Blog Giveaway - For England & St George

I knew something was odd when I noticed a lot of really big ENGLAND flags hanging out of the local pub this morning. Another Football event I thought grumpily....

Later, after a brief trawl of the morning news, I realised it was St George's Day, and England's National Day and I nearly missed it!

Not for us the celebrations of Ireland's St Patrick's Day or even a few 4th of July like fireworks. (St Georges day is more like a damp squib) The only place I really saw it being celebrated was at the aforementioned pubs (no surprises there!).

Good Ole Boris Johnson has been trying for ages to make St George's Day a public holiday, but then that fella, being a descendant of King George II & is as English as Roast Beef!
(Boris J's crusade is even amusing in a bizarre way because St George was not English, did not ever make it to England, and did not slay even his dragon in England!)

Ah well any celebration is better than no celebration so I feel it's my Patriotic Duty to Give Away some blog candy swag in Honour of St George!
So donning my Spangliest Dress and long white gloves:

You can choose from any of these fabulous prizes....

1) A Textured Heart Pendant with Your Choice of Stone Colour2) A Sterling Silver Ring Made to your Size with Either "Until the Seas Run Dry" or your own name stamped upon it.
3) TWO 10g Packs of Art Clay Silver for you to make your own Silver Jewellery and a few little extras to help ;)

The Rules:
- Just post underneath, leaving some contact details, and we'll enter you!
-Contest ends on 30th April (7 days)
-Contest open Worldwide :)
-Winner will be drawn on the 1st May and announced on the blog
PLEASE leave you contact details so we can tell you if you win.
If unclaimed after 7 days we'll draw again ;)

EXTRA Entries (each is one extra entry):
-Visit our shop, browse browse, browse, and settle upon a favorite. Come back and leave a comment on this blog entry, telling us what you liked and why.
-Blog about this giveaway on your own blog & leave us a link to your blog post (2 extra entries)
-Follow my blog. Old or new, and make sure to let me know that you follow.

So come on get entering - It's FREE & there will probably be a few extra gifts thrown in for good measure! ;)

Nic xx

Earth Day & new 100% Recycled Silver Pendants

Wednesday is normally my day off but today I've been making lots of new commissions. In between all that I found time to take some photos & list 4 new one of a kind pieces on Etsy!

All of these pieces are UK Assay Office Hallmarked Fine Silver (created from Art Clay Silver).
The silver used in these pieces is 100% recycled silver, so has not been strip mined to the detriment of the environment. (Very Appropriate as today is Earth Day)

First up is this Mandela Pendant, which reminds me of the Wheel of Life, it was created in multiple layers so the texture is quite eye-catching :)

This is a birch bark texture pendant (created from my own handmade texture plate).
There are some more pics of this in Natural light in the Etsy Listing.
This is a very solid Celtic tribal pendant. It comes with a sterling silver chain but would also look very cool on a leather thong, but you might have to watch out as 'him indoors might pinch it (it would be a great pressie for a surf dude!).
Mentioning the oceans this fine silver wave pendant was inspired by this quote:

"No rock so hard but a little wave may beat
admission in a thousand years."
~Tennyson

Tennyson and Keats are two of my favourite poets, their poetry always gets my creative juices flowing, I wonder who YOU have as a source of inspiration?

Nic xx

Happy Clients and Sci-Fi Chic!

We went through a few different design prototypes before we found the "perfect" setting for the beautiful diamond, this lovely client is wearing.
Her Hubby bought it her for Christmas and she wanted something textured and contemporary. The final design has a delicate feather pattern on the pendant, with a handmade bail which echoes the feather pattern. For extra security the diamond is rubover set (which means a little edge of metal encircles the whole stone).

I was very, very pleased to take this picture of her happily wearing the finished pendant (I just wish I'd taken a close up too!)

Below is another pendant I made recently, I'll be wearing it when I go to see the new Star Trek film. So I'm out of the closet, as well as being a Jewellery Tool Addict, I'm also a Science Fiction Geek.....the only benefit being I can make my own geekery and wear it with pride!

