Hands across the sea

If you are a regular follower of mine you'll know that I've talked before about the great (both in nature and numbers) people I've come across since I started taking an active part in the jewellery design and blogging community...yes - I'm talking about you too! 

Many of you talented and lovely people hail from the USA and, since you'll be celebrating your independence from us Brits this coming Monday... I thought I'd mix up the talent pool and showcase some of my favourites from both sides of the pond - Independent, but in it together.

Take a closer look at their individual pieces at Hands across the sea

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Lesley

Goddess giveaway - beady goodies up for grabs

Well I've been doing this blogging/Facebook/social media malarkey for a few months now and I have to say I'm really enjoying it. Lots of lovely people are following me and some of them have become friends all be it 'virtual' ones. I think it's time I had a little celebration and said thanks to all the lovely people in jewellery land so... I have not one but two big bags of beady loveliness to giveaway.

Each bag contains a selection of handmade artisan lampwork, semi-precious and shell beads and pendants, ceramic beads, polymer clay beads, glass beads, Magatama's, Lucite style flower beads, a good sprinkling of base metal beads and findings and, one of my bronze clay charms (not in the pics so a nice little surprise).

The giveaway is open to everyone and I'm sure you know the drill by now...to enter just leave me a comment on this post. Spread the word through your own blog, Facebook, Twitter... an ad in your local paper if you so desire... whatever your preferred social networks are and you'll get an extra entry for each one (take out an ad and you might even get two!). Following me here or liking me on Facebook will also qualify you for extra entries. Don't forget to leave a separate comment for each way you share the good news.

The giveaway will run for the whole week and on Sunday 3rd July I'll use random.org to select the two lucky winners and post the details here so don't forget to check back then.

Good Luck and thank you.

What's in a name...?

Do you name your jewellery or other creative designs?

Dragonheart

I do and have done since I started publishing pictures of them, but I've never consciously thought about why I do it. Certainly, before I became involved with art jewellery I'd never bought any named pieces. I think it's probably something I adopted from the the glass bead artists I buy my lampwork beads from because a lot of them name their beads. After all, it could get a bit dull to list your work as 'blue beads 32' or 'another set of green beads' and would seriously underplay these gorgeous goodies.

Mother Earth by Clare Scott

Hawaii 5 - 0 by Kaz Baildon

Then there's the process of how you go about naming pieces. The heart pendant at the top of this post was fairly easy...the glass blend used for the decoration was called Dragons Breathe and to me it had a medieval/fantasy feel so, Dragonheart seemed both obvious and appropriate.

Sometimes I've had a name for a piece before I've made it or even knew what it would look like. The name for the piece below came to me as soon as I'd made the Bronzclay focal using a section of sea urchin shell and was actually the inspiration for  the design of the piece as a whole. This is far more detailed and 'costume' oriented than my normal work and a real departure for me.

Neptune's Garden

And of course, there are times when I feel less inspired and on these occasions I usually end up giving a descriptive rather than imaginative name.

Pretty Bubbles

Earlier this week, the Guild of Jewellery Designers published an article entitled '40 Incentives to name your jewellery' by Marthe Le Van, which made interesting reading. Some of them are quite obvious...

• Titles convey that an item is one-of-a-kind
• Titles make your jewellery seem complete
• Titles can set a mood...establish a context...communicate a vision...

But, had I been asked, I don't think I would ever have come up with a list of 40 reasons even though, when you think about it, they all seem perfectly logical and sensible. The full article can be found here.

So, do you name your designs... do you think it's important... can you think of more than 40 reasons?! I love it when people leave me comments so I'd really like to hear what you think about this and how you go about naming your products.

By Nia Clements

Have a great weekend all.

Lesley

Feeling treasured

Still feeling the love for colour palettes that I've mentioned in recent posts, I got to thinking that this might make a good theme for a set of Etsy treasuries. So before I went to bed last night I used a favourite palette to make up the first one...

Earrings by Songbead

Well, I've never got into the 200's with treasury views before now so I was absolutely stunned this morning to find It had had over 650! What a great way to start the week -  I thought I'd share this lovely feeling so click here for the full Colour Therapy

Bead by Helen Chalmers 

I'm off now to pull out all my teal and orange beads!!

Have a great week all.

Mirror by Sara Norwood

Lesley - aka the Cats Whiskers!! :0)

Art Bead Scene monthly challenge June 2011

Ophelia by Odilon Redon

c. 1900-05; Pastel on paper mounted on board, 19 7/8 x 26 1/2 in; The Woodner Collection 

Doubt that the sun doth move; 

Doubt truth to be a liar, 

But never doubt I love. 

O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have 

not art to reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, 

O most best, believe it. Adieu. 

Thine evermore, most dear lady...

I don't usually buy art beads specifically for the ABS projects – I see it as part of the challenge to find an appropriate piece from my bead stash - it's not like I don't have a few to choose from when all said an done! But the day after this months challenge was published, I was browsing for ceramics on Etsy and came across this beautiful bead from Grace Smith which just stopped me in my tracks...

I couldn't believe how strongly it resembled Ophelia's face in the painting - the closed eyes, the same calm expression, the same sense of serenity... The bead is made from earthenware, clear glazed and finished with a final platinum glaze which has given it an almost wet-look lustre. It could easily have been made just for this challenge so I had to have it.

