Monday 31 December 2012

AJE December Component of the Month Reveal

Hello fellow blog hoppers and welcome to the reveal for Art Jewelry Elements component of the month design challenge :)

I'm not going to be able to write much as I am in a bit of a rush to get everything sorted for the party tonight (woohoo!).  As a quick reminder the December components were these awesome ceramic labyrinth pendants by Jenny Davies-Reazor:



I was really very lucky to be a winner!  And even more lucky to receive the pendant that really caught my eye, the lovely dusky coral colour piece seen center-top :)

Unfortunately my original design plans for the pendant were scuppered by a should-have-seen-it-coming failure on behalf of the British postal system.  I had wanted to try using some lovely suede strips I found, but sadly they never arrived.  It kind of set me back a bit but in the end I just grabbed some beads and some wire and this is what I came out with:




I went for an asymmetric design using picture jasper rounds, picasso jasper rondelles and some contrasting bird-egg blue Czech picasso beads.  I think those little faceted beads might be some of my new favourites, shame I used up all but two I received in the sample pack I brought!  And that sadly I have been banned from buying beads until January pay day!

Anyway, I need to go get myself ready to head off to Surbiton, so please have fun hopping around the other participants blogs to see what wonders they have come up with :)



This months guests of honour:

Jess Green (that's me!)

And participating AJE team members: 


Sunday 16 December 2012

Give Away and a Half from The Gossiping Goddess






If you have somehow made it to this blog today you should immediately leave! 

And jump over to The Gossipping Goddess, where Lesley is hosting a wonderful give away.  You can win either this pretty smashing owl necklace:


Or these rather inspiring leafy components:


So go show your support for Lesley, and be in with a chance of winning some beautiful booty too!

Saturday 15 December 2012

Moxious Moss

Hey, haven't had a chance to write on here in a while, I guess this whole blogging escapade is getting off to a pretty slow start!  But the hectic Christmas preparations have caught up with me and I have had little time during the day to take photos, and you need daylight for good photos.  Especially if you're like me and your total lack of photo taking skills mean you need all the natural help you need.  We've been quite lucky to have plenty of sunshine around the last few days, and some absolutely stunning frost cover in the mornings.  Well, lucky if you don't count the constant biting cold!

I thought I would post up a couple of pieces I have made recently that have helped in quite severely depleting my favourite strand of beads; some cheap old 'rustic' moss agate rondelles I picked up on eBay for about £4.  They are very 'rustic' and not at all even, but I kinda love that.  I like the look of rustic, earthy jewellery.  Moss agate is one of my favourite stones, I love the rich green and the intricate organic looking inclusions often have me squinting at each individual little bead so I can marvel at their unique patterns.  Oh and I looooove rondelles, seriously, I need to stop buying them and make way for some other shaped beads!

Anyway enough waffle, here you go:

Woohoo, rubbish photography skills FTW!
This necklace is actually one of the first pieces I made when I recently picked up the pliers again, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  My making frenzy was preceded by the usual bead buying frenzy, and the lovely ceramic pendant/ connector shown here is one I received as a thank you freebie from Bo Hulley Beads (thanks Bo!)  The dalmatian jasper rounds were the last few survivors of a sample pack I brought years ago.  I wanted to keep the design simple as it's really just a way to show off a fab pendant.  Oh, and to practice wrapped loops, hadn't done those in a while.  I'm sure it never used to take that long??!!

But seriously I LOVE these beads:

I don't love my messy wire-wrapping quite so much...
Second up is this bracelet I made last night:

The Leaf dangles on this are a bit wobbly.  I'm just going to call them 'rustic'.
This was basically an exercise in using brass wire.  I ordered some in recently as I've seen some absolutely brilliant pieces in brass and wanted to have a play.  From what I can tell it's slightly harder than copper, and err... it sounds more 'jingly'(?)  It's good to have another colour to play with wire-wise. I brought a few brass bead caps as well, they're from Smitten Beads who has a lovely selection.  The tulip cap dangles are very similar to the ones on my Challenge of Colour bracelet; I have a feeling those are going to crop up quite often in my work for a while as I love the look of them!  The rounds used in this bracelet are snowflake jasper and picture jasper.  Gotta love the earthy tones and intricate patterns jaspers display, they are my favourite beads to buy at the moment and I'm building up quite a collection. 

Hopefully I will have a chance to take more photos and blog again soon!

Monday 3 December 2012

Oh My, I Do Believe I'm Hopping Mad!

Well, Erin's wonderful Challenge of Color hop is over and it was such a great experience!  Having never put up my jewellery for scrutiny by the general public before, I was quite nervous as to what the outcome would be.  What a silly sausage!  I've been following the artisan jewellery scene for a while now so I should know how lovely you all are :)

Many, many thanks for all the  wonderful comments you left me, it was really touching to have such amazing feed back from you all.  I almost shed a tear!  I feel I might have to do some kind of penance for the amount of pride I felt seeing something  I have made displayed alongside all the fantastic pieces my hopping companions produced.  I really am looking forward too participating in the community even more as I start getting my jewellery making feet under me again, and I'm sure there will be many wonderful new friends to be made along the way.

In fact I will be jumping right back in again, because I have been lucky enough to win one of five fabulous labyrinth inspired pendants over at Art Jewelry Elements!  Check them out!



My stomach did a massive flip when I read that I would soon  have one of these little bits of art by Jenny Davies-Reazor winging my way.  I have often admired her work and am truly honoured by this chance to add a little slice of her art to my own designs. I won't know exactly which one I will receive but I'm buzzing with ideas already!  Please take a moment to read Jenny's thoughts behind her choice of imagery if you haven't already - it's a lovely message that ring true for many of us as we look forward to the new year ahead.

Blog hop date is the 31st of December, I look forward to seeing you all then!

Much love!

P.S.  Does anyone else find it strange that Blogger's own spell check doesn't recognise the word 'Blog'?