Not quite a yellow brick road...

When I woke up this morning it was a cold, wet and miserable day in Dorset and I wasn't much inspired to do anything except perhaps, crawl back under the duvet. Realising the danger in this though, I got myself a cup of tea and started looking through some photos of a trip to Australia a couple of years ago, well before I had really thought about making jewellery.

And what do you know, within minutes I was looking at something and thinking...now how could I interpret that as a piece of jewellery..?

The pictures in question were taken at Balmoral, a neighbourhood beach in Sydney that's home to some of the most amazing rock formations I've seen without having to risk life and limb - something I try not to do if I can help it!

I think these next two have been left behind from the set of a Sci-Fi movie....

Giant decapitated serpent heads?

Prehistoric sheep skeleton?

Now, I'm really into texture and things that are tactile and one of my favourite materials at the moment is metal clay, particularly Bronze and Copper. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this... Those organic forms and striations are just begging me to get some tools out and see if I can do them justice!

I think this may turn into a long term experimental project to improve my metal clay skills and see how I can combine it with other materials to create jewellery - so watch this space. Please feel free to join me in this challenge with your own favourite materials if you feel so inclined - there are more pictures on my FLickr photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerwhite/sets/72157626294779100/

As for this next picture...I'm sure I've seen it before somewhere...

Oh well, maybe not quite a masterpiece but at least I found my inspiration...and the sun came out this afternoon! :0)

Lesley