AJE Earring Challenge - Reveal 1

I'm taking part in the AJE earring challenge to make a pair of earrings every week for the whole of 2013. The earrings will be revealed bi-weekly with a selection featured on the AJE Blog.

These are the earrings i made for the first two weeks...

These feature my own handmade bronze angel's wings charms which have been patinated with soft blue and opal and teamed with gorgeous lampwork beads by Sally Carver that have tiny beads of silver encase in the clear class and are wrapped in bronze wire. Available in my Etsy shop now.

 

This pair are great fun with a lovely sense of movement - again featuring my own handmade bronze charms suspended from bronze wire and accented with Czech glass beads and bronze fittings. All earwires are hypo allergenic Niobium. Available in my Etsy shop now.

To see the other earrings in the challenge click here to go to the AJE Blog.

Lesley

Focus On Life - Week 3 of 52 - Take Time...

This year I am taking part in a photo journal challenge set up by the lovely Sally Russick of Studio Sublime who, in addition to creating beautiful jewellery is a talented photographer. Each week Sally sends participants a word prompt and the following Saturday we all post our photo interpretations on our blogs, Flickr or Instagram.

The prompt for this week was 'take time for You' and Sally asked us to capture something that we did this week purely for ourselves be it for a few minutes or a few hours. I don't know how she's doing it but Sally seems to be picking prompts that resonate so closely with my goals that they're creating a kind of footpath through the undergrowth for me.

'Me time' goes hand in hand with last weeks subject which was my word for  the year - 'balance'. I am just terrible at making time for myself! Because I love what I do so much I have a hard time thinking of it as work and like many creative people, If an idea strikes I have to act in the moment whenever that may be. But just because I enjoy it doesn't mean it's always good for me or that I should neglect other things that I also enjoy or need to do for my own benefit.

The timing for this prompt was perfect too because yesterday was my birthday and I was already thinking I should maybe take the day off, so this sealed the deal. Earlier in the week I'd thought about going down to a nearby beach for a bracing stomp and to get some fresh air in my lungs, but overnight snowfall put paid to that. We don't do snow well in the UK and the whole place tends to grind to a halt at the first sign of it. My cat Cleo obviously wasn't impressed so I decided to follow her lead and stay put...

It's actually quite strange and quite difficult to be in the place you work in every day and do nothing work related. I had a late brunch while reading the news online, chatted a bit on Facebook and caught up with some blogs I follow. I did then go off and make some jewellery but in my defence, this comes a very poor second to component making at the moment and it is something I really enjoy doing. I also did a bit of financial paperwork which although not fun was definitely for my own benefit and was satisfying to get out of the way.

By this time it was about 3pm and time for something I'd been savouring all day...my cosy chair overlooking the garden, a favourite book and some rather tasty birthday treats...

I love books and have a house full of them but find I read very infrequently these days and if I do make the time, there is usually so much racing around in my head that I can't concentrate. But not this time...I spent a good three hours reading Jean de Florette, one of my all time favourites and it was blissful - the hot chocolate and  choux bun were pretty good too!

And of course the respite has done me a power of good as I'm now raring to go on the work front. Thanks Sally - just the incentive I needed.

Check out what everyone else did with their time here.

Lesley

Let's Catch Up...

Well January certainly isn't dragging it's heels is it...half way in already with barely a stop for breathe and I haven't managed more than a couple of posts. So what's been going on in my life then...

Well first up that goddess bracelet of mine has been grabbing attention again - this time in 'Making Jewellery' magazine. Designer Claire Wolfe adapted the tutorial to work with small holed beads by using beading needles and created a very pretty bracelet which you can see here behind one of my original design...

On the work front the it was straight back into production after the new year in preparation for my first component shop update of 2013. Along with some favourites and twists on existing designs, there were lots of new designs with flowers and butterflies to help bring spring that little bit closer. I always find it hard to get back into the swing after a long break so it's great to have that under my belt and get back into the swing of things again.

I'm planning some new organic designs soon using these gorgeous shell sections I bought after being inspired by a post written by my AJE colleague jenny Davies-Reazor - aren't they great? I can't wait to get working with them.

And finally I've also been busy working on the inventory for my first show in April - haven't got far yet but it's a slow process and there's plenty of time...famous last words!

I've no doubt January and the rest of the year will continue in this busy vein but hopefully I'll get back to blogging a little more often. So how has 2013 started off you then... does it look like it's going the way you want it to to..? I do hope so.

I'll be continuing my journey with Sally Russick's photo journal challenge on Saturday so hopefully I'll see you back here then.

Take care.

Lesley

Focus on Life week 2 of 52 - My Word

This year I am taking part in a photo journal challenge set up by the lovely Sally Russick of Studio Sublime who, in addition to creating beautiful jewellery is a talented photographer...unlike myself! Each week Sally will be sending the participants a word prompt and the following Saturday we will post our photo interpretations on our blogs, Flickr or Instagram. 

