Custom paperweight for fishing flies

 I have been making custom made paperweights encapsulating personal objects for over ten years now, and it never ceases to amaze me whenever I am asked to set something new inside the paperweights.

This happened to me recently when I was asked by Brenda from Ayrshire in Scotland, if I could set fishing flies inside my resin paperweights.  It is certainly possible for me to encase a fishing fly within a resin paperweight, and I am surprised that I have never been asked to do this before. Although I do not fish, I have always  found fishing flies beautiful to look at and I also admire the skill and artistry of those that make them.

Brenda sent me a photo of the fishing flies along with measurements, so that I could advise on the best size and shape of paperweight to accommodate them.

A selection of colourful fishing flies

We decided that two of the smaller fishing flies would be perfect together inside the square shaped paperweight that I make. Brenda also wanted me to further customise the paperweight by including a short message; she sent me the flies and this is the completed paperweight:

Custom paperweight for fishing flies

I have encased the fishing flies together with the message ‘Tight Lines’ (which is used between fishermen as a greeting or good luck wish), the phrase ‘keeping your lines tight’ means that lots of fish are being caught.

The fishing flies really do look beautiful inside the paperweight. The resin tends to enhance colour and textures, so the feathers and other materials that make up the flies look stunning. The fishing flies also look like they are suspended within water. The square paperweight being a good choice for displaying the flies because as well as being displayed flat like a traditional paperweight, it can also be displayed upright as a display piece.

I am going to now look up some YouTube videos on how fishing flies are made. Thank you so much for reading about my paperweights!

Mick

Horseshoe bracelet charm containing horse hair

I was asked by Sharon towards the end of last year if I could set a small amount of horse hair within a bracelet charm that would be suitable for a Thomas Sabo charm bracelet.

The bracelet charm was going to be a gift for her friend whom tragically lost her horse last summer. Unfortunately, they only managed to get a few strands of tail hair at the time, however this was more than sufficient for me to make an item of jewellery with it.

After a little investigation I discovered that Thomas Sabu made a horseshoe style bracelet charm, so I suggested making something similar to contain the hair. This is the horseshoe shaped bracelet charm that I made for her, containing the hair from her friend’s horse.

Horseshoe charm for horse hair

I encased a few strands of the hair with clear resin inside a sterling silver horseshoe shaped pendant bezel and then attached a sterling silver lobster clasp clip.

I have been quite busy this month making resin bracelet charms containing horse hair. Here is an example of coloured resin bracelet charms that I recently made. Again, my customer only had a few strands of horse hair that they were able to send to me however this was more than sufficient to make a couple of small resin oval shaped charms. I coloured the bracelet charms blue and green and criss-crossed the horse hair throughout the resin.

Multicoloured bracelet charms containing horse hair

I really enjoy working with horse hair in my resin jewellery because of the amazing effects that you can create with it, for example, the criss-crossing of the horse hair in resin often resembles rutilated quartz.

Many thanks for reading!

Mick