Anglo-Saxons, Coiling and shrink plastic

After a recent mental block which I couldn't shift I challenged a friend (Thanks for humouring me susan!!) in order to help clear her 'block' too.  The idea was to choose a book/piece of literature of some sort, to close eyes and blindly point at a word.  This was the theme for the piece to be made - in any medium of your choosing!!  Having opened a very old Encyclopedia of  the world my finger had rested upon 'Anglo-saxon'!

I enjoyed history while I was at school, sadly not much of it stayed with me! Google saved the day!! The first thing to come up was Runes.  I love anything of this nature and so chose the Rune I liked the best!!

The Rune of Humanity....

....with Garnet danglies, for protection.

This exercise took away alot of the mental block, however I still wasn't firing on all cylinders!! (to be honest I probably never was!)

I have been contemplating a coiling gizmo for some time.  I don't know why really it's not as if they are a major investment!! Anyway, I finally ordered one and it arrived a few days back.  I have to admit it is a little addictive...................................

During my uninspired time in order to keep the light at the end of the tunnel burning I invested in rather a lot of semi precious beads/Cabs!!!! Can't wait to use them!

I picked these two fossils up at a show at the weekend, nothing rare about them.  The one directly below is an orthoceras which lived some 450 million years ago!

This is a crinoid stem.  Crinoids are also known as a Sea Lillies or feather Stars.  The challenge with this one was how to wrap it without the use of glue (naughty word!) or a drill (not as naughty!) and without covering too much of it!

I have also had a go with Shrink Plastic!!  That was fun and I have invested in some colour markers to make the next ones more interesting!.  I over baked it a little on the second bake and the black marker turned a little burgundy.

I forgot to add; the idea of using lots of little patterns came from a very creative lady called Jill who very kindly gave me this 'Cabachon' a while back......

For those of you that have enquired about them, this is the link to her website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/KilnFiredArt?section_id=10330993

There is lots of gorgeous stuff on there!!