It's been a relaxing christmas break, drinking tea out of a favourite mug and keeping warm under a favourite crochet blanket of bright,cheerful wool. Even managed to get out and see some snowy christmas geese, now it's time to get going on the new year's work. I've been buying some wonderful new  beads, the quartz look like big chunks of ice and the jade like cherry sweets. It'll be a busy january!  

For the past few days here in South Wales we've been expecting a stormy night, disruption, damage and other dire warnings. This must have been on my mind more than i've  thought because it's the middle of the night and although the storm hasn't arrived so far i'm wide awake and listening to the wind and rain!

This got me thinking about if there any gemstones with a symbolic link to the weather. The most common association i can find seems to be with moss agate. This is a stone i've often used, as in the moss agate and jade earrings in the photo, it's a warm mix of greens and blacks, mottled with stripes and intricate patterns which do look like moss or lichen. When polished it can be quite clear but i use it in a semi polished form so you can see the natural patterns more clearly. It's seen it mentioned several times as being good for balancing unsettled weather elements and helping gardeners and farmers. 

The rain has stopped for the moment and the wind does't sound too bad so who knows, might be a peaceful night after all.

Well, this is the first blog for this website that i've put together to show some of the jewellery designs  i've been working on ( pretty much my first blog ever). It's feeling very autumnal here at the moment, the air's cooling and the days getting shorter, and looking at the images in the gallery i seem to have, without realising it,  reflected this in the colours and feel of the new Wilderness range. Looking out of the window it's the same rich browns, greens and russet reds of the leaves out there at the moment. 

Time to start lighting fires and wrapping up for the winter! I'm hoping to be able to write a bit regularly and put up photos to give of idea of how the jewellery reflects what i'm seeing as the weeks go by.