My jewellery box - part one: necklaces

I've been meaning to do this blogpost for a while, but finally, with a new year, I tidied my bedroom. In the process I found mangled jewellery in a terrible state that I wouldn't allow my shop to get into - so why do I allow my own jewellery box to get like this?! Tangled chains, some pendants without chains at all.

I had no idea that I had so much jewellery. I think this is due to the fact that I like to support every independent maker I can, so if I like a piece of handmade jewellery, I usually buy it without much thought, or better still swap something of mine for it.

I've photographed all my necklaces, as this is my absolute favourite item of jewellery, and have grouped them into rather random categories. I own, and make, more necklaces than anything, and usually this is all the jewellery I wear. I don't wear many rings, earrings etc, as I worry too much about looking like Pat Butcher.

These are all the pendants I have without chains - I've probably broken the chains, or merely removed them so they stop getting tangled. I was delighted to find these, as I thought I'd lost my goldfish heart and jammy dodger.

Made by
goldfish bowl - can't remember
russian doll - Plastic Bat
the rest are Peach Nia

This is the first piece of jewellery I made for myself. I've yet to wear it. I just liked how the lobster has what looks like a moustache

My necklace watches - when I photograph the rest of my jewellery you'll see I also have 2 wristwatches. I never wear any sort of watch.

Guitar watch - Claire's accessories
Cherry watch - somewhere online

A loosely related selection - items which are really old, I don't wear much, but I'll never get rid of.

Left to right:
Tokidoki ghost star
vintage wooden owl - dad gave me a stack of broken jewellery and I found these three shapes in it, and rebuilt the owl.
octopus - I've had this about 8 years now, and I never cease to be amazed at how popular this little octopus charm is. Regretsy have a whole thread about it.
Glass tile - I mentioned online I liked this, so Fiona bought it for me. The ribbon it's on is a bit rubbish, which is why I don't wear it much, cause I'm paranoid it'll break. Why don't I just replace it with chain? Because I only just thought of doing it...
Cupcake - Claudia got me this years ago - the chain is all tangled, but I really should untangle it and wear it again.

These are all made by indie designers
Left to right
gold jawbone - Sweet Delirium
Buttons - Paul Tipper
cupcake - Dinky Pretty Things
Paintbrush - zinc white - this is made from one of Ian's old paintbrushes
Lego skeleton - Tilly Mint
sprinkle heart - someone on Etsy about 10 years ago
charm necklace - made by Ron for my birthday about 8 years ago

These are together because they're all little necklaces - I said it was random
Left to right
scented gingerbread house - Plastic bat
little girl - gift from Rowan
dragonfly - gift from Fiona
Strumpet water bottle - from Shottle Bop

Name necklaces
left to right
'shitbag' - someone on TSUK a few years ago
red horror pesky - freebie from Punky Pin
purple pesky - Tatty Devine
Cupcake heart Pesky - Clutterfly
beaded pesky - can't remember, it's about 15 years old

Photographed together because people don't expect me to wear them - I don't usually wear hearts or flowers, but I love these wooden ones from Miss Selfridge and the black heart is one of the first things Ian's mum's bought for me.

These three are all together because they're more like decorations in my room.
Left to right
Stone is from Hornsea beach
Flowers are by Nanny May, and a gift from Katie. If I ever have longer hair again, I'm going to wear it as a hairband, because it's a slightly weird fit on my neck - or if I ever have less chins I'll wear it as a necklace again.

These are all my laser cut things.

Big owl, gin bottle and lollipop necklace - Tatty Devine
Fox and Luchador - Finest Imaginary
Pow - Kitschen Sink
cupcake - Medusa Bijoux

These are all things I've made for myself. 

On the left is a necklace Katie got for me, which I love so much I made a similar one with wooden and orange beads. I still wear the spotty one more often.

Coming soon - the rest of my jewellery...

How I come up with a character

I've been asked a few times how I come up with a character for my jewellery ranges, and I've never been able to tell them. Not because I'm keeping my cards close to my chest, but because I honestly don't know. I know Apis Mellifera arrived in my head during a car journey the day after watching The Prestige for the millionth time. I tend to think a lot anyway, but when driving, there is nothing for me to do but think. I arrive at my destination, and immediately start scribbling things down.