A friend of mine is a computer whizz and (after seeing this one) he wants me to make him a custom badge to his own design. Something to do with circuit boards and a triple atomic symbol.

Maybe I should make my own signs & sigils range, it could be quite cool and very tribal. So sci-fi buffs, whovians and fans of the obscure unite ~ we'll make our own club. Then again...as Groucho Marx said
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”

Nicola x

Blog Carnival - FAVORITE techniques

I recently noticed that a few of my Favourite Artists ~ Tonya Davidson, Lorrene Davis & Lora Hart were participating in something called a blog carnival...(where a group of artists all come together to discuss the same topic). This month they discuss their favourite techniques, so I thought I'd share a few of my favourites too!

The trouble with asking a jewellery maker their favourite technique is that so often it changes.

Maybe us creative types are just a fickle bunch, or it could be because we get inspired by so many things, that whatever technique helps us achieve our artistic goal, becomes our new favourite!

One thing that I love to do is make stamped or engraved pieces and personalise them for their recipients. Whether that's a sterling bangle with a personalised message or adding a quick initial to a fine silver ring. Whatever the little additions, the recipient then knows that the gift has been made just for them!!!

Hand Stamping is a technique which can be mastered with minimal tools and lots of practice so it's perfect for traditional goldsmiths and jewellery makers. The important thing to remember is stamping the metalwork hardens it. If you hit it too many times you can make it brittle or even split it!

To soften the metal again I follow a process called annealing. You heat it up with your torch, quench it in cold water, then pickle it to remove firescale. A quick clean with some pumice powder, dry it off and back to stamping. The bangle above had that process happen about 12 times!

Most of my Engraving is done in PMC (precious metal clay) while it's in it's green, unfired state.
I wrote some tips for engraving into silver clay on my PMC blog :)

Another thing I love to do is make my own designs which reflect the recipients tastes and interests. Recently a lady approached me to make a set of custom cuff links for her sons 21st Birthday. She liked the personalised element of my work and wondered if I could come up with some suggestions for him. He had travelled in New Zealand and his favourite author is Terry Pratchett. So I designed these Turtle Cufflinks. The Turtle represents the Great A'Tuin from the Discworld Novels. My Client also requested traditional chain link cufflinks so I added the "J" disk (his initial) as the push through.

For this design I used a Photo Polymer plate to make my own stamps, but I also make a lot of my own textures carving into wax, lino or in fact anything that takes a good impression!
Maggie Bergman has a fabulous explanation & tutorial on PPP's (photo-polymer plates) which you can check out here!

Go visit some other Jewel Carnival Bloggers below to find their favorite techniques.
Tonya Davidson
Elaine Luther
Angela Baudel-Crispin
Lora Hart
Tamra Gentry

Lorrene Davis

Nicola xx

Some Bunny Loves Me

Here's a sneaky peek at my "Some Bunny Loves Me" range, these are the first little bunnies out of the warren but more are sure to follow ~ you know how rabbits are ;)

I thought the figurines would make sweet little Christening gifts and I've made some smaller little bunny faces for earrings...quite pleased so far but am thinking maybe without the nose or a smaller nose...
What do you think?

Nic x

Colour me Happy :)

I took lots of gorgeous gemstone pieces to a fabulous "House of Colour" event run by Jackie Perkins this weekend...

Colour Analysis is the process of finding which colours suit your unique skin tone and eye colour. Some colours make you look great, some have completely the opposite effect. In general warm skin tones are better in warm colours and cool skin tones are better in cool colours. Colour analysis helps you find out which colours are right for YOU :)

The Warm Palettes:

For example below is a typical set of colours for an Autumn.Autumns are best in warm golden tones - Metals= Gold, Copper & Bronzes.
Pearls would be Cream rather than white, they look fabulous in Gemstones such as Citrine and Golden Amber. Prince Harry is an Autumn. Another famous Autumn would be Marcia Cross

Another "warm" season are folks classified as Spring, these ladies and gents still need warm colours just not in such dramatic and strong palettes. Sarah Ferguson is a spring.
Can you see the difference in colouring?

