Belle Armoire Jewellery Debut...

I'm not usually one for getting my work published in magazines - mainly because I'm too disorganised to get myself together for the submission deadlines but,when you get an invite from the beautifully put together Belle Armoire Jewelry, well you have to give it some careful consideration.

So that's what I was doing around Christmas and today it's safe to say that I'm just a little bit excited as I make my debut in Belle Armoire with seven pieces featured in a technique based article and a piece in the boutique section. You should have seen me run when the mail dropped this morning!

Metal clay and mixed media necklaces

Bronze clay and art bead earrings and bracelet

Wire macrame and bronze clay earrings

Wire macrame bangle

Fortunately I just about remembered to take some photo's of the jewellery (apart form one pair of earrings) before I sent it off for consideration...

For this necklace I adapted a wonderful mixed media technique I was taught by by my good friend and AJE colleague Jenny Davies-Reazor at Bead Fest last year...

Mixed media necklace adapted for a technique by Jenny Davies- Reazor

These next pieces show case bronze clay and art beads..

Bronze clay, turquoise and Ebony necklace with ceramic focal by Karen Totten

Bronze clay necklace

Bronze clay bracelet

Bronze clay wire macrame earrings with lampwork beads by Puffafish lampwork

Bronze clay earrings with ceramic flowers by Karen Totten

And finally a spiral wire macrame bangle - unfortunately I've had the lovely lampwork beads so long I don't remember who the maker is...

Lampwork and wire macrame bracelet

I hope you like the pieces...I guess now I might have to get myself a little more organised to make a few more submissions....watch this space!

Have a great weekend all.

Lesley

AJE Component of the Month - November Reveal

The components for this months challenge come in the form of these lovely beaded hoops from the seriously talented seed beader Kristen Stevens. Once again I forgot to photograph my own beads but they were the same as the purple pair in the centre of this picture.

Since they came in a pair I decided pretty quickly to make earrings but I wanted to try and do something a bit different. They're very light and quite flexible so I began by looking for something that might give them a little more rigidity and structure. Whilst rummaging I came across my pot of copper washers and found some that the hoops sat quite nicely inside and I started to think about ways to attached the two elements - a little wire wrapping seemed in order.

I decided I wanted integral ear wires so I began by soldering some copper wire to the washers. I then had a bit of a 'what if' moment and used some solder paste to give the washers a more grungy, industrial look by dotting it around, melting it and then hammering it for a more battered look... I like this look a lot and I wish I'd thought to take process pictures but I always forget when I'm experimenting. I also punched a hole in the washers opposite the ear wire.

Next I had to attach Kristen's hoop and this proved a little tricky. Because they didn't fit snugly to the washer so it was difficult to keep them aligned - I kept wrapping too tightly and pulling the hoops to one side. Eventually I managed to get a more even and relaxed tension which held the hoops centred where I wanted them. Some 'messy' wrapping took care of the excess wire and created a contrasting accent.

For a little flourish I found some crystals that matched the colour of the hoops and added them to the bottom of the washers as dangles. Finally I formed the integral ear wires and here we have the finished product...

Because it took me a few attempts to get the wrapping right I did take a bit of the surface colour of the hoops but in actual fact I really like the effect and I think it works well with the grungy theme.

Many thanks to Kristen for providing up with such great beads to play with. Please use the links below to see what the rest of the team and out guests made for this challenge.

Lesley 

Cindy Martin Shaw
Shai Williams
Karen Martinez

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

LesleyWatt 

MelissaMeman

Caroline Dewison
Francesca Watson
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Lindsay Starr
Jennifer Cameron

Pre - Christmas Sale - 25% Off....

If you're looking for some bargains while you're Christmas shopping I'm running pre-holiday sales in both my shops from 8am GMT Friday 28th November until 12 Midnight 1st December. Use coupon code SANTA25 when you check out and 25% (excluding shipping) will be deducted from your order automatically.

THEA elements
THEA jewellery

Happy shopping!

 

Lesley

AJE Compononent of the Month - October Reveal

Yes, it's that time of month again and for this months AJE COM challenge the components we got to work with were these gorgeous earthy fossil discs from Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio. These are right up my street and I chose a lovely chocolate/tan one in the middle of this image.

