Challenge of Colour Blog Hop Reveal :)

Welcome to the Challenge of Colour* Blog Hop! 

*Edit, now with new and improved photo!*

So today is the big day!  I had planned to write a proper post a bit later after work - I didn't finish my piece until late last night so I haven't had a chance to write up properly!  But looking through the list quite a few peeps have their pieces up already, so I'm going to do I half post just so anyone who pops through won't think I'm a git :) 

I'm a little nervous about this - I have never done anything like it before!

As you may know we challenge participants are given two colour palettes to chose from, which were put together by the lovely Brandi of BrandiGirlBlog, using satellite photos of our little planet from Earth As Art.  Of the two I was given I chose to use the image on the Demini River, it is my absolute favourite colour combination ever!  Purple and lime green, om nom!  I know perhaps I should have gone for the more challenging palette, but as doing a hop like this is completely new to me, I thought I had best play it safe for now.

The Demini River is a tributary of the mighty Amazon in Brazil.

I was very lucky to have brought the perfect bracelet bar from Bo Hulley Beads just before I got the palettes through, must be fate!  I teamed it with amethyst, iolite, peridot and burgundy swaros to pick up the colours in the palette, add some pretty copper bead caps, a couple of dangles and tada!



Bo Hulley's focal was such a joy to work with, it is the first hand made component I ever brought :)

 

Another view, I'm really happy with how the dangles turned out - was much hmm-ing and ha-ing over those.

 I'm so ridiculously proud of my creation, I've never tried to complete a design like this, and it gave me a few headaches along the way!  A bit of a learning curve but definitely worth it :)  I have been pretty nervous about today, I know some of the artisans joining in make some astounding jewellery.

Now please do visit the other participating blogs, I'm sure there are some absolute stunners waiting to be gawked at.  Hop away, and as Erin would say, Enjoy the Day!

Erin Prais-Hintz

Rebecca Anderson   

Kris Auderer   

Chrizette Bayman   

Lori Bowring Michaud   

Courtney Breul   

Lynsey Brooks   

Stephanie Buss   

Iveth Caruso   

Shannon Chomanczuk   

Lisa Cone   

Cece Cormier   

Lori Dorrington   

Dawn Doucette   

Jeannie Dukic   

Kim Dworak   

Beth Emery   

Janice Everett   

Pam Farren   

Donetta Farrington   

Gloria Ferrer   

Cherrie Fick   

Therese Frank   

Patty Gasparino   

Tanya Goodwin   

Ambra Gostoli   

Jess Green 

(You are here, so strange to see my name on this list :)   

Denielle Hagerman   

Mary Harding   

Karla Hartzog   

Kim Hora   

Brandi Hussey

Emanda Johnson   

Jennifer Justman   

Sue Kennedy   

Ema Kilroy   

Lee Koopman   

Linda Landig   

Kirsi Luostarinen   

Cynthia Machata   

Alicia Marinache   

Beth McCord   

Mary K McGraw   

Karen Mitchell   

Cheri Mitchell-Reed   

Aimee Moisa   

Karla Morgan   

Penny Neville   

Becky Pancake   

Kashmira Patel   

Alice Peterson   

Kayla Potega   

Debbie Price   

Bobbie Rafferty   

Caron Reid   

Nicole Rennell   

Cynthia Riggs   

Andrea Ross   

Sally Russick   

Annie Scherz   

Pam Sears   

Renetha Stanziano   

Sandra Stein   

Kristen Stevens

Tracy Stillman 

(Has hurt her wrist so cannot participate - hope you are better soon Tracy!)
Sherri Stokey   

Lola Survillo   

Kay Thomerson   

Jo Tinley   

Emma Todd   

Cory Tompkins   

Pam Traub   

Melissa Trudinger

Michelle Tucker   

Shelley Graham Turner   

Monique Urquhart   

Rachel Van-Walsk   

Patti Vanderbloemen   

Lesley Watt   

Lynn White   

Joan Williams     

*I'm a Brit, hence the excess vowel!

A Challenge I Say!

So, what better way to start the creative juices flowing than to enter a challenge?

I have been stalking following many wonderful jewellery artists over the last few months, and this mainly involves loitering hopping around their blogs.  I couldn't help but notice all the wonderful challenges that some of these wonderful ladies organise.  These blog hop challenges can provide hours of eye-candy!

When I decided I would give this whole jewellery selling thing a go, I did a crazy thing and signed up for one of the best blog hop challenges I've seen going, the Challenge of Colour by Erin of TesoriTrovati:

Erin runs these kinds of challenges four times a year, each with a different theme; colour, travel, music and literature.  How inspiring!  And every one has produced stunning results.

Erin has teamed up with Brandi of BrandiGirlBlog who produces some amazing colour palettes based on her fab photography.  I love it when a new palette from her pops up in my inbow, they really get you thinking about how colours work together.

This time round the colour inspiration comes from a collection of NASA photographs our little planet called Earth As Art.  Here is an example of the photos available:

Gorgeous isn't it?  And look at those colours!

I received my palettes last week and have chosen one to work from.  The colours are SO me!  And very luckily I made a little purchase not so long ago that will fit in with it perfectly ;).  I can't wait to get at that wire...

