BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY ETC...

It will soon be that time again when we reveal our bead soup to the blogging world, the first reveal will start on 30th April. I am part of the second reveal so my turn will come on 6th April, I have already nmade several items but I mustn't give anything away till the day.

I have been making other things as well and as it has been too cold and damp in the garden to start out there. Although I do have some flowers in bloom Narcissi and my early Camellia Haru Gasumi and lots of Hellebors, I notice the beautiful double flowered Magnolia Vulcan has shed some of the furry jackets from its buds, I do wish it had waited a bit as the weather is unseasonably cold with strong winds and I so look forward to seeing the wonderful display this magnificent little tree puts forth, so I hope the flowers won't all be ruined!

I have been sewing, for Easter I have made my sister a scarf from a piece of beautiful vintage kimono silk it is so pretty full of spring flowers and soft as a butterfly wing!  I shall be making more scarves and some ascots/cravats to sell later on hopefully.

vintage silk scarf  for my sister, much prettier colour than the picture

Imperial Jasper with five Amethyst Cabochons I made this before Christmas
~Jackie 

Wow...!!! I won my catagory.

The results are in at last of a contest I entered and I won my catagory. The talent was amazing so many wonderful pieces in the different catagories the judges had a really hard time choosing, so I feel very honoured to be a winner.
I have always shied away from contests in the past but got persuaded last year to enter one.
I am not a competative person at all, so it is hard for me to do this, so I just imagined I was showing a new piece here on my journal to all you folks and it was a bit easier. Anyway I thought you might like to see the necklace that won.
It was based on a beautiful semi double scarlet Camellia called Grand Prix. The inspiration came about because I had this circular piece of Citrine crystals, it was quite a large round and I had no clue what to do with it, I got it out of the box several times over the months, stared at it and put it away again, then just before the contest started, I got it out yet again and suddenly, I thought, I know what you are, the centre of a flower, a big colourful flower! It had to be either a Clematis or Camellia, as soon as I saw Camellia Grand Prix I knew that was the right flower for this piece and so to the sketch pad and from there to the clay. I strung with white pearls and coral rounds and added a little female humming bird for fun!
Please leave a comment if you would like to I love to read them all.

Spring Inspiration!

At last I am updating the blog after the OWOH, time has just slipped away from me and I so wanted to show you some new spring designs. Having lacked inspiration since Christmas and the two viruses one after the other; suddenly my muse is back and I am so busy creating new art jewellery, especially in Polymer clay. I love working with colour, just like painting, then I can add silver, bronze, glass, gemstones, crystals it is just amazing what a fantastic medium it is, I can't imagine a world without colour!

I love Camellias and grow several in my garden, I especially like this small stripped one with a huge boss of golden stamens, each Camellia I made has a centre of Swarovski crystal, the armature is Sterling Silver and for fun I made it in two parts. I joined them with the silver wire and added round Garnet gemstones and little silver beads, it will have a chain added made to length, the pendant measures just four inches from the top of the longest silver curl to the bottom of the lower flower and I signed it on the back. I think it worked out rather well don't you? It hasn't gone on the web site yet as I thought I would preview it here first, but enquiries are always welcome.

I will have more spring inspirations to share with you later this week.