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Penny: Posted on 31 May 2012 16:02
I’m looking forward to a lovely day in the sunshine, meeting lots of new people and
enjoying the free music and entertainment at the Hampstead Summer Festival in a few weeks time.
The festival promises to be another great event
with fun, music, dance and other entertainments, activities for young and old,
and shopping for all the family. I will be there on a stall to promote my jewellery making
tuition & parties as well as to sell my one off silver and gemstone
jewellery again this year and i'm hoping for some time to explore the
rest of the event too during the day...
 The annual festival is a week long event, this year in aid of Camden Age UK
and The Children’s Society, culminating in a street festival on Sunday 24 June
along the length of Heath Street,
up from Hampstead Tube Station, which will be closed to traffic for the day.
There will be a wide variety of stalls selling everything
from specialist food and drink, original artwork and crafts, jewellery, funfair
rides, children’s activities, designer clothes and accessories, bags, scarves,
toys and more. As well as the stalls, there will be a stage with music and
dancing, an art exhibition and lots more fun and games.
For more information about the festival, see their website
at www.hampsteadsummerfestival.com
– it should be a fantastic day out, with all proceeds going to charity, and if
you pass my stall, do come and say hello! |
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Penny: Posted on 20 May 2012 12:57
 Last weekend I attended a great event that I wanted to share
with you…
As anyone interested in jewellery or jewellery making will
know, there are many many different techniques and groups of techniques used to
create many different types and styles of jewellery, silversmithing, traditional stone setting, basic stringing, wirework and much more. One of my favourites is beadwork, also known as bead weaving or stitched beadwork. This
technique uses predominantly tiny glass seed beads, often as small as 1mm in
diameter, with just a needle and thread to create intricately detailed, often
sculptural pieces of jewellery and artwork and this is what last weekend was
all abut. The event was a ‘Beading Festival’ organised by the Beadworkers Guild
and it
was a whole three days of non-stop beading and bead talk. Fabulous!  Having not been to one of these events before, I wasn’t sure
what to expect, but it was so much fun sharing ideas, tips and inspiration with fellow beadworkers all weekend that I’d like to recommend it to any
fellow beadwork enthusiasts. I’ve never seen so many beaders working together
in one room before – on the Saturday there were 80 people in the main full day
session!
The best thing about the weekend for me was the inspiration
I got from being with no-one but beaders for three full days, the combination
of workshops, a fabulous lecture on the Friday evening about 78 Derngate, a
house designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, exhibitions of members work and
competition entries as well as just talking to other members over meals – I
left the event overflowing with ideas for new projects, new techniques and
design ideas, not to mention with new beads,
thanks to the Bead Bazaar on the last day…
 For any fellow beaders, jewellers or other craft enthusiasts
reading this, I would highly recommend joining a group for your preferred
activity (or activities) – nothing beats the opportunity to share ideas,
skills, tips and inspiration with fellow enthusiasts, and a lot of groups, like
the Beadworkers Guild also have special educational materials available to members
to encourage those new to the technique or looking to expand or refine their
skills too, which I think is a great bonus!
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Penny: Posted on 17 May 2012 14:16
It’s too late to go and see this now,
sadly, as Collect is only open for a few days each year, but if you get a
chance to visit this in the future it’s well worth the effort.
I visit Collect every year, and it’s a
fantastic show for anyone who is interested in contemporary craft and design
objects. The top galleries from around Europe are invited to show work by the top artists that
they each represent, aimed at art collectors (hence the name) but a great
inspiration for students and artists too.
 My focus of course is on jewellery and
metalwork and this year the stand out pieces for me on show were by these five
artists;
In Galerie Ra’s space I loved the two huge
black over sized chains by Noon Passama – I love the way she plays with the
basic form of simple chain links, working with scale and materials. See more of
Galerie Ra, a great gallery in Amsterdam
at http://www.galerie-ra.nl/
There were also two fabulously bright and beautiful brooches by
Peter Chang shown by Galerie Ra – I’ve admired his intricate, brightly coloured
resin and acrylic based creations for years, they seem almost have a life of their own, and it was great to see these. See more of his fantastically colourful work
at http://www.peterchang.org/
Emmeline Hastings - http://www.emmelinehastings.co.uk/
had some gorgeous work on show using carved chunks of Perspex, encrusted with
titanium, silver and gold elements looking like freshly dug up minerals - her work was part of the Lesley Craze Gallery show.
There was of course lots of other fabulous art
to look at too, from ceramic pieces to glass work, furniture and textiles as well,
so it’s not just jewellery!
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Penny: Posted on 13 May 2012 14:08
Also known as Trystine, this is a gorgeous variety of Quartz, a combination between Amethyst and Citrine – it has a lovely pale purple colour with a frosted, translucent look to it, creating a beautiful, subtle effect, sometimes showing the mix of purple amethyst and yellow Citrine elements more clearly. This stone is found in Bolivia,where the oldest mines are and the best quality stones come from as well as some areas of Brazil.
The images here show a necklace set I made recently using Ametrine beads, interspersed with Sterling Silver. The colour change between the Amethyst and Citrine is not so clear on these beads, but they still create a beautiful effect!
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Penny: Posted on 05 May 2012 15:56
 Crimps are small metal beads that are used to secure beading wire – for example to secure the ends of a necklace where you attach a clasp, or as stoppers to hold a bead or series of beads in place at points along awire as in a floating or illusion necklace. They are used with flexible beadingwire such as Tigertail, Beadalon, Flexrite and many other brands (look out fora future posting on the different types of wire!).
 There are two different styles of crimps –tube crimps arecylindrical tube shapes, crimp beads look like little metal beads and arerounded. For securing necklaces, I prefer to use tube crimps as I find theseeasier to use and neater once secured. When using crimps as stoppers to holdsections of beads in place along a wire, I use the round crimps, secured withflat nose pliers (not crimping pliers). For this, you must make sure that the securedcrimp is large enough for the bead not to slide over the top of it, so checkthe size of your bead hole against the crimp size.
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Penny: Posted on 03 May 2012 14:01
 I will be teaching another course for students new to jewellery making, starting later this month - if you've been wanting to try making your own jewellery, come along and join us for a fun, very friendly and affordable introduction! Beginners Jewellery Making Course
Monday evenings, 7-9pm, Golders Green, London, NW11 Five week course starting on 14 May 2012 Course fee includes all materials as well as information and instruction sheets to take away. Places are limted, so if you're interested, get in touch soon. Learn all the basics with a different project each week, including; - - Elastic bracelets
- Memory wire bracelets
- Stringing a simple standard necklace or bracelet
- Making a wire and bead cocktail ring
- Shamballa style bracelets
- Simple dangly earrings
To book and for more information, please call the community centre organiser - Avital on 020 8922 2901
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Penny: Posted on 02 May 2012 21:09
Monday May 7 2012 - Special one off day for Craft & Design Month...
Come along at either 10am or 2pm, bring an idea of what you'd like to learn, any questions you have, or a project you need help with and and pay just £20 per person for a 3 hour session. Fee includes all materials you use, use of my tools, instruction sheets to take away (if relevant), tea, coffee and biscuits! Please book in advance as spaces are strictly limited
Special offer open to new students only - try me out for a 3 hour 1-1 tuition session at less than half the standard price - just £35 instead of the usual £75 - contact me to check availability & discuss what you'd like to work on, before making your booking.
Take advantage of either of these offers at http://www.pitstopx.co.uk/Book-a-Workshop.html
Find out more about Craft and Design Month, as well as to find more special events, exhibitions, open studios and courses happening this month at http://www.craftanddesignmonth.net/ |
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