The Beauty of Books

Now I'm a big fan of books of all kinds, but in particular the title of this post relates to the wonderful world of jewellery making books!  My mum brought these for me because I was being Incredibly Grumpy due to a creative lull and she was pretty sick of it.  I also suspect she was pretty sad at the sudden stop in the flow of handmade necklaces I provide her with!

The books on the subject I received were Bead on a Wire by Sharilyn Miller, Wire Style and Hand Crafted Wire Findings by Denise Peck.

Mmmmmm... Books... Nom nom....

For a while all I did was stare at the glossy images in these books blankly.  I brought more books, and then some more, all the while neglecting to actually create!

But eventually I couldn't resist the urge to tinker and out came the pliers!  I had a great time learning how to coil and spiral and create new elements to add to my designs.  I had a great creative outburst, even if it was a bit of a wonky one at times...

Unfortunately a lot of the best pieces I made during this time have been given away to friends and family.  The necklace at the bottom is one of my fav stone combinations, moss agate, snowflake obsidian and garnet, shame I failed to photograph it properly!!

I was also inspired to buy some bigger beads.  Although I drooled over the spectacular artisan lampwork and ceramic displayed on the glossy pages of my shiny shiny books, there was no way I could afford them!  So I settled for some commercial lampwork instead.

The necklace on the bottom is my favourite piece ever, I wear it all the time, can you see the little spots of verdigris where I haven't cleaned it after it got wet?  Oops.  Shame I could *not* get a decent picture.  I blame winter, and I'm going to pretend this picture is 'arty'!

But then I hit another brick wall.  This time it had to do with a pretty essential ingredient in jewellery making - tools!  I simply don't have very many at all.  I have a set of beadsmith pliers that are currently on the verge of dying that are very dear to me!  I also have a heavy duty pair of flush cutters, an assortment of random needle files, a smashing mini anvil and a battered ball pein hammer all donated by a lovely engineering friend of mine.

It's a pretty measly collection all told and it really holds back my expansion of skills.  Trouble is, I'm pretty poor, and getting together a good selection of tools will be an expensive process.  So here's the plan:  I'm going to start selling my jewellery!

I've never sold my jewellery before, I've thought about it but the plans have never really come together.

Problem is my skills are a little rusty.  The jewellery making has really slowed down over the last year, most of the pieces above are at least nine months old.  It's very difficult to create when your best ideas are undermined by lack of equipment.  And yes, this has been making me Incredibly Grumpy.

I need to revisit the skills I have already learnt, and try to perfect them.  Browsing through the may gorgeous artisan jewellery blogs out there has made me realise that by getting down some basic design elements, I should be able to turn the skills I have into some fabulous wearable artwork.

Well at least I hope that is the case!  We shall see shall we?

How It All Began

Before I get going I want to apologise for the horrendous photos here!  I took them during my 20 minute lunch break and didn't have a clue what I was doing!  Definitely more practice is needed...

I guess I should start this blog with a little bit about why I'm here.

I have always been a creative soul, colour and form are immensely important to me, and from the earliest days I have reveled in the ability to create.  Drawing writing, making music, all played a large part of my childhood.

I started making jewellery about eight years ago, simply stringing seed beads and cheap glass beads onto silk thread in patterns I found pleasing.  I loved the soothing and satisfying feeling generated by watching the patterns build up:

I used to love the methodical act of picking up these tiny little seed beads, it gave me a wonderful chance for some deep thinking!

This soon evolved into tinkering with wire.  I came home with a necklace that had caught my eye in an over priced accessory store and had a good look at it.  On closer inspection I could see that the beads were poorly formed, lumpy little things and the wire loops that joined them together were very sloppy and uneven.

And I had that magic thought - 'I could make that!'

I brought myself some cheap as chips mini jewellery pliers, looked up a few free tutorials and taught myself the basics of wire-wrapping.  I was hooked!

Haha, this photo is such a blurry mess!

Jewellery making quickly became my main creative outlet, with a few basic skills I started churning out pieces.  I didn't really feel the need to learn any more skills for a long time, I was quite happy producing pieces along similar lines, and like the simple beaded strings I made earlier the creative process for them mostly revolved around creating patterns.

I know, I know, awful photos!  But hopefully you can get some idea of what I have been producing :)

Then I stumbled upon Eni Oken's jewelrylessons.com.  I was amazed by the varied and fabulous forms wire could be manipulated into.  I was o gob-smacked by the beautiful work displayed there that I actually became a little bit dismayed, my work seemed pretty worthless next to all that wizardry!  I'm sad to say that at this point I hung up my pliers for a while and therefore I became Incredibly Grumpy (the Boyfriend can tell you what  I'm like when I'm not letting of creative steam!).

Luckily I was rescued when my mum, fed up with the Incredible Grumpiness, brought me some books on wire working that showed me a whole new pile of skills!  I think I will leave writing about that until tomorrow though, as this post is loooooong, and I need to take more cruddy photos ;)

A Silent Space...

So, I opened up this blog about a week ago and so far have written nothing on it!

Isn't it strange how words will wizz around your head all days yet they disappear as soon as you sit down at the screen to type?

Ah well, I'm sure the writing bug will bite properly soon!