Hummingbirds collection

Well I've almost completed all the pieces in my Hummingbirds collection!  Thought I'd blog a sneak peek on here, before listing them for sale.

The general feeling of the collection is bows, bows, bows, but each individual piece has a story behind it.  For example, the Dixie Doyle pieces are bright pink and bubbly, reminiscient of the girl herself with her pigtails and lollipop.  The Liz Warren brooches are more studious and serious, in dark navy and forest green.  Leo Binhammer and his wife have co-ordinating rings, to represent their marriage (and complications) as would a wedding band.  The charismatic Ted Hughes bow-tie necklace is brown tweed to represent his authority as an educator, yet the pink highlights demonstrate his propensity to charm women.  So here are the pics:

 Dixie Doyle headband (large)

 Dixie Doyle studs

 Liz Warren brooch in navy (left) and green (right)

Small headband in Dixie Doyle (top) and Ted Hughes (bottom)

N.B.  Black headband (middle) is from prior collection

Struggling artist

So has ended my first week of unemployment! A little daunting to have no set job to head off to every day, and try to discipline myself into practising my craft regularly. The week passed not without event, but with much less designing than I had intended. I certainly have begun work on my first proper collection though! Inspired by the novel Hummingbirds by Joshua Gaylord, which tells the tale of an upper class, all-girls private school in New York. The story flits between two dashing young teachers, the only males in the English faculty, and various senior students (girls, of course). It's a story about all sorts of rivalries and relationships.

The novel for me evokes a whole lot of imagery. I'm thinking grosgrain ribbon and collegiate stripes; navy and forest green with shots of lolly pink; tweed bow ties and careful pleats. So I've put together a little inspiration board to highlight how this little literary work is going to be turned into a collection of headbands, necklaces and other jewellery pieces...