Rebirth of the Sun - Winter Design Challenge reveal.

Well it's seems like an awfully long time since we launched this way back in late November but finally, It's time for the reveal of our design challenge inspired by our einter solstice theme of the rebirth of the sun. If you missed the original post for this you can find out more here. 

Despite the chaos that is December and the holiday season we have wonderful designs from the AJE teams and guest designers to inspire you - just click on the blog links below to start hopping.

Enjoy!

Guest Designers

Melissa Trudinger

Lennis Carrier

Linds Newnham

Tammy Adams
Sherri Hartman-Stokey
Kathy Lindemer

E B Beads and Metalwork

AJE Team

Lindsay

Jennifer Cameron

Sue Kennedy

Niky Sayers

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Caroline Dewison

The Journey - Part One

The AJE team has been talking about their creative journeys recently.  We've each been looking back on our early creative endeavors and reflecting on early work we liked or disliked, how far we've come and even things from the past that might be worth revisiting.  Many of our members have pursued other art forms besides jewelry components and jewelry design.  We ended up generating a rather large collection of old pictures and related musings.

I will be sharing our journeys in my next two or three posts. Since you are also on a life journey, I hope that some of our reflections might inspire some reflection on your part as well.  What sparked your creative impulse?  How has that impulse expressed itself in different forms throughout your life?  Where do you think the path you are on might lead in a few years?  Are you open to new directions?

Karen Totten
Karen has been involved in creative endeavors all her life.She was working primarily in pottery when she needed to have surgery on her hand. In her words:
 "These were made with my handmade stamps. I made stamps initially for pottery, then when I couldn't throw (pots) for 6 months due to hand surgery, I made these beads to keep myself entertained. That's how I got into beads, it was an accident. Lesson: ya never know what is around the corner; go with the flow and you find new work, new discoveries."

"I had an unexpected discovery (while looking through these old pictures): pretty much all of it (Karen's early jewelry components) was hand formed or stamped from my own hand formed stamps. I had an impression I'd used commercial stamps with my clay - but that was more the case with my bronze work. However, I did use commercial cutters for some (my favorite cutter was a very old ruffled pastry cutter from my grandmother (I used it to make all the gear links and other shapes)."

" Porcelain with melted glass chips and various glazes"

 "Earth and Sky Wrist Amulet - Here's one that I made from hand carved leaf, flower and spiral stamps, in a terra cotta style with underglazes and a clear crackle gloss glaze over all. Very early piece yet I like this style and looking at it now I want to make it again!"

Jennifer Cameron 
Jennifer first bead wasn't too bad for a beginner.  I took a lampwork class once and believe me, my first bead did not look like the one pictured below! This bead is from 2005 and Jennifer wire wrapped it into a ring.  The ring was the first piece of jewelry she ever made, also!

Here's another view.  She says she can't remember if she followed a tutorial for the ring or just made it up herself.  The ring is not especially stable or well made, but she still has it.

Next up are two beads Jennifer made at about the same time as the ring.  She describes the one on the left as being ugly.  It was the first encased bead she ever made.  The bead on the right is "very large, very wonky, off center and totally scorched!".

Here's an early floral bead.  It has a nice "dimple" at the hole.

Leopard designs.

Jennifer says she likes the colors she used in this one, but that "it's a very ugly shape. And chunky.  Not very nice."

 Melissa Meman

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

 Melissa began here jewelry journey by making wire wrapped, beaded chains, like this early bracelet.

Or these earrings.  Of course now she makes not only jewelry, but also a variety of jewelry components.

Niky Sayers

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

Niky got her jewelry making start with PMC, before the prices for silver went through the roof. She says that she was "..seduced by the possibilities..." of  Precious Metal Clay.  Here are three of her early pieces.

Niky goes on to say, "I still really like these pieces, I like the simplicity of them and the sparkle and I loved how easy metal clay was to work with!

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of reminiscing.  All of us are on a journey.  None of us can know where it will lead us, but we can savor the trip.

I'll share more early work in my next post.  Till then, enjoy the trip!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Beaded Wire Macrame Toggle Bars Revisited

I have all sort of beads and components in my stash that could be used as clasps if they had a bar to go with then and a while back I adapted the wire macrame techniques I used for these earrings to create some alternatives to the usual plain wire option.

This technique utilises simple macrame knots interspersed with small beads that can be adapted to match the component and give your clasps some individuality.

Here I use a half knot (spiral) with little etched beads to create this bar and added a jump ring to the centre by which it can be attached to a piece of jewellery. 

This works fine but I really wanted to see if I could include the connection loop within the bar itself so this time I formed a loop in the centre of the core wire and instead of knotting from end to end as with the earrings I attached the wire through the loop and knotted from the centre out, wrapping the wire end over each other to finish.

This method takes a little bit longer but does create a slightly cleaner looking bar although personally I'd be happy to use either version.

