Promotional Sale

To promote my shop at Ruby Plaza, I decided now is the time to have a promotional sale it is seasonal and will run through December, everything is on sale right now lots of lovely necklaces and earrings that would make great gifts there is even a silver Festive bracelet made with beautiful handmade lampwork beads etc. payment is by Paypal and we ship internationally to most places very reasonably, we try to keep the cost down even if you order more than one item.
So sit down with you favourite tipple and enjoy browsing our shop at Ruby Plaza. http://www.rubyplaza.com/shop/thesilverlodge

Of course our web site Kydo Jewellery has lots of lovely things on too http://www.kydojewellery.co.uk/
including our very popular bookmarks, being made of satin ribbon they are kind to books and make great gifts anytime! I have made them to go in prayer books, bibles and for confirmation in a favourite colour or white with a sterling silver cross.

Here Be Dragons!

I just love Dragons so does Lara in fact some of her fantasy art is inspired by Dragons if you love them too you will be interested to know I have just put a number of Dragon pendants on the web site all are for sale I will show you a couple here The Water Dragon and Moonwatcher. You can see the rest on the web site all are different we can certainly string them add chain or cord or you can buy them as they are to add to your own designs.
http://www.kydojewellery.co.uk/dragons.htm just click the link to be taken right to the page (hopefully) if I got it right!

Featured artist!

I am todays featured artist on Cyndi Lavin's blog Beading Arts http://www.beading-arts.com/ hop on over and take a look! Cyndi has a great blog this month she is featuring Polymer clay artists.

 

B'Sues Sari Ribbon Blog Hop!

Well here I am again I must be a sucker for punishment lol. I have no experience with sari ribbon, so you might say why am I doing a Sari Ribbon Blog Hop! I was sent two lengths of sari ribbon from my partner in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party, so when I got B'Sues interesting and informative newsletter she mentioned she was going to be doing said blog hop I just thought 'well why not' so here I am with two pieces of jewellery a bracelet/necklace depending on where you tie it and a necklace.

First off the bracelet/necklace I took the lovely clay oak leaf added two toning lampwork beads I had and threaded them on the red and gold sari ribbon, it can be tied at any length and looks interesting I think one could even add a few more beads to it! I originally made this one for the bead soup but thought you might like to see it too.

The necklace, is green sari ribbon but has a tiny gold thread running through it, I had no idea what to make with it and tried several combinations out not good at all, then I remembered a strand of large pale gold graduated beads that look like wood or seeds they are amazing they threaded onto the ribbon and stay in place without knotting you just tie a bow where you want at the side and are ready to go, simple but I think very effective!

Please do go and take a look at the other blogs in this hop there are some amazing designs out there, here is the link to B' sue where you will find all the link to participants.
http://bsueboutiques.typepad.com/bsue_boutiques_jewelry_su/2011/10/time-to-roll-out-the-list-of-participants-for-the-sari-ribbon-party-blog-hop.html

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal day!

I had an interesting assortment of items from my partner Nicole Keller of Nicki's Reef and I was inspired to make a necklace and two bracelets. The necklace I named Night Leopard; as soon as I laid eyes on the bronze pendant from Africa I just knew I wanted to make something that was both organic and a bit ethnic, I picked the beautiful spotted wood & tree seed beads and red Jasper for warmth and colour from the beads Nicki sent me, I added four Jasper rondels, vintage bronze metal rondels, wood beads and three grey blue beads from my own stash these hand made beads were made by Acholi women in Uganda, Africa out of recycled, rolled paper. The necklace is strung on leather and finished with a gold plated lobster clasp, I don't often make long necklaces but this one will fit over a sweater nicely I think.

Next I made a bracelet from the Polymer clay tile and the pair of glass beads with the nice bronze clasp Nicki sent I added copper beads and some Amazonite triangles.
For the second bracelet/necklace I took the lovely clay oak leaf added two toning lampwork beads I had and threaded them on the red and gold sari ribbon, it can be tied at any length and looks interesting I think one could even add a few more beads to it! I still have some of the bead soup left over to make things with.

Thank you Nicki for the interesting and unusual things you sent me, they certainly gave me pause for thought and isn't that just what it is all about!

