A heir in the family loom

I haven’t shared much bijoux with you for a while.Banter has been getting in the way!

This creation is part of my B4KY Range and is made entirely of Coral. Whilst it is  nowadays illegal to remove coral from it’s natural habitat in most countries I am almost 100% sure that this coral was not gathered illegally. The coral used in this necklace dates back at least 60 years and belonged to my husband’s, father’s mother. It was passed along to my mother in law who brought it to me in a very sorry state.Having seen the devastating effect that the environment can have on coral I would hate to think that this coral was obtained in any way illegally. I would sooner admire the beauty of nature than a necklace around someone’s neck. Having said this I do occasionally wear it and it’s look stunning!

The B4KY range represents a range of jewellery or stones which already belong to someone but that need either some loving restoration work, a new lease of life or even a beginning. The following photos represent all of the above.

The amber pendant has been transformed from a brooch. My client no-longer wanted the brooch but felt that since the amber had been passed down to her she should keep it. We came up with a simple design which enabled her to wear it to dazzling effect.

The following stones are stunning and the story that goes with it is beautiful. One of my special bridal clients (who I had created the tiara, necklace & earrings for….. asked me to design two special presents for her bridesmaids. The stones were from a beach in New Zealand where she spent her honeymoon. The stones when they arrived at the studio were quite plain and non de script. We managed to drill perfect holes in them without shattering them and then string them. Fiona was delighted with the result – as were her bridesmaids.

The final was a client who was tired with a plain set of stunning pearls and felt that they needed a bit of life putting into them. She actually wanted me to create several pieces from one string. As you can see I managed to design 2 necklaces, an anklet and a stunning pair of earrings.

OK enough of Bijoux – Banter’s back on the perch. Diane with the gorgeous books over at Much of a muchnes has been letting the recent Oscar’s go to her head. What a win for France by the way! And what a beautiful woman too….not to mention her dress.

Anyway, she has honoured me with another award and I am delighted to accept it….now I did write a speech but was frightened of the response I might get particularly since the Oscar audience can be quite cutting……. YOUR OSCAR SPEECH IS BORING

So without any further ado – thanks Diane, I’ll shut up now!

Knowing me, knowing you….do you?

Colin of Life has been at it again with his wonderful tagging! This one like he says goes on and on forever! But I must admit it’s fun and also reveals alot about the person….well reveals what you want them to know! So here goes…..

KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOUCopy this entire list of questions and change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then tag and pass it along to other blogging friends. Let’s see how well we can get to know one another!

1. What is your occupation? Jewellery designer & linguist

2. What color are your socks right now? Bare feet

3. What are you listening to right now? James Blunt

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Chocolate mousse

5. Can you drive a stick shift? What’s one of them?

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Orange

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A woman called Frances who has just rung me for a tarot card reading!

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Like him? Il est adorable!

9. Favorite drink? At the moment white wine from Cambriel’s vineyard down the road.

10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Ice Hockey

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Of course!

12. Pets? Dog – berger des pyrenées and 4 wooden cats!

13. Favorite food? Depends upon the time of year, seafood, steak, spice & salsa (nothing plain boring English…..)

14. Last movie you watched? I wouldn’t have a clue…..we don’t go to the cinema and as for a dvd…..perhaps Casino Royale yonks ago.

15. Favorite Day of the year? Everyday is my favourite

16. What do you do to vent anger? Stomp about, rant on and then sit and have a glass of wine

17. What was your favorite toy as a child? I can always remember a brown & yellow bear I won at bingo inFiley, not sure what happened to him but have fond memories.

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring? I love all the seasons but I suppose if I have to choose one Spring

19. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

20. What kind of pie? Savoury – meat & potato

21. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes, it annoys me when I take time to send news and they don’t reply – so I should ask myself if they are friends after all….. If you mean e-mail about this…well no I’ll just read what they write I hope!

22. Who is most likely to respond? All of them I hope!

23. Who is least likely to respond? The one who doesn’t receive it!

24. Living arrangements? Yes – wonderful…..renovated barn…lots of space, light & love!

25. When was the last time you cried? Last week watching Emmerdale!

26. What is on the floor of your closet? Does closet mean toilet or wardrobe?

27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? I haven’t had many freinds for very long…..I have known Susie the longest BUT she didn’t know me at the time!

28. The friend you have known the shortest amount of time that you are sending this to? What a strange question….obviously struggling at this point to get to 30…..

