THE CONTEST!

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~

MY FIFTH AND LAST DAY ON THE FACEBOOK ART JEWELRY CHALLENGE!

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 ART JEWELRY CHALLENGE!

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!

DAY THREE OF THE ART JEWLRY CHALLENGE

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~

FACEBOOK ART JEWELRY CHALLENGE DAY 2 !

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~

KUMIHIMO BRAID NECKLACE!

I am enjoying my Kumihimo braiding very much. I am using hand dyed silk threads at present that I buy from Lorraine as I want fine braids it seems perfect. If you read my prevous post you will know I don't like the pre-made ends that you have to glue in position, so have worked on a way to secure my hand made Polymer ends without using any glue.

The necklace in the picture below has lovely warm shades in the braid with tiny freshwater pearls. I made endcaps of autumn leaves and one for one of the ind drops the other two are green Tourmaline and the three waterfall strands are a mixture of freshwater pearls glass beads and Tourmaline and a couple of gold plated beads as well.

Lorraine has a lovely blog you may like to visit its called http://colourcomplements.com/ she also has an Etsy shop here https://www.etsy.com/shop/colourcomplements?ref=l2-shopheader-name

I will put some more of these necklaces up soon, I hope you have enjoyed taking a look most of these are available but not on the web site as they are a new collection.

Your comments are very much appreciated thank you.

~Jackie~

 

A HAND FLOWER

I have been enjoying making a new design at least it is new to me, it is a bracelet named a Hand Flower some call them slave bracelets but I think those are all chain whereas mine is made with freshwater pearls, crystals and components, so I am calling it a Hand Flower, it was fun to make and my daughter loved it. I actually used her wrist to get the dimensions right!
It's my daughters birthday on Sunday and I made her a necklace with some of the Bead Soup my partner sent me ( photo in my previous post ) she also has a quantity of books on drawing landscapes, she wanted a diploma art course but there are none available for coloured pencil which is her chosen medium to work in, she feels the background to her figures could do with more study and I have to agree with her. I am hoping the books will help her.
Anyway here is my Hand Flower.