Book review - Altered Curiosities

I am a part of the SATEAM blog carnival, and this month the topic is book reviews!

I  decided to take on Jane Wynns - Altered Curiosities, the newest member in my book collection.

At first glances you might not think it has anything to with jewellery, from the looks of the scary doll head on the cover, but it does.

The book is about using found objects, preferably old broken toys, in making art. She teaches you how to saw plastic and put it back together with metal.

One of my favourite projects, is the deer necklace. I wont give too much away but sawing of a platic toy deers head is involved :-)

The style is sort of Tim Burton meets the mean boy from Toy Story one. A fabulously cool meeting if you ask me.

So if you are wanting to try out mixed media, and love the sort of weird scary style this is the book for you. Great pictures and great tutorials, written in a delightful heartfelt tone.

Read other book rewievs here:

The FamiLee Jewels

Galadryl Designs

Northern Girl Jewelry

Bead Sophisticate

Island Girl

Christmas is Nearing

I always have a signature Christmas pendant in my stock for the holidays. And this year is no different. I get inspired by all the wonderful traditions Christmas holds.

Here's the last couple of years' holiday pendants

My first holiday pendant from 2 years ago, was this big red quarts, wire wrapped and adorned with pink tourmaline beads. I chose the pink to go a long with the red, so that it would fit the holiday theme, but also be wearable outside of the season. The inspiration for this, was the beautiful Christmas balls.

Christmas ball

Last year I made this more subtle pendant. I used a white cherry quarts, red garnets and a brown tourmaline. This one was inspired by the Danish holiday dish, "Æbleskiver". It's kinda like fritters, it's fried bread with jam and sugar. We eat a lot of it here in Denmark during the holidays.

 

The Danish holiday snack; Æbleskiver - picture provided from; Carinas Craft blog

So this year I wanted to go all out on the Christmas theme, and make something in red and green. So I got this gorgeous moss agate bead pendant, and some lovely red garnets, green tourmalines + apatite and wrapped it all up in this;

The inspiration for this piece was the traditional Danish Christmas tree. Which almost always is dominated by red and green. Unfortunately this pendant will not be up for sale in my etsy store. But it is available on Shelter Flair a long with other of my designs.

Last years Christmas tree

I wish you all happy holidays!

Featured Artist - The FamiLee Jewels

This time, my featured artist is not only a talented jewelry artist, but also a good friend, Bonnie from The FamiLee Jewels!

Tropical Dreams

The FamiLee Jewels consists of 3 generations of jewelry artist, all working together in making a wonderful enchanting shop. Most of the jewelry is Steam Punk inspiered. I love steampunk because the idea of someones rejects, becoming someone elses treasures, appeals so much to me. The Family Jewels use many different techniques in their jewelry, wire wrapping, etching, cold connections and even chainmaille.

 

Textured Copper Cuff

I was lucky enough to get Bonnie to answer a few of my questions in a small interview.

What’s your favourite thing about making jewelry?

I love letting my imagination run free, collecting unusual bits and pieces from garage sales, salvage yards and friends junk drawers, and using them in unexpected ways.

Do you have any advice for someone just starting to make jewelry?

Practice, practice, practice. Repetition makes things easier and the easier it becomes the more you can put your own ideas into your creations.

What’s your favourite website and why?

If I can only choose one of the dozens listed as my favorites it would have to be Eni Okens. http://www.jewelrylessons.com/ is a generous website full of fabulous tutorials, beautiful photographs and talented teachers.

  Describe your jewelry in 3 words

Victorian      Industrial     Recycled

How much time do you spend on making jewelry pr month?

That took some calculating. Every chance I get but if you need a number 2-3 hours a day on the days I work and 4-8 hours a day on my days off equals about 150 hours a month. of course that includes marketing and selling but it's part of the package. 

This is one of my favorite pieces in your shop, so please tell me a little about it

Salvage Hardware Dragonfly Necklace

The actual piece only takes about 90 minutes to make. There is however a lot of time that goes into finding the various components.

What materials did you use, and why did you use them?

Antique cabinet hardware, in this case the pull from an old cabinet door. I love the intricate detail in these old pieces and the lasting quality of the work. I use brass components, wire, findings and antiqued brass chain that complement the hardware.

Did you plan out the design, make a sketch or did it just come to you?

Most of my designs come from playing with the bits and bieces of hardware that are in the studio. I lay them together with components in likely combinations until I like the way it looks, then start the attachment process.
 
What techniques where used to create the piece?

All of my pieces are assembled with cold connections. In this case I used wire wrapping to attach the dragonfly to the frame, and to make the multichain necklace that it hangs on.

To find out more about The FamiLee Jewels visit these links:

Blog
Etsy
Artfire
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr

Bonnie actually did a nice interview with me as well, check it out here!