Goggo/Insect range – Baboon Spider

This Keepsakes range consists of insects (for the insect-lover!) to display as ornaments but some of them can also be fashioned into brooches. Hand-crafted with silver, copper, pewter, glass jewels and silver wire, each Goggo/insect can take 3 or more hours to make. Only materials of the highest quality is used and great attention is given to detail. Although the items should be treated with care, each item is strong and sturdy. These little animals are unique, one-of-a-kind designs not to be repeated.

Taking care and cleaning of your unique insect is as easy as scrubbing gently with a toothbrush and Sunlight Liquid and giving it a good rinse with cold water, drying gently with a soft cloth. A natural patina develops over time, adding charm to the item.

Each insect comes with a descriptive information card.

Ground-dwelling, these hairy spiders are among the world's largest, ranging from 2-6cm (body length). Various species exist in South Africa, all of them living in burrows. They have large fangs which can inflict an unpleasant bite, but without serious envenomation.

A collection of a few Goggos.

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A collection of art and jewellery

A collection of paintings and jewellery. The birds are painted in watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm.

The clock-face and orange jewel bracelet is from my "Keepsakes" range, as is the Pin Brooch with photographs and the necklace with photographs, lace and a rose petal.

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Black Stained Glass trinket box

Easy to make, this stained glass trinket box is constructed purely of flat panels of glass and soldered together, no curves or intricate patterns. The lid consists of one sheet of glass cut at an angle into four pieces and then soldered together, the bottom is one sheet of glass and the four sides are cut into strips and soldered onto the bottom sheet.

A single long hinge, constructed out of a copper metal tube with copper wire inserted through it, is attached to two copper wire rings soldered to the back of the box.

A flat piece of copper covered in solder is soldered to the front panel with a little wire hook for keeping the lid closed

A trinket box is also known by other terms such as jewel case or casket and has been used from medieval times on dressers to store anything from jewelry to all those little mementos such as photos and beads as well as precious ear rings, rings and anything else that has a priceless personal value to you.

You can read here on How Stained glass is made

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Blue flower brooch

A brooch hand-crafted out of blue glass beads, silver wire and solder. This is from my range of ‘Afrika Street Jewellery’.

Flower detail – blue glass beads held by silver wire with a solder centre

Detail of the leaves – one pink glass leaf and the silver leaves are made out of silver wire filled with solder

Back of the brooch

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Stained glass business card holder

Hand-crafted by myself

Materials used : Stained glass, clear window glass, silver wire, copper foil, solder

From my range of “Glass Art”.

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Clear Stained glass jewel brooch

A brooch hand-crafted from copper, crumpled into a pleasing shape, with a layer of black patina to give a vintage look. A clear stained glass jewel is used in the middle.

Back of brooch

Two brooches in different colours

Matching teardrop earrings with pin and butterfly

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Goggo/Insect range - Leopard Tortoise

A Leopard Tortoise hand-crafted with a shell, painted with oil paints, with soldered edge and feet. The head is a yellow glass bead.

Within my house of patterned horn
I sleep in such a bed
As men may keep before they're born
And after when they're dead.

Sticks and stones may break their bones,
And words may make them bleed;
There is not one of them who owns
An armour to his need.

Tougher than hide or lozenged bark,
Snow-storm and thunder proof,
And quick with sun, and thick with dark,
Is this my darling roof.

Men's troubled dreams of death and birth
Pulls mother-o'-pearl to black;
I bear the rainbow bubble Earth
Square on my scornful back
- Elinor Morton Wylie

Southern Africa is very fortunate to have the largest variety of animals in the world. It is home to more than 800 bird species, 150 mammal species, about 50 snake and lizard species, 11 tortoise species and thousands of invertebrate animals like insects and arachnids.

The Leopard Tortoise (or Mountain tortoise - Geochelone pardalis) inhabits a wide range of habitats, from dry Bushveld to moister coastal plains and is the most widely distributed and also the biggest of the 12 species of land tortoise found in Southern Africa. It is believed to take its name 'mountain' tortoise from its size rather than its habitat. ('Leopard' tortoise' comes from the black and yellow blotched patterns on its high-domed carapace.)

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Glass and wire mesh brooch

A shard of glass from a broken lampshade, wrapped in copper foil to enable soldering, and silver wire added to form a wire mesh. First I attached a thick copper wire circle and then wove the thinner silver wire around and through it to form the mesh. A coat of black patina was added to give a vintage look.

Back of the brooch

By changing the angle at which you pin the brooch, you can get quite a few different looks

Back of the brooch

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Amber Stained glass jewellery box

A jewellery or trinket box hand-crafted from Amber Stained glass, with hinged lid. Ideal for keeping your jewellery or other knick-knacks close-by. Here I am using it to store some of the stained glass jewels I use in my jewellery.

Stained glass boxes are easy to make and can be used for storing a wide variety of items and can be used in any room of your house, even in the kitchen. I have one for storing tea bags.

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Goggo/Insect range - Hermit Crab

A Hermit Crab sporting his brand new shell he has just found!

