Sunday 17 November 2013

A Cornish Inspiration part 1

 Collecting images at Bedruthen Steps.

At the beginning of this month I was lucky enough to grab a weeks break with my husband and head off down to the Cornish coast. Our plan was to chill out with some coastal walks, a garden or two, some lovely food and maybe the odd alcoholic beverage. We knew that an October break would be a little risky but the weather this year has been as fine and mild as any I can remember so we thought we would take a chance...... My husband Auri is partial to throwing himself out of a plane on occasion so we agreed to take a day out of the holiday, he would skydive and I would keep my feet very firmly on the ground and surround myself with my lovely beads in hope the Cornish landscape would work its magic and inspire my makes.... Well our holiday didn't go quite according to plan, I think we managed to pick the 6 rainiest days of the year and beautiful rugged Cornwall looked a little more like a tropical Island being battered by a hurricane! It poured...and poured...and poured... and then it poured a little more. Sadly for Auri that meant the skydiving was off the menu ....but for me it was a slightly happier situation - 3 solid days of making jewellery! How awful! ;) We were incredibly lucky though, when we did venture out we managed to dodge the rain almost completely and even saw the sun at the most opportune moments - On the Cliffs at Polperro and down on the beach at Bedruthan Steps, maybe only for an hour at a time but all the more beautiful and precious as it was so rare.

Here is my first set of photos from Bedruthen....


 Our first full day in Cornwall, we managed to get down onto Bedruthen beach at just the right time, 
Auri took this picture see if you can spot me!

We spent an hour or so on the shore before the tide started to come in, I was looking for inspiration and boy did I find it in this next set of close ups. 
These were a huge inspiration to me when I sat down to make my jewellery as you will see.


 



Bedruthen Steps really is one of my favourite places on the planet.
 The 180 steps down to the beach were quite a challenge for me but worth it for every second we had there, for most of the time we had the beach to ourselves.


The stunning cliff walk....




 Look closely that's my leg in the background this fabulous fungi was huge!


.....and right next to it we found this one....



Just as we got back to the National Trust tea shop at the top of the cliffs (for a gorgeous brie and mushroom toasted sandwich which I highly recomend) the weather turned and so began 3 days of making, If you would like to see what I came up with and the photos from our second lucky break in the weather at Polperro then stay tuned for parts 2 & 3.

Thanks for visiting
Claire x

A Cornish Inspiration Part 2.

Polperro

One of my missions whilst in Cornwall was to go beach combing for china and sea glass. So I googled about to find the best beaches and made myself a list of possibles. unfortunately this was as most of my plans for the holiday thwarted  by the tempestuous weather. Luckily one of the few breaks in the weather happened at just the right moment and long enough for us to walk through Polperro and down to the beach where I had heard (a little polymer clay bead making bird called Pippa told me) that there might be an opportunity to find the aforementioned beach treasure. As luck would have it the beach was closed off! I think it may have been fated though as we decided to walk up the hill to the coastal path to see what we could see....and boy was what we could see worth the walk....

Walking through Polperro


Love a bit of  rust!


From the clifftop looking back towards the harbour


 

My ideal home! :)


As we got to the path we found steps in the rock that wound right down to the most amazing rocks with the biggest rock pools I've ever seen. we could have easily gone for a swim in this one...


....and this is what greeted us when we looked out to sea, it really was breathtaking.


....and just around the corner...






I could go on and on and on (I took a lot of photos) but instead I'll  leave you with my favourite. I'm not absolutely convinced that this was the most sensible thing I've ever done but I just couldn't leave until I caught a descent breaking wave!

I fully intend to break out the oils and have a go at this at some point. I've put an easel on my Christmas list.

Well there we are, my inspiration. Now all that remains is to see what I did with it, please make your way through to part 3 for the designs.

Thank you x