Midweek Yay !!!

Just received some of the new supplies I've been waiting for - ready to create my new line of crystal cufflinks and colour dangles. Just need to find a bit of time now.
I know it's nothing to do with my jewellery, or art or travel writing, although in some ways it is - The lovely Alan proposed to me on Saturday! Art - he is the first artist I featured here (see below - Alan Daysh Isle of Wight Landscapes, travel - well hopefully we'll have a lovely honeymoon and my jewellery? - well the ring will be mine and it is jewellery!! ;-)
Getting it Saturday (hopefully).
That's it for the time being.

Glass - Sheila Morley

Another true artist is Sheila Morely. I came across her site and just fell in love with her pieces. Each bead is a little world inside itself.

"I am making glass beads and sculptures, above a flame. I hold a rod of glass in a fire and melt it into a bead! I paint in the air! I work with the most amazing material in the universe! I hang out with people that say they are "in Love" with glass. (that is one of my favorite parts.) "
I make Murrini, beads,marbles paper weights, future sculptures, and ACEO cards...I love to draw and sculpt with clay too.
I live with my two children, and a supportive husband. All three are very creative, and I am inspired to make art with them. I have a feeling the art I put out in cyber space will not just be my own...exciting creations are ahead! ......
I like to create things. I have contributed to some other Artist's projects...; I just really like to have my create time to be for me; not just money. So, I am there in Autocad land, and I am here...
This is my passion; creating. It makes me happy when I can create something that has deep meaning, and have its value be sentimental to its owner.

Visit her website:

website: http://www.sheilamorley.com
or
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SheilaMorley

Thank you Sheila - Love love love your stuff!

Update: Bless her heart - she has blogged me back ;-) See it here:
http://sheilamorley.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/i-was-blogged-thank-you-sue-hodgens/

Glass - Greenstoneglass

Next up is the stunning artistry of Julian Butens. I am just in awe of artistry like this. You feel like you want to go in and touch the flowers.

He says:
"My name is Julian Buetens and i have been blowing glass in one form or another since my last semester in college in 1995. My first experience with glass was with bending neon tubes, upon graduation i purchased a lampworking set up and have been blowing glass ever since. I have studied at Pilchuck and traveled to Murano to study with masters there. Most recently i have studied with John Kobuki."



Do have a look at his shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenStoneGlass



Wow!!
Absolutely amazing - thank you Julian.

Glass - Vsbeb

First up are Phil and Veda Bickley from Vsbeb

To see more of their beautiful work go to: http://www.etsy.com/shop/vsbeb
or click on one of the pictures.





"Phil and Veda Bickley are both self-taught artists who were drawn to the medium of glass for artistic expression at a young age. The parents of two lovely daughters, Phil and Veda met in California where they were separately exploring and studying craft, Phil specializing in glassblowing. This shared passion for art and craft has fused both their personal and artistic union and sustains the Bickley family. They work independently, but also encourage each others unique voice and vision in collaborative projects. Veda's glass takes on whimsical, fluid and sensual lines while Phil's work is always confident and rich in sophisticated expression. Having worked and supported themselves as artists for more than six years, their ability to live a life fostered by their art resonates in their pieces."

Thank you for letting me show off your lovely work.

Glass and Lampwork

Anyone who knows my jewellery will know that I just adore using glass and lampwork. Man there is some amazing stuff out there. Of course there is also a lot of pretty cheap stuff as well, but the quality is very different and this is reflected in the price. Once you go upmarket a little you find the quality and artistry increases until you arrive at the true artists. The next few posts are to show some of the truly stunning things that can be done with glass. Very kindly the artisans involved have allowed me to use their photos.

The life and times of an obsessive!

So I have been busy beavering away, feeling really happy. Lovely bits and pieces around me and for once a nice bit of time to design. If only that was all there was to it. So today, all I have done from 10 this morning is photo related stuff. Started off taking the pics, then uploading them. My computer memory is rather full so started going slow - very frustrating. Then comes cropping and adjusting. Then uploading to etsy, having converted the prices first. That's very time consuming - writing the descriptions, tags and waiting again for the pics to upload. Then over to paypal to make the buttons for my site, then over to picture trail to upload the pics there for my site. In between catching up with twitter, facebook and hotmail, and the odd forum or six. And here I am at 2 am writing on my blog! So here is what I have been working on today.

To see more details - either click on the picture or go to

www.somethingextraspecial.com.

Photography - Matchstickgirl

I caught site of France's photography by chance while looking through Etsy, and what attracted me was her whimsical nature. A lovely imagination and the skill to make that into a visual. I have shown three pictures here, focussed on Thumbelina. Is there any little girl around who doesn't somewhere deep down in their soul wish they had a tiny little friend, and does that really go when we get older?

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18942956
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13132428
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13136031


To visit her shop click the link below
http://www.etsy.com/people/matchstickgirl

"New Zealand born photographer ,Frances Melhop has been shooting since she was 12 years old and was given her first hand-me-down camera...she created a darkroom in the kitchen at home and set to work. Often seen in her high school years, running with the school skeleton from the biology lab to the art room(read "makeshift studio") across the hockey field..... macabre picture...

