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Penny: Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 10:20 AM
Well i'm still running rather behind on my challenge, but here's my latest update - with this gorgeous deep chocolatey red necklace. Made from a combination of flat oval Brecciated Jasper beads, smaller round Garnet beads and a mixture of black glass beads.this necklace is extra long, so no clasp is needed. It is strung on a black tigertail (flexible beading wire) and is on two rows, which creates the unusual style. Jasper is a beautiful and varied opaque gemstone, coming in a wide variety of colours and styles, often incorporating beautiful patterns and banding within the stones. I particularly like this type of Jasper because of it's warm colour and love the combination with the subtle deep dark red Garnets and the mixture of black glass to add a further contrast in shape and texture. |
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Penny: Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011 2:10 PM
For this week of my challenge, I created bracelet using a mixture of gemstone beads from my stash. I used Rose Quartz , Picasso Jasper and Agate beads to create a bubbly pastel bracelet using silver chain and silver plated fittings.  I'm not usually a fan of pastel colours, which is why these gems have been in my stash for so long waiting to be used, but the Rose Quartz - with its translucency, and the lovely smoky textures often found within it is beautiful and contrasts beautifully with the opaque pinky cream Picasso Jasper. I added in a few of the mottled Agate beads for another layer of contrast which I think creates an interesting balance. The bracelet was made during a teaching session demonstrating how to create wrapped loops to attach beads like these to chain or other elements. The wrapped loops create a more secure attachment than standard loops and add an extra level of decoration at the same time. They form part of my Jewellery Making Intermediate Day. Rose Quartz is a stone that has properties traditionally liked with increased self worth, bringing the wearer peacefulness, a strong sense of love and some say lasting youthful looks. I also made a matching necklace and earrings to go along with this bracelet during the same class session, which make a pretty set for anyone who loves their pinks. |
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Penny: Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2011 9:56 PM
 Although I'm a working jeweller and jewellery making teacher and I've been studying and working in this field for almost 20 years, I still love learning new techniques and working to improve my existing skills. I love adding to my stock of techniques whenever possible, so that when I come up with a design, I have the skills to be able to put it into practice to turn my designs from ideas to real pieces of jewellery. There are a huge range of skills and techniques used within jewellery making, so there is always something new and new teachers and artists to inspire and teach me. With this in mind, over the last few weeks, I've been having a great time... - I am in the process of challenging myself to complete the Level 2 (senior) Art Clay Certificate, (taught by the fabulous Joy Funnell in Hastings) - I did the four day course and completed all my required pieces and they all passed. I am now working on my three independent pieces to send off later this month for marking.
- I went back to Hastings last week for a one day course learning about Joy's specialist Enamelled Accents technique - adding colour to silver clay jewellery with traditional enamels - lots of fun, but definitely needs lots more practice to get a nice even colour and coverage! The image shows one of my pieces from this day.
- A second wax carving day course at the London Jewellery School - lots of fun, i was concentrating on working to create neat joins between pieces of wax, so that as well as carving wax, i can start to add bits together to build up designs if i need to. Wax carving is used to create masters for lost wax casting - a model is made in wax which is then used to create a copy in precious metal.
- This weekend i am attending an Etching course at the London Jewellery School. Unlike wax carving and enamelling, this is something i know the principles of but I've never tried before, so I'm intrigued to see this in practice and see what i can come up with! Looking forward to Saturday!
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