Diary Date: 14 June 2015 - Meet Jeni Cairns at Stamford Arts Centre

Jeni Cairns: Artist and garden designer based in rural Cambridgeshire

Reusing and up-cycling have become an important and integral part of her practice, especially in the various show gardens she has created at Harrogate and RHS Hampton court flower show this year where she won a coveted gold and best in category for “A space to connect and grow”. The use of steel drums have proved a great “blank canvas” on which to depict the fragility of nature yet also represent its strength and enduring resilience.

Read more via Jeni Cairns « ESC Artists.

I am one of the founders of ESCartists in collaboration with my artist friends Eve Marshall and Cathi Prince. Escartists is a new creative group planning an escape from the ordinary by organising Artist markets and exhibitions promoting extraordinary workmanship and talent. I will be sharing details of all 12 artists taking part in our 2015 events on this blog. Feel free to share, reblog and also ask any questions you may have via the Escartists website. Thanks :-)

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UK Inspiration Challenge... "Walk On..."

I came across ArtisanWhimsy on Facebook through MyBeadTherpay ’s Page (I follow Heidi’s work with a passion because she has inspired me to try so many new things and its great to see how wonderfully her work has progressed in the 2 odd years we've been talking bling with each other!) And right there on the front page of the forum was this little banner which took me to a page which said: “Can you create a piece of jewellery or a jewellery component inspired by where the UK Blog team live?” The choices were Dorset / Edinburgh / Bath / The Isle of Wight / Liverpool / Southampton and this is what the description said about Liverpool : image courtesy Wikipedia “ Liverpool is world-famous as the home of The Beatles, but is also well known for football, the Scouse (now there's a term for you non-Brits to look up!) sense of humour and of course, the shipping port and the River Mersey” The description and for various other reasons Liverpool it had t...

Bead Hoarders Blog Hop Reveal

So its time to reveal what I have been hoarding. Well this does not even touch the surface of things I have stashed away but its a start! Let me begin by introducing fellow Stamford Artisans Guild member DL Designs of Rutland . Diz makes the most amazing jewellery, charms and lanyards in different types of cords and threads and I admire her work a lot. So about two years ago I bought a handmade hemp macramé cording knot necklace from DL Designs. And then I promptly put it in safe keeping because I wanted to make something special with it. And I have been hoarding it all this time. I also had a beautiful Labradorite Cabochon cut and polished in house in our Lapidary workshop . This beautiful stone has a magnificent Labradorescence and I have had it on my board for almost 6 months! Because of the angle its been cut at it needed a special wrap on it for the colours to be seen in full glory. I have wrapped it a couple of times and then taken the wire off because the Labradorescence w...

7th Bead Soup Party: Shalini's Sparkly Serving Revealed!

So the day is finally here! Its PARTY TIME! My parties are always "Bring a Bottle" kinds so help yourself to your favourite tipple and enjoy! Part 1: This is my first entry into the world of Bead Soups. Be gentle lovely people... It all started when I signed up for the Pretty Things 7th Bead Soup Blog party on 26 January. I have since blogged a bit about it. My Partner Sarah Goode from Pookledo sent me a lovely stash of shiny things! A handful of Swarovski disc crystals / Some metal glitterballs in various sizes / A length of silver plated chain / Some Swarovski glass pearls / a magnetic glitterball clasp Yummy I hear you say! It is! But apart from the silver chain these are things I have NEVER worked with before! My pieces tend to have a lot of colour in them! And here I am looking at lots of grey (OK shiny silvery grey but it is shades of grey, maybe not quite 50 but near enough!) HELP! This is totally out of my comfort zone! You set me a chal...

Soup's On! And its Tasty!

Actually it is Delicious! Just have a look at what my Beadsoup partner Susan has sent me! M is the word... MAGNIFICENT! It is an amazing selection of beads, ribbons & cords and not one, not two but FOUR different Focal pieces to play with. The hand-etched copper clasp is just amazing. And her generosity in the amount of beads she has sent is quite humbling. I don't think I sent her enough! But she says she likes it and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing what she creates from it. Just look at what I have to play with, so many different colours and media! Read what Susan thinks of my soup. And now I can reveal the soup I sent too! It includes: - A selection of pearl and shell beads in Yellow, Orange, Green and Red. - A small selection of Felt beads that I made using the technique felt artisan Eve Marshall taught me. - A selection of pewter and Tibetan Silver beads - Yellow Organza ribbon. - Kumihimo braid made with Chinese silk cord. - Tibetan Si...

Life Slowly getting back to "Normal"

... well as normal as it can possibly be with 3 lots of steroid eye drops, plus a gooey ointment in both eyes daily and some of the blurriness that is a result of it... This picture is a fair indication of what my vision has been like at times in recent weeks! Had a little tidy-up of the work bench over the week-end and I made some beads for my beadsoup partner yesterday. Hopefully they will be dry today and then I can match up a few more ingredients and get this in the post this week to Ottawa, Canada where my new BSBP partner Susan lives. The Focal piece and matching beads were ready a while ago but I decided to add something different to the mix too. And NO I am not telling you what beads I made just yet! :-P More about Susan in the next blog post... And I have started playing with some beautiful beach glass a client gave me sometime ago. + The new lot of St Helena Rock + A Wire and Felt Peacock project I am working on with my friend Eve. + Don't get me starte...

Jewellery By Shalini

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