Brooch workshop

I had another wonderful group of people over for a brooch workshop last Saturday. The students never cease to amaze me, they all learn the same techniques and have the same materials to work with but their end products are all so individual. They worked in a frenzy after lunch to get their brooches finished, you could hear a pin drop at one stage when they all had heads down and fingers working. They achieved some wonderful results as you can see in the slide show. I'm sorry Joanne I didn't get a photo of your brooch, you can see Joanne's brooch if you visit her blog here.

I have to once again thank my wonderful husband for the great job he does in the kitchen, he's one very special man.

I'm now getting ready for the junk journal workshop which is on the 4th July.

I'm also teaching a stamp carving class at creative souls retreat next March, this will be on a Thursday evening as I'm booked into all of the day time workshops with Susan Lenart Kasmer. I'm so looking forward to the retreat and I get to meet the wonderful Judy Wise too.

Jewellery

I've been making necklaces again using my fabric beads and found objects, this one was another order that is now on it's way to the US. I really enjoy this style and have been making fabric tag beads which allows me to incorporate textiles, which I love, and jewellery.



This is a close up of one of the tags.



I'm holding a brooch making workshop from home this Saturday, the 20th. There's still one vacancy if any one is able to attend. This is the style of brooch everyone will make in brass or silver with their own colour choices. I've created a whole collection of fabric tag beads for people to use in their work, they're pictured below.



I received a wonderful surprise when I arrived home on Tuesday, not one but two lovely packages. The first one was from the lovely Elizabeth. She had made me one of her wonderful muse birds, which are available on her etsy, it's beautiful. Elizabeth also sent me the most amazing napkins, I've never seen these before, I can't wait to use them in something special.
The other package was from the effervescent and so talented Nic. She had made me a beautiful doll, I call it a goddess, and a gorgeous flower brooch, Nic also sells these on her etsy store. These are two very special and talented ladies, it's well worth a visit to their blogs.

Catching up and etsy

I seem to be constantly playing catch up at present.

The photo below is of some of the wonderful gifts I received from an art group get together, which was over a week ago now. Patsy, Dot, Julia and I met at Jacky's farm and had a wonderful lunch and get together. The beautiful beaded piece was from Dot using some of her lovely hand made felt.



We had a holiday today, Monday, to celebrate the Queen's birthday. I still haven't worked out why we have the holiday in June when her birthday is in April. I'm not complaining though, it gave me chance to decorate some more papers and add to my Etsy store.

This photo shows my area where I work to decorate the papers, it's not in my studio. I use the huge table I have for my workshops, it makes life so much easier.



These are some of the papers that go into my paper packs.




This is a laser print of one of my collages that has been scanned into photoshop and then I've changed the colour and added filters to it. This sheet comes in the pack too.




I've also added a small hand made journal, using my decorated papers, to my store. This has decorated pages and some original collages as well as fabric tags.




Finally I've added some more hand carved stamps.





I'd also like to thank Laura for giving me 'The Lovely Blog' award. Thanks so much Laura, it's much appreciated.

Belle Armoire and stamps

Sometime last year Judy Wilkinfeld mentioned she had been working on some new castings and asked if I would make a piece of jewellery to utilize one of her dolls. I felt very privileged to be asked as the work was going to be published in Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine by Somerset Studio. Judy also asked Jen Crossley, Deryn Mentock, Diana Frey and Kecia Deveney if they would produce a piece too. It's amazing how different the pieces we all created were using the same doll.

I don't usually work with dolls in my jewellery as they seem to be everywhere, but these little creatures where lovely to work with.
I was able to easily drill into the doll so that I could attach it to the huge star washer with brass wire and brass nuts. I made the steel chain and soldered all of the links. I added some of my hand made fabric beads and an assortment of semi precious stone beads to complete the project.

I'm very grateful to Judy for giving me the opportunity to participate in this enjoyable project. Judy has these lovely little dolls available in her Etsy store.





I've also added some new stamps to my etsy store.