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~

OCTOBER ART BEADS SCENE CHALLENGE!

October has come round so fast my birthday last Saturday has come and gone and the year seems to have flown by.!

The challenge picture for this month was a beautiful Egyptian painting see the picture below.

I loved the colours in this painting and as I really enjoy designing Egyptian pendants I knew this would be fun!

I started with a large open winged brass scarab stamping from B'Sue, I bought a few of these some years ago as I love using them, I decided I would paint the wings then glaze them to give an enameled effect but first I made a cartouch shape, cut off the flat piece on the bottom and turned it on its side and cut my Polymer to shape it made a perfect base for the scarab, I had decided on a lapis colour for the polymer, I also made a pair of coin shape beads and added an Ank to each, these I would be using during the stringing process. The scarab holds in its claws the rising and setting sun.

To string I used a pair of brass Lotus stampings again from B'Sue and painted these. The beaded necklace was done with a number of different beads I used faceted Lapis, Carnelian  and Sodalite cubes, turquoise, different sizes and colours of glass seed beads and six of my precious Roman glass tube beads. 

I doubt if it is something anyone would want to buy so I shall probably end up keeping it myself but I don't mind, it was an enjoyable if lengthy process and looks great on!

I am enjoying these challenges and look forward to next months.

 I hope you have enjoyed taking a look and I would love to read a comment from you if you can spare the time.

~Jackie~

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!

New Necklaces at Kydo

Lara my daughter and webmaster has just put two new Gold Collection necklaces on the web site. http://www.kydojewellery.co.uk/home.htm

The first one is so pretty;  I bought a selection of Rhodochrosite cabs this year, cut by Alex at Designer Cabochons, there are only a very few fine lapidarists in the Uk and Jane & Alex at Designer Cabochons has become a favourite place of mine to buy, often pricey but beautiful stones. 

Rosemarie

A beautiful freeform cab of Rhodochrosite adorns the centre of this pendant, cut and polished by Alex of Designer Cabochons. The three crystal cabs are vintage Swarovski Crystal as are the crystals embellishing the gold plated chain which fastens with a lobster clasp.

My second offering today is....

Teal Teardrop

A Chrysocolla teardrop and oval cab with leaves and tendrils, embellished with emerald vintage Swarovski crystals. I added natural Turquoise giving an organic feel to this lovely pendant, with gold plated spacers and a gold plated chain and lobster clasp to complete this necklace.

New Nefertiti Necklace & A Walk in the Woods

Well I am still here for the time being hoping that blogger will fix the glitch that won't let me post to some blogs, so I thought I had better show you some new necklaces I have just put up for sale on our web site Kydo Jewellery with the help of my daughter and web master.

The first necklace I called Nefertiti. It came about this way, I was looking through one of my books on Ancient Egypt for a completely different reason and came across some lovely wall paintings of Nefertiti with flowers, which inspired me to create this necklace. I had recently bought some large and beautiful Lapis Lazuli cabochons in that lovely royal blue colour so out came the sketch book as usual. I decided on a lily shape with the central cab of the Lapis I added three Carnelian cabs and engraved a lily design into the gold clay. I used my only strand of lovely Lapis nuggets with Carnelian rounds and little gold plated rondels it closes with a little vermeil S hook. It is signed on the back as are all my Gold Collection pieces. I think it turned out rather well.

The second picture is of a fresh green and white necklace. I chose a leaf or teardrop shape which compliments the shape of the Agate cab I textured the background of the gold clay and added a round Turquoise cab, which kind of set the whole piece off nicely I think. I used some high quality white pearls and tree Agate rounds to string it with and a few gold vermeil flower spacers, the clasp is a gold plated lobster claw. I think it makes a refreshing change the green and white, I called it A Walk in the Woods, I can almost smell the leaves and ferns lol.

Hope you like them I would love it if you left me a message.

White Water Turquoise

I made this necklace for myself with some of my favourite White Water Mine Turquoise, some silver and a handmade pendant from Jean Christen ( Clay Genie ) I love wearing it!

Desert Flower

This will be just a short post as my daughter and I are off tomorrow up to London, we stay with a friend just outside the city and tube in, so get the best of both worlds. We have several things planned to do, lunch with a cousin, visiting favourite shops, galleries and maybe a museum, we may go to the theatre and generally enjoy ourselves. We are both looking forward to this annual break.

We have had guests so I haven't been very creative recently but I have just finished an interesting asymetrical necklace which I named Desert Flower. The circles and tiny round beads are picture Jasper, the beautiful colour of these turquoise coloured stones look great in the centre of each circle with little silver beads the lovely chain is also silver I added just a sprinkling of Swarovski crystals in copper. I found the lovely silver flower toggle which seemed just right and Desert Flower was born! I think it turned out quite well.

Please do leave a comment if you would like to I love to hear from you all.