First Silver Necklace

So today I'm going to share with you the first piece of silver jewellery I ever made!


It all started at ARTE, the craft market where I often sell my jewellery.  There was a lady there who was advertising silversmithing courses that she was running at the Gold & Diamond Park.  My parents actually ended up buying me the course for Christmas the next month and I have never looked back since.
Deirdre was a fantastic teacher and I miss having her here to guide me!  A lot of the designs I do are not planned.  There is a picture in my head and I try to create it.  They don't always turn out like the picture in my head but I have to say, some of them are pretty good!!!
Dierdre always helped me with such designs by introducing me to new techniques and developing the ideas! She has since moved back to the UK but I still regard her as my mentor and teacher!

The necklace in the picture is the first piece os pure silver jewellery I ever created.  It can be worn long (pictured) or as a short double necklace.  I love this piece and will never sell it (There have been many offers).

Signature Necklace

I spend a lot of my time on, in or at least by the water.  Whether it be the beach or the pool I am generally within 50m of water at all times!!! Not always by choice but I wouldn't have it any other way!

The beach and the sea therefore serve as one of my main inspirations and it features a lot in my designs in the form of colours, materials or even just the shape of a piece.
The following necklace is a popular style that can always be found on my table at markets.  I usually include some kind of natural material in these designs.

It was a design I stumbled across while trying to make some necklaces that were not just strung beads.  They are so versatile and can dress up the simplest of outfits.  No two of these necklaces are ever the same.  This can be due to the chain that I use, the combination of beads and materials or even just the colour of the beads used.  The fact that they are unique, and affordable (starting at 200Dhs) is why I think these necklaces are so popular with my clients.

The beginning

I still have the first pair of earrings I ever made. 
It all started at a little place on the beach road that sold beads (not cheaply!). Two of my sisters and I went for the afternoon and I have to say I wasn't very creative about my choice of beads, or design for that matter.  However I must have caught some sort of bug as I went back.  Little by little I started to make pieces that people started taking notice of, and so, Teagan Jewellery (in it's earliest form) was born.

This is a photo I took today of a pair of earrings that inspired me to take my jewellery making to the next level.  These are the earrings that people started asking "where did you get them from? Where can I buy them?"  They are now about 6 years old, they are very well worn and battered.  However they still have all their charm.  The sound they make is fantastic! The jingling of the little base metal coins is such a cheerful one! I still use coins in a lot of my designs to date!
As much as I am moving forward with my designs, I still take inspiration from my early designs.  

The 12 Days of Christmas

So the Christmas tree is coming down nice and early this year, 4th January.  Some say you should take it down on the 6th/7th Jan (Epiphany), some say the 10th...the list goes on!  Ours usually stays up until it looks really sad!  So along with the tree go the decorations and this year our tree was adorned with various materials that I have used in my Christmas jewellery designs.
The wire bauble: 

But this year as well as the write bauble goes the perspex snowflake!

I couldn't decide which design to use this year so I got two made, in clear and white.  I loved how they came out.  So versatile.  

I of course, used them primarily for earrings, necklaces, but I also used them as card and tree decorations.

Can't wait for them to make an appearance next year!  So unless there's a demand for wintery pieces, majority of the snowflake jewellery will go in away until December 2011.

Simple Snowflake

Crystalline Snowflake

  

 

 

3rd January 2011

A New Year....a new reason to promise to myself that I'll be motivated this year, get skinny, be proactive, etc...
However, I'm going to try and keep it simple...no new years resolutions per se but I'm going to try and show you a new piece of jewellery everyday! 
It might be a new piece, a "vintage piece", a new design, a new inspiration. 


So today I'd like to present the first piece.  The piece I am most proud of from 2010.  I had the idea about 6 months previously but never really got around to making or even finishing designs for it!  So it came to December and usually my sisters are the hardest people to buy presents for but this year, I think, I came up with a really nice idea.  Something I hope they will really appreciate!
On one pendant, they're names in Arabic, and on the other the word "Ukhty" meaning my sister. 
Here is a picture of mine...

This afternoon myself, and my three sisters, as well as parents, partners and children are going to have some family photos taken (there is 11 people so far), so I have requested that the girls all wear theirs...do I need to explain why!