Component of the month at Art Jewelry Elements - "Out of time" Necklace

I love the blog Art Jewelry Elements and follow it for... let's just say a long time now ;) They have a components of the month challenge where one of the blog team creates a jewelry element and send it to all the others to create something with it.

They also give some components away for the readers with just the one condition: To create something with it and show it at the end of the month. I took quite often part in the giveaway but until now never was lucky. Until now....!

I got a beautiful ceramic pendant made by Lesley Watt from THEA jewellery (you'll find her shop here and her blog here).

It seems that I favor this simple style at the moment. It is not simple in itself, not with the broad variety of beads and materials as well as the rustic and organic appearance. But there is a clear colour scheme that brings all the different materials together as well as a clear size gradient.

You'll find new and vintage czech glass beads, glass beads and chain from old jewelry, some glass beads I found in Barcelona and of course handmade art beads! Maybe you can find sea glass and uglie weenies from Julie Wong Sontag from uglibeads or the crusty little spacer bead from Kimberly Rogers from Numinosity beads? In between there are also bead(s) from Julia Hay, Sue Reynolds and Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens.

Yes, I can tell you the story of every tiny bead in this necklace! They all go together so well with Lesleys stunning ammonite pendant (organic, ammonite, greenish... she definitely made this one just for me! :)).

And now go, please have a look at the other participants and their creations:

Guests

Sandi Volpe

Claire Fabian (yes, me... you are here right now! ^^)

Alison Herrington

AJE team

Lesley Watt

Caroline Dewison

Niky Sayers

Susan Kennedy

Jen Cameron

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

 

"Green and blue skies" and "Little galaxies" - Earrings, what else? ;)

There is just something magical in lampwork art. The glass, the little dots of silver, the swirls of colour, the depth within... 

All the headpins I used here are made by Jennie Yip from Iced Moments. She sells at etsy but I actually found her work at a facebook group. There are a lot of great groups where you can buy or sell art beads and I found a lot of my favorite artists in such groups :)

The silver dots with the green or blue or even black always reminds me of the sky, be it in the bright sun or in the middle of the night full of stars...

I also played with two pairs of round headpins with rather simple shapes, but believe me: They dangle and move beautifully! (As earrings should, at least for me) 

I always have a hard time to decide whether I prefer the shiny or the etched versions. In the end, to be honest, I always want both!

Huh... normally I would link now to my etsy store. But I neglected it a little bit. I'll try to upload new pieces over the next days! I have made enough... just taking good pictures, that are somehow good enough for me, that is the most challenging part! ^^

"Ancient woods" - Necklace

This necklace was a commission with the idea that it should be green ;) Better to say it was a birthday present for one in our research group. Since green is one of my favorite colours especially in creating beads as well as jewellery I had quite a collection to select beads from.

You'll find some of my own handmade beads, made from ceramic clay as well as polymer clay.

But also a lot of art beads from others. Among them one of my favorite glass bead artist Kimberly Rogers from numinosity beads. 

As well as beads from Julia Hay, Sue Reynolds, Michelle Susanne, Samantha Capeling (I etched the beads, hope you don't mind!) and Karen Totten.

There are also new and vintage czech glass beads, some natural materials like petrified wood and even a tiny roman glass beads that is between 1000 and 2000 years old. 

It comes together with knotted waxed linen. As different as all the beads are, they come together through the colour scheme as well as the gradient size shape. I love how it turned out. Every bead has its own story, 

Simple without being simple :)

Layer above layer... it all shines through...

This painting is a kind of experiment I did. I do this a lot at the moment, to see what works for me and what not, what may be something I really enjoy and what effects can I generate. 

There is a difference between imaging something and really doing it. Sometimes I realize, as nice as a technique or effect may be, it is not me. This time it is me. I really love this mixed media piece (it is not a painting, no?).

The background is actually a collage made on a wooden panel. There is not too much to be seen anymore, painted and stamped over and over again and then I took a white pen and wrote over the whole panel. 

Just everything what was in my mind, bothering me as well as some nicer thoughts ;) I used a stencil with heavy acrylic paste and brushed some acrylic paint on top. Also I let a lot of acrylic inks run in and around the acrylic structures. 

  

Since the acrylic paste dried clear, you can see the layer below, a subtle effect but I love it! Layer above layer above layer....  still, every layer comes through!

And no, not readable anymore as a text! Just single words can be seen ^^

"Hidden treasures" - Whatever you can find, put it onto it!

Now I can show you a box that I already had finished for some time but since it was designed to be a birthday present (or the wrapping rather ;) ), I couldn't show you before.

Again I used some of my polymer clay pieces, added some spices, paper, textiles, metal stuff, plastic wrappings and other things lying around...

...but I also combined it this time with structure paste as well as crackle paste over an old map as background.

I tried to keep a general "greenish" tint. The acrylic paints I used were gold from Schmincke as well as the iridescent colours from pebeo.

Just have a look at the textures!Love the crackles...

...the pepper and pigment corns...

...the sand like structure paste...

And a little lizard as my focal :)

ATC - a little bit of paper piecing...

I know I show a little bit more "paper" related things in the last weeks over here. It is not that I didn't make jewellery but either I can't show it until now because it is made for special occasions and persons... and I also didn't manage to get got pictures during the last two weeks... so... paper "stuff" it is!

This little artist trading card I made for the challenge over at Paper artsy. This is the second time I take part but I really, really enjoy challenges! It is all about playing and exploring for me with different techniques and media. Even though I like the results most of the time, often the result may not be "me" with a new technique. But I only get to know this after I tried! Also I learned something from it ;)

The challenge now at paper artsy is "Paper piecing" (go over here to have a look for yourself and see what other people made). 

Surprisingly enough it seems that paper piecing is something I enjoyed more than I would have thought! I took a print of a bird I had laying around and cut out all shapes with different colours and glued them on paper scraps I had. This includes some gelatine monoprints I had that I made on a little bit heavier paper. I wanted to have a slightly raised image.

And yes, even if it can't really be seen now (only if ou look at it closely): All the different colour / body areas were made from different pieces!

I glued everything together, went over it with acrylic paint, water colour, markers... and added a stamp I got at a destash (from Laura, I follow her blog "Bugs ans fishes" for years now ;)) because it missed a little bit of colour.

What shall I say? Love the result! It is more grungy and organic than I would have thought and that is actually me! :)