Wednesday 18 November 2009

A Girl's Best Friend

Well, yes, diamonds are great but, if you ask me, dogs are better....

Here are a few of the pups tearing around Folksy at the moment.....




















1.  Bad Hair Day (Hidden Cottage Cards) £2.50
    www.folksy.com/items/99658
2.  Custom Pet Portrait (Life's Big Canvas) £20
    www.folksy.com/items/47682
3.  Dog Plant Pot Holder (Dog Plant UK) £20
    www.folksy.com/items/72967
4.  Dog's Collar (Very Vintage Designs) £6
    www.folksy.com/items/49149
5.  Howlee Berry Sock Dog (Hotdog and Me) £8
    www.folksy.com/items/82254
6.  Merry Kissmas (Forever Foxed) £2
    www.folksy.com/items/68465
7.  Multidogs (Marmaline) £6.50
    www.folksy.com/items/40808
8.  Puppy Dog Card (Tiger Buttery) £2.50
    www.folksy.com/items/54073

Snap them up before the dash off after the squirrels....

Gothic Chainmaille Pendant

I'm still playing with chainmaille, and I have to say that I'm having a wail of a time with it... I've found that, as a technique, it lends itself rather nicely to some of the darker pieces that I have floating around in my head (as well as the other prettier ones), as well as appealing to that ever present historical theme. 



As always this can be found in all the usual places such as Folksy, Coriandr, Dawanda etc.

Thursday 5 November 2009

More Chain Maille - but in Purple

Have been busy with chain maille again.... it seems to be my thing of the moment!  These two pieces have just gone into my Folksy shop and will shortly appear in the others too...

These pieces are, again, silver plate rings, with contemporary and vintage glass beads in shades of purple.





Hope that you like them....

Monday 2 November 2009

Chain Maille Revisited

Finally managed to get some (slightly) better photos of the chain maille bracelet and earrings done and have posted the items for sale on Folksy.

Why the maps you may ask... if you look closely they're of regions of the Byzantine Empire at its height.  I had the book to hand and couldn't help myself!












Sunday 1 November 2009

Byzantine Chainmaille Stuff

I've found myself being inspired by bygone eras again.... I just can't help myself..... 

Recently I've seen quite a lot of chainmaille jewellery around, usually made from silver jump rings in a huge variety of fantastic patterns - some traditional, but many contemporary.  After some searching and the reading of many different tutorials, it occurred to me that some of these designs could be replicated using beaded loops - I thought it would make a interesting twist on the theme, however, it didn't occur to me that this method of construction would be extremely time consuming.... so this horrid torrential and gale force day inspired me to dig out my stash of silver plated jump rings and have a so.

I have to say that I was more than pleasantly surprised by the results.  During the time that I've had available over the course of the day, I have managed to complete two pairs of earrings and a bracelet and a half.  I would have loved to have got the lot into my shops this evening, but I didn't think on to take some decent photos while it was still light and there's no way to get a useable photo in the house.... still I tried and here are a few of the photos of the completed bracelet so that you can see the results and the truth of the terrible photos!!!  Should you like these they will soon appear in my shops on Folksy, Etsy, DaWanda and Coriandr.





Thursday 22 October 2009

Rainy Days Ahead!

It's been a soggy, misty old day and, I suspect, there are plenty more to come.  Here is a fabulous batch of rain and storm and mist inspired pieces that are currently available on Folksy.  Enjoy with a cosy blacket and a warm glass of mulled wine!!



  1. Blue Bubbles in Puddles Bracelet (www.folksy.com/items/69578), MysticDNA, £10.00
  2. Weight of Water Earrings (www.folksy.com/items/50517), Firebird Jewellery, £21.00
  3. Fenland River (www.folksy.com/items/38143), Richard in Cam, £12.00
  4. Cyclone Storm Lampwork Bracelet (www.folksy.com/items/37148), Eden, £89.00
  5. Eye of the Storm Focal Bead (www.folksy.com/items/56356), DragonGlass, £8.00
  6. High Storm Marble (www.folksy.com/items/31529), SteamPunk Glass, £11.00
  7. Rainy Day Rabbit Print (www.folksy.com/items/32669), Floating Rabbit's Gallery, £7.50
  8. Rainy Day Print (www.folksy.com/items/40773), Marmalime, £6.50
  9. Double Cloud Pin (www.folksy.com/items/44091), Lost at Sea, £24.00
  10. Raindrop Notebook (www.folksy.com/items/74873), Cherry Drop Stationery, £1.00
  11. Evening Storm (www.folksy.com/items/51604), Hilltop Paintings, £12.00
  12. Summer Thunder Earrings (www.folksy.com/items/51972), Aeris Designs, £26.00

Sunday 18 October 2009

New Tudor Inspired Pieces

My fondness for all things old and ancient, on occasion, if I am lucky, can lead to inspiration for new pieces of jewellery. Now has been one of those times. I found myself inspired by Tudor timber beamed buildings with their fabulous black timbers and whitewashed walls. Coincidently, I was asked to do a piece for a function in lime green and black and decided that these colour would lend themselves nicely to this Tudor inspired design. These pieces are made using faithfil ol' herringbone stitch and when finished, will be simple circular necklaces, or collars, that will sit comfortably on the collar bone.  As the deadline for the commission is very short (it has to be done and gone by Thursday and only found out about it yesterday) both pieces are ongoing.