I wanted to give my design an old or tribal feel and knew I wanted to use leather. I had in mind to use a wire cocoon bead I made years ago and recently reclaimed from an old necklace but in the event it wasn't substantial enough to balance Karen's focal. So I started from scratch and made a new one in bronze wire and incorporated a wire bail to attach it.

I wanted to get a layered talisman effect so I added one of my bronze clam shell shards with some tiny seed bead dangles at the bottom.

I was originally going to keep it very simple and use a very thick piece of leather to suspend the focal from but I couldn't make up my mind on colour so I started playing around with mixing thinner pieces. I used some chunky rustic Czech glass beads to create this woven pattern and made wire wrapped cord ends and a clasp to finish it off.

And this is my finished piece - quite a design departure for me as I don't usually make short necklaces but it was necessary for this bold focal and I quite like the effect so I think there may be more to come...

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you'll join me and visit our guest bloggers and the restof the AJE team to see what they have designed with Karen's beads.

Lesley

Guest Designers

Lindsay Starr / Phantasm Creations

Sherri Hartman Stokey / Knot Just Macrame

Staci Louise Smith / Staci Louise Originals

AJE Blog Team

Diana Ptaszynski / Suburban Girl Studio

Susan Kennedy / Sue Beads

Caroline Dewison / BlueberriBeads

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Allford Meman

Francesca Watson

Jennifer Stout Cameron / Glass Addictions

AJE Component of the Month - September Reveal....

Almost October already - how can that be? It seems like only yesterday I was planning my summer holidays and here we are charging headlong into autumn. So it is that I welcome you to another reveal for the AJE Component of the month challenge ( full details here) this month featuring these lovely copper pieces from Kristi Bowman which she calls goddess vessels.

The component I chose to work with was the white copper piece in the centre of the top row and I have to admit it did give cause me some headaches trying to come up with a design. For some reason I struggled for a while to find beads in a shape or colour that I felt worked well and then when I did find something I liked for a bracelet I didn't have enough beads to do what I wanted to - argh! At one point I got quite quite stroppy, shut the door on the studio and went off to sulk.

But then 10 minutes later an idea popped into my brain to make some chain links that mirrored the shape of the focal and after playing around for a bit I hit on something I liked using steel wire. So all I had to do was find some beads to go with them and there they were sitting on my bead table - a new delivery of Czech glass flowers from Buttoned Up Beads Extra. The lovely blue of the beads went really well with the colour of the metal  and the result of the combination is this necklace called 'Blue Steel"

It has quite a minimalist urban feel which I love... the strong  contrast of the two colours and the way the flowers, despite being very cool in colour add a certain softness appeals to me.

I played around with the positioning of the beads for a while, in the end opting for an asymmetrical format. The piece is finished with black brass chain and the focal is embellished with a little crystal and silver charm to balance the asymmetry.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out in the end and it just goes to show that it pays to take a break when your muse isn't playing ball.

 

Thanks to Kristi for providing this months challenge and to you for visiting this post today - please now join me in seeing what the rest of the AJE team and our guest have made with their components using the links below.

Lesley

Guests

SJ Designs Jewelry

Kari Asbury

Shirley Moore

AJE Team Members

Caroline Dewison

Diana Ptaszynski

Lesley Watt

Melissa Meman

Linda Landig

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Sue Kennedy

Shop Update Friday 30th May...

Pendants, connectors, beads, buttons, charms...hope you can pop by - THEA elements.

Thank you.

Lesley

Time for a Giveaway...

Ever since I started this blog it's been on my to do list to set up a mailing list subscription option so that I can keep my followers up to date with what's going on. Well, three years later (where did that go...?) I've finally got around to it and there is now a sign up box in the side bar just beneath my profile.

My plan is to use this very sparingly to give people who subscribe advance notice of shop updates, sales and any special events that I might be taking part in. This probably won't amount to more than once a month with an occasional extra and subscribers can opt out at any time. The problem now of course is that I don't have contact details for any of those lovely people who have begun following my blog in those three years so I have nobody to send my updates to...isn't that sad.

So I need a little help in spreading the word and since you're all so good at that I think a giveaway is order. The giveaway prize is £30 GBP and free shipping to spend in either of my shops THEA Elements and THEA Jewellery and there will also be a couple of surprise prizes as well.

