London Jewellery Week...My Visit to Treasure 2011

The blog has been a bit neglected of late...my excuse? Well, in less than 2 weeks I shall be moving in with my lovely boyfriend and we are heading away from London and off to a cosy flat in Cambridge, so I have been spending my evenings/free weekend time having a big clearout of all the clutter I have magically accumulated over the past year. But on with the real subject of this blog post, my visit to the Treasure exhibition, which was part of London Jewellery Week.

After going along last year (with my bf in tow, who also enjoyed it) I was very keen to make the trip to Victoria House again to see what would be on display in 2011, despite it being a horribly wet drizzly day. We had been very kindly offered tickets to the exhibition by Chris and Joy of CJ Poupazis and we had a nice chat with Chris over at their stand. Chris was particularly pleased with this ring which he had created after getting the opportunity to use CAD. He was aiming to create something that was very organic and natural looking, despite being designed with computer technology and I think this gorgeous ring definitely achieved that goal.

Again, this year, we saw a huge variety of work using many different techniques and materials, so here are a few of my favorite designers from the visit. If you click on the images you will be taken to the designers website for more of their work to drool over!

Daphne Krinos' large, bold flowers really stood out on her stand - I love the subtle graduation in colour on these.

Atelier Michael Berger's kinetic rings had everyone who visited his stand enthralled and wondering 'how do they work?' Very cleverly designed...the tops look like they might slip off at any moment as they spin smoothly on their ring base, but they are attached (and not magnetic as my bf and I initially guessed).

I also loved Alexandra Raphael's stunning cloissone enamel work - combining beautiful dream-like enamelled pendants with semi-precious gemstones.

And, last, but certainly not least, was Milena Kovanovic's fantastically named 'Superman Rocks' collection - I was very interested as she explained how she had wanted to feature gemstones in their natural, uncut state...she had so many gorgeous rings with different stones 'growing' out of the ring band. 

 There were so many more wonderful pieces of jewellery on show, but I haven't the time or space here to mention them all. If you enjoyed this post then I definitely recommend a visit to Treasure 2012!

That's all for now...if you don't hear from me for a while then I may have got lost amongst all the boxes during my packing!

N 

xoxo

Beadwork To Be Proud Of

For the past few weeks I have been quietly beavering away on my biggest beadweaving project to date. At a rough estimate, at the very least 20hrs of beading went into this necklace...probably more as I haven't accurately recorded all the time I spent in the evenings after work and on weekends when I had time to spare. Add to that 1000s of seed beads, over 200 Swarovski crystals (including 3 gorgeously sparkly crystal rivolis, to which I am now hopelessly addicted!) and a whole lot of patience.

I have learnt a lot in developing this design from an original rough sketch into the finished article - and if I make another I will certainly do a few things differently (namely to attach my linking loops BEFORE adding any embellishment - this took me hours just to add a few loops on to each flower because it was so difficult to stitch back into the beadwork with the magatamas and crystals included). I am hoping I can make a few slightly less labour intensive pieces based on this work, so if nothing else, it has been a big challenge and learning experience for me as a beader.

I hereby present, Flora Metallica.

However, this piece is also a competition entry. E-beads, is hosting the competition in conjunction with Swarovski, and the task was to create a piece featuring Swarovski crystallised elements which embodied the theme 'Urban Beautiful.' My necklace features beadwoven flower motifs with an urban edge. My colour palette of dark metallic gunmetal grey and metallic purple was chosen to reflect a city landscape. And of course, the sparkle of the Swarovski crystals was intended to help with the 'beautiful' side of the theme.

If you like my work and would like to vote to help it progress to the judging stage, the link to the entries gallery is here. You may have to flick through a few pages to find Flora Metallica depending on how many entries have been added since this post was published (it was at the top of page 2 last time I checked). There are 3 voting buttons, 'good effort,' 'like,' and 'love.' Each button gives a different number of rating points - good effort = 1 point, like = 2 points and love = 3 points. Obviously I would love it if you'd click 'love' for my entry...but feel free to peruse the rest of the work and vote for some of the other very impressive pieces on show. Your support will be very much appreciated!

