TIME FOR A HUG!

I have something a bit special to post today, I am having to downsize my hug of bears. As some of you are aware I used to design and make soft sculpture animals, bears and other friends in mohair and alpaca, when I injured my wrist I was unable to continue. I may even start up again now I am all healed but right now I have to sell some of my bought bears. 

I have one to show you today not made by me but made by an Australian Artist who went by the name of Bearly Huggable Bears, this little bear in need of a good home is called Opal but of course she can have any name you would like to give her. The mohair Opal is made of has been hand dyed she is thirteen inches tall and fully five way jointed. she is just £45/$75US plus postage I will send to most places in the world. If you would like to give Opal a home email me.

  

AND THE WINNERS ARE........!!!

At last I have been able to draw the winners of the Grow Your Blog giveaways there were two items a bracelet and a pair of earrings.

The winners are Kathy of KathyinOzarks Blog and Tricia of Ramblings of a Quilter Blog. I have emailed you and look forward to hearing from you so I can send your jewellery out soon.

~Jackie~

BEAD SOUP PARTNER!

I have not posted recently as there have been some personal problems over the last few weeks which had to be sorted out but now I am back.

At last I have been able to contact my Bead Soup blog partner her name is Hannah Annear quirkyhannah.wordpress.com, she is primarily a quilter and I will be sending her soup out this week as soon as she sends me her address.

I will also be doing the drawing for the bracelet and earrings this week from the Grow Your Blog Hop!

~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~

 

 

BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY NEARLY HERE

Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Party is once again starting soon, the sign up day is February 9th all day. This will be the 8th Bead Soup and I always enjoy it. The banner on the right hand side tells you all about it.

I have had partners from all over. The bracelet I am giving away in the Grow Your Blog hop below was made with some of the items I got in a Bead Soup Party!

~Jackie~

A THOUGHTFUL WEEKEND

This is a rather sad time for me, my mother in law passed away, the funeral was on Friday. 

Christine was a bright cheerful lady one of 14 children, she knitted and sewed, she was a good cook, loved holidaying in the sun and including my husband had five strapping boys to call her own. I was very fond of her and she will be sadly missed by her brothers and sisters, her boys and their wives and her many grandchildren and great grandchildren. So if I have not got to your blog yet on the Grow Your Blog I will get there in time possible a long time as there are so many of us!
~Jackie~

GROW YOUR BLOG!

Hello, welcome to my blog. I am Jackie or sometimes Jacqui and I really look forward to meeting new people and hopefully making some new friends.

This Grow Your Blog Event is hosted by Vicki Boster of 2 Bags Full blog it is in its second year and this is the first time I have participated you can see the full list of blogs on the link to Vicki above. So here we go!

I live in England by the sea in a tall old house high above the harbour with my husband and daughter. I have always loved the country, fields, woods, moors and high places too, I love animals and enjoy gardening, I used to ride horses years ago and helped out at the local stables when I was still at school!

We have always had animals around us and dogs this is the first time the family have been without a dog or two but we do have a dear cat called Borris, as a kitten he was bought up with our last dog and has a lot of dog like ways bless him.

I was born in London and enjoy returning to visit friends and relatives when I can, my daughter and I usually go up each year to gallery exhibitions, visit museums, markets and maybe if funds will stretch go to the theatre. I take a camera with me when I travel even for local trips you never know what you will see and its a good way to find inspiration I love to travel!

I enjoy painting in either water colour or mixed media these days, though I have used acrylic and oils in the past.

I was a soft sculpture artist till I hurt my wrist some years ago and had to stop, I never got back into it somehow, but I do love fibre and needlefelt little animals when the mood takes me, I also make scarves from kimono silk or wool, I also like to embellish clothing and upcycle.

But mostly I enjoy designing and making jewellery in coloured gemstones and pearls and I have really got into Polymer as it is so hands on, I really like that! I combine it with gemstones etc and often use appliqué techniques. My daughter Lara is an artist too she makes amazing Polymer sculptures.

If you have read this far you will know a little bit about who I am and what makes me tick. As you have been kind enough to read to the end there is a surprise, I am going to do two giveaways, one will be for a bracelet and the other earrings, if you would like to be included in the draw please let me know in your comment and make your email address available or I won't know how to get in touch with you.

Thank you
~Jackie~

Length 81/4 inches

 

Little sterling silver Aventurine earrings

 

The heather and gorse on Holdstone Down, a place of natural beauty just a few miles from where we live.

MY NEW LOOK BLOG!

My dear daughter spent some time this morning making a new banner for the blog. I had previously sorted out a few pictures of some flowers from the garden and a few pieces of jewellery, it wasn't easy to choose and we tried several photos but I think these work fairly well together. I also changed my icon to one of my polymer flower pieces which I love.

I hope you like my new look too?

