February Component of the Month - Giveaway!

Well, as one of the newer members of the AJE team, this is my first time offering something for our Component of the Month challenge and I'm really excited. I'm not usually a component gal, so coming up with something I thought you guys might be interested in using without thinking too far ahead was a little bit of a challenge.

My latest passion is enameling - I mean, fire, metal, hammers (if I choose), and glass in tons and tons of colors! What's not to love??! Then blending and layering those colors, experimenting with the amount and placement of the heat to get different effects, putting transparents over opaques... well, it could keep a person busy for a lifetime. Thank goodness!!

So here's what I came up with for you:

These are hand-cut copper discs, about 1" across and lightly domed. Each one has been layered with multiple brilliant colors and heated to create an organic mottled look - these remind me a little of the colors of certain shells when you pick them up wet out of the waves. Each one has been accented with three tiny fine silver "pebbles," hand set into the enamel when it is hot. A single hole at the top of the disc is ready for your jump ring or bail.

Here's how the giveaway, challenge, and blog-hop will work (please read all the information carefully!):

• I will give away 1 component to each of 5 winners selected randomly from those who leave comments below this post. I'll choose the color, so you'll be surprised!
• Please include your EMAIL address in your comment so that I can contact you ASAP should you win.
• Please (PLEASE) only leave a comment if you can commit to creating a finished piece and blogging about it on the reveal date.
• The names of the 5 winners will be announced on Monday evening, February 4, 2013.
• Because February is a short month, this giveaway is open to US participants only. (I'm just afraid that components wouldn't get to folks in time if we tried to ship them internationally. Sorry!)
• The blog reveal will be on Thursday morning, February 28, 2013.

So if you want to be entered to receive one of these discs, leave a comment below (with your e-mail address, please!) and check back here on Monday after 6:00 p.m. eastern time to see if you've been selected!

Ready?

Set?

GO!

Until Monday!

Boxing Day, Shopping, and Sales

Christmas morning at my house

While today may be the 2nd most popular shopping day for my fellow Americans, across the pond our UK friends celebrate Boxing Day. I honestly had no clue what that  meant...it sounds like a rather morbid holiday as I think of the "sport" where people pummel each other in a ring.

So I did a little bit of internet research. I suppose I could have asked the British contingent of the team, but I came up with this idea while they were snug in their beds, then managed to way oversleep myself this morning. Internet research it is.

There are a few theories where the term Boxing Day, a secular holiday, comes from.

-'Christmas Box' refers to Christmas present.

-Possible reference to the boxes churches placed on Christmas for a special collection of money for the poor.

-Or the boxes placed by churches for a special collection for the Feast of St Stephen. It is unclear in my brief searches, but this may or may not be related to the above.

-Another theory is my favorite...only because I love the series Downtown Abbey so much (season 3 starts in 11 short days!) and it reminds me of that. Wealthy Brits needed their servants to run the house on Christmas Day. Therefore they would get the following day off to spend with their own families and would be sent on their way with a Christmas box filled with food and gifts.

What do people DO on Boxing Day? Well...according to Wikipedia, it may have originally been a day to spend with family and friends, eating and relaxing, it's morphed into a big day of sporting events and is in the process of morphing into a big day of....wait for it....SHOPPING!

In fact, when I went in search of images to use in this post, my first search was Boxing Day images free. Which turned up a bunch of sale ads and sporting events. Hmmm...

So I changed it to Boxing Day images. Which turned up a bunch of ads, people waiting in lines at shopping centers, and sporting events...

Lesley Watt, half of the British contingent of AJE, just posted a status update on her THEAjewellery Facebook page this morning that she's spending the day tearing apart old designs to reuse the beads in new designs.

Personally I am going to sit here and watch the snow that just started a little bit ago as it comes down over the lake.

And shop for deals online...especially from my AJE mates who are having sales because I've been coveting a few things. So if you have some Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket, this week is a great time to shop handmade jewelry (jewellery) components

Jen Cameron- coupon code: HOLIDAY20 gets you 20% off through December 31st.

Linda Landig-coupon code: ENDOFYEAR2012 for 15% off 

Joanne Tinley-15% discount is currently in place on her website. For discounts in her Etsy Jewellery shop and Etsy component shop, use coupon code: HAPPYHOLIDAYS to get 15% off

Rebekah Payne-coupon code MERRY15 for 15% off

Susan Kennedy-coupon code: ENDOFYEAR for  25% off

Melissa Meman - coupon code: HOLIDAY for 20% off through the end of December

Happy Boxing Day! 

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions

A Parliment of Owls

Hello! Another newbie here! I'm Jo Tinley, and I am completely and utterly addicted to jewellery. Yes - jewellery, I'm a Brit - I'm joint AJE United Kingdom correspondant with Lesley! I make jewellery, make clasps and other components for other people to use in their jewellery, I teach jewellery design at our local college and privately in my studio, write magazine projects - in fact I do as much as I can to pass the addiction on, and it seems to be working quite well so far! The first post in a blog is always the hardest to write. It took me ages to decide what I could write about that would show you a bit more about me and what I love about doing my work, but then I realised that the best way to do it would be to show you some of my work in progress!