I'd already decided to do something with a doctor, because I'd seen an amazing necklace by Galibardy shaped like a stethoscope. So, on a long drive, I started thinking about Nicolai Tesla, and what other experiments he might have done. In the film he transports the main character from one place to another – I began to imagine he might have managed to transport other friends through time. So a time travelling doctor, who finds work as a magician, was the start of the Mellifera dynasty.

The introduction of a wife gave me scope for children, and as Scott agreed, the children would no doubt be twins. I've always had a thing for twins, not in a sexual way, which is partly why I fell in love with my husband (shallow?). So what were the children going to be like?

The first thing that happened was that someone accidentally called my friend Claudia 'Calusa'. This sounded like someones name, possibly a daughter. Apis had been named purely because I was drawing a lot of bees at the time, and Apis Mellifera is Latin for honey bee, whilst Millie was named after a woman at work who gave me a lot of buttons.

After that, all in the same week, Ian saved a photo of 'the northern lights' to the laptop, we watched QI with Professor Brian Cox, and I started drawing with wire for an exhibition in December. The wire loops and spirals started to look like planetary paths, especially when combined with large spherical beads which looked like planets. I imagined a softly spoken astronomer, describing the paths of planets with enthusiasm. Could he be Calusa Mellifera?

Everything kicked off this morning. Looking online Calusa is actually a Native American tribe, and so it was no longer right. So what to call him? I searched for 'astronomy' on Google images, and found photos of the Andromeda galaxy, which is a spiral, and references to Edwin Hubble, who Claudia's cat is named after – so the astronomer just had to be Edwin.

Now there was a name, and an occupation. As Apis and Millie were married in the 1920s, he'd be born around then, meaning by the time he was working, it would be about the 1950s. This is awesome, because I've been wanting to do something 50s related for ages, and was even annoyed with myself for making Apis travel forward to the 1920s instead of the 1950s.

So now comes the gathering of inspiration. I travel through the internet, following links, finding things out, and saving any picture which appeals to me. This morning, I followed a link from Edwin Hubble, and after reading about the doppler effect, somehow ended up looking at pictures of swans, as well as galaxies, spiral and otherwise, and planetary orbits. Somehow the two sorts of shapes complemented each other.

Finally, I thought about colour. I've been using this amazing chartreuse green wire for wire drawing, so I looked online to see why it's so named. It turns out the story behind chartreuse is better than anything I could come up with.

Chartreuse is named after a liqueur, which has been distilled since the 1740s by Carthusian monks. It gets its colour from the chlorophyll in the 130 herbs it contains. The monks started distilling it in 1605 after a mysterious manuscript was found by Marshal Francois Annibal d'Estrees (an employee of the French king Henry IV) with the recipe for an elixir said to promote a long life. It is still distilled now, in the same distillery as Genepi, a liqueur similar to absinthe.

So all the elements I need for a collection are in place. Now, like a liqueur, it ferments inside my head for a bit while I'm messing around with the photos I've saved, until suddenly, there's a rounding off story which brings it all together.

NAME – Edwin Mellifera

OCCUPATION – astronomy professor

TIME PERIOD – 1950s (particularly space race)

SHAPES – spirals, coils, swans

COLOURS - chartreuse

HISTORY – IE how it ties in with Apis

“In 1929, Millie finally fell pregnant. Due to the unforeseen time shifts created by Apis travelling forward, there were slight mutations, and the pregnancy was a multiple birth. In the 1920s, it was much more difficult for women to cope with prolonged labour, but Millie pulled through, although the babies were weak.

With his medical background, Apis developed a medical tonic using herbs, which was fed to both twins from the age of 6 months. He believed it would make them strong and live longer, but all he managed to do was further mutate his own children. The guilt he felt was what caused him to give up trying to live in the time period he had travelled to, and he began his long struggle trying to travel back to his own time.

Edwin's mutations were primarily positive. His tremendous intellect led him to Cambridge university in1948, where he studied Astrophysics, and he contributed to the 'space race', although on the side of the Russians, due to his father's background. He worked for Sergei Korolev on Object D, and assisted Gargarin in being the first cosmonaut.”

Here's the album of images