Thank you too Lori, I don't know how you manage to keep up with it all with a home and family to look after; this is certainly a huge undertaking.

Thanks also to all of you that take the time to visit my little blog, I will do my very best to visit each one of you! 
Here is the link to the list where you can visit all the participants of Lori's Blog Soup Party.
http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/
  

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.

The Gold Collection got mentioned!

Susan of Big Chunky Jewellery wrote to me last week she gave my Gold Collection a mention on her web site in an interesting article Debate About Gold Continues, if you would like to read Susan's post here is the link  http://bigchunkyjewellery.co.uk/  at least I hope it works!

The Ganoksin Exhibition

The Ganoksin Exhibition Beauty Is In The Eye of the Beholder, went online this month it is curated by Beth Wicker. The exhibition showcases 247 images chosen from entries from over 55 artists representing North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Central America, Africa and Eurasia.

 

The drive to adorn the human body is surely as old as human kind. From pre-historic times this drive has led humans to use the materials at hand, combined with the technologies and tools available, to create objects to adorn the human body. The oldest jewelry found to date goes back to at least 75,000 years ago in Africa.

Early jewelry was made of bones, shells, sticks, and whatever other materials the people could find and shape. Over time the ability to mine and shape metal developed, and jewelry was made from bronze, silver, gold, platinum and other metals. Gold has long been thought of as a "precious" metal, and today it is joined by silver and platinum as the three main materials modern jewelry is made from.  While much jewelry today is made from these three main metals, a large body of jewelry world-wide is still made from a much wider range of materials. This exhibition, "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder", focuses on jewelry made primarily of materials other than gold, platinum and silver.

Jewelers today are still using found objects such as shell and bone; they are using "green" materials - upcycled and recycled objects and materials; they are using cutting edge plastics and newly developed technology; and they are using older metals such as copper, brass and bronze.

Some of the more unusual materials include vinyl LP's, velvet, VCR components, rattlesnake vertebrae, corian, canvas, paper, crab claws, magnets, synthetic rubber electrical insulation tubing, and aluminum grounding wire.

More traditional materials used include copper, bronze, brass, glass, various types of wood, gemstones, pearls and seeds.

Techniques range from traditional metalsmithing, through a range of beading techniques, textile techniques, photography techniques and cutting edge industrial fabrication.

Participants range from professional jewelers with international reputations to students just learning their craft.

Hosted on the Ganoksin website, the world's largest internet site devoted to jewelry- related topics, the exhibition is a snapshot of what jewelers around the world are exploring, and an inspiration to all. The exhibition was conceived Beth Wicker, an artist from South Carolina, in the USA, and curated by Beth and Hanuman Aspler, founder of the Ganoksin Project.

Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholderhttp://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/beb

I had three necklaces accepted Lily Pads, Princess and Plum Blossom; they are below if you would like to see them.

 

  

 

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.

I have been showcased!

This is so nice, the web site is Champagne Rose Jewelry, the page is Friends Gallery http://www.champagnerosejewelry.com/ a lovely Japanese lady called Mika Shimatani owns the web site, although Mika was born in Japan she now lives with her husband and two little boys in San Jose, California. Mika makes lovely jewellery herself and is also teaching jewellery workshops.

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.

Thinking of changing my Journal

Yes I am really thinking of leaving Blogger, there seems little point me being here if I am unable to post on the blogs I follow and possibly other people can't leave comments on my blog either although I think you can leave comments on my blog as I have comment moderation enabled and I can comment on any blogs that have this enabled, so I presume it is the same, but not on any others.
I do have another Journal at Wordpress but I don't really use it at the moment so I may decide to use that one, I do hope if I go some of you will follow me over there, that would be brilliant!

Of Roses and Moonlight

Just as I thought I had got writing this journal under control life up and gets in the way, maybe I am trying to do too many things online at the moment and then nothing gets done well. So here I am again promising myself I will find something to write about at least once a week.

