ART JEWELRY ELEMENTS REVEAL - MARCH HARES !

This is my first time doing a challenge with the AJE which is nice as I had been looking for something interesting to join in on and Hares seemed like the ideal thing, that was until I tried my hand at actually sculpting a tiny one for my necklace! Well I managed a passable one eventually and you can see him below.

I love this template I made it for a different necklace and have used it several times now in varying sizes, I used gold Premo Polymer, the grass and hare are textured ( I really enjoy doing this ) and the little flowers are embellished with Swarovski crystals. I hammered some bronze to make links and also makes the closure added citrine rondelles and gold plated beads.
I did a Kumihimo braid especially in greens and yellow of various hues which sadly the picture doesnt show much of and as I don't like the glue on ends I make my own end caps with Polymer, I chose these sort of heart shape leaves.

I also decided to make just a pendant with a Hare peeking out from behind an old tree, this one is in Polymer too and is touched with gold paint here and there, I just put it on a green silk cord.

These were both such fun to do I have really enjoyed the challenge and am looking forward to see what others have created! 

The rest of the blogs in the challenge are below so please do go to visit them if you can.

 ~Jackie~

 AJE Team

Jenny

Caroline

Lesley

Linda

Niky

Melissa

Rebekah

Lindsay

Guests

Aural - Woodland Bay Native

Heather - Hidden Ridge Studio

Cindy Martin-Shaw

Karen Panthaki

Jackie Ryan

Karin Grosset Grange - Ginko et Coquelicot

Pamela Traub - Klassy Joolz

Paisley Lizard Designs

Karen at Ditsy Blue

Michelle McEnroe ( 4 pieces pinned on  the AJE Pinterest page)

BRACELET IN AQUA

I haven't posted in a little while as  I have been working on some new collections which I will be putting up at some stage and telling you a bit about, meanwhile I have this pretty bracelet on the web site www.kydojewellery.com . 

Aqua is such a lovely cool colour, it makes me think of the sea.  The lampwork and pearls really look lovely together with just a scattering of Swarovski crystals, I love this colour and wear it a lot. Enjoy!

~Jackie

I WON A CONTEST!

I just won the most innovative class in a bracelet contest I am rather pleased and thought I would share the cuff bracelet I made for it with you. It is made from Polymer with beautiful little freshwater pearls and vintage Swarovski crystals.
I named it Spring into Summer!

 

 

Diamond Jubilee Necklace

I thought today as the Diamond Jubilee weekend is all over I would post my Jubilee necklace.

I had been thinking of something pretty to make as I don't have the diamonds I am afraid Swarovski crystals have had to do duty in this flower necklace.
I sketched the piece first as I usually do. It is fashioned on an armature of bronze and each leaf, petal and flower is hand sculpted. As Roses are some of the Queens favourite flowers along with Lily of the Valley I decided on pink wild Roses I sculpted these in clay and also some tiny Forget Me Nots in blue. For the Lilies I used some lovely vintage white glass with 14kgf as the stems, the centres of all the flowers are the crystals and even the Lilies are tipped with tiny crystals, oh my poor eyes!

I really enjoyed designing this as it is so lovely for the summer we are still waiting for!

Wedding Pearls

I thought you might like to see a commission I have just finished and sent off three necklaces to a lady in NY for her wedding they are being given to her flower girls to wear on the day. The youngest is only 6years old. The pearls are a pale silky blue with Indicolite Swarovski crystals as the sashes on the little girls dresses are that teal colour, the silver blossoms are off set and small lobster clasps can hook anywhere on the extender chains, which is brilliant as the necklaces will grow with the girls! 

New Necklaces at Kydo

Lara my daughter and webmaster has just put two new Gold Collection necklaces on the web site. http://www.kydojewellery.co.uk/home.htm

The first one is so pretty;  I bought a selection of Rhodochrosite cabs this year, cut by Alex at Designer Cabochons, there are only a very few fine lapidarists in the Uk and Jane & Alex at Designer Cabochons has become a favourite place of mine to buy, often pricey but beautiful stones. 

Rosemarie

A beautiful freeform cab of Rhodochrosite adorns the centre of this pendant, cut and polished by Alex of Designer Cabochons. The three crystal cabs are vintage Swarovski Crystal as are the crystals embellishing the gold plated chain which fastens with a lobster clasp.

My second offering today is....

