Inspiration & Steampunk

How is everyone enjoying the bank holiday?  I must admit the weather could be better, but what do you expect on a long weekend!



I've spent a couple of weekends working on my new projects, using mixed medium is a step in a new direction for me as I've predominatly worked with glass and beads.  My inspiration came from a magazine my friend Lucy gave me earlier this year.  It was a making jewellery magazine, not one I've picked up or flicked through before but it had interviews with designers, and one caught my eye.  I'd not heard of her before but she was dressed in a red Victorian Outfit & her jewellery style appealled to my goth side.  Reading the interview with Jema Hewitt & a "how to" article written by her I was inspired by the steampunk style jewellery and her use of mixed mediums.  She has written a book on creating Steampunk Jewellery called Steampunk Emporium which I ordered from amazon along with some other Steampunk design books & I was inspired & excited about making jewellery once more!

So using Jema's guides on using resin (certainly not something I'd considered before) and mixing it with polymer clay, crystals and charms I've had some exciting projects underway!  I must admit using the polymer clay reminded me of some pieces I made at school!

The items below are available from my Misi Store and I've included the stories my acquiantance Miss Kitty Storm-Barron has for them.

Atlantean Charm Bracelet

Miss Kitty Storm-Barron was on an aquatic adventure with her hired crew & submarine “Return to Nautilus” searching for the lost city of Atlantis, sadly on this mission the ancient city was not found, but a clue of its existence was.  Miss Kitty found this charm bracelet which is made from sea glass and coin charms.  The underwater expedition was cut short due to a leak in the fuselage, but Miss Kitty is determined to continue the quest once a puncture repair kit has been located...

Princess Sarah's Clockwork Heart Necklace

 

On a recent interlude in Zanzibar Miss Kitty Storm-Barron heard a story about Princess Sarah, she was a clockwork Princess commissioned by a Prince Regent, but the Prince was an arrogant man & believed he deserved everything he wanted & even the clockwork Princess Sarah could not love him.  Princess Sarah fell in love with a young, kind hearted servant in the palace, but the Prince grew jealous & banished the servant from his kingdom & demanded the heart he had made for her belonged to him.  Princess Sarah asked her maker to create another clockwork heart, one to wear around her neck so she could always display her love for her young man whilst the Prince owned the one inside her.  Miss Kitty found this piece at auction, believed to be Princess Sarah’s heart necklace.

Lord Lucian's Time Device Necklace

Whilst having afternoon tea in an establishment just outside the centre of Cairo Miss Kitty Storm-Barron happened upon an inebriated gentleman of some question boasting about his recent gains in the pick pocketing department.  One of his newest acquisitions, a Time Device, Miss Kitty recognised as belonging to Lord Lucian (believed to be the High Judicial of the Secret Pioneers Society) and decided to liberate it from its new owner; Miss Kitty fully intended to return the Time Device to Lord Lucian but the piece intrigued her has it had no discernable hands to tell the time, and knowing Lord Lucian’s reputation for new inventions it’s believed the device may have another secret use...

That's all for now, hope you like the new jewellery & enjoy the stories, let me know what you think =0)

Lots of love, Kendra x

Creative Buzz

Well as some as you know I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason & just over 2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a free entry ticket to the Big Bead Fair at Sandown Park, which was really fantastic as I've had a few ideas rolling around my little mind recently & knew that one of the suppliers I regularly purchase from were going to be there with the components that I was looking to use for my new projects.  Then added bonus, the suppliers were having a 10% off, woohoo!

So, all inspired & filled with a creative buzz I've created 3 pieces, one necklace, one charm bracelet & one piece that I've not yet decided if it'll be a pendant on a necklace or a broach so no picture of that one yet!  I think my acquaitance Miss Kitty Storm-Barron would love these, you might hear more about her soon.

Winged Love

As always I appreciate any feedback.

Purple Time of Love

Don't forget, if you're interested in a jewellery party I'm trying to clear old stock!

That's all for now, I didn't actually intend to write here tonight!

Lots of love xx

Have you made anything lately?

Have you made anything lately? How's the jewellery coming along Kendra?

These are the questions featuring heavily in my life recently, which is nice, it makes a change from "How are you feeling?" and "Is everything ok?".

It's hard to believe that a year ago my life was turned upside down, back to front & inside out.  As you probably know my father passed away in February, then I split with my long term partner, which means we had to sell the house, so very sadly my jewellery was packed up into boxes & stored in various friends homes, thank you darling friends!

2011 was a rotten year & it didn't end with seperating from my partner & selling my home, my aunt also passed away very suddenly & most recently I had to have Max, my adorable bear of a cat, put to sleep. 

But that's it!  No more!  Out of the bad times come the good, I've now got a cousin that I wasn't close to before but now she's like a sister to me & I love her & children dearly.  I'm in a lovely flat that's exactly how I like it, plus when I get home from work things are still where I left them ;0)

So, have I made anything lately?  Truthfully the answer is no, but I'm now filled with a new vigour & itching to get the beads out & try some new ideas.  I do have a lot of old stock that I'd like to clear so if you feel like having your friends round for a different type of girls night in then I'm doing Jewellery Parties again, I'll be selling most items at £5 just to clear them so you'll be getting a bargain as some the beads cost more than that!