For those with a love of numbers, I casually calculated that each piece, once completed, would have used approximately 5,000 seed beads and 30 meters of thread!

Friday 9 October 2009

Happy Horrible Halloween

With Halloween only 22 days away, I thought I'd see what there was out there to help celebrate the night the ghoolies come out in style...  All these are Folksy finds and are available in the various shops there (http://www.folksy.com/).


1. MysticDNA - Halloween Carnelian Choker & Earrings Set (www.folksy.com/item/71214)
2. NiftyKnits - Halloween Pumpkin Meerkat (www.folksy.com/items/71513)
3. Mirabilis - Spooky Samhain Charm Bracelet (www.folksy.com/items/70269)
4. Hooray4Clay - Halloween Pupmkins Galore! (www.folksy.com/items/61249)
5. Georgina-Kay Designs - Halloween Gift Tags (www.folksy.com/items/57741)
6. Owl on the Sill - October Lantern Pendant (www.folksy.com/items/64474)
7. Quernus Crafts - Wee Pumpkin Cat (www.folksy.com/items/70856)
8. Sparrow Primitives - Primitive Country Folk Art Witch Shoes Hanging Decoration (www.folksy.com/items/71198)
9. Nicknots - Trick or Treat Bag 'Spiders' (www.folksy.com/items/70051)

Of course there were many more Halloween themed goodies on Folksy... over 300... so I didn't have space for all of them, but they are all worth a look :)


Thursday 8 October 2009

Supercool Street Art

Not jewellery or beading or even mine (the photos are), but I saw this fabulous stretch of graffiti in Sheffield the other day, reaching along a block of condemned buildings. The images are of old buildings being carted away to make new which ties in with the major 'rejuvenation' that that area of the city is undergoing at the moment. I think that it is the most utterly fabuolous piece of work and as most of it is done on the window boards of the buildings, I'm really hoping that it is relocated rather than being destroyed. Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea who the artist is, so if anyone knows, I would be very grateful if you could tell me!










Apologies for the quality of the photos - I only had my phone on me at the time :)

October Stock Take - Bracelets

Last of the stock take posts - I promise... These are all the bracelets, cuffs, and bangles that are out there.

As we run through the Autumn towards Christmas there will be plenty more appearing over the next few days and weeks...




October Stock Take - Earrings

More of October's stock take - this time all the Earrings that are currently in the MysticDNA shops...




October Stock Take - Necklaces

I always find myself taking stock of life during the first few weeks of October – I suspect that this is due to the way that the Autumn changes everything around us, the temperature, the colours, the daylight hours…. still in terms of jewellery, below is the stock that I currently have floating around various shops…
Necklaces, Chokers and Collars




These pieces can currently be found at:

Monday 6 July 2009

Welcome to the blog for MysticDNA. It's taken me a while, but I've finally managed to get around to doing this. Life can be very difficult for the technologically inept, so please bear with me...
MysticDNA is a maker of contemporary jewellery using a variety of materials including glass, stone, wood and anything else that I come across. I also repair/conserve vintage jewellery. If I come across a piece that is too badly damaged to be saved, I salvage as much as possible and use the components to make new pieces. My family call it hoarding, but I call it preservation - I guess its probably rogue magpie genes tangled up in the DNA strands...

My jewellery can be found in these following online stores:

Here are just a few examples of what I've been us to in recent months...

This is my Chain of Colour necklace... I'm really proud of this piece as it became a real labour of love. The inspiration for it was an artist's colour wheel. I wanted to find a way of incorporating all of the primary and secondary colours without it coming out too messy and this was the result. I'd decided that if I did every other link a single colour and the alternating ones a combination of the colours on either side, then the result should be a relatively seamless changing of colours across the necklace. I think this piece took about 40 hours to complete, but I think it was welel worth the effort.









This necklace is imaginatively called Hearts of Stone (can you guess why?). Some years ago I came across a job lot of these stone hearts which had been individually strung on leather strips with a couple of beads. I've since been at a bit of a loss as to quite what to do with them. I was looking at them recently and playing around with them and this was the result. The hearts have been threaded onto three leather strips, two of which run across the front of the hearts and the third behind. The back one then pokes through the hole in the stone and over the front strips and essentially stitches the hearts together. The assorted beads then just work as spacers. Personally, I like the fastener in my pieces to be as interesting as the rest of the thing and very rarely use prefabricated clasps and such, so I used a sixth heart as a toggle to fasten the necklace with a bead that slides up to it to prevent it unlooping itself.



I love this necklace. Although it isn't light, it is wonderfully cool and is nice to wear on a hot summer's day. I have more of these hearts in different colours, so will probably make some more at some point, although I'll also try and come up with some other way of using them.






This little bracelet was inspired by a early summer border of flowers that I passed one day on the side of a dual carriageway. I was so taken by the way that the flowers shone out at the passing motorists. Essentially this piece is made from seed beads in a multitude of colours and is supplemented with purple, orange and cerise flower shaped sequins. The bracelet itself consists of a core of beads with spurs of beads sprouting from it. The final effect is this fringed riot of flowers. Bright and pretty - just as flowers should be!























Once again, welcome to my Blog and I hope that you enjoy its contents.

MysticDNA