wet she refused to walk home so I had to carry her.

 The recipe I use is so unbelievably simple its hard to go wrong:

*1 Kg blackberries

*1 Kg jam sugar

*The juice of one lemon

First, I washed the blackberries and put them on the hob for about half an hour on a low heat, stirring occasionally.  Because I don't like to have too many lumps in my jelly, I blended the mixture at this point, and I often sieve the mixture to remove the pips, but I decided not to this year.

I then added the lemon juice and the jam sugar and once dissolved, boiled the mixture until the setting point was achieved. The way to do this is by dripping a small amount onto a refrigerated plate,  waiting for a few seconds (I usually blow on it) and then pushing it with your finger. If it wrinkles then it is ready to take off the heat and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

I poured this liquid into freshly sterilised jars and left to cool, much to the frustration of my little brother Ned who want to eat it strait away! I know from my own experience it is never a good idea to stick your finger in a freshly boiled batch of jam...

 Safely back in her bed, Betty is back to her normal bitey self after her rainy ordeal. Look at that tummy!