I could not have been more surprised when I won a contest recently, not because I thought my humble offering was unlovely but simply because it was so different to my usual offerings and materials, but I do like to use and put together in my own way things that appeal to me sometimes unusual or overlooked materials.
Thinking about it I always go rather for elegance, it can be simple or elaborate, I have been musing on this a lot lately, why I design as I do, put together certain colours, even use certain materials or gems does it depend on my mood, fashion, time of year! Yes, probably all these things hold a certain sway over how I design and make. Then there is the inspiration, I am inspired by so many things, colours definitely I love colour! My garden, trees, the sea, flowers and leaves, photographs, architecture, sometime a film will spark an idea, art nouveau and many other things, anyway enough of musing.
The necklace for the contest started with hand dyed silk in shades of Pale blue and green with baby blue freshwater pearls for the Kumihimo braid. I made the ends for the braid in silver
Polymer, inspired by the seed pods of Lunaria Annua ( honesty ) no glue was used to attach them to the braid, I hammered
and sculpted the silver wire central shape, the inspiration for these shapes came from a photograph of bubbles frozen under a lake in Canada. Then I wire wrapped the center circular portion to
hang a pendant of rock crystal. One end is also the
hook closure.
So there you have it, Blue Ice the necklace!
Thank you for looking your comments are much appreciated ~Jackie~
Well its my last day so I had to put up one of my great favourite necklace I made it as a special birthday gift for my dear sister.
This Huge freshwater drop pearl is set with ruby and peridot cabs on a
carved band of gold polymer clay, the beads and bead cap are either gold
vermeil or gold fill as is the chain. I used some very fine freshwater
white pearls and ruby and peridot faceted beads for the necklace.
I love
designing these embellished pearls they look so amazing!
Day 4. of the Facebook Art Jewelry Challenge.
Today I am adding another
of my gold polymer clay pendants set with a large cab of green tree
agate and a round cab of turquoise, I strung it with the green tree
agate rounds and some beautiful white freshwater pearls. I really liked the shape of this pendant in fact I made the template for the cab especially, as it was an odd shape but a nice size.
It is the last day of the challenge tomorrow I am going to miss it, I have managed to find people that had not been nominated before which is quite a feat as so many have already been nominated to carry on some even twice!
Today is day
3, of the Facebook Art Jewelry Challenge initiated by Donna Greenberg.
Goodness the time flies by, today I am showing one of my leafy gold Polymer Clay
pendants, it is set with a cab of Ocean Jasper a pearl and two Amethyst
crystals and strung with freshwater pearls in various shapes and sizes,
smooth amethyst and tiny gold plated spacers. I love these Ocean Jasper cabs and bought several at the time, I am so glad I did as now it is very difficult to get them.
~Jackie~
Today is my second day of the Art Jewelry Challenge so I decided to post a picture of a bracelet it is a decidedly Valentine affaire with prety puffy Rose Quartz hearts and a carved flower, the cubes are Rhodonite and the pearls are white freshwater, it is all hand wrapped with sterling silver and I added a litle silver heart to finish it all off, it looks really nice on and I also made a pair of earrings to match!
~Jackie~
I was nominated by Lori Anderson to do the five day Facebook Art
Jewelry Challenge initiated by Donna Greenberg. I have to show a piece of jewellery for 5 days, and nominate an artist
each day to show one of her pieces to carry the challenge forward.
I thought it would be nice to show the pieces here as well just for fun and something to write about at this cold time of year there is nothing much going on and I can't get in the garden, so I am doing all kinds of indoor crafts, although the painting will have to wait till the light is better and the days get longer, anyway here goes with my first day which was yesterday ( Saturday )
This necklace was made as a special gift for my sister for her birthday, it is made of Imperial Topaz and white Topaz with Citrine maquise drops and tiny gold beads and clasp!
~Jackie~