You can enter the draw by subscribing to the mailing list (the box in the side bar of this blog) and/or sharing this post in your social media networks. Simply leave a comment below letting me know how you have subscribed/shared and I will randomly select the winners on Sunday June 1st, publish the names here and notify them by  email.

I'm also planning to do some random giveaways to subscribers from time to time so thank you for helping me get this off the ground and good luck!

Lesley

8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

Welcome the the 2014 Bead Soup Blog Party and the 8th annual reveal for this event - the brainchild of Lori Anderson. If you don't know about BSBP you can find out all about it here. Since there are so many participants in this blog hop I plan to be economical with my words and let the pictures do the talking...lets face it that what we all want to see isn't it...beads, beads and more beads turned into beautiful Jewellery!

My partner for this year's hop is the talented lampwork artist Maryse Fritzsche -Thillens of Glass Bead Art and this is the fabulous bead soup she sent me all those weeks ago - not just a beautiful selection of her own organic beads but some lovely sterling silver pieces too...

As soon as I got these beads the big focal in the top left of the picture jumped out at me because it reminded of the beautiful Jurassic coastline not far from where I live...

This inspired my first necklace which uses beaded and braided waxed linen to give a layered effect and a curved sterling silver tube reminiscent of the many coves and inlets along this stretch of coastline.

The region is also a renowned site for fossil collecting so the silver spiral shell is a perfect finishing touch for this piece.

Next up comes a bracelet designed to show off the silver focal clasp along with some of Maryse's lovely sparkling rock beads. I found some silk that matched the beads perfectly and wove this through sections of chain and then oxidised the clasp to knock back the shine. The bracelet is finished with two Hill Tribe Silver rose charms. The cool palette and contrasting materials in this piece give it a mixed organic/urban feel.

With the addition of some Hill Tribe rings and some hammered wire I used the rest of the blue rocks to make a pair of earrings to go with the bracelet...

 

My favourite beads from the soup were the green/neutral toned rocks and I put some of these together with one of my own bronze leaf focals to make another bracelet. I am completely infatuated with rustic seed beads at the moment so multi strands of these in varying sizes were a no brainer.

The palest of the beads from this set I teamed up with the pretty green leaf headpins and a little ruffle of russet suede to create this fun pair of earrings.

All the while I was making these pieces I was going back and forth to that Silver butterfly focal and trying to do something spectacular with it but I wasn't happy with anything I came up with. In the end I decided I much preferred it with this very simple treatment of fine chain interspersed with Czech glass beads in graduated tones of blue and amber and a chain tail with matching teardrops.

Although I still had lots of beads to play with that's where I called it a day but I will of course be returning to the rest of my soup before too long. Many, many thanks to Maryse for sending a bead soup that was such a joy to work with and now I can't wait to see what she has made with the ingredients I sent her.

And as always, a huge thank you goes to Lori and her helpers for all the hours and hard work they've out in pulling off yet another awesome event - very well done ladies (and gent!).

Thanks you for visiting The Gossiping Goddess and I hope you will now join me and the rest of the BSBP participants on our mammoth blog hop using the links below.

Lesley 

Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens                    www.glassbeadart.blogspot.com

Lori Anderson, Hostess     www.PrettyThingsBlog.com

Tina Bosh                                  http://bookbug-somanybookssolittletime.blogspot.com/

Kristina Hahn Eleniak                 www.peacockandlime.wordpress.com

Kari Asbury                               www.hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com

Kris Binsfield                             www.cherishdesigns.wordpress.com

Cheryl Gangle                            www.RockCandyJewelryDesign.blogspot.com

Amber Dawn                             www.InventiveSoul.blogspot.com

Michelle Wigginton                     http://adornedonadelaide.weebly.com/

Kayla Potega                              http://teejewelry.blogspot.com/

Becky Pancake                           www.beckypancakebeaddesigns.blogspot.com

Debbie Rogers                             http://debbiestreasuresandgems.wordpress.com/

Jenny Kyrlach                             www.anafiassa.blogspot.com

Genea Crivello-Knable                 www.geneabeads.blogspot.com

Deborah Read                             www.deborahreadcom.blogspot.com

Julianna Cannon                          http://julsbeads.blogspot.com/

Lisa Liddy                                  www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Debbie Rasmussen                      www.Kepirasmussen.blogspot.ca