The garden has been taking up a bit of time and the work really on going, it is bursting with old roses and clematis at the moment; the weather has been wonderful the last few days with lots of sunshine which is why they are doing so well I think, they love the sun and hang their pretty heads in pouring rain and end up looking like wet paper bags hanging on the bushes. But I do love the old roses the scent is stunning; Mme Isaac Perrier has the strongest scent of all my roses and I can sit on the seat in my sunken garden listening to the waterfall and bird song enveloped in her exquisite perfume and the sweet scent of lavender trailing down the wall behind me. How I love the warm June days!

I took up Chen Tai Chi some time ago to help with problems after a bad fall I had years ago now and it is going really well, I love it and it has helped me to recover a lot of the flexibility I had lost, I practice every day and hope to overcome any limitations I may have. We did a demonstration at a fair in our park in aid of the local Childrens Hospice a couple of weeks ago which was well received.

Friday evening my daughter and I went to the theatre to watch the Shaolin Warriors from Beijing, the performance was absolutely spectacular and the theatre filled to capacity. After the show my husband picked us up in the car we drove out to the down which overlooks the sea, the sun had set and a new sickle moon risen but the sky still had a deep peachy coral glow along the horizon with that aqua shade you get sometimes below. The lights along the Welsh coast opposite were strong and bright, mesmerisingly close. As we sat drinking in the beauty of the night the stars shone out, more and more appeared. We got out of the car sharing cans of soft drinks letting the night drift by; the big dipper appeared right above where we stood, my husband pointed it out to our daughter, we found other constellations to wonder at, until the breeze became a little chill and we got back in the car.

We watched as a dog fox came within a few feet of the open car door, I thought perhaps he wants a ride with us, he came so close to me with no fear, wondering what I had in the rustling paper of a chocolate snack bar. Then we drove home.

I hope you will choose to come back and read more of my ramblings and I will try to write more frequently. I leave you with a picture of a new necklace from the Gold Collection inspired by the old roses. The gemstones are Rhodochrosite, pink Peruvian Opal and Chalcedony with white pearls.

Two new pendant necklaces

I have two pretty new pendant necklaces to share with you today, from my Gold Collection. The marquise cabs in both cases are Ocean Jasper the pink and white one also has two round cabs of Chalcedony with Swarovski crystals embellishing the chain. The gold and green Cab has a round vintage Swarovski crystal with crystals and freshwater pearls embellishing the chain.Both these are on the web site right now on The Gold Collection pendants page.

The necklace in my last post Florentine is also on the web site Gold Collection necklaces page. Just click on Kydo Jewellery to the right and visit our web site, we have a special celebration offer for our blog followers, free first class or standard Air Mail shipping anywhere for one week thats till 30th April! 

 

Florentine, New Boulder Opal Necklace

I thought it was about time I posted another of my gold collection necklaces this one has just gone on the web site, sadly I couldn't get a photo of the pin fire in the opal it is red and green. I  also cut the back away as the pin fire goes right through this piece of boulder Opal. The cabs are Carnelian and I strung the necklace with baby Agate nuggets and little peachy gold pearl nuggets!





Spring is here at last!

I just took this picture of a small bed of crocus and Narcissi in the garden they are so bright and pretty I couldn't resist showing you, I only planted this little bed before Christmas and it is doing well the second picture is of one of the Camellias in the garden, there are several as I love them they make such a show this time of year the first Magnolia is blooming away but the batteries ran out on me so I couldn't take more photos!

The Silver Lodge is no More!

We have at last changed the name of our web site from The Silver Lodge to Kydo Jewellery, as the name was no longer appropriate. It is rather sad in a way but we hope the new name and new inspiration will bring its rewards as we start afresh.

Lara chose the name KYDO and it does have a meaning it stands for KEEP YOUR DREAMS ORIGINAL, which seemed just perfect, for the new collection of art jewellery The Gold Collection, created from gold polymer clay and set with Jaspers, Agates, pearls, fossils and coloured gemstones, among other beautiful stones I have sourced over many months which will be appearing on the web site over the next weeks. The collection is themed around nature with leaves playing a large part especially ferns, as they will soon start to unfurl, a little later this year as the weather has been so cold.

Everything is still not quite sorted as we can receive email on our new address but can't reply as our internet provider won't send it through, so we are useing the silverlodge address at present until its sorted; it is really annoying though!