It's week two of Sally Russick's photo journal challenge and this weeks prompt was to pick the word or resolution we had chosen for ourselves to work towards in 2013.

I have been and and still am so manic this week that I really didn't think I was going to post this time around, which is ironic because my word for 2013 is balance. All through 2012 I seemed to be frantically trying to get one thing completed to the exclusion of everything else in my life and as soon as that was done, the cycle repeated itself with another task. So for this year the aim is to get myself more organised and structured so I have a foundation from which to multi-task efficiently and hopefully enjoy the moment a little more.

Well, two weeks in and I'm not doing that great...as I said I didn't expect to find time to think about a photo but I walked into my work room this morning to be greeted by this image which seemed rather appropriate...

'BALANCE'

The room is crammed with things like this getting pretty close to the tipping point and occasionally they do topple and hit the deck. The comparison is all too obvious so why is it so hard for me to change? Answers on a postcard please...

Hop over to Sally's Blog and you'll be able to see how the other participants have photographed themselves and I'll be back next Saturday with my interpretation of the next prompt.

Enjoy your weekend.

Lesley

Focus on Life Week 1 of 52 - Self Portrait

This year I am taking part in a photo journal challenge set up by the lovely Sally Russick of Studio Sublime who, in addition to creating beautiful jewellery is a talented photographer...unlike myself! Each week Sally will be sending the participants a word prompt and the following Saturday we will post our photo interpretations on our blogs, Flickr or Instagram.

The first prompt Sally sent us was 'self-portrait' - cue sinking feeling and knot in the middle of my stomach. I do not like being photographed and you'll be lucky to find more than a handful of recent pictures of me - even fewer decent ones.

So my first reaction was to make an appointment for hair and make-up and spend hours setting up props and soft lighting that would be kind to me but then that wouldn't really be a true representation of me, the camera does in fact lie sometimes. I'm more often to be found sans make-up with hair askew and anything but glamorous. I often get distracted by work before I'm even dressed in the morning so I decided that would be a truer reflection of me and took some pictures just after I got up this morning. As you can see I couldn't help but ham it up a little and I'm guessing that was my instinctive reaction to cover my nervousness.

You have no idea how difficult it is for me to publish these photo's but deep breath, here goes....

My early morning  pink and puffy look was a little too much so I converted them to black and white which makes them a little more bearable - but this really is me.

Hop over to Sally's Blog and you'll be able to see how the other participants have photographed themselves and I'll be back next Saturday with my interpretation of the next prompt.

Have a great weekend all.

Lesley

Spreading My Wings...

Welcome to my first post of 2013 and a very happy new year to you all. I hope you had a great holiday season and aren't struggling too much to get back into the routine of normal life. I for one woke up this morning with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation because this year I have lots of ideas for things I want to do. I had ideas last year too but approached them with something of a 'let's see what happens' attitude. In hindsight that seems to have been no bad thing because generally speaking those ideas came to fruition and that, combined with some unexpected events is what has inspired me to spread my wings even further this year.

One of the things I want to do is expand the range in my components shop THEA too and I will be getting stuck into some new bronze clay designs tomorrow when I've cleared all the little tasks that have accumulated over the holiday. But I also want to work on different techniques so that I can some other mediums to the shop like enameled pieces...

Maybe a few stamped items....

And possibly some etched pieces...

 

I'm not sure when I'll get these underway and that's part of the reason for the excitement since I know I have to sit down and develop some proper plans and realistic timescales. In early April I will be vending at 'The Big Bead Show' with two of my Brit Pack Beader colleagues - I'm sure you can guess who from the picture below... So on top of developing the shop I also have to decide on and make all the stock to take to that which is extremely daunting considering that a year ago I wasn't even making components (other than for myself) let alone considering selling them at a national show!

Something I put off time and time again in 2012 was submitting designs for magazine publication and this is another thing I'd like to address. I have a profile piece going in a UK beading magazine in a few weeks so that's a good start but part of my planning process will focus on scheduling some time to design specifically for magazines. I'm also looking forward to finding some interesting topics to write about for AJE (Art Jewellery Elements) - joining the talented and supportive team there was definitely one of the highlights of last year. There are lots of other ideas bubbling away to but for the time being  I'm trying to keep a leash on those to stop myself going completely barmy.

Are you one of those people who chooses a word or two to focus on each year...? I've never done it before but while I was reflecting on the past year I decided now might be a good time to give it a try and the word I chose was balance. I had so many things going on throughout 2012 it seemed that I was always focusing all my efforts on one particular aspect at any given time while the others went neglected. Then when one task was completed that got ignored in favour of another until it became urgent again. Ultimately there was always something out of kilter.

So this year my aim is to get myself more organised so that I can multi-task more effectively and get a better work life balance. We're only two days in so I can't tell if it's going to work yet and it does go against all my natural inclinations to live life on a knife edge, but needs must as they say.

What have you got up your sleeve for 2013? - I'd love to hear about your plans and what you need to  to do reach your goals.

Lesley