Substantial bracelets are hard to find, especially those which are made with beautiful maille patterns like byzantine, jens pind, romanov, trizantine.

There are machine made variations but the look and feel of such machine made versions are different from hand assembled ones.

These are made with 8mm jump rings in 16ga - solid silver

Tamarind

Working with the Burmese mines and cutters in these recent years had been a really interesting experience. Learning about the ins and outs of the Burmese Rubies and Sapphires has been a continual eye opener. I had been introduced to Burmese curries (excellent mix of spices - with a restrained hand in excessive spicing and salting - way superior to the Muslim curries and the Singapore curries we have here, in my view), the excellent all time snack of la phet, a chickpea based vermicelli soup Mouhinga (I'm spelling it phonetically as I cannot remember offhand how it was spelt), Oun Nau Khau Hswe (seafoodish noodle soup with refreshing lime).. the list goes on.

I am addicted to their fresh concoction of Tamarind juice... the incredible fresh mix of tangy sourness of tamarind with soothing sugar/honey. I believe this originated from a East African recipe but I'm not sure. It is perfect with crushed ice, especially on a hot summer night.

Whilst I'm still on the topic of Burma (Myannma) - you would have heard that the American Congress has renewed the Tom Lantos Block Burmese Jade Act of 2008 which prohibits the import of Burmese Jade and Rubies in full for any jade/ruby acquisitions since September 2008 (See : http://www.jvclegal.org/index.php?categoryid=310 for full details).

And back to tamarinds and hot summers.. I had the opportunity to create a pair of earrings named after my current obsession with the tamarind - simply named tamarind, these are made using fancy colored sapphires and oxidised sterling silver which had been extensively polished to a soft grey.

Some New Hoop Selections in 14k Goldfilled.

Been sitting at my bench hacking, filing, forming for an hour or so. Made a variety of hoops, could be findings, could be the end product. Sizes range from 0.75" to 1.5" for the selections shown. The gem featured is an aquamarine faceted drop.

Vasilisa (Василиса)

More Russian based pieces, this one is spun off the russian fairy tale called Vasilisa the Beautiful. In the fairy tale, Vasilissa is the heroine of a Russian fairy tale who starts out as a poor girl and ends up marrying the Czar. (You can read the fairytale here, link opens in another window : http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/babayaga/index.html. Beautiful story and certainly more spunky than Cinderella, more of a mix of Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin ).

Kofye (Кофе) & Galina

I've always liked the thought of thematic Russian designs for Fall & winter but I've never really done something to that inspiration. I decided to try my hand at it this time round, starting with Kofye & Galina.



These are part of the metallo range. Borosilicate glass. Sterling silver. Kofye is a hollow bead with dense streaks of deep browns, with green golden boro discs on 14k goldfilled wires and chain.

Galina is a calm mix of blues and greens encased in northstar clear. Sterling silver. Handmade hook clasp.

Rhiannon 2

Rhiannon 2 is one of those diminutive necklaces that just pops out and screams for attention.

I made a small sterling silver frame - about 15mm across, with a domed decorative loop below. Chain decoration.

slightly above 2" top to bottom.

Gemstones : whisky quartz, fancy sapphires, smoky quartz.

Amada

Just completed Amada, a pair of earrings for the MetalWeaver range which can double as a lovely pair of earrings for the bride. The inspiration for these come from a pair of bezel set earrings which a friend of mine wanted me to keep a look out for - apparently a client of hers lost one of the earrings and she was having a hard time trying to find a matched pair for them.