For this one I used a square macrame knot again but this time gently curved the bar when I finished knotting to add a little something extra... 

I think it makes a lovely focal closure for this beautiful ceramic element from Karen Totten.

For this ceramic link component by Marla James I used a spiral knot and teamed it with some lovely rustic faceted Czech glass beads to create an unusual clasp.

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And finally, some simple seed beads add a little interest to a plain sheet bronze clasp - an idea that would translate easily to washers or large jump rings.

So it's really quite easy to add a little extra interest to your jewellery designs with a few beads and a length of wire and if you don't have any suitable components in your stash don't worry - there are plenty out there to suit all tastes.

Outwest Art Glass

Classic Bead

Tree Wings Studio

Suburban Girl Beads

Mary Harding Jewelry

Starry Road Studio

First attempt at working with gold

For as far back as I can remember I have always preferred silver to gold, even as a small child when I was aloud to pick out a necklace or ring to wear from my grandmothers jewellery box, I would always pick out the silver pieces. Gold was yellow and I did not like yellow, simple as that, well until recently that is.....

Gold Body-Chain from the Hoxne Hoard in the British Museum

I blame all the recent trips to the Museum's that I have been to! Seeing all the ancient jewelry, the history, the story's behind the pieces and the pieces them selves, so much gold and all so intriguing! How could you not LOVE this Roman body chain with it's garnets, beautifully created shape and it even has a coin on the back.....

Back Join Comprises of a Gold Coin of Emperor Gratian (AD 367-383) 

And just look at this stunning gold bangle, the colours, the stones, the shapes,  just amazing....

In the collection of the British Museum

All of this exposure to this amazing gold jewellery got me thinking, I would quiet like to have a play with some gold, to see what I could create. The most unactractive thing about gold is the price, oh wow the price! So I wanted a design that would not require much gold, light bulb moment, prong studs!

9ct Gold Wire, Ear Pins and Butterfly Backs

6 inches of 0.8mm 9ct gold wire, 6 ear pins and 6 butterfly backs later and I was well on my way to making my first pair of gold earrings. Making them was pretty much the same as making them in silver although there is the slight fear at the back of your mind of how much the gold cost if you mess it up, which of course I did!!!

Prongs Soldered and Shaped

I managed to slightly melt some of the gold, but luckly not too much that I could not use it! One of the things I did notice about the diffrence between working with silver and gold was that after soldering the silver is very soft and pliable where as the gold was still rather stiff and much harder to bend over the stones.

Finished Gold Studs

I have now made these earrings in gold and silver and I suprisingly like the gold ones more! The colour seems less harsh and it seems to suit the stones mores. Which do you prefer?

Gold Studs Compared to Silver Studs

As much as I love the gold studs I don't see myself work with much gold in the future, the prices is just way too high and if you think soldering is scary, try soldering with gold, I was so worried about melting it that I held my breath the entire time! Still now I have decided that I quiet like gold I may well try some mixed gold/silver pieces maybe even some Keum-boo. As always the best thing about trying some thing new is the places that it may lead! Have a great day.

Niky Sayers Artisan Jewellery

Thematic Design

I've always envied designers who have a clear coherent style or design ethos. My head is always so full of half formed ideas that I lurch from one thing to another with no clear path or direction. In some ways I love that because I get bored quite  easily and it's that plethora of ideas that keep me inspired. Just recently however I have found I'm using a recurring design element and have created a range of components that do have a clear style

When we did the Spring hare challenge back in March I wanted to include spiral symbolism in my designs somewhere to represent the rebirth and growth of the season. I'm still working with that design and have been developing new versions for the summer...

The spiral patterns in these designs are hand carved and I find this process very calming which is quite interesting when you see this definition of the symbolism of the spiral: 

Spiritually the spiral symbol can represent the path leading from outer consciousness (materialism, external awareness, ego, outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, nirvana, cosmic awareness)". http://www.whats-your-sign.com/spiral-meaning.html

Shortly after making the hares I was thinking about a new design for an owl component - always popular but mine have been around for a while now. I wanted to try and keep it quite simple and stylised and if possible incorporate the spiral again and this is what I came  up with...

The spirals are not quite as full but the idea is still there.

At this point I wasn't planning to start an ark full of spiral decorated animals but my team mate Caroline suggested I should do a fox and course once she'd sown the seed there was no going back until these little fellows appeared...

Hot on the heels of the foxes came butterflies...

Followed in quick succession by turtles...

At that point a kiln failure brought everything to a halt which might be a good thing as it stops me getting carried away with the idea and doing it to death. That said I am pleased with the way this theme has developed and I do have plans for a couple more pieces but I might keep those for the future as you can have to much of a good thing!

Hopefully the kiln will be repaired shortly so that I can finish these little critters and get them into my shop so they can go out into the world and spread a little more enlightenment.