Handmade rings

I have recently started a drawing and painting diploma which is taking up a lot of my spare time (hence the lack of posts in the last few weeks). I am hoping it will really help my artwork but I am finding it quite challenging. Yesterday I took a break from it to make some rings and here are the results:

Happy New Year

Here we are again, the start of a new year, how quickly time flies! 

2012 has been a very busy year and I have learnt so many new things. One of the most rewarding is making my own jewellery including this bracelet made from silver wire and glass beads

Hopefully this coming year will bring some new projects full of interesting things to try and skills to learn. Hope you all have a great 2013!!

Christmas oranges

So it is nearly Christmas again! This year has been an interesting one and unfortunately I have been ill for quite a lot of it. As a result I haven't been able to post as much as I would have liked to. Fortunately I did manage to keep making things and remained in the habit of taking photos. So over the next few days I am going to backdate my blog with the projects I have done this year. This may seem like cheating to many bloggers out there but this blog was set up as a scrapbook of my projects. It seems a shame not to use the photos I have taken - hope you enjoy! 

In the mean time a Christmas treat - dried orange slices. I have always seen oranges as a Christmas fruit and love them hung on the tree or in garlands. I don't know why I hadn't realised they were so easy before but this year I actually made some and they really are very simple. 

1. Cut your oranges in to equal slices about 0.5 cm wide is ideal (I used 2 oranges which filled a small bowl)
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper (this will stop the oranges sticking to or reacting with the metal tray)
3. Lay your orange slices on the baking paper and sprinkle both sides with icing sugar
4. Put in a cool oven (I used about 100 degrees centigrade) and bake until they are dry and hard (can take some time - the thickest of mine took ~ 2 hours)
5. Hang with ribbon for the tree or garland or put in a bowl with cinammon and cloves for a classic Christmas smell!

Bubble jewellery

The beads in this necklace and bracelet set remind me of bubbles hence the title. There are so many ways to braid wire with beads and each one looks different which means with some very basic techniques you can make endless individual pieces. Here I have used a mixture of bead sizes, shapes and colours and intertwined silver wires (three for the necklace and four for the bracelet) to create a random pattern of spots - so pretty!

Bubble bracelet

Bubble set

Bubble necklace

Blue and green necklace

A new necklace made from silver wire and glass beads.

Pastel horses

I recently started using chalk pastels again and in the process was playing with the movement of horses in my sketchbook. I grew up with horses and trying to draw horses that look as if they are moving is something I keep coming back to. It is actually quite difficult and I struggle to keep the proportions of the horses right. Here are this weeks attempts:

A horse at trot

A horse rearing

These were drawn on textured pastel paper which really made a difference to the way the pastel worked. It is something that I would like to experiment more with in the future. 

Lighthouse painting

Another new painting with chalk pastels over the top:

Iris painting

A new painting in acrylics

Silver necklace with autumnal beads

A new necklace made from loops of wire with beads hung from the joints. 

Photos from Battle Abbey

Nick and I visited Battle Abbey during the week and what a beautiful day for photo taking! Here are a few of my favourites:

A Dove on the Abbey walls

Light distorted by the phone camera lens in the basement

Stunning patterns in the mud floor from

And a doorway that made me think of a secret garden.