This orchid has just finished blooming, its such a lovely colour.

~Jackie~

NEW YEAR NEW BEGININGS!

I have decided to start with a new look to my blog, I wanted a pretty colour that would reflect warmth and light so have gone with this pink one for a change. I want to change the banner across the top too and am planning it for next week all being well and have popped some pictures that may work in an album all ready to go!

I think joining the Grow Your Blog Party ( see the lovely logo on the right hand side ) may have had something to do with my decision to try something different, see you next week!

~Jackie~  

Our Turkey Trip

Just a little bit about our trip to Turkey. It was actually a birthday present from my daughter, we had a wonderful time, each day was very full and our guide was knowledgeable and interesting. Neither of us had any experience of this sort of trip before so we didn't know what to expect. Our days started at 7am with a hotel call and we had breakfast and were on the road by 8.30.
This was the view of the Torus mountains from the bedroom at one of our hotels!

Our base was just outside Antalya and from there we drove along the coast to Myra to visit an ancient Greek Theatre and cliff graves, these mausaleums were extraordinary and looked more like temples than graves...!!!

 

From Lycia on another day we took a boat trip to Iztuzu beach a nature reserve, this is one of the few places the Loggerhead turtles lay their eggs in the sand all these were gone of course when we visited or we would not have been allowed on the beach but we did get to see a baby Loggerhead which was swimming among the reeds as the boat slipped past.

 

Our next trip was to Ephesus one of the most important archeological sites in Turkey, there was so much to see here but the Celsus library was really amazing.

 

 

I have waited for years to see the limestone terraces at Pamukkale and they are magnificent, their dazzling whiteness highlighted by the turquoise water of the hot springs within them. Later at the hotel we were able to bathe in the thermal waters.

 

 

There were many other highlights to our trip, including a trip to a very ancient mosque, I had hoped we would visit one. 

The hotels were very nice ( although in a couple of them the beds needed to have new matresses as the springs left a lot to be desired but everything was very clean and the food was delicious.

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

~Jackie~

 

JUST A SHORT POST FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON!

As you can see I have not been able to post recently as I have been ill with a very virulent virus on and off for over a month now.

I had so much to write about, my holiday in Turkey with my daughter and share some pictures with you and different things I have been making before I fell ill. I hope I shall be back after Christmas and if anyone still reads my blog, I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas or whatever you celebrate at this time and a very Happy, Healthy, Harmonious and Peaceful New Year.

~Jackie~

I PASSED..!!!

I have not been writing my blog as my computer went down never to rise again...!!!  I have managed to afford a new one but of course everything has changed in the ten years my dear old computer lasted, so I am getting to grips with things being in a different place or no longer available, can't find this or that but I really wanted to get back to writing my blog again, so here I am, if there is anyone out there reading me or have you all given up! I wouldn't blame you a bit, anyway if you are reading this I decided I would write a little bit about my interest in Tai Chi.

I have been studying Tai Chi for a few years now and really love it. Last month I passed my assessment to become an instructor, I am so thrilled that I have achieved this with study and hard work, in fact I haven't got my certificate yet, it takes a while to come through I have been told.

I have been working on a new collection of Tai Chi pendants my instructor wanted me to make some so I have made a few prototypes I am calling them Impressions of Tai Chi they are hand painted Polymer and I am working on some at the moment, I have tried to get some movement and flow into these tiny figures although I have found miniature paintings quite tricky to do, as my paintings are usually a good bit bigger! I have added something to the back of each pendant as well. I have put one below so you can see the back and front.

 
Thank you for taking the time to visit.
~Jackie~

A HOLIDAY IN LONDON!

I have just been up to London with my daughter, staying with an old friend who lives on the outskirts.

We had a great, if rather hectic time partly due to the extremely hot weather. One of our first calls is Covent Garden and environs it is always fun with lots to see and do. The Camden Markets are another stop for us as Lara shops at Cyberdog and we have a few favourite sellers we tend to visit both of us spent too much a rareity for me I might add!
We had an evening at the theatre with our friends, The Lady Killers a new offering of an old film, it was a comedy and gave us all a laugh.

We had booked for the Pompeii & Herculaneum Exhibition at The British Museum it was excellent and gave a great insight to the times and happenings but the museum always does its exhibitions so well. Then as we had not been to the Natural History Museum for a number of years we went there another day then on to the V&A where we had tickets for Fashion of the Eighties which Lara wanted to see.

We did fit in a few other things and I have some photos to go through when I get time later in the week there may even be something worth showing, but until then I will just put a couple of pictures of some jewellery I made recently.

A handflower in freshwater pearls with gold beads and Swarovski crystals. 

Beautiful freshwater pearls rubies and emeralds set in silver.

 

 

I WON A CONTEST!

