Closeness

I am so happy with this piece and it means a lot to me personally.
'Closeness' was inspired by the beautiful painting by Alan Daysh which depicts an adult (father?) and child (son) fishing. I just adore this picture and wanted to recreate it in a 3D form that could be worn. It is made in fine silver and hangs on two chains (to symbolise the relationship - a fine chain and a bolder chain).

Sun Goes Up, Sun Comes Down, Every Day Spinning 'Round and 'Round

My little sunset pendant is here - bottom left!!

Silver Nest with eggs

I know that birds nests have been done a lot, but generally they are made with wire work and I fancied making one in solid silver. This little 'un is quite a chunky little beast, with a good weight to it. What I loved was the smoothness of the eggs. When I first applied a patina to it, it was the most glorious golden, and I was very tempted to elave it like that to reflect the material used in nests, but thought better of it as in time it would have worn off because of the texture. These are not beads but little eggs of silver - so a solid silver little nest of eggs.

New attachments for the Pea Pod charms

When I first started making these charms I thought the large link would be the ideal attachment as most people have pandoro bracelets (don't they??). I've since realised that the craze for charm chain bracelets is still here, alive and kicking, so I have added a lobster clasp so they can be attached to chains or watch straps, and split rings to make adding them to chain bracelets easier. I love customer feedback - it clarifies things so often.

Silveriness

One of my particular favourites this. My fancy silver cufflinks are here. They have been very popular.

Pretty Things All In A Row

My rainbow flowers are here - I'm so proud of them, I wear mine all the time.

Lets Get Close

I love the 'freshness' of this lovely treasury. My silver knot - toally unique to somethingxtraspecial is featured here.

Patinas for pmc

I am by no means going to claim to be an expert here, but have been delighted with the results I have been getting with liver of sulphur of late. Just thought I'd share a few ideas.
A lot of the how to's say you should mix the liver of sulphur (LOS) with boiling hot water and keep dunking. Well all of the tutorials on youtube that I've watched show their items turning dark then brown then black, which when you want colour isn't really that helpful so... here's what I've found.
You'll need, bicarb of soda, LOS, ammonia, and plenty of kitchen towl.

Yes, start with hottish water, but have a bowl of very cold water close by plus a solution of bicarb of soda and water to hand. (about two or three heaped tea spoons in a cup of cold water).
First make sure the silver is ready to go. By that I mean that it is finished and polished. Then clean it with a dab of bicarbwith a drop of water to make sure there's no greasy residue.
Now you are ready to start.
A cup of hot water (from the kettle), a drop of ammonia and a drop of LOS. (I use liquid). Stir it up.
Dunk quickly then dunk in cold water. Dry it off with paper towel, and then wait. To get colour it is time consuming. Now slow down and watch, let the water cool a bit,dunking in LOS solution and then cold water and waiting for the colour to emerge. If the solution gets too cold, you apparently can heat it in a microwave - which I do - don't know if that's dangerous, but I read you could and I'm still here. As soon as you have the colour you want dunk it straight in the bicarb solution to neutralise it.
If you have gone too far, and it has started to turn black, I dunk it in silver dip - works for me -as long as you clean with bicarb again it works a treat.
Good colouring!

Happily Ever After

My Bali silver romantic bracelet was in this one - total romance. I have two of these bracelets available - but maybe I should say one - think I'll keep one.

Winner of Olly the Owl

And the winner of the lovely Olly - the solid silver owl ..............

To celebrate the launch of the new site, SomethingXtraSpecial offered one lucky person the chance to win a small solid silver Olly the Owl. M. Dunn added her name to the mailing and is the lucky new owner of Olly. If you would like to be kept up to date with offers and giveaways, please add your name on the left to the mailing list.

Just waiting for Margaret to contact me with her address so I can send it.

Congratulations Margaret!

About Green Treasury

Love that my peapods have again been in a treasury!