Bullfinch in the Winter Forest glass art panel Nature inspired desk decor

Winter’s beauty captured in glass ❄️✨ This fused glass piece, inspired by a serene winter forest, features a charming bullfinch perched on a branch. The matching wooden stand, is made by my hubby 🥰

  To see more of my fused glass creation click here

Bullfinch in the Winter Forest glass art panel Nature inspired desk decor

One of my fused glass creations inspired by winter forest ❄️❄️❄️ the matching wooden stand is made by my hubby 🥰

 

Owl necklace solid copper owl pendant on leather cord. Handmade pagan style jewelry by Arctida.

Here is my latest piece of jewelry made of metal clay. This time I decided to try copper clay and make a pretty owl pendant.

I textured, polished, fired and polished again the pendant by hand. To highlight the texture I selectively applied patina and as a finishing touch I sealed with Renaissance Wax, a jewelry grade wax to preserve the colors and protect the pendant against further oxidation.The pendant is threaded with black leather cord and fastens with a solid copper lobster clasp and extension chain.

What is Copper Metal Clay? A unique form of pure copper (mainly composed of recycled copper particles) suspended in an organic binder. In this clay-like state it allows metal clay artists to form and sculpt metal clay by hand. When fired at high temperatures by torch or in a jeweler's kiln, the binder burns off and the metal particles are fused together. The result is a one-of-a-kind pure copper piece (99.9%).

Morticia - Black feathers earrings in Sterling Silver. Handmade gothic jewelry costume cosplay jewellery by Arctida

Halloween!
Soon lots of witches, ghost, zombies and famous characters from movies will gather all around town, go trick or treating, scaring each other and compete in costume contests! Once a year you get to see your friends in a whole different way, funny or scary, either way you have lots of fun! and seeing all the kids dressed as Frankenstein’s monster, tiny ghosts and princesses, is such a cute sight!

My sister told me about a book, where the girl makes her own costume for Halloween, by making wings out of faux feathers and painting them black. With a black dress and her wings she became something of a ”crow-queen”. That story inspired me to make a pair of crow feather-earrings (well my earrings are made out of black rooster feathers, but you get the idea!) perfect for any respectable witch on Halloween :)

Just like my previous feather design (Diana - Guinea Hen feathers earrings) I had to make them big and bold in order to be seen underneath that pointy hat that any respectable witch have to wear :) I chose different lengths, sizes and shapes of black feathers, combined them into a 3D shape and wrapped with sterling silver wire. Afterwords I attached my feather clusters to sterling silver lever-backs to make them more comfortable to wear. and ta-da my second design for feather earrings is born :)

Diana - Guinea Hen fowl feathers earrings in Sterling Silver. Handmade ethnic tribal design jewelry by Arctida

You know those big Native American headdresses? With long feathers, giving that majestic and wise look?

Most of the time the feathers came from eagles, but crow and hawk feathers were also used. But the eagle was the most significant source of feathers, and the warriors of many tribes had eagle feathers in their headdresses, symbolizing the accomplishments in battle.

The feathers were not only used to show status among the people in the tribes, they were also used as ornaments in clothes and plain decoration, like the dream catcher (The dream catcher were originally made to protect the sleeping children of nightmares; the bad dreams would get caught in the web of the dream catcher and be gone by the morning.). They were also used for ceremonial and religious causes, and what kind and how many feathers a person wore could tell a lot about him. The Indian chief always had more feathers in his headdress than anyone else had in the tribe.

Today people still use feathers, like decorations, hair-extensions, necklaces and earrings in many lengths and colors. Perhaps they don’t have any religious meaning and won’t point out an important individual, but they are still an important accent of one’s style.

and how can one not get inspired by all those different textures, colors and patterns that feathers have?! That exactly what happened to me :) When I saw the pretty polka dot Guinea Hen feathers for the first time I just had to make something! In order to show all the beauty of Guinea Hen feathers it had to be big, statement-like piece of jewelry.While working with the feathers I realized that they have two different kind of patterns. Big and bold white dotted feathers and feathers with smaller dots and lighter background. I decided to mix them both to get a sort of balance, the way they look in the nature. I chose several different lengths of the feathers, combined them into 3D shape and wire wrapped them with sterling silver wire. Afterwords I attached my feather clusters to sterling silver lever-backs to make them more comfortable to wear.

So here come my first design with feathers, I think they came out very pretty, don't you guys? :)