Niky Sayers Artisan Jewellery: lampwork

Showing posts with label lampwork. Show all posts

30.10.16

AE Component of the Month – October

Welcome to AE October's COM reveal! Our component this month was made by our amazing leader Jen Cameron and looked like this....

Arn't they wonderful! I choose the 3rd skull on the top row and almost (as always) forgot to photo it before crating.

I love the colours on this skull and knew straight away what I wanted to do with it, which is unusual!
So out came all of the wire and the pliers and after a few days of frustration here is what I created....

I could not help thinking that it was such a wonderful bright skull so I made it into a day of the dead inspired hair pin.

With a crown of beautiful garnets, and here is what it looks like in....

Thank you Jen for the wonderful lampwork, and I am throughly looking forward to seeing what everyone else has created.

Guest Designers

Staci Louise Smith

Karin Grosset Grange

Solange Collin

Art Elements Team

20.10.14

The Big Bead Show

Saturday was the Bi-annual Big Bead Show in Sandown Race course, I love the Big Bead Show and what makes it even better is that it is walking distance from my home!
This year I was actually organised enough to enter into the British Bead Awards which is displayed during the show and incredibly surprised to receive an email telling me that I had got to the finals! This was my entry into the chainmaille and wire work section....

It's a simple 4 in 1 chainmaile design but what makes it a bit different is that I have used a painted sixpence coin clasp and Kyanite threepence coin connector from my Bits of NikNats shop. Here is the back of the piece....

I soldered the links onto the back of the three pence coin so that the chianmaille would sit flat and look seamless. Now unfortunately I did not place in the competition, but after seeing the entry's this year I was not in the least bit surprised, the work there was TOTALLY AMAZING! I was just truly honoured to have a piece of my work sitting upon the table amongst such stunning pieces of art work, most of which must have taken months of planing and just as long to actually make!!!!

I had such a lovely day and really wish I had taken photos but I was just in total awe of all the beautiful sparkles! I came away with a few treasures too....

My absolute favourite stall at the bead show is Designer Cabochons, I totally love every item on there stand and you can really see the quality and skill that go into each piece, this beauty is a Drusy Pyrite Ammonite, it sparkles! As dose my other piece....

So sparkly, Titanium Druzy and I also got these beautiful lampwork beads by Sarah Downton.

This colour glass has to be my all time favourite it is just so mystical/magical looking!

I hope you are having a fab Monday x

24.6.13

Better luck soldering

I had all but given up on soldering, the bother of getting it all set up, the flux bubbling up and knocking all my pieces all over the place, the imposable task of trying to cut the solder into tiny pieces with out losing them then getting the solder to stay where I wanted it, all an awful lot of hassle for about a 50% success rate!!!

I had wanted to give solder paste a try but at £30+ a tube, to give some thing a try, when lets face it I could be buying beads with that money, so beads I brought! But then my supplier decided to start selling smaller tubes for about £10 so I though now its worth a try, and success!

It is so much easier to use....

I finally found the courage to make this ring

The cab is so beautiful, it is by Becky Fairclough of Chameleon Designs

Now I am hopeing that I can come up with a few designs that are a bit more artistic/challenging (I think I may need to start practicing my cutting skills)!

Have a great day, and keep trying new things!

21.12.11

Last make before Christmas

I managed to make one last bracelet before the madness that is christmas....

Beautiful daisy clasp from Daisychain extra, Beadlings by Laura Sparling with a bit of european 4 in 1 thrown in for good measure.

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas xxx

5.12.11

Short attention span....

Each of these little glass pots (that may previously, in the very distant past, have contained mini lemon cheese cake) now contain an unfinished project, I really must try to finnish some of them before starting any new projects!

A simple stocking filler....

(beautiful bead by the lovely Izzy of Flame and Glass)

Simple handmade clasp with swarovski crystal

Every cloud has a silver lining bracelet. Stunning cloud beads by the fab Laura Sparling.

With my own handmade cloud clasp, inspired by the beautiful oak leaf clasp I used a couple of posts back made by Jo of Daisychainextra. While I love the clasp I did not enjoy making it at all, sawing silver sheet is not something I have done much of and I did not feel like I had much control over the saw (thank goodness for needle files)!

I have a silver lining mark II bracelet in one of those many pots, same idea but slightly different.

xxx

15.7.11

Cute as a button

I think my bead addiction may well be turning into a button addition too, but it's not my fault, I mean how cute are these tiny little mother of pearl buttons....