ABS CHALLENGE APRIL

Sadly I wasn't able to make anything for last months post, whaich was a shame as Marianne North is one of my all time favourite artists I have several books about her and have great admiration for all the travels she undertook later in her life, when things were not quite as easy as they are today. 

However this months inspiration is a very colourful painting by the post imressionist painter Gauguin which you can see below and here is a link to the Art Bead Scene Blog if you would like to read more about the painting and artist. 
http://artbeadscene.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/april-monthly-challenge.html

I have picked out some of the rich colours to translate into a necklace the focal bead is by Jean Cristin and I added coral, green turquoise etc, the metal is copper.

I hope you enjoyed looking and I would love it if you left me a comment.

~Jackie~

ART BEAD SCENE AUGUST CHALLENGE!

Goodness I am very late getting this written this month so I will start by showing you the amazing Navajo tapestry Summer Thunder that was the inspiration this month and the link to Art Bead Scene. 
http://artbeadscene.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/august-monthly-challenge.html

I thought it would be nice to make some beads as well as a necklace, as I found the tapestry quite inspireing, I think it was partly the colour and something about the energy in the piece, the colour reminded me of our soil here in Devon it is just about that exact colour! 

So really my beads and necklace ( which is double sided ) are very much about the colour. The energy made me think of cave paintings and ancient art well I researched that a bit but finally went with my own thoughts, so the people in the beads and pendant and the patterns are  just my interpretation of animals and people going about their daily lives. Not sure if it has worked or not as I have never done anything like it before, I hope you will find it at least interesting even if a rather poor attempt.

 ~Jackie~
 Comments are gratefully received I don't get many but treasure every one, thank you.

THE ART BEAD SCENE CHALLENGE!

I decided I really need to get back to making a bit of Jewellery again and perhaps a few beads too so I have joined the Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge, http://artbeadscene.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/july-monthly-challenge.html.

Each month a picture is chosen for you to take inspiration from, just what I need right now, my biggest problem is having too many ideas all at once and never knowing where to start so I never get started. Joining the monthly challenge gives me a better way to stay focused on just one thing. 

There is a Pinterest board....................
https://www.pinterest.com/artbeadscene/jewelry-monthly-challenge-entries/ and I have pinned my offering for the month of July, just the one to start with.

I have put the necklace below, the heart is hand made by me in Polymer.

~Jackie~

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~

MADE A NEW NECKLACE!

I am still working my way slowly through the blogs on Grow Your Blog it may take me a while but I will get there in the end. Meanwhile I thought I would just show you what I have been doing with the jewellery.

I keep a box with a few pieces of jewellery mainly necklaces of course, that I have never been happy with but didn't have time to redo, I thought I would take a look to see if it would give me the inspiration. I needed to make a longish necklace for wearing with some high neck tees I have.

On opening the box some lovely ovals of Tree Agate caught my eye, I love Agate and Jasper! I retrieved the necklace and laid it out cut it apart and removed all the beads, not enough Agate! I had some more in a box which I got out and also my amber nuggets, I selected another two oval Agate beads with lovely patterns and some smaller round ones, then got to work on the layout. I wanted to use a silver dragonfly with the agate but what to use for a clasp?

For myself I tend to go for rather simple hooks or S clasps they lie nice and flat on the neck or can be used lower down, today I wanted something a bit different, out came the toggles I don't use them much and only keep a few but I found one that looked good with the rest of the necklace and balances out the opposite side. I added a few small silver spacer beads which work nicely.

The necklace is below and to me at least it makes me think of ancient times, prehistory when the world was younger when agate and amber was forming and dragonflies flitted among tree ferns and lakes with huge water lilies! Well that was what I was dreaming of anyway as it came together!

~Jackie~

 

 

SUMMER IS FOR PEARLS !

I do love pearls in all their grand variety and there are 'pearls for all seasons' but especially in the summer I love to see them with pastels and brights with coloured gemstones, agates Jaspers, Lampwork, silver, gold they just seem to go with everything and I use them often when I design and make jewellery and wear them myself too. Below are some of the necklaces I have made, these are for sale right now, if you see something you would like to have, just email me! 

 Pale pistachio green pearls with elegant hand made flameworked beads the centre bead is a large floral & vines, very pretty and summery fastens with a hook clasp.

Sweet little white pearls look lovely with Rose Quartz hearts and carved flower bead, cubes of Rhodonite and silver fastens with a lobster clasp. There is a bracelet and earrings to complete the set!

 Hand wrought in silver this beautiful Emerald pendant creates the focal point in this luxury Emerald and pearl necklace the inner strand of pearls are a pale green the outer strand is white it fastens with an S clasp.