Jade Wisdom, design process and a giveaway

The lovely Barbara of Floridity left me a comment on my last post saying that she does in fact take custom orders for her sweet owls. Hurrah! I was swithering over whether to sell this bracelet or not but I've decided now that I will put it in the shop at least as I know I can get more owls when I want need them. I made this bracelet in Skye a few weeks back and I absolutely love it - the colours for me are just perfect. Pyrite is one of my favourite stones to work with but it can be in danger of looking a bit gaudy - I think I've balanced it nicely here. 

I've been reading a lot recently about folks' design process which I admit totally fascinates me; Jamberry Song hosted a song based blog hop at the weekend and although a lot of beautiful jewellery was created based on one song the thing that interested me most about hopping was reading how different people approached designing. For this bracelet I did what I often do - pulled out an art bead or focal (Barbara's owl) 

and designed around that. The pyrite gives respite from and adds a richness to the vivid green and the green in turn softens the pyrite, blending it in with the patinated brass. A simple design I'm really pleased with!

Jade Wisdom is for sale here

So here's a question, and I'll open it up into a giveaway of beads and bits and bobs - how do you design? What's your starting point or is it different every time? Do you start with colour, theme or beads? I'm fascinated by the process behind the jewellery, I hope you will share yours with me!

Messing around with Picnik

Thanks to Heather of Humblebeads (a new beady obsession!), I have recently discovered Picnik.com, a photo editing website. Now, photography is not something that comes easy to me (especially when my camera is lost...!) as you probably gather if you have read my blog before - my photos are definitely hit and miss! More often somewhere in between the two, but I know it's something I have to work at. A course one day, perhaps....when time and money permit! I'm also not the most techno-savvy of folk either - I'm only 29 but somehow I feel like the lost generation when it comes to computers and the like - I did a little computer work at school but my pupils are much more au fait with such things I think. And even my Mum (60) seems to know her way round her computer and camera at least, more comfortably than I do, maybe because she had to start from scratch in her own time. Perhaps that little bit of knowledge I received at school was a dangerous thing...I can't be bothered to learn any more! But I'm getting there, slowly but surely. 

So, getting around Picnik hasn't been very easy for me (I'm sure it is really, just not for me!) but today I have come up with a couple of collages of recent pieces! And I'm pretty pleased with them. I have often wondered how folk on other blogs managed such things and now I have too - hurrah! Let me know what you think - of the jewellery and of the collages!

Gaea ceramic beads, vintage czech glass and mocha lace ribbon

You  can see I started playing around with inserting the text after I made that first collage. I couldn't work out how to go back and re-edit it! And couldn't be bothered to upload and re-do....see what I mean about my bad attitude?! 

I'm feeling inspired by out latest spate of givewaways in our wee beady community (Lori and Malin in particular), I'm going to offer up the best type of prize....beads!....to anyone who can come up with some names for these three pieces. I am rubbish with naming my titles as I find the balance between charming and vomit-inducingly cheesy a hard one to strike. So, leave me some names...nothing too corny...I'll pick my faves and post you out some beady goodness from my far too vast collection! 

Hope you are all having a great weekend! x x x

PS I've recently become obsessed with vintage lace ribbon and trim....how did that happen???!!! I don't need anything else to hoard!!

Folksy Friday

So, I've been thinking that perhaps some of you people who are nice enough to read my wee blog perhaps don't know what Folksy is when I say I have listed an item in my Folksy shop. Basically, it is a very similar site to Etsy but British rather than American. It's fully open to international buyers (although not to international sellers, it's a home grown operation and keen to stay that way I think) but is quite a bit smaller and thus easier not to get completely lost without a trace! It's nonetheless full of wonderful gems and amazing things that people from the British Isles have crafted away at.

Quite a lot of crafters over here participate in Folksy Friday (when they make a list of some of their favourite finds) and I have decided that it would be a nice thing to do here. I don't promise to be able to do it every Friday but I'll give it a go! I've decided to start off with a (Song)Bird theme. Here are some of my favourite birdie finds from Folksy in no particular order....

Blue Bird Cushion from Needles and Buttons

Bird Pin Cushion from Sew Realicoul

Cute Bird Pendant from baobabpress

Cardinal Watercolour by Eastwitching

Felt Bird by Annie Brown Designs

Hope you like these lovely birdies as much as I do!