The Cool Palettes:

I got analysed by Jackie at House of Colour and it turned out I am a Jewel Winter. This means I look best in all the vibrant cool Jewel like colours, like Hot Pink, Amethyst, Royal Blue and Icy White (plus lots others but they're my favourites!).

This is a section of my colour swatches. The swatches are a handy little book that you can take shopping with you, to check that the outfits you're looking at match or tone with the colour palette that will make you look your best. For darker colours Winters can also wear Navy Blue, Strong Denim Blues and most womens perennial favourite Black!

Since “Cool” is my dominant trait, I avoid warm colours like golden browns or oranges. Winter Metals= Platinum, Silver, White Gold & Palladium. Pearls would be White rather than cream, we look fabulous in Gemstones such as Amethyst, Sapphire and Blue Opals.

Famous Winter Toned Folk include: Courteney Cox, John Travolta & Elizabeth Hurley

Summer is Another Season in the Cool Toned Palette.
Summer Folks share many of the colours of the winter folk but their colours are more muted. An ideal Gemstone for a Summer Palette would be Rose Quartz or Aqua Chalcedony.

Famous Summer Toned Folk include: Heather Locklear and Sarah Jessica Parker.

I have a wide selection of different colour gemstones, glass and resin jewellery items in my Market Deeping Shop. So if you're local feel free to pop in...

Although I don't have them on my website (because each is a one off) if you want a specific stone I can normally source it for you and make a pendant to match your colouring and the outfits you like to wear most ;)

Nicxx

Treasuries, Giveaways and Easter Goodies

I just love Hot Pink and Silver, so I was the Happiest Easter Bunny alive when I got featured in this Treasury by CasualGal of Etsy Street Team ~ Yaaaayyyy!!

Isn't it fabulous?? Mine's the 9th one in from the top, it's a cup ring filled with pink resin, that pink feather pens calling to me too though! You can see the treasury in all it's glory until Thursday April the 9th - feel free to click and comment as it earns me Etsy cudos :)

I've also been bust promoting some of my friends too & created my own Etsy Treasury {{+Mystic Night+}} which will run until Friday April 10th... There are some fabulous Artists work in that so well worth a click and a visit!

As a special Easter treat I've put together another few fabulous Easter Blog Giveaways for you to enter...so get clicking (Hope you win!)

Easter Blog Candy Giveaways
Jennifer is a talented stamper and card maker and she's giving away a huge bag of swag for those who love card crafts.
It's to celebrate a whole year of blogging (it's a fabulous blog ~well worth subscribing to!)
The giveaway includes Copic Ciao Markers, 10 sheets of various Basic Grey paper, 3 rolls of ribbon, Key Plate Album, X Cut corner rounder punch, 5mm Daisy D's Hinges in copper and patina, Stampers Anonymous Ornate Collages Stamps, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad and lots lots more! Click HERE to visit her blog & enter (ends 12th April).

Another Card Crafting Givaway can be found at Creating from the Heart
Melissa is giving away a brand new, never opened, CUTTLEBUG!
Yes, you read it right, a Cuttlebug Die Cut Machine! I'm reliably told by card crafting fans that this is the bees knees of card crafting but you need to be quick to enter as the giveaway closes on 10th April. ;)
The Entry post is HERE

The final giveaway can be found at Tristan Blakeman's blog "Enchanted Revelry" and is an Altered Art prize ~ which fits quite well with todays other blog prizes, lol!
Tristan is celebrating his 100th Post ans 5000th hit, an amazing achievement, which is easy to understand when you see the quality blog he produces...
Anyway the prize Tristan is generously providing is this fabulous and inspirational book by Lisa Kettell, Altered Art Circus. Tristan says of this book "It's one of the most enchanting and clever books dealing with altered art that I've seen. I love my well-worn copy - and know that the winner will love it, too! Well, they'll love their new copy - they can't have my well-worn copy!" Enter HERE (closes 15th April)

Supporting Heritage Crafts

On a final crafting note, why not do something really worthwhile this Easter?? For many cultures and religions Easter is a time of New Beginnings but lets not forget that new ideas often have old roots. For the crafting community in particular there are 1000's of heritage crafts that lose out every year as mass produced techniques kill their art form...

