Fossilised Pebbles - July Component of the Month Reveal

Today I'm hosting the reveal for this months Component of the month challenge which features a selection of my fossilised pebble pendants. Please join us in our blog hop using the links below - I can't wait to see what everyone has designed.

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
http://www.theaelements.etsy.com

Fossilised Pebbles - July COM Design Challenge and Giveaway.

So it's my turn to host AJE's July component of the month design challenge and since we're heading into holiday season I've decided to launch it early to give everyone plenty of time.

I live in the south of England very close to the World Heritage Site Jurassic coast - famous for the incredible fossils that can be found there...

http://www.dorsets.co.uk/photos/fossil-forest-jurassic-coast-103.htm

http://jurassiccoast.org/fossilfinder/

I decided to use this as the inspiration for my components and used some of my own deathbed ammonites to create these fossilised pebble pendants. They're made from stoneware clay and I've stained the 'fossil' section with various oxides to give an aged earthy look. The rest of the 'pendant has been glazed to give the smooth appearance of a weathered pebble. The AJE team will be creating jewellery pieces with these components and I will also be giving away a pendant to two of our readers who can then join us in the challenge.

If you'd like the chance to play along with us here's the deal...

• I will give away two pendants of my choice to two winners selected randomly from those who leave a comment on this post. Please note: your comment must include your email and blog addresses so we can contact you should you win.

• Please only leave a comment if you can can commit to creating a finished piece and blogging about it on the reveal date.

• The names of the two winners will be announce on Saturday18th June 2016.

• the giveaway is open to participants from all countries but please be aware, components will be mailed from the UK and international postage can take up to 3 weeks.

• The blog reveal will take place on Saturday 30th July.

Good luck - I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone is inspired!

Tropical Bracelet Redo

I hopped a cruise ship to Bermuda yesterday.  Before I left I wanted to make a few extra pieces of jewelry to bring with me.  

I had made this bracelet earlier in the year to wear on the bead cruise but found that I had selected some beads that made it too heavy and the waxed linen began to stretch.  

Original bracelet

While it's a really cute bracelet, I couldn't have it expanding in size on me so I took it apart.  It turns out that it also contained some beads that went really well with a dress I purchased for my Bermuda cruise.

Dress Fabric

There were so many wonderful colors in this print to work with; aqua, cobalt, yellow, pink... I began pulling out lots of wood, lucite, shell and art beads to play with!

Messy Desk

Then I remembered I had some memory wire and thought it would be fun (and easy) to work with that.  After lots of pulling out beads, putting back beads, pulling out more beads, I had a finished bracelet!

Finished bracelet

I used art beads (bronze, ceramic & polymer), wood, brass, czech glass and shells.

Art beads

I'm really happy with the finished piece.  Although I do miss the original bracelet, this works so well with my sundress!  

Art Beads

Polymer: Humblebeads

Ceramic: Suburban Girl Studio LLC, BlueBerriBeads

Bronze: THEA Elements 

The next time a piece of jewelry doesn't quite work out the way you hoped, take it apart!  You'll find inspiration elsewhere...maybe even in a sundress!

Happy Beading!

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

Design Retrospective

Over the past few weeks I've been having a clear out of my photographic files. I love that the digital age makes it so easy to take and store photographs but that ease also means I tend to hang on to too much for too long so a cull was necessary. Needless to say this has taken longer than planned because the photographs are in themselves a distraction and much time was spent reminiscing.

Obviously I have many, many photographs of the jewellery I've designed and whilst going through these I realised that they charted a clear path in the development of my relationship with Art beads and hand made design elements.

I've not been making jewellery that long in the scheme of things - just seven years or so and I originally took it up as an antidote to s stressful job and something to do on winter evenings. My first bead purchases were commercial hobby store and online bead shop buys which and the resulting jewellery utilised very basic techniques.

Always one to search out something more with whatever I'm doing I spent hours trawling the Internet and before very long I had discovered the wonders of lampwork beads... I was completely Smitten and my art bead stash was born.  Sterling silver accents and finding also made their first appearance at this point as I felt the art beads deserved some better and silver had yet to go through the roof in price!

Lampwork implosion beads by Sally Carver

Lampwork beads by Kaz Baildon

Lampwork beads by Julie Fountain

Again these techniques involved with these pieces were fairly  basic stringing and wiring and I really wanted my designs to have more of me in them. I started playing with wire to add another dimension and a new love affair began that still continues...
 

Lampwork beads by Kaz Baildon and Sally Carver

Further down the line leather leather began to work it's way into my designs. I loved the casual, colourful, boho feel you could get with  this very versatile medium and it very much suited my own personal taste in jewellery.

Lampwork beads by Julie Cannon

Lampwork beads by Lori Lochner

Whilst developing these techniques for myself I also attended workshops in silversmithing and metal clay and that saw me combining my own metal pieces with my beloved beads.

Lampwork beads by Pinocean

Lampwork bead by Sally Carver

Later a further workshop added enameling into the mix....

One of the last elements I added to my design repertoire was ceramic beads and little did I know at the time that I would end up making these myself and love them above all others. I continued to mix and match with other mediums to develop what I hope is my own style.

Ceramic elements by Karen Totten and Diana Ptaszynski

When I started making jewellery I had no idea than I would ever make jewellery components to sell to other people or that that aspect would takeoff and become the bigger part of my business. This inevitably means that these days I make a lot less jewellery but when I do you can still see these earlier design elements and techniques making an appearance and forming the foundation of my design ethic. 

Ceramic cabachon by Lesley Watt - Polymer clay mixed media technique by Jenny Davies-Reazor

Polymer clay roses by Leah Curtis

Pendant by Lesley Watt

Lampwork bead by Julie Cannon

Etched copper focal by Lesley Watt - Polymer clay mixed media technique by Jenny Davies-Reazor

So what do you see when you see when you look back on your old designs is there an identifiable trend or have you taken yourself of in a completely new or surprising direction...That's the beauty of jewellery design...so many things to try! Happy designing.

Note: Apologies for beads that have not been credited but I no longer have the details for some of them and my memory is not what it was..