I spent some of yesterday making owls. My owl clasps are a relatively new design. I made the first ever one for my last Bead Soup Party partner, and I've only put a few limited edition one in my etsy shop so far, but the nights are drawing in and Halloween is close, so my thoughts are turning more to winter and night creatures than my usual poppies and daisies!

The first job is to draw round the template I've made onto sheet metal and then to carefully saw out the owls' bodies. I love sawing and piercing metal. The trick is to let the saw do the work for you, not to put pressure on it otherwise will get stuck and the blade will be more likely to break. Filing and sanding comes next,and then it's time to start texturing the metal and turn the strange looking shapes into sweet owls! The wings are made by shaping steel binding wire, holding it in place with tape and hammering it in.

The feathers on the wings and the owls' tummies are textured with various hammers, and I use decorative punches to form the eyes and the beak. The beak is actually a "V" stamp from my smallest alphabet set. Once the owls are decorated I curve them in my doming block, and then solder a length of wire with an eye loop at one end onto the back of each owl. The wire ends are then filed so that each clasp is comfortable to wear and the wire is bent round into a hook.

And after applying liver of sulphur and polishing, this is was my owls look like! There's a mix of copper and sterling silver. The next job is lining them up to take their photos so I can put them in my Daisychain Extra etsy shop tonight. It's great what you can make from a simple sheet of metal, isn't it?! I think my favourite part of making the owls is making their eyes - they come to life then!

So, that's a little bit about me - now it's your turn! What part of jewellery making do you like best? Is it a particular technique, or do you have a favourite material? Or is it just the wonderful variety out there and the beautiful ideas that inspire you? And to inspire you a little bit more, here's a wonderful collection of other owls for you!

'A Parliment of Owls' by daisychainextra

A wonderful collection of owl beads and jewelry components, all hand crafted by wonderful artists!

3 Owl Buttons. Ceramic ... buttonsbyrobin... $12.00	Large Fancy Owl Piece MartiC51 $11.95	Ceramic Mini Tile Penda... beadfreaky $5.00	Lampwork Glass Owl Bead... LynnetteJewelr... $11.50
Blush Owl Bead, Glass FrancescaDeCai... $15.00	New - Handmade etched B... PurpleLilyDesi... $5.50	Owl Button Clasp oxidiz... TheSilverWhale $9.50	Owl bead. Handmade lam... glassdaft $20.00
Little Brown Owl bead -... TreeWingsStudi... $8.00	Wide Eyed Lampwork Owl ... juliechristie $35.00	Handmade Ceramic Charms... Grubbi $3.00	Handmade Blue Bird Owl ... MarikoArt $4.99
Silver Owl Charm, PMC F... staciejewelry $18.00	Three Ceramic Charms/Be... BlueTerracotta $10.00	Green Owl Charm Pendant... Alyburd $5.00	Owl Charm - White and T... ClayTree $9.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Inspired by Design Challenge...Life at the Lake

Finish this sentence: August is.....

If you finished the sentence how I would finish it, it would be something like August is (family time, vacation, last days of summer, back to school, wistful, busy, party time, meteor showers) It's amazing how much my family is trying to crunch into a short time. I'm hearing the same from friends...online and in real life. The AJE team is feeling the crunch too. 

I am making the executive decision to delay the inspired by blog hop one week. So here's your chance to take a look at the inspiration photo and play along by creating a piece of jewelry inspired by the photo below and using at least one handmade component (by you or by someone else)

If you've already completed it, GREAT! We can hardly wait to see it. If not, you still have loads of time :-) 

Never stop creating...

Jen

Inspired by Christmas in July Sneak Peek

Have you been working on your "Inspired By" pieces for July?  If you forget the details, you can read them here. The reveal date is Monday July 16 and the inspiration photos (you get 2 this time!) are

  

 and

   

 both taken at the Bubble Room in Captiva Island, Florida.

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been working on:

I am mostly inspired by the vintage lights above Santa's head. It's difficult to see, but some of the beads have a funky shape and some are just plain spacers. I know what I want to do with them, but I'm having structural issues with the other components. So we'll see if I can get it worked out and do what I want to do. 

Remember to join in the blog hop via linky tools on Monday. 

Blog Hop: Inspired by...Shells on the beach

A few weeks ago, I shared a photo from my Captiva Island vacation. Show us what you created using this photo as an inspiration. If you haven't finished (or even started....and yes, I fall into that category) you can join this blog hop up through Sunday June 24th. 

How to join this blog hop:

1. Create something inspired by the photo and blog about it.

2. Copy the direct link to your blog post.

3. Come back to this post and scroll to the bottom where it says "This is a Blog Hop" below that is says: "You are next...Click here to enter." Click on it.

4. Follow the instructions to add your blog post.

5. To add the blog hop to your post, click on the "get the code here" below the thumbnails and below "what is a blog hop". Click it and copy the link provided to add the blog hop to your blog (this is in lieu of placing a list of blogs on your blog post and it updates itself automatically).

6. Add the link to your blog post in html mode and republish.