Iveth Caruso                               www.creativeatelier.net/blog

Rana Wilson                               http://ranaleadesigns.blogspot.com/

Corrie Williams                           http://thecedarbeader.blogspot.com.au

Linda Anderson                          http://fromTheBeadBoard.blogspot.com

Miranda Ackerley                       http://blog.mirandack.com/

Andra Weber                             www.andrasjoyfuljourney.blogspot.com

Loretta Carstensen                      http://www.designsbyloretta.blogspot.com/

Penny Houghton                         www.smellynelly.blogspot.com.au

Tania Hagen                               http://pelimadesign.blogspot.co.nz/

Robin Reed                                www.willowdragon.blogspot.com

Laurie Vyselaar                           www.Lefthandjewelry.wordpress.com

Rachel Baron                              www.rbarondesigns.blogspot.com

Erin Guest                                   www.renlish.com

Emma Todd                                            www.apolymerpenchant.com

Kelly Schermerhorn                            http://meanderingwithkelly.blogspot.com/

Dana Hickey                                            http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com

Rebecca Ednie                                       http://eclecticendeavours.blogspot.com

Marybeth Rich                                       http://forestofjewels.blogspot.com/

Sherri Levinton                                      www.cuttergazette.blogspot.com

RaMona Woolson                                www.jerseygirlsbeadwork.blogspot.com

Jo-Ann Woolverton                             www.Itsabeadifulcreation.blogspot.ca

Audrey Belanger                                  http://esperianterra.blogspot.ca/

Candida Castleberry                            http://spunsugarbeadworks.blogspot.com

Click below to read the full list...

Shop Update

I'm having a little shop update tonight with new bronze and ceramic pieces before I take a short break to work on my Bead Soup and a few other projects. Pop by and take a look at THEA Elements

Cheers.

Lesley

New Earring Tutorial...

I've just added a tutorial for these earrings to my tutorial page - (see tab at the top of this page) - they're quick and easy to make and very light and comfortable to wear and perfect for spring and summer.

Lampwork beads from Mermaid Glass

Enjoy!

Lesley

Mud Messing Round 2...

Yes - I've been messing with mud again...After the excitement of completing my first firing last week I couldn't wait to get back to it and play some more. I'm limited to working with low fire earthenware clay until my new kiln arrives so I decided to make up some quick pendants and play with some glazes a bit more. Most people would test their glazes before using them on real pieces but I get so exited seeing the end result I just got straight to it - I'll test more with the new kiln - honest I will! So then, this is the little assortment that came out of the kiln this morning...

I find it really interesting to see how the same glazes can vary from item to item and I'm assured by those in the know that there are no end of factors that can influence the firing outcome. I guess this would be really frustrating if I were trying to match the pieces of a dinner service but for beads I kind of like it...I'm something of a haphazard person and don't like to be too regimented in anything I do.

This little Physalis pendant was my first attempt at simple modelling, something I don't think I've done since I was a child and not in any big way even then. I do a fair amount of repetitive work with my other mediums so with clay I would like to spend a bit more time doing one off or small groups of work to keep it fresh. I've got a whole lot to learn about the basics before I start going down that road but that's the long term plan.

These two are staples of my Bronze Clay inventory and I wanted to see how they would translate to glazed clay. They're rather rustic and the owl does look a little dishevelled poor thing... that's down to my over-ambitious use of multiple glazes. I have to remember that they don't blend in the same way as metal patinas do but then again nothing ventured... He also seems to have been born with Heterochromia Iridum - different coloured eyes, but he shares that with David Bowie so that's no problem for me.

On these last two I used underglaze with no top coat of gloss - mainly because I forgot to order any but also because I just wanted to see what it did as I'm a big fan of matt or etched finishes. I think the fir cone might be better glossy but I really like the flower pendant and the effect created by wiping the glaze off the raised areas.

So whilst I may not be going about this in the most scientific manner I'm having a ball and I can't believe that it's only two weeks since a discussion with my AJE team mates sent me hurtling headlong down this path - thanks guys!

Now, I have bronze and silver work I have to get back to for a couple of days but I don't think it will be too long before I'm back with this again...especially since today was rather a good post day...

See you soon for more mud messing !

Lesley