Art Elements Theme Challenge, October - Eyes

This month our October theme - eyes, was chosen by the wonderful Laney Mead and I have had such a roller coaster of emotions making my piece!

I had these elements blue tacked on my wall for so long, but I never got around to making the piece as I was, well ....scared! This has been the most complicated, the largest and the most expensive piece I have made to date and I was rather worried I would mess it up.

I never normally draw designs but I thought this might help keep me calm! I was hoping for a magical talisman kind of look?!?!

 After two solid days of sawing soldering and hoping, it worked!!!

I still need to make some kind of chain and I may well add more LOS and some more texture as I want it looking older and well loved!

But I'm really happy with how it turned out. It has 14mm amethyst, wolf eyes by Laura Mears, a Tiffany stone, some petrified wood by Designer Cabochons and some touches of gold, plus there is a 14mm moonstone on the back....

With a hand sawn wolf and a cast silver Crinoid star.

Thank you Laney with out your challenge I never would have got around to making this piece!!!

AE Team

Susan  

Marsha  

Claire  

Cathy 

Jenny  

Niky  

Jennifer

Laney

Guests

Dawn  

Hope  

Beth & Evie  

Kathy  

Michelle 

Tammy    

Cat  

Elaine

October Art Elements COM

October was my turn to host the Art Elements component of the month and due to my first idea not quite panning out I decided to send out hare coin clasps.

The clasps are made by doming old Irish 3d coins and soldering a hook clasp on the back, I have always been fascinated with old, unusual or just beautifully designed coins and love that they are so easy to use in jewellery, and here is what I created with mine....

A simple bracelet made with thick sterling silver chain, a couple of lampwork beads (with a dicro core so they sparkle beautifully), a couple of lampwork headpins by Earthshine beads and a beautiful moon and star by our very wonderful Lesley Watt.

This was a complete pain in the backside to photo due to every thing being shiny and reflective (the moon and star are a silvery glaze on one side and a beautiful deep blue on the other adding just a touch of colour), but I really love it, my very own moon gazing hare!

Thank you to everyone that joined in and I can't wait to see what everyone else has created and I hope you will join me

Guest Designers

Linda Landig

Kathy Lindemer

Diva N

Art Element Team

Claire Fabian

Jenny Davies-Razor

Cathy Spivey Mendola

Susan Kennedy

Caroline Denison

Lesley Watt

Diana Ptaszynski

Lindsay Starr

Lacey Mead

Niky Sayers

AJE Buried Treasure - the "Use your stash" reveal!

It will come as no surprise that Hoard beads, I buy these wonderful little handmade treasures and then I stash them away (and occasionally I take them out and stroke them).

So joining in with the use your stash hop was a must! Here is (some of) what I am dealing with....

The print tray on the wall is for my larger beads that will not fit into the little draws on my print chest.

Here's an inside view of some of the draws.... lots of lovely treasures!

Now I was hoping to have lots of pieces to show you, I was set to really tackle my stash and use some that I had held on to for a while (maybe as long as 5 plus years). But life got in the way and I only came up with the one piece, but I love it!

I used this AMAZING raven focal by the ever so talented Jenny Davies-Reazor and super cute glass drops by our wonderful Jen Cameron. I absoloutly love the colours Jenny has used in the focal it is just so me, so I made a piece for me!

Here I tinkered a little with the placement of the glass pin (moved it up a little) Ideally I would have loved a black tavernier cut stone set in silver to the side of this focal but I don't have one of those (yet)!

I may well tinker with this one a little but I really like how it turned out, It's very me!

Shot of the back. I do hope you will join me in seeing what everyone else has created....

AJE team:

Lesley Watt

Lindsay Starr

Caroline Dewison

Jennifer Cameron

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Susan Kennedy

Niky Sayers

Guests: 

Terri - Terrri’s Blooming ideas

Shai - Shai’s Ramblings

Melissa - Bead Recipes

Tammy - Paisley  Lizard

Sarajo - SJ Designs

Kathy - Bay Moon Designs

Karin - Ginko et Colquelicot

Lola - Bead Lola Bead

Samantha - Wescott Jewelry

Mona - Bijoux Gem

Eye candy update

Good morning wonderful people! I can not believe how quickly time is going at the moment. Summer holidays started yesterday (and already I am on the strong coffee). We have singed up for book challenges at the library, goggled clubs and activities in the local area, came up ideas for projects and activities and still I do not feel prepared!

