Introducing The Castaway Collection of Jewelry

 Beautiful jewelry is easy to find. But interesting jewelry isn't. That's why I make it.

We live right across from a beautiful beach and got to wondering how we could make pieces using the materials we find there. Thus The Castaway Collection was born.

The idea is simple- take found items- driftwood, shells, sea glass and rocks and make interesting pieces. They aren't to everyone's taste but those who like them LOVE THEM!

here are some we've made from shells so far:

The last one is extremely interesting and features a shell core and we've made several others.

We also use driftwood:

And of course we incorporate beautiful local beach glass.

As you can see, some are simple and some are more complex but all are very modestly priced because, quite frankly, our reward is overcoming the design and engineering challenges. These pieces are so different, they had to have their own display.

So if your travels take you to the wilds of Digby Neck, stop by and see for yourself. And check out our rock shop, hand dyed yarn and other jewelry!

Anyone For Beach Glass?

 Since we live across the street from an ocean beach, we find a lot of beach glass. And we have found some amazing pieces- old glass stoppers, white glass that has aged violet and some with amazing shapes and patterning.

A word of warning. Since some colours are getting very scarce people are "creating" beach glass by simply breaking glass and tumbling it with either silicon grit or plain sand. It is easy to do but also easy to spot. If the pitting on your glass is very consistent, it is likely man made.

After working with stone most of the winter, I decided to make some glass pieces. While glass can be easily drilled, I prefer to make it more interesting by adding an element of copper.

Some pieces just naturally lend themselves to wire wrapping and while I usually use leather neck cords with stone, I often use buna cord with the glass to mimic the effect. And sometimes, a few colourful crystals can make a piece really special.

The copper I use is reclaimed and when possible I like to leave some of the old patina to give it character. I also like to incorporate copper chain to add mobility.

There is only one problem with glass- it is very hard to photograph to look like the actual piece. Trust me, all these pieces are much more striking and beautiful in real life. You can see for yourself later this month when we open the shop! Hope to see you then!

What's New at The Artist's Mark?

 We are now well into fall and that means I get to start making pieces with all the beautiful stones I created through the summer. But first, I have to finish off the ones I left at the beginning of spring. here's a sample of a few.

 I even finished a few popular sea glass pendants. So a lot of the empty spaces in the shop have been filled.

The last job in the rock lab was to finish a few specimen pieces. Here's one- a gorgeous piece of local plume and fortification agate..

This one is pretty special since that sparkly quartz druzy pocket goes all the way through. So my plan is to mount this to a piece of driftwood with a tea candle right behind the druzy.I've tried it and it creates an amazing effect. Look for this in the shop next spring but I predict it won't last long.

The "Real Artist" is painting up a storm and threatening to make a few mixed media statement pieces with me so stay tuned!

The Mighty Bay of Fundy

One thing you can expect to see if you visit Digby Neck is a lot of diverse scenery. Take today, for instance. The waters of St.Mary's Bay in front of our house were pretty calm but just a few miles away, on the other side of the hill, this was the view.

How would you like to live here!

The real charm of Nova Scotia are the countless old coves and wharves that appear at the end of dirt roads. So when (not if) you visit, get off the highway and take the time to explore. You might even find a nice fixer upper boat like this one:

The days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger so now's the time to plan your Nova Scotia vacation. And when you do, leave plenty of time to explore my neighbourhood- the unique, scenic gem known as Digby Neck!
(And don't forget to stop at The Artist's Mark to pick up your free piece of The Neck).

Big Storm!

So after a long stretch of beautiful weather, we had a real doozy hit last night and it will get progressively worse through the day today with wind gusts hitting 110 KPH. So instead of rockhounding yesterday, I spent the day preparing- including the removal of our large sign in the front by the road.

    In that big a wind coming from the south, the sign might end up in New Brunswick!

I will probably leave the sign down until the spring but will still change the smaller Open/ Closed one so if you see Open, come on in! We just got a new large shipment of yarn and I have completed about 30 pieces of inexpensive pendants. Got the flat lap wheels I was missing so it is back to work today!                                                                                                                                                  

A Very Satisfied Customer

One of the best things about living on Digby Neck is that you have so many interesting neighbours. Elaine lives in Sandy Cove and loves combing the beach for rocks as much as I do. She also finds a lot of beach glass.

Recently, she dropped by to give me some rocks and I cut a beautiful slice of fortification agate for her in return and then a few days later she was back with some really nice beach glass. She wanted to give Vickie the glass but get her to wrap a piece for her to make a pendant for her friend.

Elaine with her pendant

Vickie is able to do beautiful wire work with a large variety of different wire types and thicknesses. The results are high quality and beautiful!

Beautiful wrap job on a nice piece of brown  beach glass

She has started to wrap some of our stone and over the winter she will be producing a whole array of pendants reflecting the shape and beauty of Digby Neck.

Beautiful piece of agate and copper wire

So stop by next spring and check out our inventory. They make perfect gifts or mementos of your visit to beautiful Nova Scotia!