Let me show you one of the new pendants on the web site. The stone is a very large mystic quartz the fine gold vermeil chain is embellished with Swarovski Crystals.

All finished

At last I have finished visiting all the bead soup blogs, this has been a real marathon for me as just prior to this one I did the One World One Heart giveaway and had those blogs to visit too, so no time to write my own blog. Thank you Lori for organising it.
I will be writing to tell you more about our new web site which Lara and I have just finished a little later.

Bead Soup Reveal Day

Today is the day I can show you what I made from my bead soup partner Magda; our brief was we had to use the focal and clasp our partner sent us but could use the beads sent or use some from our own stash. I tried to use as many of the items Magda sent me as I could and just added one bead and some vintage brass chain of my own to finish off.

I made an asymetrical necklace, I loved the hand made beads and clasp she made for me, so the clasp had to be seen, but I had great difficulty deciding how to hang the focal circle of wood, I wanted to use the long wire wrapped bead she had made me in a different way. So this is what I eventually came up with.

Bead Soup!

Magda is my bead soup partner she lives in Poland, her English is good while my Polish is non existent but that has not stopped us communicating and I would like to show you the lovely selection of beads Magda sent me. The beautiful clasp and wire wrapped beads Magda made especially for me, I feel so honoured they are lovely. I have tried to use as many of the components in my necklace as possible, I just can't let you see it yet lol.

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!

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.

Bead Soup Blog Party!

I have just joined Lori Andersons Bead Soup Blog Party it sounds like its going to be fun! There is still time to join in just click on the logo on the right hand side of this page to be taken to Lori's blog.

Painting of Glenveagh

This is the watercolour I painted of Glenveagh gardens with the castle in the background. I really enjoyed doing paintings of the different places I visited. It was a long time since I had got out the paints, being involved with other things these days. I do notice some strange shadow lines on the left of the painting, I have no idea what made them as they are not part of the painting, very weird!

I tend to leave the art side of things to my daughter Lara she takes commisions for pet portraits and fantasy art also small clay sculptures she finished a set of cartoon style Dr Who sculptures before Christmas which were very detailed.

There are so many things I would like to do and try but time passes so quickly these days and I will never be able to fit them all in, maybe tomorrow!

Festival of the Trees

I took these photos at Glenveagh National Park in Donegal Ireland, the top picture is the castle and gardens, second the Gardeners Cottage, third Glenveagh Estate. The friends I was staying with at the time suggested I might like to go there, so we took a leisurely drive and arrived around lunchtime. The park itself has a wild beauty all its own, deep in the Derryveagh mountains that rise up from Lough Veagh. The estate runs to around 40,000 acres, the castle which we were able to take a tour of had a very lived in feeling about it, built in the 19th century by John George Adair a man born in County Laois who made his fortune in the USA and later owned by two other Americans. But it was Henry McIlhenny of Philadelphia who bought the estate in 1936 who left a lasting impression on the estate which he made the focus of his life for the 36 years he lived there. Henry McIlhenny developed the castle and gardens into what they are today. Henry also loved entertaining and one can imagine the parties and film stars invited to stay the guest book read like a who's who of actors, artists, musicians and famous names of the times.

The castle gardens are lovely when I came home I did a water colour painting of them from the photos I took, there was a picturesque Gardener's Cottage, in the grounds full of flowers at the time we visited. The contrast between these pretty gardens and the wild mountains and boglands bordered by the deep lough's made a pleasant oasis of culture and gentle beauty in the rugged landscape.

There is so much more I could write about Glenveagh but I will leave you with a picture or two from my pleasant stay.

New shop on Ruby Plaza

We have just opened a shop on Ruby Plaza, I have not put any of The Gold Collection pieces of jewellery in as I would prefer to put them on our own web site at least for now but there are some lovely gemstone necklaces, a bracelet and earrings, I shall be adding more during the weeks to come. The link to the shop is on the right just click it and you will be taken right to it.

The decision to try a shop was not taken lightly and hopefully it will work out, if you have never been to Ruby Plaza it is a sister online shopping mall to Ruby Lane,.I didn't find it very easy to begin with as there are so many do's and dont's lol.