Teal Teardrop

A Chrysocolla teardrop and oval cab with leaves and tendrils, embellished with emerald vintage Swarovski crystals. I added natural Turquoise giving an organic feel to this lovely pendant, with gold plated spacers and a gold plated chain and lobster clasp to complete this necklace.

Two new pendant necklaces

I have two pretty new pendant necklaces to share with you today, from my Gold Collection. The marquise cabs in both cases are Ocean Jasper the pink and white one also has two round cabs of Chalcedony with Swarovski crystals embellishing the chain. The gold and green Cab has a round vintage Swarovski crystal with crystals and freshwater pearls embellishing the chain.Both these are on the web site right now on The Gold Collection pendants page.

The necklace in my last post Florentine is also on the web site Gold Collection necklaces page. Just click on Kydo Jewellery to the right and visit our web site, we have a special celebration offer for our blog followers, free first class or standard Air Mail shipping anywhere for one week thats till 30th April! 

 

Desert Flower

This will be just a short post as my daughter and I are off tomorrow up to London, we stay with a friend just outside the city and tube in, so get the best of both worlds. We have several things planned to do, lunch with a cousin, visiting favourite shops, galleries and maybe a museum, we may go to the theatre and generally enjoy ourselves. We are both looking forward to this annual break.

We have had guests so I haven't been very creative recently but I have just finished an interesting asymetrical necklace which I named Desert Flower. The circles and tiny round beads are picture Jasper, the beautiful colour of these turquoise coloured stones look great in the centre of each circle with little silver beads the lovely chain is also silver I added just a sprinkling of Swarovski crystals in copper. I found the lovely silver flower toggle which seemed just right and Desert Flower was born! I think it turned out quite well.

Please do leave a comment if you would like to I love to hear from you all.

Spring Weddings & Inspiration

I am not sure the two always go together but in this case they do, as I have a bridal commision for a May wedding the bride and four bridesmaids, I am halfway through and really enjoying it. How delightful to design something for a big day, no matter whether it be gowns or jewellery. In my case it is jewellery and the colours are silver and purple.

The bride likes a very dainty necklace and happily I had some of the tiniest purple nugget pearls which she fell in love with, so that made a good base to start from. I added purple velvet crystals and some lavendar blue pearl rondels, then she chose a silver filigree flower with clear crystal petals and a centre of lavendar blue, I offset the flower to just below her collarbone, I hope she likes it when she sees it tomorrow.

Well now it is Sunday and my bride loves her necklace! I finished the rest yesterday and have taken a couple of pictures to show the brides and three of the bridesmaids necklaces. The bridesmaids dresses are purple with gold embellishments.

I have also added some of the necklaces we have in our spring sale, you can see them on the right hand side of the page just email if you would like anything!

Spring Inspiration!

At last I am updating the blog after the OWOH, time has just slipped away from me and I so wanted to show you some new spring designs. Having lacked inspiration since Christmas and the two viruses one after the other; suddenly my muse is back and I am so busy creating new art jewellery, especially in Polymer clay. I love working with colour, just like painting, then I can add silver, bronze, glass, gemstones, crystals it is just amazing what a fantastic medium it is, I can't imagine a world without colour!

I love Camellias and grow several in my garden, I especially like this small stripped one with a huge boss of golden stamens, each Camellia I made has a centre of Swarovski crystal, the armature is Sterling Silver and for fun I made it in two parts. I joined them with the silver wire and added round Garnet gemstones and little silver beads, it will have a chain added made to length, the pendant measures just four inches from the top of the longest silver curl to the bottom of the lower flower and I signed it on the back. I think it worked out rather well don't you? It hasn't gone on the web site yet as I thought I would preview it here first, but enquiries are always welcome.

I will have more spring inspirations to share with you later this week.

Our wedding jewellery

We have decided recently to add a wedding gallery to our web site, The Silver Lodge. It all came about when we received an email in March from a young woman who was getting married in May this year. She had been browsing our web site and came across some polymer clay calla lilly focal beads I had made using the colours of real flowers I grow in my garden as these flowers come in beautiful shades, not just the usual white. She asked if I could design a bracelet and earrings for her in cream to match a tiara she had just bought. I sketched a design and made it up using sterling silver and some Swarovski pearls and crystals. It was really pretty and unique.

The young lady was pleased with the photos we emailed her and was thrilled when she received her set. It was a real joy to be able to make this unusual design and know it was for such a special occasion. That was when we decided it would be really nice to add a bridal gallery even though much of our jewellery is occasion jewellery. We have since made another but different bracelet as most of our jewellery is only one of a kind!

Jackie & Lara