I just won the most innovative class in a bracelet contest I am rather pleased and thought I would share the cuff bracelet I made for it with you. It is made from Polymer with beautiful little freshwater pearls and vintage Swarovski crystals.
I named it Spring into Summer!

 

 

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.

SUNSHINE AND GARDENING

I have managed to get out in the garden the last two weeks, I was determined to make the most of the sunshine, after last year and all that rain and very little sun in my part of the world I was really ready for the sun.

First I cut down a small Magnolia that had more or less died for some reason, it would never recover so it got the chop, well actually I sawed it down as the trunk was not thick and we chopped it up.

Another small tree to come down that had actually outgrown its spot and was leaning badly to one side with multiple trunks took a bit more work and had to be done over a couple of days. This tree had almost pushed my lovely little crab apple over.  Both trees were covered with clematis C Freckles which is totally rampant and has been rampaging from one end to the other on one side of my small but long narrow garden.

Freckles is a pretty clematis  with a slight scent, when we pulled the branches down covered in clematis this is what we found!

Blue Tit nest filled with downy Dandelion seed heads

Blue Tit nest woven with moss side view

I don't think the nest had been used and I was sad to think maybe the birds had built it for a second nest  this year and now it will be too late to build another. Here is a picture of the Clematis C Freckles flowers .

Photo taken Jan 2012

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.

  

MY BEAD SOUP REVEAL!

At last the great day is here when I can reveal my bead soup to you, I seem to have been waiting such a long time! When the soup arrived from my swap partner Cathy Jakicic I unpacked it and spread it out and looked at it for a couple of weeks with no idea what I would make with it, I just kept going back to look and slowly ideas started to come together. 

The first necklace I made was with the blue nuggets (they look like Lapis but not sure) I added some large vintage brass beads and chain from my stash and the focal is the blue stone from my soup. I made a bracelet to go with the necklace but used one of my hand made beads as the focal point.

I had been looking at the pretty Cameo which is quite heavy and decided to go with a hand dyed silk ribbon as I felt it might be too heavy with a chain or pearl necklace so a ordered ribbon from Diane at http://www.sowzeredesigns.com she also has an Etsy shop  SowZerE 

For the next necklace I had great fun with my hammer, hammering the shapes I made and then putting it all together. As I was constructing it the beautiful Jasper leaf I added from my stash, a tiny tip from the top broke away it was so small I was unable to do anything about it, I don't think it detracts from the necklace hopefully. I named this one Floating Away, simply because the beads remind me of streams and leaves do float away on them.

The lovely green glass navette shape beads inspired a completely different design I really love it! I used the lovely lampwork clasp Cathy sent, the small white rice pearls came from my stash, as did the pink lampwork rose buds and deep green rondelles, I think it turned out very pretty!

My daughter had spotted the white opal glass spike beads of course she wanted those, just her sort of thing...!!!! so of course I said I would make her a necklace with them, I found a strand of pinky, purple vintage fire polished beads added some silver beads and now she has her spikey necklace.

This necklace , gave me quite a challenge because of the odd shaped squarish nugget beads, tricky! The colour looked like pieces of blue sky with pink blossoms perhaps from a cherry or almond tree so I designed a pendant with an old weeping cherry tree and Blossom Time was born! I used the pink pearls and silver from the bead soup and added a hand dyed silk string from Diane it is soft shades of blue and pink and a little silver hook clasp, I think it worked well, and I love it.

This is a last minute idea I had for the leaf and tiny heart Cathy sent in the soup, I found a tiny bird and a couple of 4mm Swarovski crystals and popped them onto a long headpin and added them to the leaf, the leaf is on a hand dyed silk ribbon I had in my stash and that folks is it! I do have a few things left over and I am sure I will use them in time.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit and hope you will take a look at the other participants of the bead soup. 

This is a link to the list for the second reveal http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/preview-of-2nd-reveal-blog-list-for-7th.html 

I do hope it works

~Jackie~ 

NEW DATE FOR SECOND BEAD SOUP REVEAL!

Lori has put the date back for the second and third reveal so of course I didn't post the items I have made on the 6th but will now be posting them on Saturday 13th April instead so I thought it might be nice to post a few pictures of some necklaces I have made either as gifts or commissions.

Amethyst & freshwater Pearls with a silver Agate & Amethyst pendant

South Sea Shell Pearls with Amethyst leaf and silver beads

Gemstone necklace Imperial & white Topaz with Citrine

BEAD SOUP I SENT AND RECEIVED!

Well as it is getting closer to the reveals I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the soup I sent to my partner Cathy Jakicic, Cathy is the editor of Bead Style Magazine and she sent me an amazing soup full of all sorts of things, she had picked the spring colour of greens and blues and I have had such fun making several lovely items from it as I said in my previous post can't show you till the April 6th but here is what Cathy sent me!

Cathys Soup to me

Soup I sent Cathy