THE ART TRAIL IS HAPPENING!

This year I am taking part in the 2nd Ilfracombe Art Trail, we are not doing an open house this year though. I am at The Space and I will have my daughter who is an artist and published author with me on Sunday but Saturday I will be mostly on my own, there are a number of artists exhibiting as The Space is large so plenty of room.

I am not ready at all as my work room has been having a makeover and the ceiling had to be replaced as the roof above was leaking so that got fixed first, I ended up with a large hole in the corner of the ceiling and it has been on-going for over a month now and everything has had to come out so the studio is full with stuff so no Tai Chi either...!!! The weather has been too cold and windy to train in the park so I will be so glad to see it all finished and everything back in the workroom again.

I will be taking some of the pendants I made for the Art Bead Scene challenges with me as well as some of the Impressions collection of pendants also maybe some hand dyed silk Kumihimo necklaces and some gorgeous vintage silk scarves I made along with some of my art cards of my own paintings.

 Love to get comments if you have a minute, thank you.

~Jackie~
 

 

DECEMBER ART BEAD SCENE CHALLENGE!

The last picture of the year to take our inspiration from was I thought, rather different see it below! It is a painting of Paris by Maria da Silva.

I had another challenge, to design and make some pendants for a local gallery where I exhibit some of my work so this painting partially inspired those as well. The pendant made for the Art Bead Scene Challenge was this one.

Below are several of the other pendants I made that are also available, I did enjoy designing them to add to my hand painted Impressions Series like my Tai Chi pendants and brooches. Each pendant is signed on the back and decorated or embellished in some way for your eyes only!

The rest of the pendants I made have not been photogrephed as yet I will add more at a later date!

Can you spare a moment to leave me a comment? I would love to hear from you, thank you.

~Jackie~

                           

                     

GIFT GUIDE

Today I am in Cyndi Lavin's December Gift Guide, so the web site is well stocked with lots of specially priced items everything from necklaces, pendants, bracelets and earrings, I also make ribbon bookmarks these are adjustable to fit large or small books and won't mark the pages.
The sale will run till New Years Eve to finish the old year with a flourish prices are in £ & US$!
If you see something you would like just email me the details and I will get right back to you.

On another note I have been thinking of putting some things in my Etsy shop it is such a popular place I buy all sorts of things there throughout the year, I do love to buy handmade it has a uniqueness about it that is so special.

Coping with the high cost of silver and gold

Reading my friend Lori's blog sparked my idea to write some musing on this subject from my perspective. I used to make art jewellery pieces up until a couple of years ago with sterling silver armatures wrapped with very fine silver wire, I developed my own style and things went well, but with the constantly rising cost of silver I began to question where I was going, add the gemstones etc, etc and expenses rose, yes it was fun to create, especially as I enjoy making as many parts of a design as I can apart from the gemstones obviously I leave that to mother nature.

Then a few years back I was introduced to Premo Polymer clay, its a bit like paint in solid form I thought so I was hooked. I took a few tutorials to begin with, then as usual I meandered off on my own. Many years ago I worked with clay but this was different I had colour now and many more colours could be mixed from the basics! So I made many different items from small sculptures to jewellery, which is now my preference.

Polymer clay it would seem has come into its own and is no longer considered the outsider but is sold in prestigious galleries, there are museum collections and displays of jewellery it has finally made it!

Last year I got to thinking how wonderful it would be to work with gold clay that I could shape into my own designs for necklaces and pendants, a lovely setting for beautiful Jaspers, Agates and Gemstones etc so working from my original sketches; I spent the next six months building a collection of art necklaces and pendants based in the gold polymer clay.

The Inspiration; water plays a large part in my life as I live close to the ocean, enjoy lakes and streams, with reeds and swans, the ponds in our garden. Trees are important to me, also mosses and ferns, each piece of jewellery I sketch has an inspiration in nature and the natural world around me. Sometimes it is a shape I want to capture or maybe a beautiful Jasper cab inspires a picture.

So my problem seems to be solved, I no longer need large quantities of silver or gold metal and I am excited with all the new possibilities this new direction has given me.

This collection will be available when we have finished updating the web site.

Pandora

Lara and I went to see the film Avatar in 3D earlier this year, I loved the concept of an unspoiled planet full of natural wonders, we bought the hardback book Avatar to share between us a few weeks later and although not a thick book it was interesting and gave some insight into the design and making of the film. The use of colours intrigued me as did the idea of floating mountains in fact I found it all quite enchanting.

Since then I have been working on my Pandora collection of pendants and necklaces inspired by the strangely beautiful alien world of Pandora. Sculpted in Polymer clay, the photos don't really show them to best effect as they are dusted with interference and mica powders to add that special iridescence the pendants and necklaces were exciting and intricate to design I really enjoyed making them, so I thought I would share some of them with you, I hope you like them to!