New jewellery party preparations

My dear friend Karen is hosting one of my jewellery parties in 2 weeks time. She hosted one last year which was very successful and I know I need to get lots of lovely new stock made. I thought I would share some photos with you showing some of my newest designs.
As it will be almost a pre Christmas party I have tried to make some new party sparkly type pieces.

This is a new necklace I have made to add to my stock.

I have used some large spider agate discs and added rock quartz nuggets. It is much more sparkly in the flesh and the quartz looks like chunks of ice.

It is quite a heavy necklace so I finished it with a sturdy twisted wire sterling silver toggle clasp which will happily take the weight.

A real statement piece.









On the same "ice" theme I made another necklace, this time using all rock quartz

I have used some chunky "shards" of rock quartz here which hang down like icey daggers and then finished the necklace with quartz nuggets. I have a version of this necklace myself and it actually looks good in winter or summer. I wore it on my recent holiday to Rhodes and even in 35oc it looked very good with a summer outfit.





I have again used some rock quartz in the piece below, in the centre hangs an agate leaf focal.

I have also recently found a supplier of the best quality Czech fire polished beads and have made a few pieces using these. I have lots of lovely colours, blues, reds, pinks, purples...and want  more when I can afford to buy them.

This is a gorgeous deep cobalt blue with clear aurora borealis together with cobalt cats eye beads and a wedding cake lampwork focal bead in the centre.

This is a second variation without the cats eye beads.












And a bracelet in the same cobalt colour

And this is a necklace using the stunning ruby red Czech fire polished beads... 

I have also made a few new bracelets, these below both have toggle clasps.

And a couple of black and silver colourways.

And also I made another purple and black necklace as this seems to be very much the colour of the season. I also made a few of these recently and they seem popular, one is still for sale in my Etsy shop. 

I also found some wonderful display items from the very talented Nicola who makes the most amazing felt cakes. I have bought 2 with a Christmas theme and will use these to drape some of my jewellery over at my party.

How clever are they and yes, they really are made of felt! I hope they will be a good talking point as well as being excellent display props.

                                                

 I also had a check through my existing pieces and as always you can guess who wanted to be involved.......

Yes....Billy! Mind you this time he decided to rest his weary head on some of my pearl stock. He is actually such a good cat around my beading. I can leave everything out, wire,beads etc etc and he never touches a thing. One of our old cats, Meg was a real beast and would always try to eat threads etc so I had to be so careful. I think that even from a  few weeks old Billy would sit on my lap as I make my jewellery : he regards it as part of me. He's now too big to do that as he no longer fits under the table when he sits on my lap. Instead he watches from  (or sleeps on ) the chair. What a good cat!

Bye for now,

Jane x

One lovely surprise........

On Friday I received a message on my blog from the lovely Michele , who writes the delightful Mushroom Tender, to visit her at her blog as she had a surprise for me. I was so thrilled to find she had an award waiting there for me  - One Lovely Blog Award!
I am so new to  blogging that this was a real surprise and delight for me. Thank you Michele. She is a very talented artist and I have been following her blog for the last few months, do take a look. Her artwork is beautiful. I am a bit of a "jack of all trades" with my crafts and the one thing I cannot do is draw freehand...it is a skill I admire. The award is also to encourage us to visit more of the lovely blogs that are out there.

 In accepting this award we are asked to pass it on to 15 other lovely blogs we follow. At the moment I only number a few so I am going to pass this on to all those I do follow - you know who you are - don't be shy - and  also to all the lovely bloggers who have left such kind comments on my blog over the last 2 months. Please DO take the award, you all deserve it!

 The one person I really do want to name is my dear Etsy and Blogger friend Mia who lives far away in Finland. I have known Mia for about a year when I had her make me a beautiful Moomin bag. As a child I read and loved the Moomin books and when I found that she made Moomin bags I had to check her out. Through my Etsy convos I was introduced to her wonderful blog and I have followed it for the last year or so. It was her who inspired me to take the leap and start writing Jane's Journal in July. So actually if I could dedicate this award to someone it would be to dear Mia......thank you :0)

I also decided to take this opportunity to have a look at my stats and in this short time I found I have had visits from the UK, Finland, USA, Canada, Germany, Japan China, Denmark, Ireland, Russia, Argentina, Japan and most recently The Netherlands! Quite a world wide audience. It still stuns me how accessible the world is now with the Internet. I really do regard my fellow bloggers as blogger buddies and I so enjoy the interaction we all have. As you know I do have a profession as a busy physiotherapist working in the NHS and my crafts and hobbies that I blog about are such a great antidote to the fast pace of my working life. It gives me a real life-balance and I truly love it.

So to EVERYONE out there, thank you for visiting me at Jane's Journal, it gives me such pleasure that in such a short time I realise that there are people out there who appear to enjoy reading what I have to write and share. Please remember -  don't feel too shy to comment...it's always so lovely to hear from people. As I said in my very 1st post it really is good to realise that I am not talking to myself!

Bye for now - and thank you again Michele :0)

Jane x

An autumn gardening trip

Last week on my day off I went to see my parents who live in Kent. As it was a lovely bright autumn day we decided to visit and have lunch at our favourite garden centre in Knockholt near Sevenoaks. Their displays are always spectacular so I remembered my trusty camera.

 As well as home reared plants they sell some stunning pots. As I have a very small garden I tend to use lots of pots. These earthenware pots on the left are gorgeous, I have one on my Christmas list. They are also frost proof which is an added bonus.
They have embossed patterns and designs including bees, flowers and herbs.
                                                              



The spring bulbs had arrived and there was a very spectacular display of these. My favourite spring bulbs are daffodils but I also love the very showy parrot tulips.

I am always amazed just how many varieties of bulbs are available. No longer do we have to pay the prices for tulip bulbs that people did in the 1600s!

There were many gift sets also which made such an attractive display.






We also admired all the autumn bedding plants. I love cyclamen and I have a special fondness for pansies and violas, they have such cheerful little faces.

There were many  trays of alpines and my dad was tempted enough to add an edelweiss and a sedum to add to his collection.

 There were also some beautiful displays of autumn planting.

All this walking soon made us realise it was time for some home made soup and home made bread pudding so we made our way to the on site restaurant....yum! My dad as always had raced well ahead...

After a leisurely lunch we then spent a little longer wandering around the garden centre getting some inspiration for our own gardens. I just wish I could buy everything....

Then it was time to go back to Mum and Dad's and as it was such a sunny afternoon we were able to sit out in their beautiful garden and have an afternoon cup of tea....bliss

It was a special autumn day which I hope you enjoyed sharing.

 The weather this week has been the total opposite but I must admit the rain is always so necessary to keep the gardens looking  their best. |The forecast though for this weekend is actually looking more sunny so I hope to be able to get outside into my little garden and plant up some bulbs and autumn bedding. If I'm really lucky I may even be able to give my tiny lawn probably its final cut of the year.

Sending sunshine your way too,

Bye for now,

Jane x