Laura McCabe Locket Necklace Workshop

I've been beadweaving for about 3 years or so now (I think!) but up until last week I had never attended a class on the subject. I've been to workshops on silversmithing, art clay silver and other crafty subject, but everything I know about beadweaving I've learnt from books and magazines. So, when I saw that the fabulously talented Laura McCabe was going to be doing some classes at Stitchncraft, I knew I had to book myself a chance to learn from someone who's skill I admire greatly.

It was a bit hit and miss as to whether I would make it to the workshop at all, after being struck down with a horrid cold the weekend before and being sat in my PJs feeling rotten, hoping it would have gone away enough by Wednesday. Fortunately, despite having to get up at 5:45am (shudder) in order to make my 7:10am train down to Dorset from London Waterloo, I felt a lot better and enjoyed a nice train journey to Gillingham, where I then got a taxi with a very helpful lady driver to the Stitchncraft bead shop. Stitchncraft is a lovely shop and venue (if only it was closer to London!) and I was welcomed in and given a much needed cup of tea as I sat down ready for the class to begin. Laura had kits for sale for the necklace project we were going to be working on in two gorgeous different jewel tone colourways, but since my student bank balance couldn't stretch to that, I'd come up with enough beads from my own stash to work in my own silver and blue colourway.

Apologies for the lack of photos on the day - I was just too engrossed in beading! I have included some quick snaps of my finished locket though, and rest assured there will be pics of the finished project too.

Laura is a really great teacher and we were soon all beading away following her printed instructions with her on hand to help if we got stuck anywhere. We were all hoping we would get to finish at least one locket component in the workshop time so we'd have all the knowledge to work on finishing a whole necklace in our own time. The locket construction is very clever and mixes stitches in a way I'd never have come up with myself. It also features Laura's trademark bezelling of a crystal rivoli, which I'd done before from her fantastic crystal jewellery book.

Time went way too quickly and it was soon time to have some lunch and a stretch. I took the opportunity to have a look around the shop (though I was very restrained not to buy any more beads!) and to admire the lovely beadwork which was on display on the walls in the workshop room as well as the stunning finished pieces that Laura had brought with her. Lunch over it was then time to cram in another couple of hours beading to get the locket embellished and with its pearl and loop closure on before it was time to go home.

With the sun shining it was time to say goodbye (and get a big hug from Laura!) and start my return journey home. I got back to my flat at 8pm tired and hungry, but happy and extremely glad I'd had the opportunity to go on this course. Now all I have to is find the time to make 8 more lockets to create a whole necklace!

Folksy Friday...yet more favourites

Another Folksy Friday selection this week picked from my ever expanding favourites list...I have trouble thinking of themes so I might stick with this way of doing things for now, unless inspiration strikes!

1.) Cute laser cut vintage pendant necklace by From Laura With Love

2.) Fantastically intricate wirewrapped jewellery set by Reverie

3.) An adorable felt budgie boy (because I love budgies!) by The Felt Menagerie

4.) Another cute birdie, this time a kingfisher upcycled from a jumper by Clootielugs

5.) Fabulous felted earrings with a lovely landscape scene, complete with sheep, by Aileen Clarke Crafts

6.) A floral necklace made using string knotting by Sun Studio

Hope you like my picks for this week...happy Friday!

N

xoxo

Bead shopping...the best kind of shopping!

I haven't got any finished work to show on my blog - beginning to sound like a broken record here! But I have been doing a fair bit of bead shopping in the last week, so I thought I'd show you what goodies have been dropping through my postbox and what I hope to create with them...

Here we have a LOT of silvery grey delica beads...35 grams to be exact! These size 11 cylinders have been bought for the Laura McCabe beadweaving workshop I'm off to on the 30th March at Stitchncraft, which I am very excited about. I can't afford to buy one of the kits on the day so I have plundered my bead stash for suitable colours and have only had to buy a few things I didn't already have that were on the materials list I received in the post a few weeks ago. The other main thing I needed to buy for this workshop is below...

Crystals!! In a gorgeous vibrant capri blue shade, these are a more unusual size of Swarovski rivoli. I didn't think I'd be able to find them in this country but a quick search on Ebay produced a seller who had some in a variety of colours and I plumped for these babies. Sparkly huh?

