Bead Soup!

I'm happy to say that I've joined in with the Bead Soup Blog Party.  In case you don't know, this is organised by the amazing Lori Anderson.  I don't know how she does it but I'm glad that does!  She has visited the blogs of over 500 people and paired us all up.  The rules are simple - send your partner a focal, a clasp and some coordinating beads - make something beautiful with them - and then show your design on your blog on reveal day.

I've been lucky enough to be paired with Jò from Italy.  She is a multi-talented lady - as well as making lovely jewellery, she does scrap-booking, painting, papier mâché, ceramics......head over to her blog to take a look.  She is also a lovely person - I've really enjoyed getting to know her.

She received my parcel of bead soup ingredients today.  I took a photo of what I sent her to show you but she has done an amazing collage of it so I'll leave it to her - go and see what I sent her.  The parcel that she sent me is still on its way from Italy.  I'll post a picture when I receive it.

Our reveal date is the 13th April so please come and visit our blogs then to see what we made.  It will also be interesting to see what the other Bead Soup participants have made - Lori has links to all the other participants on her blog.  

In case, like me, you don't know a lot of Italian you can put Jò's web address into something like Google Translate and it will put it into slightly scrambled English for you.  

********Update: my reveal date has been postponed until the 27th April.  Poor Lori, who organises Bead Soup, hasn't been well recently and needs a bit of extra time to deal with the mammoth task of organising the Bead Soup Blog Party.  Get well soon Lori!

Art Jewelry Boot Camp

I recently came across a blog challenge that seemed right up my street.  The Art Jewelry Boot Camp - run by the Love My Art Jewelry blog - gives a tutorial on a particular technique and then challenges you to do something creative with it.  The first challenge was to make balled head pins (have a look at the tutorial if you want to know how).  I’ve done this before – for example for this necklace - so I thought I’d do something I haven’t tried and balled both ends of the head pin to make a link.  

First, I balled one end of the wire and strung on two of the silver rectangles.  I then bent the wire into a semi-circle and scooted both rectangles out of the way and balled the other end of the wire – taking great care not to melt anything I didn’t mean to!  It got quite challenging to keep everything out of the flame as the chain got long!!  Here is a close-up of the links so you see what I mean…..

I like a bit of asymmetry so I added a couple of extra rectangles as a tassle (using balled head pins of course!) on one side. 

Go and have a look at the blog to see what other people have done with their head pins - you won't be disappointed, there are some wonderful designs.  

Back in the Saddle

You may have noticed a lack of blog posts from me recently.  I've been poorly with a chest infection/asthma combo that put me out of action for most of January.  But I'm on the mend now and I was getting fidgety, because I hadn't made anything for a while, so I got the resin out over the weekend.  Nothing is finished yet but here is a photo of some of the things I was working on - keeping warm by the radiator to make sure the resin hardens properly and covered up to guard against dust and inquisitive cats!  It felt really good to be making things again!!  

Gemstone Crush

I recently bought some crushed gemstones and have been having fun mixing them with resin...

 (Left:  Kyanite, Chalcedony, Crystal Quartz, Resin

Right:  Amethyst, Citrine, Resin)

At first I thought I'd dome the resin to get a smooth finish (like the one on the left) but actually I think I prefer the 'craggy' look of the one on the right.....

Clips

Well, I’ve shown you my mum and sister-in-law’s Christmas presents so now we turn to the men in my life!  They are difficult to buy for at the best of times and even harder to make things for - it is difficult to think of something they may actually want or need.  However I’d set myself the challenge of a hand-made Christmas so I came up with these – clips for money/paper/anything you fancy.

(Left: Sterling Silver, Brass and Copper

Right: Sterling Silver)

Any suggestions for what to make them next year will be gratefully received....!!

The Egg Necklace

A while ago my sister-in-law showed me a picture of a necklace and asked if I could make her something similar.  The picture was of a beautiful, enamelled Faberge-style egg – and so was a bit beyond my skill set!!!   But I had a think about it and came up with this for her Christmas present...

(Sterling Silver, Ceramic egg, Glass Beads)

It is certainly not a Faberge egg but it, I think, has a certain charm.  Actually, it has set off a few ideas in my head – I think there may be a few more egg shapes turning up in my jewellery again.  

The Shard Necklace

A very happy new year to you!

For as long as I can remember my mum has had a collection of those intriguing little shards of pottery that turn up when you are digging in the garden – and I’ve picked up the habit from her.  I’ve also found a beach near where I live where you can find pottery shards.  I think there was a ferry that came up onto that beach many years ago - lots of cups of tea must have been drunk to celebrate reaching shore again!!

I’ve never really known why I’ve collected those shards – I just did it because my mum did – but now I’ve found something to do with them….

(Sterling Silver, Ceramic shards dug up in my garden, Resin and Glass Seed Beads)

I gave this to my mum for Christmas.