Her professional career began 18 years ago when she moved to Sydney Australia after studying (psychology,political science,german language ,culture and history,and religion) at Canterbury university and (photography,graphic design,sculpture,printmaking and life drawing) at Christchurch Polytechnical College followed by assisting cinematographers and photographers in New Zealand for 2 years.... "
Read more about her at:
http://www.etsy.com/people/matchstickgirl

West Africa - inspiration

.

About five years ago I was lucky enough to work in Senegal for a while. Before I left West Africa I managed to travel around and see some absolutely beautiful places. One country that I just fell in love with was Burkina Faso. This is a country that has it all. There are the most amazing waterfalls in the South, and then in the North - this most amazing desert. The colours were stunning, always a pale ochre but tinged with greenery.

In the south I visited some really lovely places, where insects you really would never wish to sleep with lived. Always always, even near waterfalls, there was dust (sand) and therefore your clothes never managed to stay clean for more than a few minutes. Yes it is a very poor country, but the society there makes our look like a failing society. They all look out for one another and you rarely see anyone on their own. After a very long bus ride (over 24 hours) sitting on bags of rice, with chickens hanging over head, random children sitting on your lap and a nail from the chair stuck in my back!! - I finally got to my favourite place on this planet. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish to live there, but to stay a while was incredible.

Gorom Gorom. Just the name sounds brilliant! On the edge of the desert, and almost biblical in setting, the weekly market had anything a West African could wish for. Scrawny live chickens, Dr Blah’s Pile remedy, implements for cleaning the home, water carriers, and lovely Tuareg jewellery. The heat though, was too much. You had to almost run from one cover to the next cover. The women and the men dressed with colour that was breathtaking. The place stunned me. One of my over riding memories is having a four poster bed set up under the stars for me to sleep on – then it started raining at about 3 in the morning so had to abandon it, but what a treat.

The bracelet here reminds me very much of Gorom Gorom, the rich orange and green from the unakite with the orange from the cherry quartz, the beautiful peach and green lampwork and the deep green jade to the pink of the rose quartz.
I have to say I’m quite reluctant to sell this piece as it so reminds me of that time.
http://www.somethingextraspecial.com/sterling-silver-bracelets.php

Photography - Rainwolf

It is my pleasure to add Dellanas beautiful photography here.

"My name is Dellana Groen, I am a self-taught Seattle-based photographer and have been involved in photography for many years. My work is centered on the experience of my travels. There is no particular aspect that I concentrate on. The culture, architecture, history and the landscape are equally of interest to me.

Every place has a special beauty and meaning in the world. We all need to know in order to learn, grow, explore and protect. My passion for exploring the world around us is captured in my photographs. As an insatiable traveler who is also legally blind, I began using photography to capture bits of architecture, geography, culture and the natural world, so I could examine them in detail as well as share my unique perspective when I got home. Over time I found my limited vision to be an asset. Often it allows me to view the common place from an uncommon perspective. I am thankful for an art that allows me to share my view of our surroundings with you."



http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=430321
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=238978
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=186655

See more of her work:
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=11961&op=new&body=1

Thank you Dellana

Photography - KrissyKayCollection

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35975158
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40573012


Yesterday morning I went in the garden and was amazed to notice that the Spring flowers had noticed something that had passed me by - that Spring was on it's way!!
For me the following really show the beauty that nature gives us.




http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35976438
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40573012

Really happy to be able to show Krissy's pieces. Krissy is a photographer who now lives in NY. She has a fab eye for the unusual and the quality of her pictures is amazing.
To see the rest of the blog please click:
http://www.somethingextraspecial.com/special-cafe-blog/krissykaycollection

Inspired by the Scilly Isles

A few months back I went to the Scilly Isles in England to a friend's wedding. Now the Scilly Isles weren't a place I had ever wanted to visit, and the journey wasn't the easiest. We had to leave at midnight to make our way down the south coast to Penzance in order to catch the morning ferry over to the islands. Once there we had to get another boat over to Saint Martins and eventually arrived early afternoon. Oh my God! I have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in my life but I was completely surprised by how absolutely beautiful the place was. It's about 4 hours by ferry so in many ways very cut off from the mainland, and has a spirit all of it's own. There are only about 100 inhabitants, and they near enough all know each other. That's beyond my comprehension to know everyone who lives near me let alone in my country! What staggered me though was the beauty, the sheer unadulterated beauty. While I can't say I have a desire to live there I came away feeling quite sad that I would never have the possibility to understand what that kind of life felt like.

A lot of my jewellery is made just because I think the bits look pretty together but some of the pieces come about because they remind me of places I have been. The pictures here show the scene from the reception and the bracelet that I made that reminds me of the colours that, while look enhanced, were totally true.

Art - MysticSilks

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6887045
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9122946
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7275910

Delighted to show Klaire of MysticSilks' gorgeous silk art.
Klaire has given some details of where here ideas have come from for each of the following pieces.

