Imperial Bauble by Julie Ashford - a Christmas gift for a friend

After a very lengthy ordeal with a very incompetent estate manegemtn agency, one of my colleagues exchanged on her brand new house a few weeks ago. I was so excited for her!

I really wanted to do something special for her, she's easily one of my favourite people. So when I saw Julie Ashford's brand new Imperial Bauble design pop up on Bead and Jewellery Magazine, I couldn't resist. I knew it was the perfect thing.

During the early making stages, I quickly fell in love with this medieval colourway

After ordering a kit from Spellbound Bead Co in the frosty white colourway (will totally make a gorgeous wedding gift for the next pair I know that gets married post-November), I got delving into colour options. I know my most popular colourways are always based on a custom order - usually colours I wouldn't normally put together.

So when this lovely lady said she was decking her new halls with red and grey, I set to buying every silver and red bead imaginable - whether it was needed for this stunning pattern, or not!

Like, I've never seen Game of Thrones, but this is Game-of-Thronesy, right?

I ended up going for a red bauble, with red Swarovski crystal rivolis and pale grey rondelles. And from the bottom of my stash I'd dug out some gunmetal-coloured size 8 beads to set the whole thing off. At least, I thought they were size 8's...

To form the curvature of the waves around the bauble netting, a variety of different seed bead sizes are used. I've nmever had more respect for Julie Ashford as I now do, having made one using one bead in the wrong size.

The superduos stand upwards like a crown around the bauble ring

The result of my aforementioned error, was such that the mesh barely fitted around the bauble. Swarovski rivoli backs are foiled, pointed and a little sharp. So the result of squeezing this poor little bauble into the netting, was unsurprisingly, scratches all over the bauble. Doweth.

To shield my lucky recipient from this clunky incompetence, I used some beading glue to hold the rivolis in place over the embarassing scratches.

Totally worth it. I'm thrilled with the finished result.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, even if the other half decided that it looked like 'something the devil would hang on his Christmas tree'. Why would the devil have a Christmas tree in the frikking first place??!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Freddie

Fossil hunting in Durdle Door, England - an attempt

As a child I collected seashells (which alarmingly back then also included corals - thank gooness that doesn't happen any more!). And spent many a summer on the Isle of Wight - which is chock-full-o-fossils.

I've always loved nature, I guess - now working at ZSL London Zoo, I'm famously the only weirdo in the office more interested in the bee species flying around the Zoo than the large mammals on show. And proudly so.

My unloved wide angle camera lenses got a real run for their money with this breathtaking scenery.

 A trip to UNESCO world heritage site Durdle Door, on the southern Jurassic Coast of England, seemed right up my alley. Foraging for hundreds-of-millions-of-years-old remnants of aquatic creatures against a backdrop of night skies glittering with stars away from light pollution? It wasn't a hard ask.

I love seeing England anyway. I'm not enamoured by sweaty sunburnt trips abroad.

We booked 5 nights at a camping pod (even the park owners seemed surprised by that decision) with nothing but a few books, a chess set, my camera and of course each other, to keep ourselves amused of an evening.

Venturing south in October meant we pretty much had the park to ourselves

It was fantastic. Upon arrival we couldn't wait to make the short (but incredibly steep) hike down to the beach to see what we could find.

The beach is filled with rocks to investigate

We spent several hours in our wellies bashing through chunks of chalk on the beach, picking up pebbles and chucking them back. By the time the tide turned to come in, we'd found nothing.

Or at least, we thought we hadn't.

Several days after returning, we had a squiz round Google and found that the markings on nearly every stone we found were indicative of treasured trilobites within. If only we'd bothered to look at how to find fossils before we went.

It's our style to chance things, and I've since found a fabulous forager on eBay who knows what she is doing. Thankfully she is a frequent finder and is able to supply me for my handmade fossil jewellery. Sadly the vision of my finding my own, was short-lived!

This Jurassic Coast fossil had a small hole at the centre which I plugged with an emerald Swarovski crystal.

You should know that there are plenty of tours on offer with fossil-finding experts while you're down on the Jurassic Coast. While I haven't tried one, anything has got to be better than the nothingness we experienced! Give it a go. We had fun regardless but it would be all the more rewarding to actually come back with a find!

Freshwater pearls you need in your life

I'm not a big fan of pearls. I mean, I am. I admire them mainly from afar. But where my go-to necklace is a black onyx choker that I wear pretty much every day, when it comes to me choosing colours it's go dark or go home.

That being said, I do find myself staring at a string of glowing ivory beauties when someonepairs a string with a vintage 50's dress, or better still, jeans and sneakers.

Classic freshwater pearl necklace on 925 sterling silver push clasp

When I first bought pearl beads, I bought them because I'd seen a necklace that I fell in love with, and planned to make one myself.

I wanted it, and I wanted to recreate it. And when I did it, it was worth it.

I can honestly say that when I did finally get around to learning how to string them (some 4 years later after many failed attempts), the finished pearl necklace was ten times better than the lacklustre original I'd spotted in a jeweller's.

I was amazed at the variety of natural shades available. Pearls really are amazing.

It is always my habit to follow a successful project by binging on materials as if I were going to repeat the process ten times over, which nearly never happens. This particular bead binge really opened my eyes to some of the pearl colours available.

I don't know why, but I'd always presumed it was just white and black that was available. I hadn't considered anything in between.

I adore these pale silver pearls. I have visions of a bride wearing them with a crisp white dress and simple silver earrings.

What helped me fall lustfully in love with the above pale grey pearls, was their perfection in shape and colour. I have never liked gold, I'm very much a silver girl, and these really speak to me.

I reckon a group of bridesmaids would look stunning wearing these with a satin grey simple gown. They'd look amazing!

This filigree stirling silver clasp really sets off these unusual dark blue pearls.

And then the colours available in dyed versions are endless. Usually dyed using potatoes, look out for red, black peacock and even navy blue pearls. Just as authentic as the natural peach, cream and grey shades, these pearls are arguably more modern, vibrant and open the door to some major custom options.

What colour would you go for?