This Keepsakes range consists of insects (for the insect-lover!) to display as ornaments but some of them can also be fashioned into brooches. Hand-crafted with silver, copper, pewter, glass jewels, silver wire and shells, each Goggo/insect can take 3 or more hours to make. Only materials of the highest quality is used and great attention is given to detail and these little animals are unique, one-of-a-kind designs not to be repeated.

Although the items should be treated with care, each item is strong and sturdy. Taking care and cleaning of your unique insect is as easy as scrubbing gently with a toothbrush and Sunlight Liquid and giving it a good rinse with cold water, drying gently with a soft cloth. A natural patina develops over time, adding charm to the item. Each insect comes with its own descriptive card, unfortunately no card available for this one.

Hermit crabs are decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea. Most species have long, spirally curved abdomens, which are soft, unlike the hard, calcified abdomens seen in related crustaceans. The vulnerable abdomen is protected from predators by a salvaged empty seashell carried by the hermit crab, into which its whole body can retract.

Hermit Crabs are very social animals and can live 10 years or more, changing shells, moulting several times throughout their lives and growing up to six inches in length. Did you know that Hermit crabs are sometimes kept as pets? Hermit Crabs are docile and are easy and economical to care for and their crabby antics, like climbing, digging and shell switching are as entertaining as they are educational!

 

 

The underside of the crab 

 

 

A lot of research goes into making these little creatures. I use photographs for reference, live study where possible and also Google the necessary information regarding their size, habits, lifestyle, etc. Hand-crafting these little animals has taught me so much about nature and given me a new respect for all Mother Nature's beauty.

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Rose Quartz

I have a large collection of Rose Quarts crystals and absolutely love the calming and reassuring energy this stone emanates. Rose Quartz, with its gentle pink essence, is a stone of the heart, a Crystal of Unconditional Love. It carries a soft feminine energy of compassion and peace, tenderness and healing, nourishment and comfort. It speaks directly to the Heart Chakra, dissolving emotional wounds, fears and resentments, and circulates a divine loving energy throughout the entire aura.

All areas of the home will benefit by putting rough rose quartz stones in each corner of the room. Even eating areas can benefit from this soft sweet energy - and it may also improve your digestion too!

Rose Quartz is also the modern birthstone of Taurus. Being a Taurus myself, I wear it always with pride and style, love and respect, and enjoy my personal Rose Quartz birthstone.

Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones. Most rose quartz crystals come from Brazil, US and China, but South Africa also has large deposits, found primarily in granites in Limpopo Province, in the Soutpansberg district and near Gravelotte. It also occurs at some tin mines in the Bushveld complex.

Rose quartz is a type of quartz which exhibits a pale pink to rose red hue. The color is usually considered as due to trace amounts of titanium, iron, or manganese, in the massive material. Some rose quartz contains microscopic rutile needles which produces an asterism in transmitted light. Recent X-ray diffraction studies suggest that the color is due to thin microscopic fibers of possibly dumortierite within the massive quartz.

In crystal form (rarely found) it is called pink quartz and its colour is thought to be caused by trace amounts of phosphate or aluminium. The color in crystals is apparently photosensitive and subject to fading.

If you are wearing or keeping your crystals or stones on you all the time, remember to methodically cleanse them. If you have been using them to heal health issues or when you were in a negative frame of mind... they would probably have absorbed your negative energy. This is why it is a good idea to purify them on a regular basis. Cleansing quartz crystals is very simple, as they are some of the easiest crystals to cleanse... so do it regularly for best long term results.

There are various methods of cleaning your crystals - If you do not know much about crystals... avoid using water to clean them. Some crystals may be totally ruined by contact with water ... so use other methods of cleansing crystals unless you are absolutely sure.

Photo credit

Crystal Singing Bowls cleanse crystals with sound : 
A crystal singing bowl may be used to cleanse your crystals. There are two ways to do this. If the stones are small you may put them into the crystal singing bowl. For bigger items, place them close to the bowl,  then play the bowl for a few minutes. The lovely crystal bowl music is very powerful and the sounds emitted by the bowl will resonate throughout the room. As the strong vibration of the pure crystalline sound of your crystal singing bowl fills the crystals... it will drive out any negative energy. This will lift the vibration of any of your crystals that are close by.

 However, the method I prefer most is playing music to my crystals. I place a few crystals in front of my computer speakers, choose a song with heavy bass (bass vibrations enter the crystals easily) and enjoy the music while my crystals are being cleansed.

A full moon rising over my garden wall

Bury stones or use moonlight for cleaning crystals :
The moonlight has a powerful influence that will re-energize your crystals... and allow them to lift their vibrations naturally. A good time to for cleansing crystals is at the time of the full moon... when it is at its brightest. Place them somewhere in your home where they will be in the moonlight for as long as possible. Leave them there overnight if you are able to. By absorbing the energy of moonlight... you will allow their vibration to naturally lift. I put my crystals outside on a table during full moon and collect them early in the morning again.

You may also choose to bury your stone in the earth, but again make sure that you know if the stone is one that can take water, in case rain seeps through to where they are located. This is a perfect way to cleanse many stones, but do mark where you put them so that you can find them again! You can dig them up after a day or two.

"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday... and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life is the creation of our mind."
 - Buddha

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