More necklaces and award

I've been busy making lots of wire rings for chains, soldering wire, oxidizing wire, polishing wire. My hands are black and very dry. The joys of making jewellery and I love it. It's very challenging but also very rewarding when the piece is finally finished. I've also been making fabric beads to add to the chains so the completed pieces have very few purchased elements added to them.

The picture below is how my work table top looked about two hours ago before I lined up the pieces for photos.

The necklace above incorporates a heart chandelier crystal that I've added the word smile to behind the crystal along with a snippet of music and amber coloured foil. I've then covered the back and sides with copper tape and coated it with silver solder.

This one features two different styles of my fabric beads and more hand made and soldered chain.

The two necklaces above are for my vendors table at the Creative Soul Retreat in March.

         

This necklace is going to Touchstone Gallery in Olinda at the weekend.

                                      

This one is off to Antipodes Gallery in Sorrento along with the piece in the previous post and some earrings.

I was commissioned late last year to make a piece of jewellery for a friend. It's taken me awhile to find the right elements to add to the piece. The first photo shows the main necklace which features two chains with sterling silver wired beads and found objects. The second part is a smaller necklace that can be worn with the main one or worn on it's own. I'm pleased with the end results, I'm hoping my friend is too.

Finally I have been awarded a Sunshine Blog award from Elizabeth at Studiofelter blog this is a great honor coming from Elizabeth who makes the most wonderful creations from felt. Elizabeth also has the same passion for colour as I do.

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.

I'm supposed to pass the award on to 12 other bloggers who give me inspiration, but as you can see from my blog list and the other blogs in my side bar, there are so many of you who supply me with such wonderful inspiration that I would hate to choose only twelve of you.

You are all awarded.

Back to the jewellery

I've been very busy over the holiday break making jewellery. The necklace in the photo along with another I'll show in my next post, is off to Antipodes Gallery in Sorrento. I made all of the chain and the large rings from aged copper then soldered then. The larger red beads are my hand made fabric beads.

I'm also busy making jewellery and journals for the Creative Soul Retreat in March for vendor night.

The earrings below are one of quite a few pairs I'll have available.

I've been taking close up shots around my studio and thought I'd add them to my posts now and then instead of in one big post. This is a very old wooden box that has dividers in it, like shelves. I cut up a cardboard cylinder and it's now a great home for my pencils and pens as well as my paints that I use for journalling.

I've been published

Late last year I was approached by Get Creative magazine and asked if they could do a profile on my art and teaching, needless to say I was thrilled. They also asked if I could create a piece of jewellery with instructions to go into their magazine. The bracelet above is the result. There are  six pages in total with photos and commentary on my jewellery and journals and instructions for making the bracelet.

The magazine is Australian and is available in Borders, Spotlight and some newsagents.

Just when I thought thought I couldn't possibly fit any more drawers into my studio, guess what arrived on Christmas Day.

They are beautiful, very French, along with the clock in the first photo. The hunk in the fourth cubby hole is my husband taken many years ago, long before we met.

Washing on the line

Over New year we were in Daylesford and visited Purl's Palace, a fabulous place for Japanese fabrics for patchwork, beautiful yarns and lovely gifts with an oriental theme. I bought 2 bags of scrap fabrics from old saris, the embroidery and colours are beautiful. I use these in my hand made journals. I decided to wash them before using as they had just been torn or cut from the original clothing and I wanted to make sure they were clean. We had extremely high temperatures, 44 deg C on Monday, so they only took minutes to dry. They made such a lovely picture fluttering in the hot wind I had to take photos.

These are some close ups of the details in the fabrics.

I've also added another pack of decorated papers and laser prints of my artwork to my Etsy store

Collage sheet - abstract

Collage sheet - flower paintings

The Piano

What a fabulous time we had yesterday at Jo's home. Jo decided to dismantle her old piano and invited some fellow artists and bloggers, including Rosie who was visiting from the UK, to join in the task. Beautiful weather, great friends and wonderful food made the day so enjoyable. It was lovely to catch up with Janette, Trish, Carolyn, Cathy and Jason again as well as to meet some new artists friends.
We're all looking forward to creating some unusual art pieces from our collections.

The piano before the dismantling.

These are some of the shots of various stages and fascinating parts of the piano.

I hope to be able to show you down the track what I do with my treasures.

This is another journal that I have for sale in my Etsy store. This journal has a combination of blank watecolour papers, decorated papers, original and laser art pieces, laser prints of my papers some stitched decorations and a mix of different weights of lined and hand made papers.

This is the cover, it's made from my hand painted canvas and lined with Kaffe Fassett fabric.

These are a few of the pages in the journal.