Brit Pack Beaders Reveal

So, it's the post you've all been waiting for - the Brit Pack Beaders Inaugural Reveal! If you are wondering who exactly the Brit Pack Beaders are, check out my post here for full details but as a quick reminder, here we all are:

From left to right, Lesley Watt, me, Claire Braunbarth, Jo Tinley and the camera-shy (Little) Bo Hulley

Jo is not able to take part this time around as she is off globe trotting for the summer, but she very kindly sent us all our stringing materials anyway. 

And without further ado, here are my finished pieces.

N.B. My pictures are NOT GOOD. It's been dark and rainy here today - you know, because it's MID AUGUST in Manchester. So if the weather improves tomorrow and our puppy guest will allow, I am going to try and get some more pictures. 

These challenges are just so brilliant - working to a brief, or to a specific inspiration point can really push you in new directions. I would never have worked with this colour scheme off my own bat, and the large patinated ring from MissFickleMedia was something I've had for ages and just never quite figured out what to do with. I love them (that's why I bought them after all!) but couldn't quite figure out what best to do with them. Hence my sending them out for this - I knew if I had to use it, I would! And I am so glad I did - it formed the perfect porthole, or net mouth, for this pendant.


 I had recently been sent a small bag of bead samples (don't you just love that?) with an order of czech glass, all in goldy-greeny-olively glimmering shades and I mixed these in with the lovely little bead soup which Bo had sent. The colours worked perfectly together! I love that Bo had included some pearls in her mix - perfect for the seascape, beachy theme.

Do you see the cool gold/turquoise fabric bead off to one side?
Well, that is actually made by Carolyn Saxby, who took our inspiration picture
I've had a set for a while - and again, couldn't quite figure out what to do with them. But I just knew I wanted to fit one into this project if I possibly could. 

When I finished the necklace, I knew it would be my central creation for this challenge, and I realised I had totally missed out Jo's stringing materials so far. So I took a small piece of silk ribbon and tied it next to carolyn's bead. A little added texture and movement, which I find very pleasing. 


The earrings use the two awesome wrapped rings that Claire sent (love these!), my left over ceramic beads from Bo, and the shell charms, also from Claire. I don't often make asymmetric earrings but I quite like these. What do you think? Do they work for you?

I had really hoped to add a third to the mix today, but after having a slight disaster with an upcoming magazine project, I ended up with a lot more to achieve today that initially planned, and that idea sadly went out the window. I still have some gorgeous bits and pieces from Claire and Jo, one of my focals, and a smattering from Bo, which I WILL turn into something lovely on the same theme.

Thank you to Lesley for organising this first round of the Brit Pack Beaders. It's my turn to organise next so watch this space for our October challenge.

Please check out the other Brit Packers here:

Lesley
Claire
Bo
Jo (not playing this time but still blogging about her Antipodean expolits!)

Some jewellery, new and not so new...

*stop over at Art Bead Scenefor my studio saturday post!*
After a full day oof beading teaching, I have spent the early evening photographing some new - and some not so new - jewellery for listing on etsy and folksy later. Some made this week, some last month, and one bracelet that just never got listed, from last year (can you guess which one?). Hope you are all having a great weekend, and enjoying bead soup hopping - check it out here.
































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The post

....or the mail. Whatever you call it, whichever side of the pond you're at. I love it. I've never got over my childish adoration of birthdays, and when you do beading, there's always the possibility of a little brown, yellow or white package of happiness awaiting you when you get home from work. Particularly exciting is when you retun from a few days or weeks away, seeing what packages and postal slips will be sitting piled up, ready for your return. Yesterday night we returned from a few days in my hometown of Edinburgh, and came back to 2 parcel slips, 2 parcels and then again today, 2 more packages arrived! So I thought I'd share some of these goodies with you today. Some fun rings and chain from my elements, 

some awesome round rabbit pieces destashed from Shannon of for my sweet daughter,

 and perhaps best of all, a little ceramic business card holder from GinPins. 

Love the sweet bird and flower at the front! I can't wait til my next fair so I can try it out.

What landed on your doormat recently?

Brit Pack Beaders - the materials

i am officially a VBB (Very Bad Blogger). I had a date with the Brit Pack Beaders two weeks ago and I missed it. *hides head*. i had a slight mishap with some of the materials i was sent *head now buried in sand* 

but such are the lovely Brit Pack Beaders, that they not only forgave me but sent me replacement materials! how wonderful is this community that i am part of? 

in case you've forgotten, the Brit Pack Beaders are a small band of beaders from all over the British Isles, who are joining together for a bimonthly challenge - the brainchild of the gossiping goddess herself, lesley watt. you can read all about it here. 

so, here are the lovely materials i have to work with for our inaugural challenge:

the whole caboodle

from mastermind, jewellery artist and bronze clay guru Lesley Watt - the high heid yin and in charge of clasps.

selected by your truly. i'm in charge of focal beads. 

from the lovely Jo Tinley - she can't join us this time as she's off in New Zealand (it's a hard life for some) but wanted to be a part of our first challenge anyway. she is in charge of stringing materials.

from the amazingly awesome and bead artist extraordinnaire Bo Hulley. Bo is in charge of spacers beads and the like.

