Amazing Artists

As you can see, on the left, I have added some links to web places which I love. I can spend hours trawling through jewellery web pages and absolutely LOVE artist's blogs. It gives me the chance to sticky beak (something I loved and now miss about uni) and see what people are up to. It also serves the purpose of motivation and inspiration.

I will keep updating as I find more and more that leave me speechless. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Back in the real world, I have been busy with family and teaching and unfortunately have been a little slack. I need to go out, splurge and just get the tools that I have been dying for. Until then I have my web places..

Resin Mania

I thought I would be great at this blogging thing considering my mind that never stops turning. However a few weeks in and anyone following would fast be becoming anorexic! Nevermind hopefully over the coming weeks I can fill you in.

Lately I have been filling my skills book through various workshops. The first of which was centered on resin and its amazing range of uses. I am not a plastic girl- I love glass, precious stones, wood, pebbles but the man made texture of plastic has never appealed to me. Not anymore! It is relatively easy to work with and the colour range is fantastic. I love being able to create something so quickly and for the first time not being so distraught if it doesn't work first the first time. I like to work with things that are unique and tell a story but these things can safely being suspended in this wonderful substance.

The process is home-friendly so I can easily (and cheaply!) set up to work from my own kitchen. My partner, who is a spray painter, will be utilised in the clean-up and I hate to say it but, he will definitely be able to achieve results I hardly have the patience for!

The above bangle was an experiment with layering colours and has glowing transparent layers and some creamy opaque layers. This is still in its rough form and will hopefully look gorgeous all cleaned up!

So I am looking forward to playing more with resin once I have purchased the mix. I am hoping to create oodles of chunky candy-coloured bangles with treasures floating around the surface. Let me know what you think and if you have any interesting ideas for fillers!

Plique a Jour

Some time ago I was fortunate enough to take part in a plique a jour workshop. I hadn't done any enamelling before but so love the idea of stained glass jewellery adorning the delicate areas of the body.

When I was visiting Europe as a curious teenager, I loved entering old churches and bathing in the coloured light as the sun streamed through huge stained glass windows. I never took any photos, instead choosing to sit and comtemplate, knowing I could never replicate what I was witness to. Until now.

This workshop proved to be a perfect way to express my love of coloured glass and "pretty windows". The technique requires a LOT of patience as you are required to solder and resolder repetitively until you are ready to do the same with the enamel. Slowly building up layers of pretty molten glass, hoping and praying with fingers crossed that tension will hold everything in place. Even I was amazed with my level of focus that week!

I made my mumma a small bowl reminiscent of her beloved Cooktown with its Ulysses butterflies, sparkling waterfalls and lush ferns. A gift for her first fabulous 50 years.

The earrings... well I needed to make myself something too, didn't I?

While the facilities of my tiny home studio aren't adequate to keep working from home, I look forward to working again with this intense, time expensive and delicate technique.

Bowerbird Collection

A few months ago I was given a HUGE jar of junket beads; an eclectic assortment of playful, colourful and innocent beads. Separately they were nothing special, just a collection of cheap plastic and some semi precious stones, but together they were powerful. I was at a loss as to what do to with such a diverse assembly but had thoughts of layers and layers to play with the eye and attract attention. So the Bowerbird Collection was born.

String after string of diverse sizes, distinct shapes and colours that should never normally be seen together. Like the nest of a Bowerbird, the jewellery collection is a carefully chosen medley of found objects. In this case found in a big jar!

These pieces are difinitely a statement and should not be worn by the faint hearted! Someone once said that there is strength in numbers and these numbers are almost overwhelming. I hope you enjoy their playfulness and explosion of colour.

The collection includes necklaces (of various lengths), rings (with amazing crystal hearts), bracelets, earrings and brooches. Wear them by themselves or heap them together!

Welcome to Crest of Ilium

After stewing over brand names for many, many moons, I have finally come up with 'Crest of Ilium' as a label to work beneath.
I was after something seemingly random, something important to me, something that was the right 'colour' (*I'll explain later) but most importantly something that I could see working with my designs. I didnt want something naff like Jo's Jewels and didn't want to pigeon hole myself into a particular style. So while I have been driving people nuts with my frustration and indecisiveness, I can finally say I've found something I am totally happy with.

Now where did it come from and what does it mean? I hope it has an air of elegant mystery but truth be told Crest of Ilium is a medical term. As a child I spent time in hospital with unqiuely formed hip bones. The Doctor performed an operation that would 'borrow' the top of my hip bone to help form a socket below. The area that was removed is known as the Crest of Ilium.


My hip has never and will never stop me from doing anything (although it was a good excuse for high school sports!) but is definitely a bone that defines me. I have a quirky walk and a beautiful pale line that traces from the tip of hip down into my bikini. People are constantly concerned with my moody limp but this is a trait I rarely even notice!


So welcome to Crest of Ilium: home of jewellery, design, painting and photography! Please be patient while I learn my way around blogspot but look forward to images from new collections and past works.

Collections in progress: Bowerbird, Get Zipped! and Women in Hats.

*Note: I'm not sure if everyone does this but I often see words as colours and so my 'label' had to have a succesful colour. What colour do I see Crest of Ilium as? Well, you tell me!