Robin Wood is a traditional wood turner and heritage guru whose Blog contains a wealth of information on Heritage Crafts and interesting tidbits of Film Knowledge too (he made the bowls for Ridley Scott's next epic film based on the Robin Hood and helped create the beautiful oak bench above).

I was over at Robins blog today and read about The Heritage Crafts Association. The HCA hope to do to change the trend of Old crafts dying out so click the button below & sign up as a suporter (it's free).

You can also find out more on Robins Blog.
Nic xxx

Pay it Forward - Giveaway

While visiting picklesticks I noticed she was doing "Pay if forward" so now I am doing it too! Picklesticks will be sending me something handmade in the next 12 months and I want to do the same for three people.

I will make something special for the first three people who comment on this post, you need to commit to also do a "Pay it forward" on your own blog :)
I will make and send off the goodies sometime in the next 12 months. If you would like a lovely handmade gift, just for you then leave a comment on this post and then play "Pay it forward" on your blog!

As your gift is likely to be jewellery related then a ring size and wrist size would be great too. You can even drop hints like "oooh I love cats", or "my favourite colour in the whole world is purple"

Nicola xxx

Blog Giveaway Bonanza

Blog giveaways are fabulous things, and here are a few wonderful priza-paloozas you can enter :)

For the more macabre ~ this wonderfully creepy skeleton sculpture by the incredibly talented Denise at DLynne Art Dolls. This darker sculpt is a bit of a departure for Denise as she usually creates beautiful babies and children. Check out her work on her blog and site when you go to enter.

For Animal lovers ~ a charming, soft knitted meerkat by clever artisan Heather of NiftyKnits. Heather knits whimsical little critters, funky, fun items for home decor and fabulous jewelry, scarves and other accessories for you. Visit her giveaway by clicking on her link.

For Polymer Clay Enthusiasts ~ A double treat here as:
1) You get introduced to a fabulous blog you might not have seen &
2) You get to enter a great prize draw!
Nip over to Polymer Clay Chameleon & take a look at some simply amazing creations.
Eugena is an incredibly talented polymer clay artist but she's also generous enough to feature other polymer clay artists (many on mesmerising slide shows)!

So have fun and enter...who knows you may be lucky!

"Mew-se" for our new Kitten Cat range!

This is Skittles our rescue cat and a very central member of our family. He came to live with us after a trip to Wood Green Animal shelter.
Skittles is currently sleeping, so I guess it's OK to tell you that our original plan was to find a short haired preferably grey tabby kitten.
We visited all the kittens and there were lots to see (all gorgeous) then the shelter lady told us about Skittles...

"He's been here a while" she said " and he's the staff favourite because he's so friendly". She looked unhappy as she added "unfortunately he's nervous around other cats so he's becoming traumatised and it's making him ill"

We went to see Skittles and as soon as she opened his pen he jumped out towards me (very scary it was, as I thought he was going for the jugular).
The next thing I know he buried his head in the crook of my arm and started purring like an outboard motor...
Howard & I were completely smitten and a few days later he was in his new home!

Skittles still needs company & follows us to whatever room we're in!He loves being near the radiator in my workroom.
He's so nosey when I'm creating that it was only a matter of time before he had his own range of jewellery.... so here's a few pieces from our new pretty "kitten cat" range.
Hope you like them!

Dontcha Love Blog Giveaways?

I love finding new and inspiring craft blogs & love it even more, when they're giving away fabulous gifts for leaving blog comments...
So go take a visit to
http://junkmammas.blogspot.com/
but if you leave a comment and win can you send me the flower??? ;)

Nic xx