A Bit More Bejewelled

These are two more new bracelets that I finished off last week. The one above I called Tutti Frutti. It is one of my handmade chains with a mix of Murano Glass beads,  Swarovski crystals and given a bit more class by some lovely frit beads by Laura Sparling. I just adore these multicolour bracelets. Every bracelet I make is totally individual and I loved the colours in this.

The second one I made below is another handmade chain and has a lot of handmade lampwork beads again by Laura accentuated with a few little hearts and some Swarovki pink pearls.  A beautiful pinky purple mix that I have called Dusky Dream.

Laura makes beads with such precision, I really love them. You can win some of her fab beads by entering her current giveaway on her blog. Just look at this lot below.

Pop over to her blog to enter. 

But why I am telling you - it reduces my chances of winning!!!! ;-) Oh well...

Joy x

Charms for Charity

"In memory of one of their own felled by cancer, jewelry artists who work with Precious Metal Clay and Art Clay Silver have banded together for the second biennial fundraiser for cancer research, Charms for Charity."

You can read all about this on Naturescape Studios website where Linda has very kindly set up a method to buy tickets via Paypal for those of us outside the USA.

You might wonder why I am promoting this when I am in the UK. Well, when the first Charms for Charity was run two years ago I bought some raffle tickets and guess what -I won a fantastic bracelet filled with beautiful charms by some great metal clayers. I even have a charm made by the wonderful Gordon Uyehara on it.

So if you fancy making a little donation to some great charities, and let's face it is does not matter which country they are in, they are all working towards to the same great goal of defeating these illnesses, then please please do pop over to Linda's site and buy a ticket or two (or more!).

You will be making a difference by giving a little to charity and at the same time be in with a chance of winning a great bracelet. I was so happy to have won one last time I decided to make a few charms myself to send over this year. Here are the six I made just waiting for their little jump rings to be added. As I am still in Japanese mode and making more Cherry Blossom jewellery at the mo I made these in the same style. Below is the reverse of them.

So you may even win a bracelet with a charm on that I have made - but please don't let that put you off!!!!!   ;-)

Charms for Charity

Joy x

Wot No Colour? !!

You know me - I just love my colour!! These two new pieces are both very much monochrome though. Well it makes a change doesn't it.

Above is a bracelet using some of the little beads that I make quite a lot of. I have used them with lampwork beads in the past but always felt I should be finding a more 'me' way of using them. As I also love chain making this seemed a logical progression. This bracelet is really weighty - feels wonderful though. Wait till I make the long necklace to go with it!! Now that will be heavy!!

Continuing in the black and white theme here is a pretty ring I made. I love this style of ring with the textured shanks.

Oh it fits....

....just kidding - it is off the to craft fair this weekend.

I shall be at the Heathfield Agricultural Show this coming Saturday 29th May. It is a fab day out with something for all the family at the show. You can read about it here. I shall be in the Craft Marquee. Do come and say hello.

A Bit of Syringe

I promised you more new work but did not have time to post it on blogger last week as things got a bit busy.

So, here are a couple of pretty syringe pendants with CZs fired in place on them and wire wrapped with some swarovski crystals. This is my favourite way to suspend syringe shapes, balling up fine silver wire and threading it up and through the pendant, then wrapping it into a loop at the top to hang it by.

Strangely Startling

Another bracelet finished! I've called this set Strangely Startling. Needs a final polish but it is off for hallmarking first. Normally I add the beads after hallmarking and just send the bead wire with the bracelet but with this design I could not.

These lampwork beads were made by Glenn Godden who is SteamPunk Glass. I bought these quite a while ago. I just could not resist the great colours and quirkiness of the wound copper spirals inside these glass 'valves'. I sort of had a vague idea what I wanted to do with them but it was only when I was playing yesterday that I finally got it all together. Not too sure about the steam power bit as every silver element is hand forged! (you would be proud of me Lynne!). In part this entailed hammering the silver on either side of each bead, an interesting business and true to form I managed to hit one bead with the hammer!! Really not a good idea - so sorry Glenn! All your creative hard work and I go and smash one :( Luckily I had a couple of spares for my design so all was well.