29. Favorite smell? Baked bread from the boulangerie

30. What inspires you? Life (no Not Colin!) but Life in general

31. What are you afraid of? Losing those most precious to me

32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Spicy of course and hot!

33. Favorite car? Fast, convertible and totally impractical

34. Favorite cat breed? Toffee (my old moggy )

35. Number of keys on your key ring? I don’t have any keys….

36. How many years at your current job? 2 years

37. Favorite day of the week?I’ve answered this already…I’m bored now & ML is waking up!

38. How many provinces have you lived in? Provinces….can I have a GB translation please? This is my 2nd county if that helps!

39. How many countries have you been to? Loads – far too many to mention. Most eye opening was Ethopia, exotic Maldives, wet Mozambique, cold Canada, enriching France!

I am going to tag:

Diane of Much of a Muchness, Susie of No damn blog & Lisa of Polka Dot Creations

Sorry girls – but would be really interested in what you all have to say!

 

And now my little one is wide awake so must go and play mummy!

Sunshine on a grey day!

Would you believe that it was 20c+ on Saturday and we sat, barbecued and enjoyed the February weather. Even Manon Lily ended up celebrating with her sun hat & no socks!

Now today, it’s grey and wet! Actually it’s highly unusual to be grey and wet here but the marin has wandered in off the Med and covered us in a blanket of mist. Having said that we could really do with the rain as summer could prove difficult in some areas. Newspapers are already talking about “la secheresse”.So just when I thought that the day would remain grey along comes Diane from Much of a muchness to brighten up my day! Diane is celebrating the 1st birthday of her wonderful blog and as a result she has honored people with an award. Thank you Diane I am overwhelmed that you think of my blog in this way.

I spent the entire day yesterday working on the new advert for the studio. Trying to encompass what Lunes Bijoux is about on 2 sides of A4 in French was quite difficult, but I am pleased with the final result. All that remains now is for me to transfer this onto my website and then launch the advertising. With regards to the studio the windows are now in and I should be allowed back in from the end of this week. I can’t wait!  Watch this space!

Message in a bottle

I couldn’t help but give you the video to fit the caption…..but it’s not actually about The Police or Sting (what a hunk)!

Colin of Life has been kept really busy recently and was even threatened with being put in one of the virtual dungeons….I shudder at the thought of it! Although it may give me break from the dust of the studio renovations!

Anyway, this is what he had to say…..

Sandee of Comedy Plus has tagged me for the Mimi’s Message In a Bottle Meme. Now I’m really afraid of that dungeon she has and have managed to escape for a short time, so I’m getting this tag done right now.Here are the rules:You are about to send a virtual Message In a Bottle across the Blog Ocean. Leave a message in the sand or on the bottle. Write anything you wish. Be a pirate or a poet. Serious or silly. Anonymous or not. What message would you like to send out to the universe?

Message In A Bottle Meme

1. Compose a message to place in your virtual bottle.
2. Right click and SAVE the blank graphic below.

3. Use a graphics program of your choice to place the message on the picture.
4. Post the Message In a Bottle meme and your creation on your blog along with these rules.
5. Tag a minimum of 5 bloggers – or your entire blogroll – to do the same. Notify them of the tag.

Your virtual bottle will remain afloat in the blogosphere ocean for all blogernity (That’s a Mimism for blog + eternity.)

So, if you are tagged by me, go over to Mimi’s and ADD your site to her Mr. Linky list and place your blog’s name and url in a comment HERE TO LET MIMI KNOW YOU’VE COMPLETED THE MEME. Mimi will add it to the master list of message bottles. Email mimiwrites2005 at yahoo.com if you have questions. Participation is optional. Just remember she has a dungeon….and some of you are STILL there from the Band Meme. Have fun!

 

So with my pirate hat on here is mine by Henry Ward Beecher

 

And I’m now tagging…..

 Roberta of Just me & my creations

Suzie of Scattered Brains

Karen of Contemporary Women

 

 

Happy Birthday – 1 year old today

The European Polymer Clay People Forum is 1 year old today! I launched this forum as a way of highlighting & supporting polymer clay artists based primarily in Europe. Membership is free.
The forum currently has over 300 members with 2929 posts and 410 topics.
In December last year we completed our first International Bead Swap and in January this year we challenged members to produce something with “texture” in mind. The forum is unfortunately pretty quiet at the moment which is a great shame considering the growing popularity of polymer clay.

