Brit Pack Beaders - Challenge 3 Reveal

Oil on canvas, dated 1870, 109.2 x 90.5cm, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections

Welcome to another Brit Pack Beader's design challenge reveal which, as you may recall required us to create jewellery inspired by this painting chosen by Bo Hulley. The painting depicts Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris posed as Mariana from Shakespeare's 'Measure For Measure' a women deserted by her betrothed (click link on picture for more information).

And this is what we had to work with in addition to items from our own bead stashes...

The thing that struck me about this painting is how dominant the  rich and sumptuous textiles are in the composition and I wanted to try an evoke something of this in my design. I decided on a necklace using the focal bead and started with one of Diane Turton's 'Raggy Ribbons' which matched perfectly with the deep brick reds. The ribbon is quite wide and when threaded through a heavy Vintaj chain it gave a lovely shaggy effect.

 I wired the focal and then created a chain with the bronze rings I contributed to the challenge (plus some extras since I was fortunate enough to have some!) and more of the Vintaj chain. I added a length of finer chain to the focal and hung the bronze charm from this. At this point it became a question of how much more I embellished the necklace. I wanted to keep the symmetry so I couldn't work the clasp in other than at the back which seemed a waste so I used a simple hook with another of the bronze rings. I did play around with more dangles to the front but I'm a 'less is more' kind of person so in the end I settled for just two blue drops to highlight the focal. It does have something of a chain of office about it but I think I like it none-the-less...see what you think.

So then - how to use the clasp...? I decided this would work well in a bracelet with some of my favourite rustic pearls which bring to mind the lovely soft skin tones of the painting. I used Rebecca's blue waxed linen to string the pearls and interspersed them with tiny faceted red beads and the lovely gold lampwork beads Jo included with her accent beads. To counterbalance the clasp I also added a gorgeous lampwork bead by Helen Chalmers in the same blue with dots of cream and brick red. I finished the piece with two little red glass beads and one of my blue bronze hearts - she has just been jilted after all. I do really like this - I don't think I would normally have thought to put these colours together and simple as it is I think it works well.

So now you've seen how 'Mariana' inspired me I hope you'll pop over to the other blogs and see what the rest of the team created...

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads

Bo Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads

Jo Tinley - Daisy Chain Designs

See you for the next challenge at the end of the year.

Lesley

Brit Pack Beaders - We're Back...!

Well actually we've been here all the time but everyone on the team has been so busy this year that it's taken us until now to all be able to take on our next challenge - where did the last 6 months go that's what I want to know!

If you're new to the BPB's you can find out more by visiting the page tabbed at the top of this post but the basic premise is
that we are a group of 5 jewellery and component designers (Claire Braunbarth, Jo Tinley, Rebecca Anderson, Bo Hulley and myself) who take on Bi-monthly jewellery Challenges. For each challenge, one person will choose a theme based on anything they like - could be music, literature, film, visual images anything at all that inspires that person. Each person is then allocated one of five design items - clasps, focal beads, accent beads, decorative embellishments and stringing material, and must send each pack member one of those that has some relevance to the theme. Ultimately, everyone will all end up with a design kit put together by five people with which to create a piece of jewellery inspired by the theme.

For this challenge it was Bo's turn to decide on the theme and she chose this painting by
Dante Gabrielle Rosetti...

Oil on canvas, dated 1870, 109.2 x 90.5cm, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections

The painting depicts Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris posed as Mariana from Shakespeare's 'Measure For Measure' a women deserted by her betrothed (click link on picture for more information). It's a rich and sumptuous painting and the team has once again put together some wonderful components for the challenge...

Along with choosing the theme Bo was responsible for providing the clasp and sent me this lovely floral button clasp...

Focals were down to Claire and she commission Pippa Chandler to make these lovely Polymer Clay flower beads which perfectly match the key colours of the painting...

Jo has supplied a lovely selection of lampwork and Czech glass accent beads which again pick up the rich tones but also add some balance with some lovely neutrals...

String materials were down to Rebecca and she sent me this gorgeous silk string in graduated shades of peachy pink and some dark blue waxed linen...

My job for this task was to provide embellishments so I made some little bronze links and charms influenced by some of the motifs in the painting - Mariana's hair decoration, the tapestry...and the tiny heart is perhaps a little nod to the heart break of her desertion.

 

I think you'll agree this really is a lovely collection of components to work with...

If you'd like to see how we all do with this challenge then join us back here on Wednesday 31st July when we'll be revealing our finished designs. You can also check out what the rest of the team think of the challenge by visiting their latest blog and Facebook posts...

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads

Bo Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads

Jo Tinley - Daisy Chain Designs

See you back here n the 31st.

Lesley

Brit Pack Beaders - First Challenge Reveal...

So here we are at last, the first ever reveal for a Brit Pack Beaders challenge. Apologies for this being a week late - some of the team found themselves with plates that were a little too full last week but everyone is ready now so lets's crack on.

Just to refresh you the aim of the challenge is to create a jewellery design(s) using this image as inspiration...

With these components as supplied by the various members of the team (each team member received different components)...

Considering I set the theme for this challenge I actually found it quite hard to come up with my design. To get the most out of the challenge I wanted to create one piece that would feature an element supplied by each of the contributing members. I spent a long time getting things to a certain point only to find something didn't fit and having to start again, I hate those days - so frustrating!

My components included quite a lot of rings, including the toggle clasp I'd allocated myself so I took that as a starting point and after a couple of false starts with bracelets, I decided a necklace was a better option. Eventually I did come up with something I was happy with... 

Because the toggle was heavier in appearance than the other rings I decided to combine it with the focal bead Rebecca sent me to get a better balance along with some chain tassles for a little added flourish.

I've hung these from sections of heavy Vintaj chain interspersed with Claire's cotton (hand!) wrapped and silver rings, together with one of my own bronze rings. I made pretty little dangles from Bo's accent beads and added these to the lower sections of the chain together with a bronze shell charm.

The rest of the chain is woven with the rust and aqua silk strings that Jo sent me.

So I did manage to get something from everyone in there - it's quite busy for me but hopefully not too much so and I think it has a certain charm. I didn't have to much left to work with after that and although I really wanted to use the wire mesh that Claire had sent me, sadly I spent so long playing with it to try and work out what to do that by the time I'd finished it was unusable - sorry Claire! But at least now I'll know what to do with it next time! I did however make a couple of pairs of earrings using some additional beads from my own stash.

The organic silver slice beads from Claire I've teamed up with some Greek ceramic discs and some gorgeous rustic beads from Marsha Neal, wrapped with bronze to maintain the mixed metal effect.

I really like the effect of the silver and bronze together in these pieces so for these earrings I've mixed Claire's hammered silver discs with a pair of my own bronze rings and added a couple of gorgeous fat rustic pearls which also happen to come from Claire's shop.

There you have my interpretation of Carolyn's lovely photograph then and I'd like to say a big thank you to the rest of the team for taking part and for sending me such great things to work with. I have no idea what they've come up for their own designs so I hope you'll join me and visit their blogs (links below) and facebook pages to find out. And don't forget, this is a bi-monthly challenge so the next one will be some time in October so lookout for that.

Lesley Watt - THEA jewellery you are here

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads

Bo Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads

Jo Tinley - Daisy Chain Designs (not participating in the design element this time)

Thanks for visiting.

Lesley

Brit Pack Beaders Challenge - Component Reveal

Welcome (back) to the Brit Pack Beaders Challenge. In my last post I introduced you to the Brit Pack Beaders - Rebecca Anderson, Claire Braunbarth, Bo Hulley, Jo Tinley and myself and explained how our team challenges would work. Well, today is the day we reveal the components that our 'pack' mates sent us to create create a piece of jewellery for our very first challenge inspired by 'Tangle' by Carolyn Saxby.

Remember, this will be just as much a surprise for us as for you since everyone of us has been sent slightly different components by the other four  members so we have know idea what anyone else has, apart from the piece we sent. I'm not going to keep you waiting any longer other than to say that as far as what I have to work with goes, I love it and I think everyone has done a fantastic job in drawing from the image. Here it is then...

Pretty tasty ingredients don't you think...

My photo doesn't really do justice to the lampwork focal Rebecca sent me, It has lovely blue/green swirls on a sandy base which not only picks out the colours from the picture, but is also very evocative of a beach or shoreline. She also sent me a large metal ring which perfectly picks up the colour and texture of the rusty chain.

In Bo's accent bead pack I found some of her lovely hand made textured ceramic beads which pick out the brighter more vibrant tones along with some pretty, neutral pearls (very apropos), tiny seed beads and Czech glass beads. So far so good, these are working well together for me....

Claire was responsible for embellishments and she sent me lovely and unusual things including aqua knitted wire mesh and some pretty cotton wrapped rings that she made herself. I've never used either of these and plan to have some fun with them. She also sent hammered silver rings, charms and organic washers with two cute shell charms and a length of natural hemp. I love the way Claire's pieces reflect the shapes and textures of the photo.

Up next are the stringing materials courtesy of Jo and who could fail to love those gorgeous aqua and rust silk strings from, if I'm not mistaken, Marsha Neal. She also added some blue cotton cord for variation and texture. Jo won't actually be creating this time around as she is spending the summer on distant shores but she wanted to be involved from the get go so very kindly sent her contribution anyway - thanks Jo.

I should perhaps point out that we agreed not to open our packages before we'd  posted our own so that  our offerings wouldn't be influenced by what we'd already received. I was responsible for sending clasps and it probably won't come as any surprise to you or the recipients to know that I made bronze clasps for everyone! I tried to take the textural elements from the image as my inspiration and on the clasp I got I used rope to create the pattern. I won't spoil the surprise on the other clasps, you can see those when you visit the rest of the pack's blogs.

So there you go...what do you think? I am extremely happy with the items everyone sent me and when you look at these two pictures together you can see just what a great job they've done. This could easily have been a selection put together by one person for their own use and considering there were five pairs of hands in this I'm actually quite amazed at just how well everything gels - thank you ladies

Now, I'm going to dash off and check out what everyone else has got in their bead pots and I hope you'll join me using the links below. Oh and don't forget - the final reveal will be on Wednesday 8th of August so make a note to come back and see what we've all done with our goodies.

Lesley Watt - THEA jewellery you are here

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads

Bo Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads

Jo Tinley - Daisy Chain Designs

Lesley

Meet the Brit Pack Beaders....

One of the things I love about the amazing community of jewellery artists I've come to be a part of is meeting people, all-be-it virtually, from all over the world - such an incredibly diverse collection of people and yet with so much in common. It still amazes to think that while I'm nervously designing a piece of jewellery for a challenge or blog hop, other people are doing exactly the same thing in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Russia, India...who knows where.

But occasionally, just occasionally, I think it would be nice to do something at a bit more of a local (by which I mean this 'little' island I live on) and intimate level and that got me to thinking...I had a spark of an idea I thought might work and put it to a few of my fellow British designers who all seemed to be up for the challenge so without further ado, may I now introduce you to the "Brit Pack Beaders' who are from left to right:

Lesley Watt, Rebecca Anderson, Claire Braunbarth, Joanne Tinley and Bo 'Peep' Hulley (she's a little camera shy).

Many of you will already know the work of these talented (modestly excluding myself from that description)  ladies from their blogs, participation in challenges and of course their shops. Now we've all come together to take part in bi-monthly challenges with a little bit of a difference.

For each challenge, one person will choose a theme based on anything they like - could be music, literature, film, visual images anything at all that inspires that person. Each of us is then allocated one of five design items - clasps, focal beads, accent beads, decorative embellishments and stringing material, and must send each pack member one of those items (preferably all a little different) that has some relevance to the theme. Ultimately, we will all end up with a slightly different design kit put together by five people with which to create a piece of jewellery inspired by the theme.

Easy eh? Well hopefully it won't be a case of 'too many cooks'  but we'll let you know when we've completed the first challenge, for which I've chosen this image as the inspiration piece:

This photograph was taken British mixed media textile artist and photographer Carolyn Saxby who draws a wealth of inspiration for her work from Cornwall, the beautiful county she lives in. Her photographs are stunning and I love the way she can make the seemingly mundane look so beautiful with such colour, depth and interest. You can see more of Carolyn's work on her blog and if you like this image I would recommend a visit to her Flickr photostream too. Carolyn also makes textile beads which she sells from her Etsy shop.


I addition to choosing the image for this challenge I am also responsible for sending a different clasp to each of the pack members, Rebecca is supplying the focals, Claire the embellishments, Bo the accent beads and Jo the stringing material. For the next challenge we will rotate so that everyone gets to send something different.


We'll be back in a week or so to share our mystery ingredients and the reveal for this first challenge will be on the 8th of August, so I hope you'll join our blog hop and see whether we've managed to cook up a storm rather than a dogs dinner! I've also set up a separate page here where I'll archive the challenges and the finished pieces from each designer.


In the meantime, if you'd like to know a bit more about the "Brit Packers' you can visit out blogs or Facebook page at the following links:

Lesley Watt - THEA jewellery you are here

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads

Bo Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads

Jo Tinley - Daisy Chain Designs

Lesley