Oh heavens August has been a whirlwind! Prep for Beadfest. The fantastic time that was had AT beadfest – hanging out with AJE team mates, shopping, selling… And now its the reveal date for the Component of the Month at Art Jewelry Elements blog. This month’s component is a hand painted leather feather from Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio. Simply gorgeous!
But best of all: Lesley Watt of The Gossiping Goddess is here in the US! We spend the last two days in the studio working on our pieces, hanging out, drinking tea/coffee and generally having a fantastic time at “art camp”. So with out further ado – the reveal:
I wanted to back the feather in Faux bone to create a studier piece as a cuff bracelet. The Faux bone can be shaped when heated. I stamped, distressed, tinted with alcohol inks and sanded it until I had the level of color/rustic/patina that I wanted.
In homage to Emily Dickinson I had to engrave the word “Hope” on the underside. (” Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul…”) The feather is stitched onto the faux bone with waxed linen. I wanted to use these rustic beads from Diana/Suburban Girl, but the wire wrap links werent flexible enough in the small span of bracelet…
Here is my finished piece – I selected the colors to play off the feather itself. The triple strand included lapis, blue tiger eye, seed pods… I plan to wear it today!
Now over to Lesley:
Thanks Jenny…
So for this reveal I have none of my usual kit around me to work with so Jenny has very kindly put her awesome studio and bead stash at my disposal and the contents of that together with my Bead Fest haul have been the inspiration for my design with Rebekah’s beautiful leather feather. I new before I left the UK that I wanted to incorporate the piece with metal and probably make a bracelet and that went perfectly since jenny was able to give me an impromptue tube riveting lesson to produce this textured cuff element…
Then it was down to picking some beads to accent the cuff and I eventually decided on a beautiful Basha bead that I bought at Bead Fest which perfectly mirrored the blue of the leather. I also went for a linen strung multi-strand section combinng some brass and copper beads and a brass cone from Hands of the Hills and some lovely blue seeds I raided from Jenny…
Put all these together and this is the result which I have to say I’m really pleased with…it has something of a Native-American vibe to it and it wears really well.
It was great fun working on this project with Jenny, bouncing ideas around and seeing how our pieces started with similarities but ended up quite different…thanks Jenny.
You can check out what the other participants made using the links below:
Jenny Davies-Reazor 
I love reading the stories that go along with your designs Jenny, the faux bone makes a beautiful backing to the feather (that’s on my list of things to try!), as does the copper on Lesley’s design. Both gorgeous!
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I love the idea of backing the feather with something sturdy to make a cuff bracelet, and both of these are wonderful! I love that Basha bead; the blue really is perfect. I love little “secret” treasures in jewelry, like the “hope” carved on the underside of Jenny’s cuff. It was fun seeing two fabulous bracelets in one post!
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Hi Jenny,
I love your bracelet it is beautiful. Mounting the leather feather on the faux bone just added to it’s beauty and gave it some weight.
Hi Lesley,
Your bracelet is beautifully awesome. It is so much fun when you can work with someone of a like mind and bounce ideas off of each other. I love the way your bracelet turned out. It does have an Native American feel to it.
Therese
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Two wonderful designs, with similarities but each so unique! I love the mixed elements and the message in Jen’s cuff and I love the fluidity of the blue and copper elements together in Lesley’s cuff.
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Both of your designs are so amazing I can hardly take my eyes off of them! I like how they were in the same direction but so different! How lucky you both were to play together!
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Both of your bracelets are stunning.While there is a similarity in the basic way you curved the feathers, the similarities end there. They are unique and fabulous designs. Thanks so much for the ideas and inspiration. This challenge never fails to remind me how one ingredient can be integrated in so many different ways. This post illustrates that perfectly!
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Both of your pieces are gorgeous! It looks like Art Camp is a fun place to be! 🙂
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How much fun to hang out together in your studio and create! And boy did you guys … both of these are just wonderful designs! I love how you’ve both anchored them on a bracelet bar – yours with faux bone and that perfect quote from Dickinson (one of my favorites) and Lesley’s with etched copper!
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You 2 obviously had lots of fun!! I love both creations!
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What fabulous bracelets! And what a fabulous hostess you have, Lesley! It sounds like you must be having heaps of fun – bit jealous to be frank!
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LOVE the designs, ladies! Wish I could have stayed to play with the COM’s with you.
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Both of these are fantastic! Love the designs you came up with! What fun you got to work together!
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Just in case I didn’t mention it enough Jenny I love your bracelet and had so much fun at our little art camp – thank you for inspiring me to new things :0)
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