Live beetle worn as jewellery

You put on your outfit in the morning and you think "blah this needs a bit of bling". Most of us ladies reach for a necklace or perhaps a brooch. One woman decided that what she really needed was a bit of moving sparkle for when she made the border crossing from Mexico into the United States. That way people would be so distracted by the glittery, scuttling thing that they wouldn't notice her muffin top, bad hair or perhaps dodgy documents. Unfortunately for her, the distraction attempt didn't work and she got stopped by customs officers. Turns out you need live plant pest importation documentation if you want to take your living jewelry around with you. Glad to know that if you ever want to import a pest, you just need the right documentation. I'll be rounding up some cockroaches to take to Rush Limbaugh's house next time I'm in the U.S.

The woman got off with a mild ticking off and the confiscation of her "gem". Personally, I think she should have been prosecuted for animal cruelty and forced to try having some gems stuck to her skin with superglue.

Environ-Mental

An icelandic jewelry designer, Hafsteinn Juliusson, has come up with a novel way to bring nature into the lives of city dwellers. Juliusson has designed a range of rings which are inset with icelandic moss. The rings have to be watered regularly and can last up to six months if they are looked after.




Juliusson states that the collection is an "experiment in drawing nature toward man, as nature being the presupposition of life." The rings cost £480 each.


Juliusson has definitely come up with something unique and wearing one of his rings would most likely get you attention. However, one does wonder how the ring would survive through day to day life - washing your hands, getting dressed, putting on your coat. Most likely you would end up paying £480 for a ring that after two days has a large hole in it with a few bits of soil.
For more information about Iceland visit http://www.icelandic-traveller.com/

Human Jewellery

Perhaps this christmas, you may find yourself trying to find a gift for the person who has everything. You will have trawled the net and the streets to find something quirky and unique and just right for them. If this person that you are shopping for also has a taste for the macabre, then I might just have found the perfect gift for you to give them. Both environmentally friendly and one of a kind, jewelry made from human parts could be the answer to your yuletide quest.

An Australian jewellery designer called Polly Van der Glas has come up with a collection of jewellery made from human teeth and hair (sterilised of course). These teeth rings would definitely be a conversation starter if worn on a date or basically anywhere in public.

These hair bracelets are slightly more discrete

and may be a good way to wean people off chewing their hair.

However, the best bit of the collection is this delightful hair purse. Take care not to hold it anywhere in front of your crotch or chin area - it could rather confuse people.

Aren't we all glad that there are people out there

with the time and the inclination to keep pushing style boundaries?

How to make Christmas less expensive

Having recently taken in a stray kitten, my spare cash has rather shrunk. For the first time in a while, I have been thinking about why we all feel we have to spend so much money at Christmas.

A while back, I did a post on home-made gifts. Home made gifts can help you to ease your cash flow a little. I also think that it's a good idea to cut out unnecessary gifts. Gift-giving should be limited to close family and your partner; do we really need to be receiving gifts at Christmas from more than about 5 people?? Excessive gift giving is just a way to be more materialistic than we already are and find an excuse to shop.

A good idea is to combine a home made gift with a small bought gift. For instance, why not make use of special offers and get a few books and then give people a book and a home made gift. Another idea is to make your Christmas cards yourself. Buy some coloured card and cut out humorous pictures from old magazines and newspapers. Stick them on the card and add a funny caption.

Food is always a great home made gift to receive. Another good idea is something that I saw in The Guardian today. It sounds crazy but you can "knit" jewellery for the women in your life. You will need to know how to knit (easy to learn, just google it) and then you will need metal wire and some beads.

Instructions:

1. Thread all the beads that you want to use onto your wire. To work out how many beads to use multiply the amount of stitches per row by the length of the bracelet in centimetres (eg if you are doing a six stitch wide, 12cm long bracelet, I'd thread at least 72 beads on).

2. Cast on as many stitches as you think want and knit one row. As you knit the first stitch of the second row, bring one of the beads up to your needles and knit it into the fabric. Repeat for every stitch of the second row.

3. Continue knitting every odd row without beads and every even row with beads - this will ensure all the beads stay on the same side of the bracelet.

4. Once the bracelet or choker is long enough, cast off then fix a jewellery clasp to either end of it.

The end result looks pretty good and would make a great gift for someone.

Roxy Music 'If there's something'

I haven't really got a reason for posting this song other than just to share the magic. Wait until about 2 minutes into it and then the tempo completely changes and it suddenly takes off. I found it through that film 'Flashbacks of a fool'. Not a bad movie. When you listen to this you can sort of see why the girl who was dating Bryan Ferry's son switched over to dating Bryan Ferry himself. A bit of old age is nothing in comparison to being with a musical genius.

Negative Space by Noma Bar

These designs by Noma Bar are incredible and thought-provoking.

Jewellery in Jordan

On a recent trip to Jordan, I decided to us the opportunity to buy a bit of new jewellery. Whenever you go abroad, it's worth having a quick look at the jewellery as in many countries it can be considerably cheaper and different to the jewellery on offer in your hometown.