There are such a lot of these places online now days it is a bit difficult to know just what would suit us best. Artfire seems quite good, so does DaWanda UK although nothing seems to be moving very fast in the present climate and I do think you can overstretch yourself and spend so much time putting items up on these places etc there is no time left for creating. Having said that I am hopeless at the selling side of things can't seem to manage it at all well, I think I have lost the art of writing good content over the years, although I used to enjoy writing and even wrote articles for a magazine at one time. I hope maybe someone will take a look at the new shop.

My autumn necklace this year is of course a Gold Collection piece. The strung necklace is peach moonstones with grey moonstone stars. I just couldn't resist these beautiful Jasper stones, they remind me of wild places in the dawn, just as the sun is coming up, streams with reeds, home to swans and birds aahhh what it is to dream!

New Jewellery at last

The London trip was nice but would have been a lot better if Lara and I had not both picked up some old virus there, which really spoilt the week! I have been unwell with it ever since which is a really long time and why I did not feel like writing anything as it was all doom and gloom lol. Now I am feeling much better and I have been moving forward with 'The Gold Collection' if your wondering why gold? Well gold polymer clay simply makes my art necklaces and pendants affordable, most people couldn't afford to buy my art designs in high carat gold, so this was a way of making them affordable.

I am useing many beautiful handcut Jaspers, Agates, Fossil materials and rare stones. Faceted and smooth gemstones in variety and choosing the most beautiful high quality gemstone beads and pearls for stringing. It has also been a time of experimentation, I am trying different things and cut the templates from my sketches, finding ways to set gemstones in the clay and I am loving it!

My ideas are moving forward, I have been especially inspired by ferns of all kinds recently; a number of different ones grow in my garden I am particularly fond of the Hart's Tongue fern. The hedgerows and places around here abound with ferns hiding between rocks and carpeting the moss grown floor under trees. So here is a necklace and pendant from The Gold Collection celebrating the Hart's Tongue and other ferns. The necklace will be for sale but the pendant I made as a gift for a dear friend.

I would love it if you would leave me a comment.

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.

Summer flowers

Oh dear I have been so busy I have forgotten to post for ages so here I am at last.
The garden is coming along quite well, we desperately needed the rain, well now we have it, I suppose it just won't stop, July seems to always be a fairly wet month down here.

Lara and I are off up to London for a week in August to stay with a friend, meet up with my cousin for lunch, take in a show etc etc, we always have the best time and we are both looking forward to it as a nice break.

I have been adding to my Gold Collection and made several art necklaces two for a challenge which I can't put on the blog yet but I am adding a lovely summer flower pendant from the Gold Collection, which I just finished its in warm summer shades and is embellished with some beautiful vintage Swarovski AB crystals which are not too easy to see as they are tucked between the petals but they add a sparkle and shine the centre of the large flower has a vintage Swarovski and the little salmon pinkflowers have rows of tiny 2mm crystals as well, lots of sunshine in this piece!

I grow orchids so created this necklace of pink and white orchids and blue forget me nots. I made the sketch for this earlier in the year but never got round to making it till last month, once I started it was such a pretty piece to work on, I did enjoy finding just the right pale pink nugget pearls to add to it and the silver hook clasp which you can't see has a little flower too. Both these pieces will be going up for sale on the web site soon but if you are interested in either of them you can just email me now. .

Opal necklaces

It seems ages since I have been able to write anything on the blog, or even go to peek at what everyone is doing at the moment. The web site is still unfinished, but we now have a nice new panelled front door frame and the door has been repainted. Lara and I have been working hard in the garden clearing brambles that have come in from next door, ready for the fencing. This holiday weekend all three of us have been working hard cutting back and clearing, clearing, clearing, getting ready for the new fences to go up hopefully in two to three weeks time


I have completed two necklaces both with opals set in gold polymer clay they are in an antique style. I start with sketches, then make templates, I really enjoyed making these just not quite as much as creating the Pandora's lol.