The other main thing I have been bead buying for is supplies for a competition entry I want to make. I've had a practice of the design elements I want to include and they seem to work, so then I had to buy supplies in the colours I wanted to fit with the competition theme. I still have to buy a few more seed beads, as I don't think I have enough of the colours I need to finish the whole thing, but I now have most of what I need, including...

...miyuki long magatamas. I had never looked at these until I saw a fabulous bangle project featuring them in a recent issue of Beadwork magazine, and when I saw the competition theme I thought these beads in this dark gunmetal grey shade, would fit the bill.

What project would be complete without Swarovski bicones? The blue ones are to go with my rivolis for the Laura McCabe workshop project, but the other two shades (dark indigo and crystal silver night) have been selected for my competition piece. I love the dark indigo ones...although I am not sure they will replace the purple velvet ab2x ones I have as my favourite Swarovski colour!

My final purchase for the competition piece is yet more Swarovski sparkliness - 3 medium vitrail coloured rivolis in 2 different sizes, and one of their Cosmic rings. So much fantastic sparkle and colour in these - I can't wait to put them to (hopefully) good use.

I am currently working on a custom order of some bridesmaids bracelets for a friend, but once they are complete, it will be full steam ahead with the competition entry; so check back here to find out what the finished article looks like.

N
xoxo

Sock Knitting Fail

If you follow me on Twitter you might have heard me tweeting about knitting my first pair of toe-up socks with some fabulously funky hand-dyed wool from Wharfdale Woolworks.

Well...things started off well. I love the magic cast on technique for starting socks toe up - so much neater than my attempts at kitchner stitch! I don't get much time to knit, so most of the first sock was done on my bus journey to/from work, which is only about 15-20 minutes. I turned the heel and carried on with the hearts and flowers lace motif and did a picot bind off to which I'd never attempted before.

 

The finished article...looks like a sock right? So let's put it on, shall we?

Uh oh...looks like we have a little bit of a problem here!

Yup, this is as far on my foot as I could get it!

I have discovered that I am apparently a very tight sock knitter, resulting in a sock that probably will only fit someone will size 3/4 feet...I am a 6/7. That'll teach me not to do a tension square. True sock knitting fail.

Fortunately, I have not had my sock knitting dreams crushed by this disaster. I have cast on again on bigger needles and this sock is definitely going to fit!

I'm particularly liking how the bigger needle size has changed the effect of the yarn from super stripey, to more graduated mixes of the colours.

And the original sock will be getting a good frogging...as soon as I can bear to unravel several weeks hard bus knitting!

N

xoxo

Busy, busy, busy....

The blog has been getting a little neglected of late. The reason for this is that I am now well and truly in the final year of my postgraduate studies and the pressure really is on to get everything done ASAP so I can start writing my thesis. I no longer want to carry on in academia, so I therefore have added incentive to get finished on schedule.

A big career change is in order - having given up my artistic pursuits whilst at 6th Form College to go down the academic route, I now feel like if I don't give myself the chance to have a creative career now, then it'll never happen. Having been making jewellery as a hobby for around 4 years now, my aim is to turn my hobby into a career, by re-training in jewellery manufacture and seeing where that takes me. I am fortunate that I have some money saved up to allow me to do this, plus a very supportive boyfriend and family who more than anything would like me to do something I enjoy and am passionate about.

But enough of the big talk...alas I still have no new work to show. I am currently still working on bridal/bridesmaid jewellery, and also on a competition entry - I hope to have the competition piece done within a month, and rest assured once it is complete and uploaded onto the competition website I shall be blogging in the hope of securing some votes ;)

The only other news of note I have is that I was excited to receive an email the other week to tell me some of my work has been shortlisted for possible inclusion in a new beading book! I submitted about 14 images and of those pieces, 7 have been shortlisted, and were hand delivered by my good self to the publishing company. They are there for a short while to be professionally photographed, and once all submissions have had their images taken, the publishers will make the decision on which pieces will be included in the final article - so fingers crossed at least one of the 7 makes it. Below are a couple of the pieces that are on the shortlist - they are still available in my Folksy shop, but as made-to-order items, since the originals may be with the publisher for a few months.

That's all for now...in other crafty news, I am off to visit the Stitch & Craft Show at London's Olympia this coming Saturday, so expect a report about what I discover there (i.e. how much temptation to buy crafty supplies can I resist!?)

N

xoxo