Do go and have a look at SteamPunk Glass. Glenn makes fantastic marbles as well as wonderful Little Worlds and I have some marbles just waiting for the right inspiration to be turned into jewellery.

Phew - two sets of jewellery on the run and not a drop of Art Clay Silver between them! It's back to my bench and my clay - I think I am getting withdrawal symptoms!! ;-)

Production Time!

In two weeks time the craft fair season properly starts for me so I have been reviewing my stock and starting to make more jewellery in preparation.

The bracelet above is one of my handmade chains with beads by Clare Scott. Clare makes wonderful beads so do pop over to her website to have a look.

These beads are black glass and Clare has used a reactive silver glass on them which gives fantastic iridescent colours - like you get on an oil slick. Really difficult to photograph but they look wonderful when you wear them! This bracelet can be converted into a necklace just by adding my necklace converter to it.

I shall be sending batch of work off for hallmarking this week and here are a few of the pieces. I think you have seen all these pieces before but I always like photos of lots of work together (makes me feel I have actually done something!). I think this also proves that if I have a 'style' I have no idea what it is :). I guess it shows I do like colourful things though!

Watch this space for more new work in the next week. The kiln is on and firing as I type:)

New Beginnings - Metal Clay Today

If you haven't yet looked at the online Metal Clay magazine Metal Clay Today then you really should. It is free to subscribe to and has some excellent articles and inspiration. They hold competitions regularly and I entered the last one which had the theme New Beginnings.

The voting is currently open on the competition here so do pop along and read the stories for each of our pieces to see what you like best and place your vote.

This is the piece I have entered and I thought I would tell you a bit more about my inspiration for this.

Over Easter I did the Hot Houses Open Studios here in Hastings and I was in the house of Anna Keiller in Dudley Road Hastings. Anna is a ceramic artist and produces some amazing work. She does lots of life size torsos amongst other things and I have to say when I first saw these I was a little unsure if they were my sort of 'thing'. Over the time I was there when we had the odd quiet moment I got to look at Anna's work more closely and actually I was amazed at the detail and techniques she uses on them. There is so much work involved in each piece. All sorts of little details, creatures and designs not to mention her unique smoke firing method. Of course I like others initially thought - oh that it just another name for Raku, but no, she has come up with a different method which produces some lovely finishes on her glazes. I really loved the red on this one which is a reaction with the copper apparently.

 

this is one of her Angels...

If you click on these photos above hopefully they will blow up larger so you can see some of the details. Anna also makes a whole range of other things like fat birds ...

stunning huge bowls...

and strange little critters.

So to go back to my piece above really the inspiration was Anna's technique of press moulding that she uses. I had to adapt this to work from the back forward to the front as with the tiny silver coils I needed to see what the front finish was all the while but it is a different way of working for me and I shall be doing more like this. I really liked the way the piece came out.

Meanwhile Anna wants to experiment with the metal clays on her glazes and I want to learn more of her techniques so we plan to have a play day soon.

If you fancy having a go with ceramics then why not try one of Anna's wonderful ceramic workshops. And honestly - you do not have to bare all to make something with her!!!! :-)

And the winner is......

Hubby has drawn a name out of the hat and the winner of my giveaway is...................

STUDIO SYLVIA!

Well done, please email me your address and I will get the goodies off to you in the post.

Thanks for all the great suggestions for a name for my hamster. I am still thinking about it and will let you know in the next few days :)

Jack in the Green

Today is the traditional Jack in the Green celebrations here in Hastings. We are off to watch all the goings on and have a fun day. We also have an annual influx of motorbikes into town, normally around 20,000!

I have gotten into the mood by making these Art Clay silver and enamel earrings and pendant.

Let the greening begin!

Don't forget my blog giveaway ends today. If you haven't left a comment under the competition post HERE you are not entered!!