Colours of Spring - Challenge Reveal and Blog Hop...

A little while ago Sally Russick of Studio Sublime sent out a challenge to design a piece using set of ceramic beads which she would enamel in a colour from the Pantone Spring 2012 colour palette.Always up for challenge I threw my hat in the ring and chose 'Tangerine Tango' as my bead colour. I'm not sure why since it's not a colour I can wear myself nor one I would normally design with but hey, that's what a challenge is all about isn't it?!

So when I got my beads from Sally my first thought was to pick complementary beads that would calm the the orange down a bit but things didn't quite go to plan. As soon as I delved into my bead stash the first things that hit me were some gorgeous poppy beads by Moogin Beads that I'd been hoarding for the longest time, The splashes of orange picked up the tone of Sally's beads perfectly as well as having shades close to solar power, Magarita and Cockatoo in them and, since the poppy designs are created by using enamel on lampwork glass they seemed entirely appropriate. But not much calming down though!

At this point I decided that if I was going to go down the brightly coloured route I was going to go all the way and make the entire piece just sing. So here it is then - My Spring Colour Challenge Necklace which I've call 'Carnivale' - you may just want to reach for your sun glasses at this point...

Because the colours where so strong I didn't want to complicate the structure of the necklace so I started by simply stringing the beads on some bright turquoise leather. This didn't seem enough somehow. So I created a bail by wire wrapping the leather, looping the wire under Sally's lentil bead and wrapping it again on the other side. The lentil is flanked by the poppy beads and then accented by Sally's enamelled rounds, toning Greek ceramic spacers and silvered ceramic spacers to lift the colours.

I really wanted to make this colourful piece fun so I added some Candy Jasper and Czech glass beaded leather dangles to the bail which pick up all the colours in the poppy beads. The necklace is finished with a simple bead and loop fastening.

So there you have it, something of a departure from my usual style and overall probably more of a piece for high summer than spring but it makes me smile!

You can check out the creations of all the other participants here:

Host: Sally Russick

Margarita

Theresa Frank

Kim Bender

Cabaret

JLynn Jewels

Christine Altmiller

Sweet Lilac

Cherrie Fick

Jenny Vidberg

Driftwood

Sabine Dittrich

Hope Smitherman

Solar Power

Nicole Rennell

Erin Fickert-Rowland 

Bell Flower

Patti Vanderbloemen

Kristi Bowman

Starfish

Shannon Chomanczuk

Elisabeth Auld

Cockatoo

Alice Peterson

Donna Bradley

Sodalite Blue

Kristi Harrison

Cilla Watkins

Tangerine Tango

Lesley Watt

Maryanne Gross

Susan Kennedy

Courtney White Breul

Happy hopping!

Lesley

Bead Table Wednesday - Tools of the Trade...

This Wednesday finds my bead table set up with all the paraphernalia for a Bronzclay session...

The blue striped box holds all my commercial texture plates plus anything else that takes my eye including wallpaper, fabric and lace and an onion net! In front of that are moulds that I have made myself. The blue ones are made from 2 part silicon gels - very expensive but much the best for moulding soft (or bulky) materials like plant matter which I'm very fond of using in my work. The green ones are made from polymer clay which is much cheaper and suitable for harder materials.

The tray contains all my lotions and potions and my tools. The 1 Cal Olive Oil spray never got used when it sat in the kitchen cupboard so I moved it into the workroom. It's a godsend as I'm a bit of a klutz and have knocked over oil bottles countless times as I never put the tops on while I'm working. 'Gloves in a Bottle' is a barrier cream which helps me avoid the horrible brown stains metal clay can give you and the lavender oil is for conditioning the clay but also makes the room smell nice.

Tools include commercial  shapers and cutters but are supplemented with more cost effective bits and bobs like knitting pins, cocktail sticks, emery boards... just about anything that comes to hand really. The little black box with the white balls contains cocktails sticks with cheap plastic beads glued to the top of them - I use these as forms for bead caps which I then poke into a block of florists foam to dry - necessity is the mother of invention as they say!

The little white artist's palettes are also used as forms to create domed pendants and clasps as they cost just a fraction of the price of the commercial forms like the copper one you can also see here. They're also great for holding tiny items I'm working with and mixing slip. For larger pieces I also use dead light bulbs again stuck into florists foam!

The coloured strips are the spacers I use to get an even thickness when rolling the clay and these are one of the commercial tools that I do prefer. I was taught metal clay using playing cards as spacers but these come in graduated depths, are easier to clean and I've had much more even results since using them.

I love, love, love silicone baking sheets for rolling metal clay on. I cut them into small pieces and then I just move the sheets to a drying surface with the pieces in situ and they just slip off when dry. Not having to move clay from one surface to another avoids the risks of distortion or marking. And finally, to the left is my tin of cutters - again an assortment of clay and cookie cutters mixed with bits and bobs that I've picked up along the way. I've yet to come across a commercial tool that you can't find some sort of substitute for around the home or garden.

I can guarantee you that within half an hour of me starting work, this scene will be unrecognisable and look more like a small bomb site - bit of a messy worker me. But hopefully it's all worth it when I end up with lots of goodies ready to go into the kiln like these that I made yesterday...

There's bit of a nature vibe going on here and I'm starting to think beach themes too - must be the week of warm sunny weather we've had here in the UK. These will going into my components shop  THEA too later this week.

So, that's what's on my bead table and you can see what other people have on theirs here

Lesley

Destash Jewellery Sale Underway...

