Wordless Wednesday!

Competition Winner!

Congratulations

to 

Tina Gilmore! 

Your name was first out of the hat.

 Thank you to everyone else who entered. I really appreciate your visit to my blog! 

I have been fiddling about with the layout of my blog. I managed to add a third column after consulting several tutorials. Finally after numerous failures and much frustration I found one that worked for me at Simple Blogger Tutorials. I have also picked up useful tips from Craft Blog Uk. So if you are looking to improve the look of your own blog please check out these sites.

It's a slow process for me though - I am not educated in the mysterious language of HTML! I'll just have to keep picking away at it until I get the result I was looking for!

Bold as Brass Competition

Well the Viking Weave Bracelet in Brass is finally finished and I thought I would have a giveaway!

If you would like to win the above Bracelet then just leave a comment below and I'll enter you into the draw - closing date Tuesday 11th May. The only qualification is that you are a follower of my blog - so if you're not already please click the Follow button now! x

I'm a big fan of Moo Cards and was excited to receive a new batch of Mini Cards to go with my Viking Weave Jewellery:

I chose one image for my cards but you can have up to a 100 different ones I think!

I look forward to reading your comments!

Experimenting with Brass

I was hoping to bring you my Cup Cake decorating exploits in this post but unfortunately the Volcanic Ash Cloud has thrown a spanner in the works and I never made it to the class!
Well all the Easter Chocolate is nearly gone. I was lucky enough to receive some beautiful handmade eggs from Fortnum's (I have a great Hubby!!). This little number on the left was one of three in dark, white and milk chocolate. At the time of taking this photo only the milk one remained intact enough to pose for a photo!

Turning to Jewellery - I got hold of some natural Brass Wire and have started to experiment with some Viking Weave. I am loving the colour. Still working it on the stick so watch this space to see how it turns out.

My latest piece is this Pure Silver Necklace and Bracelet set. I am hoping to progress to incorporating some beads and other embellishments to the weave at some point. For the moment I'm loving the simplicity and elegance of the plain weave.






The weather has been beautiful this week! I think I feel a competition coming on!

Wait and see!

Mother's Day!

I hope all you Mothers out there were treated well this Mother's Day! I had a lovely relaxing day with my boys and I also was pleased to be the recipient of these gorgeous Earrings from Beadypool.

I was the lucky Winner of Beadypool's Mothering Sunday Competition. I have always admired Beadypool's work - she only uses Artisan Lampwork Beads and her work is very classy and beautiful. Thank you Beadypool!

All you Jewellery Makers out there should start quaking in your boots as there are two new designers in town! My 5 Year Old Twin Boys made me these lovely necklaces at School for Mother's Day!

I am still happily beavering away at my own little projects. I have recently made some Copper Viking Weave Choker Necklaces to go with the Bracelets.

Coming Soon....

My first taste of Silversmithing!

&

My favourite thing : CUPCAKES!!!!

A little Hello from me

Hello there - I hope you are well! It's been ages since my last blog and thought it was about time I showed my face.

I'm looking out of the window at the pouring rain and thinking this time last week I was in Dubai in the warm Sunshine with my toes in the sand!

I was only there for a short time but it was just the tonic I needed away from the cold and miserable weather the UK has to offer! We soaked up the sun, splashed in water and ate nice food and most importantly spent time together as a family.

I was even lucky enough to have lunch at The Burj Al Arab - the most luxurious Hotel in the world -unfortunately I'm nowhere near rich enough to stay there! The restaurant is the bit sticking out of the side (see pic above) and had spectacular views.

Since I returned I have managed to be a little creative mainly on commissioned pieces! I'm still working on my Viking Weave creations and experimenting with different weaves. I don't know if anyone is interested in my creations but for me that's not what it's about - I just love to make lovely things. I'm still keen to work more with Precious Metal Clay and Polymer Clays as well as learn some Silversmithing techniques.

Competition Winner!

Congratulations to

SARAH -

Buddhist Musician Accessories

This Viking Weave Bracelet is yours!

Sorry to the others who entered - please visit my blog again for more giveaways!

