Wedding Pearls

I thought you might like to see a commission I have just finished and sent off three necklaces to a lady in NY for her wedding they are being given to her flower girls to wear on the day. The youngest is only 6years old. The pearls are a pale silky blue with Indicolite Swarovski crystals as the sashes on the little girls dresses are that teal colour, the silver blossoms are off set and small lobster clasps can hook anywhere on the extender chains, which is brilliant as the necklaces will grow with the girls! 

The Ganoksin Online Exhibition

I have four necklaces in the new Ganoksin Exhibition the links are below if anyone would like to see them.
Page 26.
http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/v/duu/Humming-Bird-_amp_-Nest-02-resize.jpg.html

Page 35.
http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/v/duu/Pandora-01-resize.jpg.html

Page 53.
http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/v/duu/Wild-Rose-01resize.jpg.html

Page 55.
http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/v/duu/York-Amonite-01-resize.jpg.html

 The exhibition showcases 330 images chosen from entries from over 111 artists representing 26 countries:
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Serbia, Spain, Trinidad, Turkey, UK, USA, Venezuela, and the Virgin Islands
Artists were free to interpret the theme in any way they chose. Each artist could submit up to six pieces. Interpretations include uniting different materials into one cohesive form; intellectual and emotional "unitings", where the meaning of the piece unites multiple concepts; the uniting of time - past, present and future; and a number that focus on the harmony created when uniting multiple materials and/or concepts.
The work submitted involved a wide range of jewelry techniques, from very traditional to very cutting edge, as well as using materials from traditional precious metals and gemstones to "re-purposedThe online exhibition titled "Differences Unite Us" is now open to the public!

NEW GIVE AWAY!

The second of my three give aways is another necklace. Made with sari ribbon for one of Lori Andersons Bead Soup Partys last year, the pale gold large beads are actually seeds I don't know what tree they are from but I thought they looked quite nice with the ribbon which is a very dark green and can be tied in place easily.
The rules are as before to be entered to win please leave a comment on the blog, you will get an extra chance if you blog about it or mention it on your Facebook, please leave the link and don't forget to make sure I have your email address or I won't know where to send if  you are the winner. The drawing will take place on Saturday 2nd June. Good luck everyone!

Give Away has been drawn!

Well my first give away has gone quite well considering and the winner is Cyndi Lavin of http://www.beading-arts.com/ so congratulations Cyndi.
Thank you to everyone who participated all is not lost as the second give away will go up early next week another sari ribbon necklace but quite different the date for the drawing has not been decided yet.
So there you are folks I do hope you will try again everyone is welcome please do tell your friends about it.

All the best
Jackie

FIRST OF THREE GIVEAWAYS!!

I have three items I would like to give away over the next few weeks the first is a sari ribbon necklace/bracelet I made with the items I was sent by my partner for a bead soup I did with Lori Anderson. The leaf is ceramic and the beads are lampwork.
The drawing will be made on the May 12th.

To be entered in the draw with a chance to win, please leave a comment on my blog and you can either blog about it on your own blog or mention it on your Facebook and let me know you have done so for an extra go. Oh yes don't forget to let me know your email address or I won't be able to contact you if you win!
That's all you need to do. You can see a picture of the first give away above. 

HOW ABOUT A GIVEAWAY!

Just thought I would pop in and post I have been wanting to do some giveaways for the longest time but I am not sure how to get the word out there never haveing done one before. Can anyone help?

Kimono Silk and Camellias!

I decided it was about time I posted again, I have not been so well in recent weeks but it has passed away now and I am feeling much better. I just need a bit of sunshine to pick me right up, I expect you all know the feeling.

The weather here on the west coast has been so mild, mild and wet I should add, we seem to have sprung leaks in places where there were none before! Today has been sunny and bright though but a lot cooler and I really feel inspired to move forward with some projects I have been thinking about over the winter.

First off I am a bit of a collector of beautiful fabrics as well as beads etc. This Christmas I decided to make some of my Christmas gifts. I have collected wonderful silks and wool fabric intended for kimono they are so beautiful, some are hand painted and many are hand dyed. So I set to and made a silk scarf for my sister it has a milk chocolate background with flowers and vines in dusky purples and reds and white it went really well with the pendant I gave her and she loved it!

A friend received a silk scarf in white with tiny raindrops of pink and rich pink, green and yellow butterflies just so pretty and as Amanda's favourite colour is pink it was an excellent choice.

Another friend Joan prefers dark colours so I had a lovely piece of wool in indigo with a diamond pattern in white, where the diamonds crossed tiny butterflies of white and orange in several different sizes adorned the fabric, I made another for myself its just right for this time of year!

So maybe I will be making scarves for sale as well as jewellery, I would also like to get back to some needlefelting soon it has been so long since I did anything but that will wait till the spring I think, there never seems to be enough days in the weeks or hours in the day I will have to start making a timetable but I doubt if I would stick to it lol.

The photo I took last year of one of my camellias this was April/May this year it already has blooms which is incredible even my early camellia is not in bloom yet, so I wonder why this should be, the only thing I can think is it is even more sheltered at the bottom of the garden in that corner.

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!