Speaking of polymer clay – the studio transformation is now well underway.
I have tried to put a slide show together from how it all began way back in March 2005 to the current day.

The studio initially opened to the public in March 2006 and has since then evolved and taken it’s own identity. As a result of requests for tuition on how to make jewellery and work with polymer clay alongside people wanting to buy loose beads & finsings, we decided to have a second phase expansion / renovation. This has meant taking out the main wall (behind my work bench…) relocating the bathroom and taking part of the entrance to the house. The new craft centre, bead shop & Lunes studio are due to open at the beginning of March!
I will continue to add photos as the work continues

If there were more hours in the day…..

I have come in from the wonderful February sunshine to have my afternoon espresso, a read of your blogs and a quick catch up in general. And then I got thinking……if there were more hours in the day what would you do with those additional hours?

I never seem to get everything done anyway and that’s with the studio closed at the moment!

So I challenge you to consider what you would do with 2 extra hours?!

I would

1. Sort out the wardrobe as Manon Lily has out grown so many clothes they need sorting and passing on.

2. Study my tarot cards and understand the power of reversed cards! 

3.Then I would have a long hot bath with my reading book! 

 

Invasion – in need of some protection

A few weeks ago I went through to Domaine de la Source near Fontfroide. I have blogged about this Domaine previously - see here. Both Norbert & Françoise are exceptionally knowledgeable in the field of gemstones (they make me feel like a real amateur) and the benefits of wearing & working with the stones.

This particular day Norbert was working with a range of stones and for some reason I was particularly drawn to a small rough looking black stone. My eyes wouldn’t leave the stone and no matter how hard I tried to focus on the other colourful beauties he had on his bench my eyes wouldn’t leave the Black Tourmaline. In the end I had to ask him what this stone represented and why I was feeling such a pull towards it.

The following site (http://www.rainbowcrystal.com/crystal/gems/tourm.html) sums up this stone perfectly:

Black Tourmaline (Schorl)

Black tourmaline’s particular function is to repel negative energy. This can refer both to external energies or inner emotions, such as anger, resentment, or jealousy. It is a very good stone to carry when you’re experiencing any kind of stress.

 

As you can imagine I was quite shocked by this and moreover Norbert was very concerned that someone or something had it in for me…..wow! I left the Domaine with a large chunk of rough tourmaline and was advised to place it where I saw fit. As I type the tourmaline is in front of me. For some reason I felt the need to place it in front of the computer!

After several weeks of contemplation and so on…I have been able to pin point several weak spots and as a result I returned to the Domaine for some added protection. After a long discussion I was advised to mix the black tourmaline with some quartz. This is how we came about the Tourmalinated Quartz beads .

The following site (http://www.crystalwellbeing.co.uk/catalogueitemsbycrystal.php?Crystal=Quartz-Tourmalinated)

describes this stone perfectly:

Tourmalinated Quartz is made up of needles of black Tourmaline embedded in natural clear Quartz, thus bringing together the protective properties of Tourmaline with the amplifying properties of Quartz.

It is a powerful protective stone that is believed to have the ability to deflect negative thoughts and energies, protecting the wearer or carrier from being harmed by the negative energy of another.

Tourmalinated Quartz is also believed to turn negative energy into positive energy and is good stone for those who have a tendency towards self-sabotage.

In healing Tourmalinated Quartz is said to help with depression and nervous exhaustion.

So now I have the protection I am just at a bit of a quandary for what to do with the beads. I have made a very simple elasticated bracelet but I don’t feel that this is enough for them. So for the time being they are sitting waiting for some inspiration. Like with all of my jewellery I want something wearable & attractive – so I really need to get my thinking cap on here. The beads in themselves are quite nondescript which doesn’t really help. May be a tough one this project – especially since it’s for me!

Now if it was a piece like this I would have a field day!

The other week I mentioned that I read tarot – well as a result of me blogging here I am reading for a client next week!

 

 

 

 

Polymer sculptor takes your breath away!

The other day I shared my admiration of book binding with you. Today I am in awe of another artist and for once a fellow polymer clay buddy but someone in a totally different league to me. I just love the work of Helen Facenna, it’s bold, daring and amazingly artistic. I would love to know who her muse is……

Meet Bronwen – you just want to own her, cradle her and admire her all day long.

Then there is Feeling Fruity a real character – and so well dressed!

If you fancy a closer peep have a look here…..

What a talented artist – I am sure you will all agree. Now how can I get my hand on one of them?