Monday, 31 March 2014

March Component of the month reveal

I’m really excited for this month’s reveal as it’s my design that’s being used by everyone to create their pieces… can’t wait to go and see what everyone’s done!

The component was one of my moth pendants. Handmade and carved from porcelain and glazed with precious metal lustres.
I don’t often use my beads in my own work, so this was a double challenge for me!


I decided I wanted to go for a bold statement piece and toyed around with a few ideas. My first was to make some components from copper clay, but I probably should have tested if I could do that before I committed, as I failed miserably and they were too thin (I’ll know for next time!)
Next I got everything out of my supplies and tried to add as much as I could in, but that didn’t work either. The moth was drowned out by the busyness around it, so I finally settled on a simple chain design with a couple of extra pierced and etched copper moths, Czech turbine & cathedral beads, copper leaves and magatama drops, all topped off with a beautiful chunky copper chain.


I love the Art Nouveau feel to the design, I’m still undecided as to whether the copper moths should have been a bit smaller, but it certainly makes a statement!

And I love the play of colour on the component. They are really difficult to photograph, but you can see in this picture, the deep velvet cerise colours that come through in parts of the glaze.
Thanks for reading! I hope you’ll visit our special guests and AJE Team members to see what they created with their component!

Guest Artists
Helen Simon – Helen’s had to drop out due to an injury, get well soon Helen!
The AJE Team
Caroline Dewison – http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk << you are here
Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Rebekah Payne - www.treewingsstudio.com
Francesca Watson - http://francescawatson.com
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Monday, 3 March 2014

AJE Component of the month – February


With February being a short month, we’re a little bit late for the reveal. But this month it was Melissa Meman’s turn to provide the component. Melissa makes stunning enamelled copper pendants and charm’s amongst other things, and she chose fluttering hearts for this months challenge. If you’d like to see more of her work, you can find it here https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MelismaticArtJewelry

This is the pretty pink heart I received to design with. I love the texture of the raised dots of enamel! My heart had 3 holes, one in each corner, and I originally had the idea to rivet it on to a cuff, then I changed my mind and was going to make a brooch, but eventually after jingling around my stash, I decided on a necklace.

I wrapped Czech beads and fluorite with bronze wire and attached them to some beautiful hand dyed silk for an extra splash of colour. I didn’t use a clasp, as it ended up as a long necklace, so can be slipped over your head. The silk is lovely and soft against your skin.
Thanks to Melissa for a beautiful component, it was great fun to work with! And if you’d like to see what the rest of the AJE Team and guests made with their hearts, you can visit them using the links below!
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