Finding inspiration in a sack full of old rocks?...

The designers at the studio got together last week to decide on our marketing strategy for this year, assisted by our sister company Cerulean Sky (www.cerulean-sky.co.uk)  who specialise in this area - go check them out, they're fab!.The meeting turned out to be fruitful, inspiring and (believe it or not) somewhat exciting - We are looking forward to a bright future, and some exciting prospects for all concerned if we play our cards right in 2013.

 We also took this opportunity to go through a huge bag of old stones and rocks which was very kindly donated to us by some industry friends who no longer wanted them. We have had this since before Christmas 2012, and have barely given it much thought - except when one of us stubbed our toe on the way past bag which was plonked unceremoniously out in the corridor. The stone is mostly still in its raw, unpolished form, and a quick cursory look through the bag when we received it resulted in the conclusion that the majority of it would be used for texture substrate on canvass pieces.

To our delight and surprise, we found it contained some fairly large pieces of Lace Agate, Carnelian, Tigers Eye, Rose Quartz, Bloodstone and much more -some of which we couldn't identify, so if any of you out there are rock hounds who might be able to help out with this -please do get in touch!.

Well, as you can imagine, the excitement level quickly reached a fever pitch, and we began sorting, scrubbing, ooo - ing, ahh-ing and OH - MY - GOD! - ing with every new discovery. Some of the bigger pieces were selected for polishing and have been set aside for inclusion in our new summer collection. Other pieces were so beautiful in their raw form, that we decided to get to work with them straight way: see what you think...

This piece of bloodstone is around 2 inches long and, we think would be suitable for a man or woman to wear, the wire wrapping is edgy, yet still classical. It will compliment any style, from the BoHo to the LBD, and the sliding leather thong means it can be worn at any length.

This Aventurine has been wire wrapped, with a small spiral design to accentuate it's almost hexagonal natural shape - it has been hung from a very simple tiger tail wire necklace, which has been strung with classical silver beads, which won't detract the eye from the main stone.  It's toggle clasp finishing makes it easy to open and close.

This piece was made by me (Paula) and is probably my favourite so far - this was my first attempt at wire wrapping, and creating designs with the wire. I chose to do another spiral design as it is simple, yet effective and complements this piece of Amethyst very well. Sara has been (patiently) teaching me the finer points of jewellery design and construction and I have to say, I am very pleased with the results.

 This stone, in its raw form, has presented us with a real challenge. More usually, we purchase stock rock that is shaped, polished and drilled, ready to use in our designs in a finished form. It has forced us to think outside the box, which can only be a good thing. The stone itself is beautiful nonetheless and will make for some stunning pieces for our new summer collection.

If you like any of our pieces and want to get in touch, please feel free to comment below, or contact us through the Folksy store - www.folsky.com/shops/amethystsky .

xx