This is how it looks in my finished necklace.

Normally my starting point for these creations is to work from the colour palette and gather together  possible components to match the artwork and complement the focal bead. The palette for this month leans towards strong yellows and blues.

But with this painting, I found that it wasn't the colours that were inspiring me so much as the overall tenor of the painting. Despite the fact that the subject matter is suicide by drowning, it has an overwhelming sense of peace and tranquility (perfectly illustrating why we say 'at peace' when someone is released from suffering) and, because the focal shares this characteristic I felt the addition of too much strong colour could be jarring, so I decided to keep it minimal and simple...

The colours are there but more as accents than as the stars of the show. I used large wire links to attach the focal and represent the circular motion evident in the painting along with two lampwork beads with encased silver bubbles to add to the watery effect. The black silk ribbon represents Ophelia's flowing hair and also gives a nod to the rite of mourning.

Ultimately, Grace's art bead really is the focal that carries this piece and I didn't want to do anything to overshadow it. I love it and I hope you (and Grace) do too.

Orange Rustic Star Dust beads - Miss Fickle Media

Silver bubble lampwork beads - Sally Carver

Black hand dyed silk ribbon - Diane Turton

Black brass wire and jump rings - Fallen Angel Brass

You can see the other entries for the ABS June challenge at the Flickr group Art Bead Scene challenge

Colour me happy

One look out of the window tells me that weather wise, today is absolutely miserable. It's an early summers day in Dorset and the sky is grey, it's pouring with rain and there's a howling wind. My planned day of gardening will have to wait and will probably now be a salvage operation for the poor battered flowers.

But I refuse to let this bring me down because inside I've got colour to keep me bright and sunny. It's raining, so what? Rain can be colourful...

Doesn't look like this today but I have a good imagination!

Colour has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm taking part in an Etsy team swap and my partner asked me what my colour preferences were and this got me to thinking. I've always liked strong saturated colours but tend to err towards slighty muted, earthier colours. I have occasionally tested out the fuchsia pinks and bright purples, but the colour palettes to which I think I tend to remain faithful are south western, autumn and beach/ocean. To test this theory, I spent a couple of hours online this week just selecting images that had an immediate appeal for me irrespective of the subject matter ( thoroughly recommended way to chill out). These are a couple of the (many) resulting collages...

I've never really been that conscious about picking colours in my jewellery designs and I guess that's because my own preferences make it an entirely sub-conscious act. It did however occur to me that I may be limiting my customers choices. You will never, ever find baby pinks and pastels other than greens and blues in my wardrobe and when I looked at my current Etsy stock - there's not much there either. Neither will you find much in the way of acid colours either - whilst I do quite like these they have a tendency to make me look like I've been dead for a fortnight...so sometimes choice is a matter of practicality! But I guess this is all part of what drives us creatively and you can't force the muse to be something she's not. 

I've just finished a couple of new pieces which are definitely out to defy unseasonal weather...

Copper and lampwork bracelet with 'squiggle' clasp

Copper and lampwork pendant

This bracelet and pendant evolved around the lovely abstract lampwork focal beads by Marieke Van Esveld which have an almost ethnic, tribal motif but not in the colour palette you would normally associate with such motifs. I love them, I think they are fresh and fun and I've tried to capture this in my designs.

I have another set of summer beads to work on which do slightly contradict what I've just said about my colour preferences, but they are just so so beautiful and I have coveted them for so so long, I just had to go for it...

These fabulous enameled lampwork poppy beads are by Mindy Macgregor and whilst they are eye-poppingly bright, the cooler greens and blues just take away any harsh edge - and that's what gets them firmly in with my favourites.

Well now, if you are suffering from the same lamentable weather (or worse!) as I am, then I hope this little tour through the colours of my world might have cheered your day up a bit.  I shall now go and make myself a cup of coffee, play with my beads, oh and maybe browse the newest addition to my book collection...

Enjoy the rest of the weekend :0)

Bead Table wednesday - creation and aftermath

Posts have been a bit thin on the ground of late - there just seems so much to do at the moment but I really must rectify the situation as soon as.

As it's Wednesday that must mean bead tables so I'll start there...

This is the aftermath of the making of the necklace in the forefront. I always find its best to store your cleaning cloth in your coffee mug!

Actually this is not bad for me - there's usually a lot more gaps in the storage with the boxes upturned on the desk and far more tools spread about. And the reason is... I cleared the table up before I started the project instead of building another layer on top of what was already there! I'll have to try it more often - it seems to work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerwhite/5811937393/in/photostream

This is the finished piece -  a beach themed necklace with an assortment of handmade lampwork beads by Julie Fountain and  Sally Carver, handmade ceramic urchin beads by Caroline Dewison, jasper, turquoise, Shiva shell, vintage bone, Czech glass and a bronze clay sea urchin pendant made by me. All held together with bronze and brass wire and rings. There really should have been more mess with all that lot!

take a look at what other people have on their tables today by clicking here.

Free enameling E-book

Just a quick post for anyone interested in learning more about enameling jewellery, this E-book is free when you sign up with Jewellery Making Daily.

To find out more just click here: