PEARLS - PEARLS - PEARLS BLOG HOP

Today is the day, I have been looking forward to this blog hop organised by Michelle Buettner  http://www.MiShelDesigns.blogspot.com   or if you prefer you can access the hop here this is the direct link to the InLinkz page 
http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=418179

 I hope anyone coming to visit my blog will take a look at all the wonderful pearl creations everyone has been making for the reveal. 

You can see my new bracelet in silver pink pearls with lamp work beads, and three necklaces below! The first necklace is white pearls with Rose Quartz and Rhodonite cubes pretty for summer don't you think! The second necklace is white Keshi and Stick Pearls with Tourmaline finished with a silver chain. The third necklace is gorgeous Peach Pearls, with peach lampwork that I bought specially from Earthshine beads at Etsy as I thought it was so pretty and went so well with these pearls I added two little Czech glass leaves and some more lampwork rondelles in a light green from my stash. So there you have it I hope you enjoyed taking a look! And maybe visit me again sometime.  All four items  are available at present I just havn't had time to put them on the web site yet!

~Jackie~ 

FRIDAY GIVEAWAY AND THE WINNER IS, DAWN WILLIAMS!

Hi Dawn you have won the ribbon and bead necklace. I am not on Google + so can't seem to find any way to contact you, can you please get in touch with me and send your full name and address, thank you.

That is the end of the giveaways for the time being. I will be back with a post on Sunday 29th   for the Pearls - Pearls - Pearls Blog Hop that Michelle Buettner of http://misheldesigns.blogspot.co.uk  is hosting looks like it will be a fun time!

~Jackie~

WEDNESDAY GIVEAWAY IS IT YOUR LUCKY DAY!

Today the winner of the Labradorite and bronze pendant is Amber Dawn if you want to use it as a pendant and a pin you can attach a brooch finding and turn it into a brooch, doing double duty your choice! 

~Jackie~

WINNER OF MONDAYS GIVEAWAY!

And the winner of the first draw for the earrings is Veralynne Malone!
Please get in touch with me Varalynne.

The second draw will be Wednesday so keep a look out come back to my blog it could be your name that was picked out with the random generator. Best of luck.

~Jackie~

BEAD SOUP GIVEAWAYS!

I am really late with my giveaways this time but I am still doing them, there are three and the first one is to be drawn tomorrow, Monday 23rd - Second one will be drawn Wednesday - The third one on Friday. I am putting pictures of all of them below in order starting with Monday's giveaway so you can see, then if you want to opt out you can just email me or leave me a comment. Ok first up is...................

  

These were all made from my Bead Soup this year and the descriptions can be found below in my original post on the reveal. Good luck!

~Jackie~

ENJOYING THE BEAD SOUP BLOGS!

Just a quick note to let you all know I am still going around your blogs so don't be surprised if I pop up at your place soon. 

The computer hard drive gave up on my 2 year old computer and we had to fit a new one so I have lost a lot of stuff and am trying to sort out.
 
I will be doing the giveaways probably in a couple of weeks to give everyone like me a chance to leave a comment and get a try for them. Thanks for reading this.

~Jackie~

BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY THE GREAT REVEAL TODAY!

Well here it is at last the day to reveal what we have made with the soup our partner or partners sent us. First I would like to thank Lori Anderson who although she has been so ill made the decision to hold the party again this year, bravo Lori.

Ok here goes my first partner was Hannah Annear her blog is at Wordpress www.quirkyhannah.wordpress.com
You can see in a post below the items both of my partners sent me. I used the piece of Labradorite to make a focal with some lovely bronze wire which I hammered and textured it could actually be used as a focal on a chain or with the addition of a pin a brooch.                                                                                                                                   

My second partner was Sarah Strover of www.beaupepys.blogspot.com 
I had a lovely assortment of items to challenge me from Sarah. First up is a necklace, the focal was most unusual, I used two of the smaller green goldstone beads above it and I really liked how the Moonstone nuggets looked with the white wash that had been used on the carving. I felt the five Ugandan paper beads gave a feeling of spring freshness to enlarge on that I made two leaves of Polymer Clay and used a couple of my round red and green clay beads for a pop of colour I finished off with some of Sarah's silvery feathers and the clasp she sent me. Oh yes I added a bit of chain and some tiny silver beads.

I made a pair of earrings with the rest of the feathers Sarah sent and a second pair with some really cute glass pepper lamp work beads.

Next I made a ribbon necklace with the Kokou seed beads ( not sure if I got the name right) I had some gold ones in my stash so added two of those and threaded them onto hand dyed silk, I could have knotted between the beads but then they couldn't be moved up or down to change the pattern so I left them free for now.

The last piece I made was a composite of Hannah Annears pretty flower Clasp and Sara's beads with the addition of some faceted Aquamarine, silver beads and bead caps and tiny freshwater pearls from my stash. I used Sarah's Kashmiri Lac bead for the focal, more of the lovely green goldstone rounds she sent me and a pair of green tree Agate beads. I put two pictures below so you can see the whole necklace with Hannah's clasp.

Well that's it for this year folks, I will be doing some giveaways, not decided what yet though if you are interested please mention you would like to be included in the draw when you leave a comment.
Thank you so much for visiting my blog, every comment is much appreciated.

Here is a link to the rest of the party, I hope will enjoy visiting some of the other blogs! 
http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2014/05/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html

~Jackie~  
  

NEW BRACELET!

This is my first post in a while not because I had nothing to post about but quite simply because I was ill yet again this time Lara bought home the virus! I seem to have spent the last few months ( since before Christmas ) sick with just a break between of three weeks. Well I am ploughing my way through this one and spending a lot of the night coughing I am really fed up with it and I am usually so healthy! Enough said this is not what I want to write about.

I have made all the pieces for the great reveal next week. Made before the virus kicked in.

But I wanted to make something with a few pretty lampwork beads I had collected, they are a tablet shape with little white flowers I decided on a bracelet, the lampwork looked really sweet with some of my white freshwater pearls but I felt it needed something else, I found some tiny silver beads worked very well. I thought I might make a simple S clasp from some Parawire I had bought ages ago, I fancied doing some hammering and Parawire hammers really well I discovered. I do love hammering there is nothing so satisfying, I think I would like to buy some small texturing hammers if there is such a thing, have to find out! I know this is not a great picture as the light was not good, the result you can see in the photo below it is for sale of course!

~Jackie~

JUST ONE MORE BEAD SOUP TO SHOW!

Ok you are probably all bored seeing all these Bead Soups I promise this is the last one, I am showing it as although I had given up on this lady and got a new partner, I couldn't have been more surprised to receive this in the post, it would have been very unfair of me not to put up a picture so here it is!

It came in this pretty pouch.

~Jackie~

BEAD SOUP I SENT!

Sarah has written to say she has received the soup I sent her so I can safely put a picture up now to show you all, so here it is!

 I got a shock in the post today a packet from my original partner Hannah arrived I will take a photo of the beads she sent tomorrow. I have put the Bead Soup I sent to her below.

I have been working on some ideas for Sarah's soup, I do find this such an inspirational time and it is fun emailing Sarah for a chat.


~Jackie~

BEAD SOUP BLOG HOP, MY NEW PARTNER!

Well I decided it was time to write another post about my Bead Soup it has been a while as sadly my first partner failed to send a soup. But a kind person Sarah Strover http://beaupepys.blogspot.co.uk/ jumped in and took me on as a second partner in Lori's great Bead Soup Blog Hop. I received my soup last week and sent mine off on Friday first class so Sarah should recieve it today or tomorrow. I won't put up a picture of the beads etc I sent her till she has got the packet, but below are the beads etc Sarah sent me, I already have some ideas so this is going to be fun!

 

 ~Jackie~

  

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~