I have also been busy making these recently for the Bits of NikNats shop (a fair few have sold already)....

Gem connectors

That look just like treasures from a pirate's ship, and also....

 Painted Farthings and coin clasps and I am working on another batch of painted peacock coins to go in the shop....

If you would like to keep updated on whats going in the shop and hopefully soon competitions, you can join my facebook page here. I feel very blessed to have lots of amazing and talented customers creating beautiful work such as....

 This stunning bracelet by the very talented Suhana of Buttoned Up Beads, I love these colours and look at all those beautiful art beads, she is also having a giveaway on her facebook page! Also these beauties....

By my wonderful friend Carol Rigby (This looks so very glamarous and I can picture it being worn with a beautiful little black dress with a cute big blue silk bow around the waist, very classy with just the right amount of bling) and also....

Again by my fab friend Carol, what a beautiful way to finish off a pearl necklace, how great this will look with short hair or a beautiful updo what great detail!

I have such very talented customers! I have not had as much time to make jewellery as I would like (too many ideas for bits of and a few commissions that I am working on) Bit I did get to practise my sawing skills on this one....

A sweet chainmaille charm bracelet for a lucky lady, a gift for no reason other then to say I love you, from her kind mother, the sort of gift that every one loves an unexpected one! x

Have an amazing day x

A-Z Blog Challenge part J

J

of course has to be for....

Jewellery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, manifesting itself as necklaces, rings, brooches, earrings and bracelets. Jewellery may be made from any material, usually gemstones, precious metals or shells. Factors affecting the choice of materials include cultural differences and the availability of the materials. Jewellery may be appreciated because of its material properties, its patterns or for meaningful symbols. Jewellery differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to look appealing.

The word jewellery is derived from the word jewel, which was Anglicised from the Old French "jouel" circa the 13th century. Further tracing leads back to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything. Jewellery is one of the oldest forms of body adornment; recently-found 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells are thought to be the oldest known jewellery.

So to show you what I made....

My very first ring! 

I stumbled across a great site called Jewelery Lessons and saw this tutorial for Rivoli button ring by Diana-E made from a crystal button and some wire and I happened to have those things on my desk I was just missing a ring mandrel (the reason I have not tried ring making before), but with a bit of luck I managed to find something the same thickness as my finger that would work (the handle of my hammer) and bish, bash, bosh job done!

It was really easy to make and of course I had to make a few slight changes (I have never been good at following tutorials and ALWAYS end up changing something) It's very bling and quiet hard to photograph well but I really like it!

Now here is my Esty lotto wish list....

These pieces are beond beautiful!

Many thanks!

I would like to say many, many thanks to my other halfs very kind dad aka smiling monkey.

Not only did he and his kind wife let us invade there new cornish home for a weeks holiday but when he drove round to drop off our holiday goodies he also brought round his laptop for me to use! So thanks to his kindness I can return to the land of blogging!
We had a fantastic holiday in Cornwall, We were lucky enough to visit a wonderful farm that belonged to friends of my other halfs dad.
I have never been so close to a cow and am still quiet suprised at how big they are!

The farm was uterly fantastic! There were beautiful gardens, old ruins, water works, the most beautiful views and a quarry, which both me and mess maker loved (she went over to the largest chunk of polished black sparkling marble and complained that it was too big to put in her backpack, tho she did leave with a few chunks of sparkly granet)!
We also got to go to The Eden project (I have wanted to go there for soooo long).

It was fab, I love all of it from the amazing art work.....

This was carved from the remains of a burnt out boat docks.

Mess maker riding on "Gobo the goat".

to all the stunning flowers......

They even had a water fall....

There was even time to squeze in a visit to the beach....

 Where we managed to collect some lovely pieces of sea glass, tho I reailly must start using it now as I have so much!