Marillion - Garden Party – Milton Keynes Bowl 28/06/1986

It has been 40 years almost to the day since the ‘Welcome to the Garden Party’ concert held at Milton Keynes Bowl on 28th June 1986.

Marillion - Garden Party - Festival Programme

Berlin Wall custom paperweights

I was contacted recently by Judith who wanted some pieces of the Berlin Wall that she had collected to be encased inside three custom made paperweights.

These are all pieces of the Berlin Wall she broke off the week after the wall came down (when she was much younger and physically able).

Broken pieces of the Berlin Wall

How to set actual paw prints into memorial jewellery

I wrote an article a while back about my paw print pet memorial jewellery. These are resin pendants and other items of memorial jewellery containing pet hair or ashes, along with a silver paw print symbol, sometimes also combined with a name, small flowers etc. An example of one of my paw print pet memorial pendants can be seen below:

Pet fur and paw print pendant

Resin vs glass memorial jewellery

I have recently noticed various sellers of glass memorial jewellery quote on their websites that resin jewellery is far inferior to glass. Whether the sellers are trying to protect their brand or simply do not have any experience or understanding of working with resin jewellery, so I thought I should clear up any false claims that have been made by some of these sellers.

I have had experience of using both resin and glass in my memorial jewellery over the last 17 years in fact some of my earliest resin jewellery, made 17 years ago for my wife, still looks like new today.

Can resin jewellery break if dropped?

Resin memorial jewellery is generally durable and is fairly shatter resistant compared to glass jewellery. I would be reluctant to put sentimental items such as ashes or hair from a loved one inside glass memorial jewellery.

Broken glass memorial pendant

Alfie the parrot keepsakes

This is one of the first pet keepsakes completed this year so I though I should share it!

I was contacted recently by Zac who wanted a set of keepsake keyrings making in memory of their family parrot Alfie. This is the message that I received:

“I am looking for some items to be made for a recent pet we lost (Alfie the parrot). I've seen your Facebook page and your items look really good. 

I have a couple of grey feathers, some of his peanut shells and some of his rope swing he used to sit on. I was wondering if it would be possible to make up to three items with them things listed above.”

Later that week I received a package containing the items and prepared a design for the keyrings.

Parrot feather keepsake design

Flower petal fragments in jewellery

I am often asked whether I can work with fragments of flower petals and preserve these broken fragments within resin jewellery. I can of course work with broken pieces of flowers and petals, and have done on many occasions, resulting in beautiful pieces of jewellery.

Jewellery from real flower petal fragments

Rainbow hair keepsake locket pendant

This was the last pendant that I made last year, and I thought I should show it off and wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Rainbow hair keepsake locket pendant