Ice and snow

Today it snowed again.
I made this brooch around a large opalite, surrounded it with all kinds of white and glistening beads, used several edging stitches. It's cold. But the next leaf I make will be green, spring will come, it will!

Tiger!

The reason I wanted to make this brooch is a sad one. The Dutch government decided to ban exotic animals from circuses. Those beautiful animals, that are NOT from the wild but come from generations of human raised animals, the ones that gave me such a shiver of delight and admiration as a child, and made me sigh with awe as an adult, are no longer part of the Dutch circus. Especially the tigers I will miss, and the incredible cooperation they have with their trainer (often the one who raised the tiger from very young, playing with it, feeding it, creating a bond of trust and love that is the base for true animal training). Circus animals are NOT wild animals. And they would not survive in the wild.
That said, here is the brooch. The tiger head comes from a toy, I added some firepolished beads of unclear origine and some swarovski crystals for good measure.

On top a mother of pearl bead, underneath a faux opal. Backed with black suede leather, base metal brooch pin finding.

And yet again, earrings...

It's so much more fun to play with rivolis than I thought! And the results are always so glamorous!
Here is another pair, I had two more emerald rivolis that needed to be used. This time embellished with small glass pearls. I really like them.

Again, earrings!

These are the evil twins of the previous pair. I love emerald green, it's such a luxurious yet dangerous colour!

Bling!

These are not exactly 'from beyond'. In fact, they're a classic. But I just wanted to make these, probably because of the holiday season and all the blingy shiny lightcatching things that go with that.

Swarovski rivolis, and lovely rose quartz briolettes. Princess earrings!

Eye and tooth.

Just finished this one yesterday! A brooch. Glass cabs, assorted seed beeds. The copper studs are beadcaps, I love them as accent beads.