“Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.” ~ Shakespeare

I was excited to find these very cool West German vintage plastic cameos from the 1940's.  They have an AB cast to them, which you're able to see a hint of in some of my photos; not always the easiest effect to capture. This retro green is a favorite of mine.

I have always found cameos a little mysterious  - not exactly sure as to why.  I find keys mysterious too, so I thought, that might be an interesting direction to take.  The keys are from Inviciti Jewelry and made of pewter.

I wanted to create a bit of space and airiness between the two main focal pieces so I added these amazing tin-cut crystals from the 1930's.  I had never seen a tin cut crystal in this aqua before!

I love when I sit at my worktable and by pulling a few of my favorite things together  - somehow, a little mystery or story starts to unfold.  I will let you fill in the rest ;)

Thank you for popping in and having a look around today!

Loralee xo

Loralee Kolton ~artful in beads

These earrings are in my shop!

The Vivid Creatures Can

I don't tend to do green.

I made these cones for my last bead shop update, and decorated them with some new glazes I'd picked up. I was a little underwhelmed with the initial results so I added some teal blue stripes and popped them back in the kiln. When I fished them out I was much happier: they have a seventies ceramics look about them. I nearly kept them from the off but I try to resist keeping the best things when listing beads so I added them along with *a lot* of other pieces. Much of the stock sold quickly but, for some reason, these cones were overlooked. So, taking that as a sign, I decided to pull them out for my own use.

I topped them with some rusted filigree caps and hung them from some blackened vintage copper rings, which frame some pleasingly rustic African brass charms. Within the cones I've added slender lengths of sterling silver and labradorite chain and some patinated copper pieces from Miss Fickle Media. The colours in both work really nicely with the blues and greens in the glazes.... and I'm still highly tempted to keep them!

Bye for now, Claire

www.somethingtodo.etsy.com