Well, that's it for now, and please feel free to contact me if you fancy a party =0)

Now get outside & enjoy the sunshine!


Kendra x

Special Gift for Fathers Day

Hello everyone,

Bit of a crazy week this week, have had to make myself scarce at home as the house is on the market & we are having a fair amount of viewings.

I just wanted to remind you that Sunday 19^th June is Fathers Day & if you are stuck for gift ideas then why not a pair of cufflinks?  You can go for my classic fused glass style, or for something a bit more personal then how about these fun letter cufflinks?   

Made from Vintage Scrabble Tiles you can choose the initials to make a personalised set.  The scrabble cufflinks are just £10 and come gift wrapped in a pillow box.  Letters are subject to availability … there are only so many letters tiles in a set of scrabble!

Have a lovely week

Kendra x

www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

Chiyogami Pendants

Hello everyone,

How's your week been?  I'm getting through one day at a time, it's all I can do.

Last weekend I managed to make some pendants I've been longing to make for a while.  The inspiration was from an american artist a friend of mine found on the internet & I instantly fell in love with her artwork.  On her website she sells jewellery of her artwork, glass tiles with the artwork image, after speaking by e-mail with the wonderful artist, Rebecca Sinz (Elvenstar Art), she told me how it was done after I explained I made jewellery & loved fusing glass & it was much simpler than I originally thought it was.


It's taken me just over a year to find a supplier of the glass tiles, but then I don't have any wonderful artwork to reproduce for the jewellery, so my idea was to use some beautiful chiyogami origami paper I found when I was clearing out Dad's house.  Chiyogami is used to describe one type of Japanese paper. These are hand-silk screened mulberry papers many of which are embellished and consist of repeated patterns. Chiyogami/Yuzen patterns are based on traditional designs, including flowers, plants, butterflies, birds or geometric patterns.

I adore the colours & the patterns, not all of them worked out as pendants so I've made some cute little badge sized ones.  These should be available soon on my Misi Store.

That's all for this week, see you soon

Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

Weekend At Bernies

Hi everyone,
sorry it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but I seem to be having a spate of very bad personal luck at the moment, I thought things would look up after the passing of Dad but it turns out I was wrong & I feel like my world has collapsed in on itself.  Obviously I don't want to go into it here as it's a far too public forum, but I'm happy when I'm creating but I can only create when I'm happy so I've not made much jewellery recently.

I thought I would share with you today what I have managed to make using my new kiln, Bernie.  He's been very good at baking glass for me since he arrived, I need to do a bit of tinkering with the tack fuse setting but I'm very pleased with his hard work.

This is the glass I've cut & laid out on the kiln shelf with Bullseye Thinfire paper to protect the shelf.

This is the kiln shelf after firing, notice the nice rounded edges on the larger pieces, the layers of glass all deliciously fused together & the smaller pieces are now nice little rounds for cufflinks.

These are the fused glass pieces all nicely attached to their blank components to make colourful pendants, dashing cufflinks & fabulous rings.  As always the rings are sterling silver & stamped with 925.

Hopefully I'll post again soon with more adventures in beading, see you then.

Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

How You Doing?

Hello everyone,

How are you all doing?  It feels like ages since I last wrote, but looking it was just 2 weeks ago.  I've not had a lot of opportunity to make much in the way of jewellery recently, my excuses are that I had my wrist operated on to remove the metal plate when when I broke my arm last year & my other excuse is that the past 2 weekends we ... when I say we I actually mean my beloved boyfriend ... have been doing some decorating & home improvements & I've been staying safely out of the way, which normally would be a good time to keep myself occupied in the ways of beading but to be honest there wasn't much space to work in without getting in the way.

I have had an opportunity to have a go at my New Year Resolutions, if you remember I targeted myself with 3 & I'm very proud to say I've achieved 2 out of the 3 ...ok so they were the easier two, but still two out of three ... whoohoo!
 
My first resolution was to try at least one thing in Kirstie's Homemade Home book, & I can report that I have actually tried making 2 things from the book, I've made Lavendar Bags & I've had a go at Fabric Decoupage which was marvellously messy & using the PVA glue brought back memories of making at mess with it at middle school.

Today I'm going to share with you the Lavendar Bags, because in making these I managed to acheive resolution number three, to learn to use my mum's sewing machine.  Well it's more of a twist on this resolution, my mother in law actually took my mum's sewing machine for me, it was perfect for what she wanted & for me it was a bit too big for what I needed, so I brought a new one from John Lewis!

Using the sewng machine

One lining bag & one decorative bag

Stuffing the lining bag with lavendar

Finished Lavendar Bags

 I'm going to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to achieve my second resolution, to attend a copperfoiling course.  I was left a bit of money from Dad as inheritence & with a very small part of it I brought a new kiln, but at the moment I'm still dealing with things from Dad's Estate, which is really horrible as I thought I was nearly done & it's a question of 1 step forward & 2 steps back, it's all rather upsetting.  So I want to make the absolute most of the kiln, we've named him Bernie.

Speaking of Bernie I put him to good use yesterday & I fused nearly everything I had cut ages ago, so this morning I want to cut some new glass that I brought & see what goodies he bakes me!  I hope to share more about Bernie next week, I also have a few other jewellery products in mind which again I hope to share soon!

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.
Love
Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk