AJE Component of the Month Reveal - Fossilised pebbles

Today I am very pleased to be hosting the AJE Component of the Month reveal which features my fossilised pebble pendants.

Needless to say I did my usual trick of forgetting to take a photo of my own pieces so I've had to crop them out of the bigger image. Since I had a couple of spares I decided to have a go at two designs and fortunately the two were sat next to each other.

I started with the stone coloured pebble and my original intention was to do something long and earthy using beaded macrame in some way. However, when I was rummaging for beads I came across a strand of ocean jasper nuggets which just seemed to match the pendant perfectly so I shifted focus to work with those.

I loved how the striations in the jasper matched the colour of the pendant whilst the soft green/blue hues added just enough colour to give depth and interest. I used graduated ebony rounds at the back of the necklace to pick up the dark brown of the fossil and interspersed them with brass spacer beads. A single offset copper spiral bead echoes the ammonite shape.

This is a very simple and traditional design that has a very natural, serene feel to it which I really like.

The longer, narrower shape of the blue pendant got me thinking of talismans or amulets and I wanted to try and do some sort of layered or stacked rustic design. I attached some waxed linen and started playing around with various beads until I realised that I had unintentionally created a goddess form. Well who am I to argue with the signs? If she wants to be a goddess then a fossil goddess she shall be! The blue polymer clay bead is by Staci Smith and the ceramic bar is by Marsha Neal.

 

I decided this one was definitely going to be a long necklace and pulled together a selection of small beads that would complement the stacked pendant: Sodalite, ebony, brass, shell and seed beads all combined randomly to give a lovely textured effect with an aged feel.

I love blues and browns together and these beads coordinate perfectly with the focal.

Again it's a very simple style of necklace but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

 

I can't wait to see what everyone else had created with their fossil pebbles I hope you'll join me on our little blog hop using the links below.

Guests

Sandi Volpe

Claire Fabian

Alison Herrington

AJE team

Lesley Watt

Caroline Dewison

Niky Sayers

Susan Kennedy

Jen Cameron

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

Lesley

AJE Component of the Month - May Reveal

So as May draws to close another AJE design challenge rolls around and this month it was the turn of Sue Kennedy to provide us with components to work with and she chose these cute little lampwork heart and star cabochons...

These are the selection Sue sent me - aren't they cute...?

Whilst I had originally thought to use all three of these together time escaped me and I didn't get to start the challenge until the very last minute so I decided to concentrate on one piece. The coral coloured star reminded me of the starfish I used to go searching for in rock pools and caves as a child so that was the one I chose to use in an ocean themed piece.

starfish

Using one of my hand made molds I made a polymer clay urchin focal and before baking impressed the star into the clay to make a setting for it. Once baked I painted it with acrylic paints and then sanded it back to expose some of the clay and glued Sue's cab into position.

I'm not usually once for using glue as a connection but I didn't want to obscure the detail of the star with a metal setting. In this context and with these materials it's very secure and I think it works. 

I love layered or stacked pendants so I added one of my copper clay shells and a tiny coral and seed bead charm to add further depth and interest... 

For the necklace I picked out some beads that reflected the colours of the focal and copper wire wrapped them - recycled glass, lampwork pumpkins and ocean jasper accented with mottled sandy seed beads.

A pretty copper chain with another tiny charm, an LOS (Liver of sulphur) bath for the metal/bead elements and a quick tumble and the design is finished. Now I want to head for the beach and get my toes into some sea and sand!

Many thanks to Sue for providing us with these lovely pieces to work with. Please go and visit the rest of the AJE team and our guests to see what they did with their components - links below.

Lesley

Guests

Allison Herrington

Lola Surwillo

AJE Team Members

Susan Kennedy - host

Diana Ptaszynski

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Caroline Dewison

Lindsay Starr

Lesley Watt

Jennifer Cameron

Niky Sayers

AJE COM Reveal - April is for Amulets

Today is reveal day for the AJE Component of the Month challenge for April and the pieces we had to work with this month were these wonderful polymer clay Amulets created by Jenny Davies-Reazor. I was lucky enough to get the gorgeous green swirly one at the bottom left of this image.

When my amulet arrived the first thing that struck me was that the swirly textural design and the colour palette were reminiscent of the ocean so that was going to influence my theme. I also decided I wanted to add some sort of stopper to create a little vessel - maybe for hiding secrets or special treasures in. My initial thought was that I could do this with a little round bead but I couldn't find anything that would stay put but then, while rummaging around looking for inspiration I came across my Tracey Seder-Donoughe bead stash and this one leapt out at me. Not only was it a perfect colour match but its 'waisted' style made it a very secure fit - perfect.

I was also keen to add some sort of accent to the bottom of the amulet so I drilled an extra hole in the bottom and set about wiring it up along with the bead which I attached with a length of brass chain...so far so good.

 

Working with the ocean theme I added one of my own bronze shell charms to the bottom of the amulet and gave this a little accent bead that picks out the darker teal tone of the piece.

For me amulets tend to call for long necklaces and I decided to go with bronze chain but to give it some more depth and interest and to support the theme, I went for one of my favourite techniques and wove waxed linen threaded with tiny pearls through the chain.

At this point I felt I needed to add some embellishment for a bit more impact. I was thinking of this necklace as something a mermaid would wear to keep her treasures close so I added a cluster of dangles made up from bronze charms, pearls, Citrine, Ocean Jasper and Czech glass, all of which pick up the subtle tones of the amulet. I'm still thinking about what to put inside the amulet...

And that was it - job done and 'Mermaid's Treasure' was complete! It's not the easiest piece to photograph well and personally I think it looks much prettier in real life.

Many thanks to Jenny for supplying such a fun piece to work with - I got fully immersed in this challenge and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. Please do now join our blog hop to see what the rest of the AJE team and our guests created.

Enjoy

Lesley

Guests: 

Marsha of Marsha Neal Studio

Alison of Alison Adorns

Jess of The Copper Cat

Brooke from Artistic Endeavors

AJE Team: 

Lesley 

Caroline 

Niky 

Jennifer

Diana

Lindsay

Susan

Jenny

AJE Eye Themed Design Challenge Reveal.

Today is reveal day for our monthly AJE design challenge and this month it's a theme based challenge hosted by Lindsay Starr. Lindsay chose eyes as her theme and you can find out more about the subject on her original post.

The past month has run away with me somewhat so I didn't manage to get around to making components for this challenge. Instead I picked out this lovely Milagro pendant of Jenny's and decided to work with that.

Milagro is the Spanish word for miracle and 'Eyes' are a popular subject for these folk charms symbolising the concept of watching. They are often attached to an image of a deceased person as a representation of the spirit of that person is watching over and defending others from spirits from the land of the dead, or pleading their case before the saints and the angels.

In my stash I also had one of these prettty angel charms by Green Girl Studios and I thought that combined with Jenny's pendant this would depict the 'watching' concept well. Both pieces carry legends and the words 'strength' and 'safe' seem very appropriate.

Green girl Studios

I bought the striped ethnic beads from Bead Fest last year and liked the way they picked up the colours from the Milagro and the patina of the charm when strung simply with tiny seed beads.

The necklace is finished with a simple hook clasp and an single accent bead above the charm.

I'm quite pleased with the way the necklace supports the traditional meaning of the Milagro and is very wearable.

Many thanks to Lindsay for hosting this challenge. You can see what the rest of the AJE team and our guests came up with this theme using the links below.

Guests 

Melissa Trudinger

Tammy of PaisleyLizardDesigns

Alison Herrington

Kelly Rodgers

AJE Members 

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Diana Ptaszynski

Susan Kennedy

Caroline Dewison 

Lindsay Starr

Jen Cameron

AJE COM challenge - February Reveal

So here we are again...another month has flown by and it's time for another AJE component of the month reveal. This months we were challenge to work with these lovely 'Phaedra' chain maille and crystal components made by Diana Ptaszynski - very bling!

Now I have to say these were quite a challenge for me since bling is not really my thing. I tend much more to the earthy and subdued and my inclination for anything sparkly is to treat it very simply and just hang it from a chain where it speaks for itself...but that didn't fell quite right for a challenge.

So I was trying to thing of something that would better fit my aesthetic and still showcase Diana's component and decided to try something with leather. I remembered a tutorial I had saved that involved loosely weaving leather cord into a necklace and decided to have a go at that. As the weave is quite loose I wasn't sure if it would work but being made from aluminium jump rings the Phaedra is very light and it did work a treat. So in the end I did simply hang it from a necklace but I think it has a bit more impact than a chain!

I was fortunate to have a number of Phaedra's in different colours and I chose to go with red because it worked best with the very dark blue of the leather. The combination wasn't the easiest to photograph to get both elements captured accurately either so my apologies for the less than brilliant photographs.

 

I'm really keen to see what the other participants have made this month so I hope you'll join me on our little blog hop via the links below:

Guests

Shaiha Williams

Renetha Stanziano

AJE Team

Diana Ptaszynski

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Caroline Dewison

Lesley Watt

Jen Cameron
Sue Kennedy

Lesley

AJE Component of the Month - November Reveal.

