Snippets from our August 2013 Issue

Here is a selection of the articles that you can find in our 1st August 2013 Issue, No 24.

An Interview with Rowanberry Designs

We love your beautiful creations but tell us a bit about the lady
behind them.
I’m Claire and I live in Staffordshire with my lovely husband Tony and my fantastic (and very demanding) cats, aka “Fur kids”. I'm lucky enough to be a full time glass artist and jewellery designer.  I'm currently living in a built up area at the moment but I am country girl at heart, being brought up in Kent, then onto live in Wales before I came to Staffordshire. I love getting out and about in the UK and ‘experiencing’ and connecting to the landscape. It may be hard doing this living in an urban setting, but we are at least very lucky to live only a short trip from the Peak District, Cheshire and North Wales, so we try to get ‘out there’ as much as we practically can. I'm also a Pagan and environmentalist and this is central to my creativity as well as my everyday life. My spirituality, pantheist beliefs, and love of nature and the earth play a big part in my inspiration.

Have you always been creative or did your talent evolve over time?
I've always been involved with arts and crafts, and as a child I was always drawing pictures or doing something creative. This carried on through my whole education and after school I went on to study Fine Arts along with English at university.
   
I became a full time jewellery designer 10 years ago, including designing jewellery for a high street store for a while. I got into making glass beads in 2006 so I could use them in my handmade jewellery, however the love for making them overtook my life so I just focused on glass and that is when Rowanberry Glass Art was born. In the past 2 years my love for making jewellery has been rekindled, this time using etched copper and metal clays, so I changed my name to Rowanberry Designs to reflect this new direction. My style has always been pretty much the same whatever medium I have worked with, mixing a love for nature with a love for figurative detail. My biggest change in my creativity was the change from making glass beads purely for people to make jewellery with towards making a bead as a collectable piece of art as itself. Now I approach each bead as if it was a wearable painting or sculpture.

To read the full interview you can purchase our August 2013 Issue here

ThrasionTM - Carved Couture

Ever since the late 80's I have been saving our skateboard decks. Being a skater I know that a skateboard is not just a toy, it holds history and a huge amount of meaning to a skater from the start of the relationship until it breaks. The beauty of my jewellery and accessories is in the thrashed state of the board as every scratch or ding is important.

I am currently supplied with our skateboard decks from skateshops, skateparks, skate companies, pro skaters and friends and family. I only use broken or used skateboards and where the board has come from is part of each product. The decks and wheels are used in their original state and apart from being cut, sanded and finished materials and waste is kept to a minimum.




To read the full article you can purchase our August 2013 Issue here

Gone Fishing!

We often hear people say it when they want to get away from it all. To sit quietly by a riverbank, flask of coffee by your side, sandwiches, crisps and maggots at hand.  Birds singing their sweet songs and dragonflies, dipping and diving across the surface of the water, bliss!
Well, just recently, I have taken up a bit of fishing too.  Not quite the fishing as described above but certainly a kind of fishing.
Lamp work Fishing!
So here I will tell you about a typical lamp work fish production session in The Bead Bounty studio.


To read the full article you can purchase our August 2013 Issue here 

An Interview with Styles of Sonia

Add a little eastern promise to your life with the beautiful creations of Sonia Subash from Styles of Sonia.
Creating from her home in Malaysia Sonia hopes to make the entire world sparkle just that little bit more.
Tell us about yourself Sonia.
I am a proud mother of two boys; one aged thirteen and the second, just about four months old. I have been addicted to making jewelry since a couple of years ago. And it has allowed me to work from home. I am also pursuing a business degree so needless to say, my hands are certainly full and I love it!     

To read the full interview you can purchase our August 2013 Issue here