Woodwose

 My new Greenman Bottlecap Pendant on Etsy:

Woodwose is the ancient "Green Man" of the forest. It literally means, "the woods are alive". "Wuduwasa" in Anglo-Saxon.

I love images of Woodwose. This is a 15th century tapestry depicting him.

Viking Knit

My new obsession... Viking knit. I just can't stop. It's so addictive. I have also become obsessed with making little end caps for my pieces. I was dissatisfied with store bought caps. They were too cone shaped and didn't transition well. So make your own I thought! Aren't they sweet?

To purchase go to: http://www.etsy.com/shop/melissamanley

I've also spent hours on line looking at examples of Roman woven gold chain and Viking chains in many of the Viking hoards found in England.

Cool images abound, such as this image from 1389 of drawing wire:

I even found this image of an ancient Viking drawplate, used to compress the knitted tubes of wire, found in the town of Sigtuna, situated in Lake Mälaren just west of Stockholm:

And this one from Gotland:

This Viking era knitted chain is in the British Museum:

This image is actually an Roman era chain of gold from the Hoxne Hoard in England. Lovely example of knitted wire:

And a yummy image of the Cuerdale hoard. These chains appear to be loop-in-loop and other types, but isn't the stamping cool? ya just gotta love history!

And I've lost track of where I found this image :-(

New Work on Etsy

https://www.etsy.com/shop/melissamanley

New Faerie Pods in my Etsy shop!

These are two new pairs of my Faerie Pod earrings. They're made out of sausage casings!

New Friends

I recently have made a few new friends on Etsy. I've spent probably way too much time admiring other folks work. I love simple cool design, or a brilliant cold connection method, or ingenious wirework. So, Beatnheart and I traded this week! So much fun!!!! I recieved these:

I love how they are simple materials, steel wire, ingeniously connected. I love the ancient, relic like quality. Can't wait to wear them to work! New acquaintances that are birds of a feather make the world seem so much smaller!

New Things!

New items in
my Etsy shop!

New Obsessions

clay.....
well, it's not exactly new for me. Right after undergrad, back in the late 80's, I spent four years going to ceramics class two nights a week through extended ed at our local community college. LOVED it.
But once the metal/jewelry bug began I only rarely busted out the stoneware, until now! I recently became enamored of some of the etsy shops I see that have AWESOME clay

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jdaviesreazor

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChelleV2

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TinasBeadMind

http://www.etsy.com/shop/greybirdstudio

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyFallout

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RaggedRobyn

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vLaDtHeBaT

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScorchedEarthonEtsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/gabriel

I just can't say enough how I adore all these Etsy shops! So I went out and bought myself a couple of different clays. A terra cotta red and a dark chocolate stoneware. I've been making beads and here they are!

I realized in the process of giving them their patinas that colors were all around me in my workroom, some yarns I've yet to make anything of and journal pages from this past fall:

Amusing

Thought this was both amusing and fitting with the new year:

New Year Challenge

Two of my favorite people have a challenge in the works! Check out Coast 2 Coast Creative
Artists and friends Jenny Davies-Reazor and Cooky Schock plan to follow along and do each lab in my book Jewelry Lab in the coming year. What FUN! Wanna come along for the journey????
I can't guarantee your safety... but I can guarantee you won't be the same! ;-)
(In fact, I believe it takes Bilbo almost 52 weeks to get to the Lonely Mountain and deal with Smaug!)

The Hobbit!

My family and I have been preparing for the local premiere of The Hobbit for the last month. We both made and purchased costumes. I admit I was slightly worried about being the only nerds dressed up, but that was not the case! Here's some pictures from the premiere last night. I made the crown for my daughter out of Nugold a type of jeweler's bronze.  It was pierced with a jeweler's saw, chased and cold connected. And I studded my belt with etched cinquefoils (I'm the gray old lady on the end in navy), and I repousse'd (is that a word?) and enameled the leaf pin that my daughter's boyfriend, 'xcuse me that Frodo, is wearing. Gee whiz, it was fun!

New Stuff for Cyber Monday!

Lots of fun new stuff in my Etsy shop go take a look!