Happy New Year!

I hope you are all having a fantastic start to 2010.

I made some delicious Pumpkin Pie thanks to Michele providing me with the necessary ingredients - Thank you Michele!

My Misi Shop is currently empty so I can concentrate on being creative and finding THE thing that defines me- whatever that is I don't know

but I hope some day to find it!

The craft I am enjoying the most at the moment is Viking Weave. I have gone Viking Weave mad!

I must look a very odd sight out in Public with my little stick and reel of wire! I love the fact that it is so mobile - you can take it anywhere and need very few tools - it is a very basic craft. I recently saw some pieces of Viking Weave Jewellery in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London - unfortunately I was unable to take a photo - I love the fact that I am doing the same thing as a Viking over a 1000 years ago!

So I've done lots of weaving but as yet haven't turned my lengths of weave into anything other than the odd bracelet like this Copper and Silver one

Competition!

Would anyone like to win the bracelet above?

It measure 7.5" from start to finish. The weave is made with bare Copper Wire. The end cones and the S-Clasp are Sterling Silver (925).

You can enter by doing one of the following:

1. Follow my blog if you're not already!

2. Tweet, Blog, Facebook etc about my Competition

3. Become a fan of my Facebook Fan Page

Leave a comment below and I'll enter you into the draw which will take place on

Wednesday 20th January 2010

This competition is open to everyone wherever you are in the world. Don't forget to leave a contact email or other link to you so I can track you down!

Best Wishes!

Busy Summer

Highland Adventures!

I've had a long busy summer trying to entertain the kids and not getting much else done in the process - it's good to have a break from the normal routine though! We started off our Summer break on the Isle of Mull in Uncle Jim's Cottage which is converted from an old water mill. It was the perfect place to get away from the hectic routine of Urbanish life!

An old Mill Stone

Scottish Thistle

Beautiful deserted beach!

Let's not forget the lovely Tobermory (but let's keep quiet about the childrens' tv programme filmed here!)

I did take a little project with me! I couldn't go all that time without being creative so I decided to revisit Viking Weave. The process is to weave the wire onto a dowel as shown in the picture (left). Next you remove the wire from the dowel and pull it with all your might through a drawplate and you end up with something quite pretty and pleasing!

The one I did first was a single weave and the result is shown in the picture on the right. I eventually turned this into a bracelet with Silver end cones (below)

En route home from Scotland we made a pit stop at my parents' in Cheshire. We always make a point of visiting an ice cream farm (Cheshire is big on Dairy!). This time we went to Snugbury's where they have the added attraction of a Straw Sculpture - each year they have a different one. Check out pictures of previous years on their website! This year it was Big Ben - London's famous clock. The clock on the straw version really works too!

Today was a bank holiday in the UK. We took the kids for a ride on The London Eye where we had a great view of the real Big Ben!

Jolicious Blog

Hello everyone. I'm new to the world of blogging and this is my very first one!

My name is Jo and I have 3 boys - age 7 and 4 (twins). I am a stay at home mum but increasingly filling my time with Jewellery making. I'm finding it very hard to find the time to get any jewellery made with the boys running around and being glued to the computer wading through all the different sites that are out there!

It's half-term and I'm at my parents in Cheshire for some much needed respite. I'm going on a course tomorrow to learn how to make beaded tassels at a place called The Bead Trail at Blakemere Craft Centre in Cheshire. I love going on courses and have been on quite a few recently; I learnt how to do Fingerprint Jewellery at the Dulwich School of Jewellery . I really enjoyed working with Precious Metal Clay and a whole new world of possibilities had opened up to me! I plan to do even more courses there when I get time.

I also have few courses lined up with Jean Power, editor of Bead Magazine. One course is learning Chain Maille and the other is Viking Weave. Her courses are great fun and really informative - I'm lucky enough to have been on two already. I'll let you know how I get on.

Will post a few pictures when I return home as I'm on my new laptop and it is bare!

Well slowly I am catching up with everyone else in blogging, twittering, facebooking, Flickr etc etc. How does anyone find time to Create???? I have so much to learn!