Journals and jewellery

What a busy time at present. Sorry I haven't posted for awhile, I will try and improve on this situation.

I had another great workshop at home yesterday, this was the Junk Journal class, I had a lovely group of students who produced some fabulous work, they went home with a new enthusiasm for junk mail. Unfortunately Norma couldn't attend as she had a dose of the dreaded flu that's around at the moment. I hope you're on the road to recovery now Norma if you read this post.



My jewellery work table has lots of components waiting to be turned into another necklace.





I received some wonderful gifts as shown in previous posts and so decided to make a 'tree' for my studio to display them. I pruned a branch of our apple tree then covered it with very colourful fabric. It makes a great place to display them as well as cards and jewellery. This bird was from the very creative and generous Elizabeth.






The goddess doll and flower were from the lovely talented Nic and the Klimt doll from the very clever Jacky.




This lovely piece arrived on Friday from Sylvia, one of my students, it's a fabulous journal pin. Sylvia makes these and sells them on her etsy site.



This was also a gift from Samm, another lovely student. This is a brooch made from Samm's hand made felt and stitching.



Pages from my junk journal, my 'onion roof houses'.




My 'lollipop tree houses'




This is the cover and spine of the finished journal, it's the largest journal I've ever made and is not the sort that I could just slip into my hand bag, but it looks good sitting on a coffee table.

This is the junk journal class and the fabulous array of 'stuff' on the tables.

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 Wilkenfeld 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.

Journals

These photos are part of the cover of my junk journal. I started out using a technique I learnt in DJ's class, but then added my own twist to it.




This page was made from the scraps I found on the floor after my last vintage workshop, except for the elephants and elephant ribbon, they came from Patsy.




Two more pages from my journal, using paint, napkins, branded tissue paper from a shop and a black Sharpie.

I received a fabulous package of goodies from Judy on Friday, you should visit her Etsy she has some wonderful things.
Great for art or jewellery making.

Stamps and stuff

I've been busy carving stamps and organizing classes, the brooch class is now full.
I'm really pleased with the stamp below, it's a repeat design that uses a motif often seen in Indian style fabrics. It can be used as it is singly or continuous. I used it with acrylic paint on sheer fabric. This is something I haven't done very often but will be great in my fabric/paper journals.

Theses stamps are all available on my etsy store.





This one is pansies and can be used in either direction to extend the design.



I can't seem to keep away from the poppy seed head, this is one of my favourite designs, they are always different as I draw directly onto the carving block.



I like the houses too as they can be repeated right across the page.



I've also been busy making jewellery over the past few weeks. This necklace is now living with Jacky, the lovely lady who makes the fabulous Klimt dolls.
Jacky loves working with fabrics so I made a little book from fabric and added the word 'textile' behind mica in the metal centre piece.






The necklace below was a commission from lovely Linda I showed some of it in an earlier post, it's now winging it's way to the US. I've called it a 'stitch in time' as it relates to all things sewing.