The White Rose and the Red Rose

(c) The Hunterian, University of Glasgow 2012.

Back in October I shared this beautiful work of art with you - the inspiration Rebecca Anderson choose as the inspiration for the second Brit Pack Beaders challenge. I fell in love with it as soon as I opened up the email from Rebecca. It's "The White Rose and the Red Rose" by Margaret MacDonald MacIntosh, and you can read more about her work in my post from October here. Well, today I can finally share with you the pieces I made with the ingredients we pooled together based on the painting!

First of all though, a quick reminder of what I was sent..... a clasp by Rebecca, lovely silk ribbones and cotton cords from Lesley, beads from Claire, hammered links and poppy charms from me and a couple of gorgeous focals from Teresa. I had a few ideas floating around as soon as I saw the focals, and for probably the first time ever in a blog challenge the ideas hardly changed as I made the jewellery.

I assumed that the face focal would be the hardest for me to work with as it's so different from my usual style, but in the end this oxidised copper bracelet was the first thing I made. I like the mix of subtle tones and textures and materials - mixing my materials more is something that I've definitely picked up from Rebecca over the last couple of years!

My favourite, though, is the necklace I made. It's got a very romantic feel and has far more of a vintage style than most of the pieces of jewellery I have made in recent years. The combination of silk, the motive on Teresa's beautiful focal pendant, the frosted glass beads and the oxidised silver give it an almost Victorian feel in my mind. The silk makes it very comfortable to wear. The central drop is quite long, and I can imagine it being worm with a blouse or over a jumper (sweater to my American friends!)

And last but not least, a pair of simple but elegant earrings with beautiful pearls from Claire. I think I'm going to be making some more of these for my next Christmas fair!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the others have made! We've all scheduled our posts to be published at the same time so that we don't see each others work before we show our own off. Rebecca was down last week for a couple of days of silversmithing fun and I hid my designs so that they would be a surprise! Fancy coming to have a look at their creations with me?

Lesley Watt - Thea Jewellery - www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.co.uk
Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads - www.songbeads.blogspot.co.uk
Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads - www.smittenbeads.blogspot.co.uk
Teresa Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads - Bo's Facebook page

I've actually been very organised for once, and all these pieces are already listed in my Daisychain Jewellery etsy shop!

Oh, and come back on Tuesday and I'll show you how I made the bail for the pendant!

Brit Pack Beaders Challenge

It's the second Brit Pack Beaders challenge. It was Rebecca's turn to choose our inspiration - and I love it!

(c) The Hunterian, University of Glasgow 2012.

The beautiful work of art above is called 'The White Rose and the Red Rose' and the artist is Margaret MacDonald MacIntosh - you are probably more familiar with her husband, Charles Rennie MacIntosh and his rose motives that have become popular on everything from posters to mugs. Margaret and Charles were both part of the Glasgow Four, and you can see definite links and mutual inspiration between the two. They did alot of work together, creating everything from menu cards to furniture. The work that Margaret produced on her own has a softer feel to it though, and I love this gesso panel - she's painted thin lines of gesso over a burlap background, almost piped on like icing. You can read about her on wiki here, you can see more of her images here, and there's more about The White Rose and the Red Rose here.

 As Rebecca choose the inspiration it was also her task to send out the clasps. Lesley supplied the stringing materials, a lovely mix of silk ribbons and cotton cords, Claire the beads that match the colours perfectly, I made some hammered silver links and some little poppy charms and Teresa has made a couple of gorgeous focals. I've got a couple of ideas floating about for the lilac flower pendant, but the cream face focal is definitely going to be more of a challenge! I'm looking to see what ingredients the others have - I sent the same to everyone but a couple of things Teresa and Rebecca let slip makes me think that we may have different clasps at least!

Please do go and check to see what ingredients the others have to play with, and we'll be back with our finished designs on Wednesday 24th October!

Lesley Watt - Thea Jewellery - www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.co.uk

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads - www.songbeads.blogspot.co.uk

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads - www.smittenbeads.blogspot.co.uk

Teresa "Bo Peep" Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads - Bo's Facebook page