The unseasonably warm and sunny weather we're having here has had me in the mood for a bit of a spring clean today and the number 1 target was my Etsy jewellery shop.

I have lots of new ideas and jewellery designs whirling round in my head that I want to get to work on but I need to make some space for them first so, I'm having a destash sale in my jewellery shop with 30% of selected items. There are some great bargains to be had and I've already marked everything down so no need for coupon codes. The sale will run until Sunday April 1st so feel free to pop along and have a virtual rummage :0)

THEA Jewellery destash sale

Many thanks.


Lesley

Full of the Joys of Spring...

The sun is shining and the temperature in my sheltered south facing garden is in the low 60's and remember  - this is the UK in March we're talking about here! Yesterday I was in fleece and socks, today it's shirt and deck shoes and do you know what...it feels great.

British summer time starts in the UK this weekend so I ventured out with my first cup of coffee this morning to see whether the garden was aware of this and boy, is it ever. All sorts of life burgeoning forth to meet the sun. To be fair it's probably been doing it for a while now but on a day like this the blinkers fall from the eyes as you start to feel the weight of winter fall away.

Yellow flowers always herald spring for me and this one is a stunning specimen that fairly drips these big, bright yellow trumpet flowers. I can never remember the species name but it's appropriately called "Sun King' and it's a native of Chile. 

The Camellias are past their best now but this one is enjoying a little early morning sun warming its petals.

"Choysia Ternata' or Mexican Orange Blossom is this colour all year round but with the low sun on it's fresh young lleaves it's just so gloriously vibrant.

A tiny Alpine Strawberry in a sheltered pot makes a start on the growth that will lead to the most delicious little fruits ever!

Blue is another favourite spring colour and these Grape Hyacinths add a splash long before the English Bluebells that fill the woods around the house have woken up.

Acid green Spurge with an early morning visitor - hope it's a friendly one!

And finally, the new growth of 'Photinia Red Robin' is a fiery red normally more prevalent in high summer but in my garden it permanently has new growth and is always making a bid to take control but I tolerate this behaviour because the colour is so glorious.

How can you fail to be full of the joys of spring with this in your own back yard?

I hope the sun is shining on you too.

Lesley

And the Double Giveaway Winners are...

First of all can I say a huge thank you to  everyone who took part in this giveaway and for all the kind things you had to say - what an amazing response, I am genuinely humbled.

But without further ado let's get down the the nitty gritty... I'm delighted to tell you the two winners are:

Bracelet - GRACE NEFF of Grace Elements

Silk Bundle - Shannon Chomanczuk of For My Sweet Daughter

Congratulations ladies - I'll be in touch shortly.

Thanks again everyone and have a great Sunday, especially all you mums - I hope you get thoroughly spoilt!

Lesley

Double Giveaway Time...

Well I promised that I would host a giveaway to celebrate THEA's first birthday and here it is, all-be-it a little late. Not only is there a piece of my jewellery up for grabs but also a bundle of gorgeous Marsha Neal silks.

The first giveaway is this lovely bronze and lampwork bracelet which I will adjust to fit the winner. I've called it 'Neptune's Garden' - I just adore turquoise with bronze, the two colours seem to set each other off perfectly and here they bring to mind idyllic Aegean shores (sighs audibly). The bronze urchin focal and charm are made by me and the lampwork beads are by (from the focal out) Kaz Baildon, BB Art Glass, and Rachel Dawes. The links are solid bronze wire and the bracelet is completed with a hand forged bronze clasp and a little bunch of Czech glass flowers because every garden needs flowers, even underwater ones.

There are lots of ways you can enter to win the bracelet, just be sure to leave me a separate comment with a link for each thing that you do with an e mail contact address. You can...

Share this post on Facebook, Twitter or your preferred social network.

Share an item from my jewellery shop THEA Jewellery on Facebook, Twitter or your preferred social network..
Share and item from my components shop THEAtoo on Facebook, Twitter or your preferred social network.
Pin an item to Pinterest
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Like my Facebook page

A bundle of silks up for grabs too...

As you may know know I'm taking part in the first round of Marsha Neal's 'Silk Color Palette Challenge' which gives you the opportunity to create your own palette from Marsha's silks using a photographic image as inspiration. It's good fun and a great way to get those creative juices flowing plus participants have the chance to win fabulous goodies. So, as a second giveaway I'm offering a bundle of silk in my own 'Souks of Marrakesh' colour palette to one random winner who shares Marsha's 'Silk Color Palette Challenge' blog page which you'll find here on their own blog or facebook page. Please make sure you leave a separate entry for this indicating that it is for the silk bundle draw.

Each method you use will qualify you for one entry into the giveaway and 1 winner for each prize will be randomly chosen using the Random.org number generator.

The giveaway will close at midnight GMT on Saturday 14th March and I will announce the winners on Sunday 15th March.

Good luck everyone.

Lesley

What happened to the weekend...

Where did it go...one minute it was Friday afternoon next it's Sunday bedtime!

Most of today has been caught up with listing lots of new components in my THEA too shop and it's really quite tiring. I just have some new headpins to list tomorrow and that will be it for a little while. I'm looking forward to a couple of lazy days and then getting down to some jewellery making - now that I've got my head around the components shop I'm hoping I can start to balance the two better and have plenty of time for both.

And besides... I've got to make something for THEA's birthday giveaway haven't I?

Hope you all had a great weekend.


Lesley