Welcome to this months AJE design challenge which gave us the opportunity to work with these gorgeous lichen inspired organic ceramic components from Caroline.

To feed my current addiction to beaded bezels I chose the purple cabochon on the bottom row. There is thin line of seafoam on the cabochon where the glazes have reacted and I wanted to use this as my accent colour in the beading. Fortunately I had the perfect beads and partnered with a mix if matt and gloss purple beads I was really pleased with how the bezel came out.

As the cabochon is so organic I had to manipulate the rows to secure it so that the beading is heavier at the bottom of the piece which balances it out and stops the bead work looking to orderly.

I jumped straight into the beading and didn't give any thought to what I was going to do with it until it was finished. I felt it needed something to contrast the soft natural lines so I had a rummage around in my silver stash to see if I had anything that might work. I found this Hill Tribe Tube and decided to use it as a yoke to suspend the focal from by sewing closed jump rings to the back of it and making a decorative link section.

I managed to find some colour matched organic lampwork beads and mixed these with silver dipped Greek ceramic cornflake beads and haematite seed beads to pull everything together.

I added black leather cord and decided that's all I was going to do because when I tried it on I loved the way it looked and knew I was going to keep it - a simple silver clasp and job done!

Many thanks to Caroline for giving us these lovely pieces to work with and I'm very happy to have a second one to play with too. To see what the rest of the team and our guest designers did with their component join us on our blog hop using the links below.

Guests

Nicole Prince  

Kathy Lindemer

  

AJE Team

Diana Ptaszynski

Lesley Watt  

Niky Sayers

Jenny Davies-Reazor  

Susan Kennedy  

Lindsay Starr  

Jennifer Stout Cameron

Kristen Stevens

Linda Landig

Caroline Dewison  

Lesley

Creative Rejuvenation...

Yes - don't faint...I'm actually writing a blog post for the first time in over 2 months! Considering my aim to post more this year I'm heading for a pretty epic fail by year end. It's always difficult over the summer months with preparation for and enjoyment of holidays which occupied me for most of August and early September. Then the minute I got back from a fantastic trip to the USA I went down with a particularly nasty virus that laid me low for two weeks and I'm really only just back to fighting fit.

I've also been doing some thinking about where I'm going with my work over this period as I've reached a bit of a hiatus and have had the feeling for some time that I need to pep things up a little... I still love making beads and jewellery but I do feel a little stale.

My summer vacation was spent with creative friends and we spent a lot of time playing with new techniques and trying activities I've done little or none of before.

My good friend Jenny Davies-Reazor taught me how to bead embroider cabochons and I've taken to this like a duck to water. These are the pieces I did while I was away...

Cabochon by Lisa Peters-Russ

And these are pieces I've done since I got home, this being the one thing I was able to do while I was feeling poorly and something which I find extremely relaxing - not to mention addictive.

Cabochon by Joan Miller Porcelain

Cabochons by Diana Ptazsynski, Sue kennedy and Caroline Dewison

Wooden tile by Marie-Noel Voyer

Wooden tile by Marie-Noel Voyer

I was also lucky enough to have a needle-felting play date with the lovely Marsha Neal where she taught us to make these suer cute pumpkins.

Marsha also works at Serafina Fiber Art and needless to say I came home with a big stash of beautiful wools to play with at home.

The best thing about learning these two techniques is that I've been inspired to combine them to create some mixed media pieces which I'm really excited about. I used to do some traditional embroidery in a past life and like these idea of adding this into the mix too...

Embroidered cushion circa 1990

These pieces are mostly non-jewellery and I'm not sure where I'm going with them but I'm having fun exploring the possibilities...

Beaded and felted brooch made with a pendant by Tree Wings Studio

Ceramic cabochon by Jenny-Davies-Reazor

This is a work -in- progress depicting my interpretation of an autumn goddess and will be one of a series of seasonal goddesses...

Ceramic cabochon by Jenny Davies-Reazor

Another work-in-progress test piece waiting to be embellished with beads...

Polymer clay pendant by Roberta Warshaw

For the time being I'm happy playing around with these ideas to see where they take me but then of course I need to think about what I'm going to do with the. Both my Etsy shops need overhauling and probably moving to another platform altogether so there is a lot to do in the coming months. I'll still be working on beads and jewellery too but you might be seeing a lot more experimental work form me. I will also make a concerned effort to blog more frequently and keep you posted on developments.

Until then - enjoy the rest of your weekend and enjoy the glories of this beautiful autumn season.

Lesley