"Before the creation of "Picasso's Moon", I had created a silk painting and named it " Picasso's Sun."
It was offered for sale in an invitational art show, and it sold within the 1st hour of the show's opening.
I received twenty phone calls asking if I would do another "Picasso's" painting. And, that brought forth the birth of "Picasso's Moon"
Abstract Silk Painting of woods at night, with full moon reflected in pond.Only the finest of French dyes have been used to create this unique, silk, original painting. "

(Abstract)
"I love Albert, he's my man and this silk painting is a mere attempt at capturing the abstract complex thinking of Albert Einstein. It consists of symbols: hexagongs, squares,circles, and various images that appear four dimensional.French dyes were placed in the various shapes giving the painting a brilliant luster.
The photo can not capture the true beauty.
Size:29 1/2 inches by 31 3/4 inches.
Painting is framed and ready to display. The painting can be displayed in four different positions: There is no up or down , right or left.
Wasn't Einstein a genius? "

(Flower)
"This silk painting was inspired by a photo from National Geographic. In the photo was a forest violet, so very small, it was. On one petal of this little beauty, sat a tiny yellow spider.
I felt the need to paint this scene, so that others would notice something they would ordinarily pass by, or even step upon."
Size 29x29inches

To see more of Klaires work see
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MysticSilks

Taking so long to sort myself out here

I have a shop on Etsy, I have a shop on Artfire, I have my own website:
www.somethingextraspecial.com, and there is a blog on there, but it's really quite restricted so have gotten a bit fed up with it.
I am on twitter and have a fanpage on facebook. Oh my god!
I could just spend all my life on the net but know I will have to focus on one place soon, you can only spread yourself around so much without getting too thin.
I am spending less and less time actually making the jewellery that I am promoting. It takes a lot of time getting my supplies, then after making, I need to photo, which I then have to edit and then upload onto the computer. After that I have to upload to picturetrail.com for my website. Then I have to upload to etsy, write the description, go to a xe currency converter to exchange the price into dollars. I then put the photos up. I go back to my website and put a smilar lot of info up, plus the pics from picturetrail and the slide shows and then go over to artfire and do it all over again. I may let people on twitter know and / or the fan page on facebook. So as you can see, its rediculous. That isn't taking into account the google analytics or adwords or vutrac and have stopped doing flickr now.
If anyone has any good ideas or comments please do let me know, cos this is getting on my nerves, there must be a better way of doing all this.
And now I'm doing this.....................
;-)

Art - Amanda at Mossmottle

Amanda is an accomplished artist of varied mediums (and from the UK - yay!) and has kindly allowed me to feature her here.
"A keen painter and metal clay jewellery maker, I'm a self-representing artist currently living in Derbyshire, on the edge of the Peak District of the United Kingdom. My work tends to be textural and tonally variegated, reflecting the limestone and woodland environment I inhabit.



It's very important to me to have a strong element of improvisation and spontaneity in the creative process.
My interest in organic forms and textures is reflected in my painting, most of which falls somewhere between landscape and abstraction. My paintings, although often built up in layers over time often contains spontaneous, gestural drawing and calligraphic expression. Frequently landscape will assert itself before long in some way. Sometimes just a conversation about colour may lead to something new. On a very good day, music will cajole and inspire me to paint in a very free and happy way.
Most of my paintings are made using oil paints with alkyd medium to greatly accelerate drying time. I love blending techniques within a painting, for example glazing and impasto. I find paint, oils especially, endlessly fascinating!
I'm also committed to making affordable, smaller format original fine art works. I love the sense of intimacy often to be found in such art."













http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39738766
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24087164
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27101195

More of Amanda's work can be seen (larger and at higher resolution) on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mossmottle/
And her items for sale at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Mossmottle
Thank you Amanda

New!! Men's Sterling Silver Cufflinks

Very excited, the new men's cufflinks have been added. Thank you Michael for the idea!! I think they are just so gorgeous, why should women get all the lovely stuff!! They are going really quickly as well - already two have gone in two days!! I'm in the middle of designing crystal cufflinks to add to the collection - watch this space!! The best thing is that for men's cufflinks - they are very affordable.

http://www.somethingextraspecial.com/mens-sterling-silver-jewellery.php

New Slideshows

Well as flickr has told me that they are not to be used for commercial purposes, I have just spent the entire weekend finding and sorting out a new way of showing the pictures. The solution I have gone for is picturetrail. I have the premium (ie paid for) version - which I believed would remove their tags but doesn't look like it does - oh well, still nice big detailed photos. If you have any idea or comments let me know here or send me a mail.
Off to bed now - twitchy eyed from too much computer use! (Have since paid to upgrade even further and as of yet tags still there agh!!!)

Art - Greg Riley

I met Greg a few years ago when we were both in the process of improving our lives. We reconnected a while ago (on facebook) and I love his work. the light and the wackyness of it.

His website is currently down but his link to his facebook page is at the bottom of this post.
At the moment he is planning on competing in the International Trompe l'oeil Festival in Lodi in Italy. Hope everything goes well for you Greg and that you get to Northern Italy in a few months. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Not sure if this link works but here goes:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3277628&id=647074320#!/photos.php?id=1228568135

He now has his website up and running:
www.gregrileyartworks.com

Thanks Greg.