The double strand necklace has a piece of boulder opal set in the focal which has sculpted ends the fantastic iridescent enameled effect was achieved with mica powders, I love using these! The beads are Amazonite and a beautiful Brazilian Amazonite it is such a wonderful colour very soft teal/aqua, almost the last of my white baroque pearls and glass beads that were just a perfect colour, it drapes well and looks lovely on.


The second necklace is quite unusual as it is in three pieces not quite as I envisaged it in the beginning though! Two lovely pieces of boulder opal grace the side panels and an opal triplet the central panel, you can't really see the colours opal is so difficult to photograph, but they are beautiful. I used the mica powders again on the sculpted pieces to give an iridescent enamel effect. The gemstones for the necklace are Apatite bricks with yellow Fluorite rounds and Apatite chips with glass beads to link the pieces together.


I adore the colours in these two necklaces as I live by the sea it just reflects the wonderful tones and shades of the ocean seen from my window on any day. These are not on the web site as yet I thought I would preview them here first, what do you think I would love to hear from you?

Feeling Creative!

Our overhaul of the web site this year seems to be taking forever, Lara who is also the webmaster has been so busy with her commissions and other work that it is on a go slow and only half finished. We really wanted to showcase not just work for sale but commissions, work in progress artwork, jewellery and sculptures.

There just seems to be so much to do with work progressing in the house, it is a very old house so needs constant attention and it has taken us years to eventually get down to the bottom floor, there are four floors and we finished the kitchen last Christmas but still more to do, when I say finished the kitchen I mean it was gutted completely right up to the joists, my husband did all the work himself so it all takes a lot of time. Right now he is finishing two of the windows we had double glazed last year but never got to finish around them. then there is the front door the frame is all rotted out so needs replacing but of course it isn't that easy or straightforward, never is in this house, so we await the various carpenters who will hopefully submit their prices in the not to distant future. I haven't even mentioned the garden yet! The fences one side are falling down and have to be replaced and the whole garden sorted out and my lovely canal pond filled in as being at the bottom of the garden it has become a lot of work to clean it etc. So I will have to bring my large Koi up to the top pond and somehow enlarge it a little bit as I hand feed them and couldn't bring myself to part with them, they are like old friends.

Not much time for web sites you might say, I have been in a very creative mood recently, but now I feel strangely restive with too many ideas popping up in my thoughts and none of them really settling into something definite I can work with, so I am going to show you some of the things I have finished in my Pandora collection.

The little blue lilies pendant has bronze wire the loop at the bottom I was going to add something but don't know just what yet! The Pandora necklace took a very long time to construct as it was so complicated it was really inspiring to create, have to say I enjoyed it immensely and is so comfortable to wear, I love it!

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!

Easter Sunday Afternoon

This afternoon I went with my daughter and husband to a graveyard at the top of a hill, the sun was shining and the sweet smell of the glorious white narcissi and yellow daffodils lining the paths between the tall stately ceders wafted on the breeze. Each year for the last three years my daughter has visited the last earthly resting place of her dear friend Anthony, who lost his brave battle just a few days after his 22nd birthday.
Each year Lara has put a sprig of Rosemary for remembrance on the grave, I always cut the stems carefully for her and we bind them with ribbon in his favourite colour royal blue. Lara believes that knowing Anthony has made her a better more careing person, he will always be remembered and his courage in the face of great odds, will perhaps make us grateful for the health we have right now and the love we share as a family.

Lara's Art

Today I wanted to share with you my daughters art, Lara took a diploma course at the London Art College in Pet Portraiture and received a pass with merit at the end of 2008, needless to say her dad and I were very proud of her and she has had many commissions since, though mostly fantasy art, in fact her fantasy work and cartoons are all over the net lol. So I thought it would be rather nice to showcase some of the non fantasy pictures Lara did to win her diploma.

The horses head I really like as I love horses and used to ride a lot when younger, it was also the first horse she had ever drawn. The Borzoi is not one of ours and I have asked her to do portraits of our Borzois all sadly passed away now, I still miss them, both these portraits are in Derwent coloured pencil her medium of choice.

The third portrait is a rather thoughtful forest Gorilla in Acrylic it was the final piece submitted for her exam.

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you.