from the lovely and talented Claire - she's the high heid yin at Smitten Beads. DO go and check it out - it is an amazing wonderful of beautiful beads!

and here's the picture we're all working from

chosen by Lesley, photograph by Carolyn Saxby. isn't it awesome? it'll be a real challenge for me - not a selection colours i would think to put together, but that's the beauty of these things. can't wait to get started!

our initial reveal date has now been pushed back a little to the 15th august. so tune in then for our first ever Brit Pack Blog Hop!

some new jewellery

a few new pieces for my etsy shop - some i have already blogged about but i thought i'd show you them in a different setting. much as i try different photography set ups at home, i am never as pleased as i am with the photos i take at a local pub, which has the most awesome washed out, grey-grainy tables and a big open space. but i know that as the nights close in (not yet, please!) the weather will do me no favours in terms of photography so the sooner i perfect the indoor studio the better. one new addition is the purchase of some heavy linen fabric in off-white. i do like it - think it has great potential, and certainly shows colour very well. i thought i might buy some similar fabric, but in a more grey shade of oatmeal - not too dark, but not cream like the one i've used below. any thoughts? I am always open to photography input...!

Scottish Skies 

SOLD

Sunny Day

Evening Light

Absinthe Poppies

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Finally Friday

I love Shannon's weekly challenges. I love knowing that if I have a bit of spare time on a Thursday, or more likely, if I don't have any spare time but am looking for an excuse for procrastination, there's a fun and inspiring challenge I can take part in. Last time I took part, I made this:

which was the beginning of a month-long play with the colour yellow, now my best friend. 

This week, Shannon's palette was definitely out of the norm for me.

Design-Seeds

None are colours that I am uncomfortable with, but I'd never have thought to put them together in this way. Which is of course, part of the challenge for me. 

Here's what I came up with:

awesome sunflower pendant - kylie parry

minty green ceramic flower links - captured moments

sweet polymer owl bead - beads by earthtones

antique copper daisy clasp - daisychain extra

It's a very happy piece, I think - from the glowing sunflower, the happy daisy links and clasp, and the sweet little chubby owl. And I am so pleased with how the colours work together! One reason why I absolutely adore Design-Seeds. 

 What often happens when I work with one design-seeds palette, I want to go on and work with another. So I had a look through one of the books that I own (you can download selections of palettes so that you can have them on hand on your computer/ipad/iphone/wherever you download it to. You can even buy hard copy versions but they are understandably a lot more expensive than a pdf.). 

Design-Seeds

I picked another one that was again, not colours I would typically work with together and came up with this:

'Another necklace!' I hear regular readers cry. Yes; I decided I wanted to challenge myself with form as well as colour. 

dogweed pendant - humblebeads

ceramic bead flower caps - chellev2

rustic bronze flower clasp - theatoo

Tune into For My Sweet Daughter for next week's challenge. Absolutely gorgeous....I must try and find a bit more procrastination time next week ;-)

Design-Seeds

what challenges you?

These gorgeous lovelies came in the post today, from fellow-Art Bead Scene editor Melanie, of Earthenwood Studios. 

I adore Melanie's work but for some reason don't have very many of her beads - a few here and there, but not many. Certainly nothing to match my epic Round Rabbit selection! I am sure this will change in the future...!

I picked these ones out deliberately, because as I've previously blogged, this is my year of trying to challenge myself in terms of jewellery design. I've focused mainly on my colour choices so far, but I have a list of things that I know I have slight mental blocks about....

1) Necklaces. I find them incredibly hard. I think it's as I like to design my bracelets asymmetrically, in a way that I haven't quite managed to translate to necklace design yet. I know others do this fantastically - Erin, Lorelei, Malin, to name but a few. (And these ladies are a big inspiration to me in many ways, three designers that I really look up to). I love making simple knotted necklaces but would like to push beyond this to make real works of art. Or at least head in that direction!

2) Squares. And rectangles in fact. And even sometimes triangles. I think it's those corners that I don't like! Something about squares and rectangles just don't flow naturally for me when it comes to designing. I avoid them like the plague....

3) Black and white. Especially black...I find black and white together harsh, and sometimes dated. You know - those black and white interior decor of the 80s and early 90s....yuck. I can't seem to get away from that when I see black and white beads - even if I love them (I have a set of Moogins in black and white and I do indeed adore them), I can't imagine being able to turn them into pretty jewellery. I've already used black in a couple of designs this year (and honestly, that doesn't sound like much but it really is a breakthrough for me!) but not black and white together.

So you can see that when selecting the above beads, I have deliberately chosen pieces that will challenge me. But I've made sure that I haven't bought things that just won't get used....A rectangular car (urban images rarely crop up in my designs), but in liquid aquamarine, my oh-so-favourite shade. And newsprint beads - ok, so it's not quite black and white, but dark, dark brown and off-white, but it will still challenge me! - but these are rounds. I love rounds, circles, orbs....the way they are just so perfectly balanced - where is the beginning? Where is the end? Love them. So I'm combining things my comfort zone with these elements I know I will find challenging. Watch this space to see what happens...

What elements - colours, shapes, materials - challenge you? Do you want to break through or are you happy just leave these elements to other designers?