"Castles and ruins and really old things."

Thats what our boys said they wanted to see when we asked them how we should plan for our trip to the UK. In the past 10 days I think we've delivered with 7 castles, a priory, 2 churches and topping it off with a stone circle yesterday afternoon. (Of course that isn't even counting all the ruins you can see while just driving around or while on the train.)

Bamburgh Castle

If you have all the money to build a castle, who wouldn't put it right on the beach? Ok, yeah, pretty good for defending the coast too. 

Samuel said "oh my gosh Mom don't ever breathe on this table." See said table below. 

I love textures - spent a while studying the cracks in this rock on the beach. 

I see jewelry

I love limpet shells but have never collected any quite this large. I feel sure a new necklace will come from this afternoon of beach combing.

I love the subtle colors, textures and shapes of these limpet "hollow beads". 

I collect ideas of jewelry inspiration with a bunch of other creative folks on my Pinterest board "I see jewelry" where we post images of things, nature and objects that make us think of jewelry. You can follow us here if you like. 

And today we're off to Edinburgh for Samuel's long awaited first "real" train ride, museums, cafes and shops. Have a great weekend! See you on Monday with a post about our favorite castle…so far. 

Across the pond - photo diary

Six days into our trip to the UK and we've already done and seen so much. We're taking the day today to have a slow down, write some postcards, (the old fashioned kind) and do some washing here in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the most northerly town in England. 

Our view of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a walled city and the most northerly town in England. 

We love the city early evening when shops are closed and pubs are yet busy. 

Lion House and allotments 

Ben's collection on the beach at Spittal.

Summer holiday

My Etsy shop will be closed from June 17 through June 30 while my husband and the boys and I are in the UK. We're fortunate to have our daughter and my parents to man the fort, weed the garden, care for the dog, and each other, while we're away.

You can read about our multi-generation household in the most recent issue of Alphabet Family Journal as they've published a short, candid piece our daughter wrote about a year ago. Ema's writing is excellent, clean and pleasing and I can tell she genuinely appreciates how she's been raised.

I'll be blogging and posting to Facebook a bit while we're away, when internet allows. The rest of the time I'll be wading in tide pools and hiking Hadrian's wall, sketching castles and wandering the moors…or something like that.

Doubled shorter "cocoon bead" necklace…still working out a clasp. 

Another pair of convertible earrings - these are just two sided.  Waiting on my work table until I get home. 

New Convertible earrings

I have some new convertible earrings going in the shop today and I expect to get another pair posted over the weekend.

I really enjoy these abstract shapes. I think you see my fondness for Rex Ray coming through a bit.  

Each part is two sided and slips on and off sterling silver tube hoop earrings (sturdier than the wire ones I've been using).  So every component can be worn alone or in combination with either side of the other parts. All the pieces work together.

I think I've figured correctly that this makes for twenty some different combinations. I make the parts - the wearer chooses how they'll wear them. Art jewelry that interactive ;-)

Clean up

I'm clearing out and cleaning up before I close the shop and leave for vacation next week. I've posted some components and beads for sale and they'll be more listed today. Everything is one of a kind sorts of things that were made while I was trying out a technique or color combination or something like that.

Earring components or maybe even necklace components

medium and large carved beads

I'll be "across the pond" for 3 weeks but the shop will probably only be closed for two…but more on that later.

Less is more

I'm making some smaller version of my buoy earrings. The aqua ones are the original size - and their not really very large. But I wanted some even smaller ones now that my hair is super short again. Let me know what you think.