If you are in Jordan visiting Petra then you will probably have quite a few opportunities to buy jewelry from the local Bedouins. This is worth doing as some of their jewelry is beautiful and unlike what you can perhaps get at home. The jewelry on offer in Petra tends to be made of rocks and glass. Agate is commonly used as well as moonstone and coloured glass. It is likely that the rocks are imported but even so, the jewellery is handmade. I took the opportunity to buy a blue beaded bracelet and a multi-coloured glass necklace from a lovely man just near Shobak castle (not in Petra but on the route to Petra from Amman). It cost me only 5JD (approx 5 euros) for both items. The price was lower than what you would probably pay in Petra itself. No matter if the price they first offer you is something that you are happy with, it is still good to bargain at least 10% off the price. The reason for this is that I genuinely have found that Middle Eastern people respect you more if you don't take the first price and it tends to give you an opportunity to have a chat. Obviously, for some items you will need to really haggle over and I will be writing a post later about how to haggle.

During my trek around the Petra site, I saw a wide range of jewellery ranging from basic beaded necklaces to more ornate cuff bracelets. The beaded jewellery does tend to be quite basic but it's always useful to have and you will be giving your money to people who will appreciate it which is better than buying a string of beads from the high street. The silver cuffs are beautiful and although I did not buy one, I am pretty sure that I could have bought one for about 10JD.

When I returned to the capital city of Jordan, Amman, I really got my jewellery shopping on. King Faisal street contains all the main jewelry stores and is labelled on maps as the location of jewellery market. When buying more expensive jewellery, I definitely recommend doing as much browsing as you can - do not buy from the first shop you go into!

First, I had a good look at all the jewelry on offer and tried to get an idea of the level of quality on offer and the price ranges available. Most of the jewellery in Amman tended to be yellow gold - very yellow gold is not popular in most western european countries because it is not overly flattering to pale skin. However, the very yellow colour shows that is high quality gold and if you can carry it off, it is definitely worth buying. It's vibrant and much cooler than the pale, insipid gold that is normally available. Personally, if I could wear it without looking jaundiced, I would have got lots of it as it was reasonably priced and exotic.

Instead I opted to get a woven bracelet with strands of rose gold, silver and yellow gold. Generally rose gold is flattering to most skin types and is also unusual. After a bit of a chitchat we managed to reach a price we all liked and I walked away with a gem at a good price. The quality could have been better but at the price offered, it was still a bargain and it will definitely bring back memories of Arabia when I wear it.

I then decided to invest in a bit of silver for everyday wear. Silver is not so popular here which makes perfect sense as silver is too bland for the gorgeous brown skin of the locals. Quite a few shops did try to trick me into buying very poor quality jewellery at rather inflated prices. When you are not sure about an item, just say that you want to browse a bit more and compare the product to similar ones in other shops. You won't regret taking your time as there is nothing worse than taking a piece home and finding out it's badly glued and damaged.

I settled on two delicate silver bracelets which, after some intense haggling, I got at a great price. I also picked up two gorgeous pairs of earrings which were of a very good quality and a good price.

Scurrying home with my swag, I felt very happy with my purchases and so will you if you take the time to buy jewellery abroad.

Best music videos ever: Danger! High voltage

The video for this song by Electric Six is brilliant. It's a perfect example of the power of facial expressions. As someone commented, it's always good when a video goes with the song and is original. Too many people opt for the easy option of getting a few 'dancers' to gyrate in skimpy clothes or if it's a female performer then she's usually the one doing the gyrating.

Famous Jewellery Wearers

We've already covered Mr T., an iconic jewellery wearer by most people's standards. Second in this series called "Famous Jewellery Wearers" is going to be Mike D from the Beastie Boys.

The Beastie Boys are hip hop icons, famous for their music, attitudes and look. The look most associated with the Beastie Boys was Mike D's wearing of the Volkswagen emblems. Between 1986 and 1987 owners of Volkswagens suffered from fans of the Beastie Boys stealing their hood emblems. The VW badge became known as a symbol of lawless cool. It became such an issue that Volkswagen began offering free emblems to people who wanted them in order to protect owners of their cars.

As an owner of a VW, I'd prefer if people didn't copy this trend but I do think that it shows that a lot of the time, being a jewellery icon doesn't involve spending a lot of money. It just involves doing something original. Let me know who springs to mind when you think of famous jewellery wearers or jewellery icons.

In the shadows

A Tokyo born jewellery designer has revealed a revolutionary jewellery idea. The Central St. Martins educated designer has come up with a line of jewellery that projects shadows onto your body. Her collection, called Cinematography , is made of metal mesh. Maiko Takeda drills holes into the metal by hand to creat trompe l'oeil effect.
Maiko Takeda says that the concept of the jewellery is that the shadows themselves become the jewellery. Here are some examples of her work:I certainly think that Takeda has designed something truly original.