The Hagstones

💀 Hallowe'en approaches and I'm getting very excited. The grandchildren have decorated their houses and planned their outfits - the youngest is dressing as the creepy clown Pennywise so I shall be reluctant to open the door to him!

On the eve itself Helen Backhouse, Lucy Haslam and I are having  a little event in our Facebook group where we take everyone on a virtual trip up Pendle Hill. Pendle was the home of the famous Lancashire Witches; the trials of the Pendle Witches at Lancaster Castle in  1612 are amongst the most famous witch trials in English history. Helen can see Pendle from her home and I'm about 20 minutes drive away, so it's a very real place to us, and has been since I read Harrison Ainsworth's 1849 novel The Lancashire Witches when I was about 11. 

So we've been making witchy things, and these are one of mine - The Hagstones. Hagstones were stones with natural holes in them, nailed up over stable doors in order to stop the hags (witches) from riding their horses out. And they're still in  evidence today on many farms. Old superstitions die hard. 

 

 

The spikes and gilded 'hagstone' connectors are ceramics by the one and only Petra Carpeau - who better, for gothic grunge? With Lucy Haslam's tangled earwires, swarowski crystals and gold seed beads.

 

Come and join us on our journey - it should be fun! The Very Nice Group at 4pm GMT on Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

See you again next week.

 

Lindsay x

 

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For Auld Lang Syne

                                                        Our last post of  2017!


As I write, I'm humming 'Auld Lang Syne' - a poem by Scotsman Robert Burns, set to the tune of  a traditional folk song and sung all over the world to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on 31st December. For old times sake....so you might be expecting me to reprise some of my favourite earring pairs from 2017.

Nah.......never look back is my motto. Life's too short. Let's look forward to 2018 and think about         

                                                                   COLOUR!                    
                                                                                      
How much notice do you take of colour predictions when designing? PANTONE have declared 2018 the year of Ultraviolet. 'Dramatically provocative and thoughtful, communicating originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking'.  With a business named after my granddaughter Violet I can't help but be excited. The fashion magazines are already full of it and I know from experience it's one of my customers' favourite colours - it never stays long in my shop. Here are a couple of pairs I made recently with leaves from Helen Backhouse and lampwork by Juliette Mullett of Avette Glass. 

 

 

 

 

 

And this pair, I made for Hallowe'en with vintaj black arte metal and Rejetta's witchy hearts.

 

 

The top pair has been repinned from my Pinterest page almost 700 times in two weeks - so I guess we can't ignore Ultraviolet. Here I've kept it fairly subdued, with silver, bright blue or black. But it looks vibrant with lime green, moody with mustard, soft with pink; flamboyant with red.  Cool with silver, warm with gold. The possibilities are endless. Is it for you, and what other colours or metals will you use it with? 

 

 

It just remains for me to thank you all for joining us for another year; and to hope we continue to enthuse you through 2018!

 

 

Lindsay x

 

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