Jacqui
My jewelry comes to you from the beautiful West Country of England. Art has always been a part of my life with watercolour and coloured pencil botanical drawings my original interest. But I have always loved jewellery so it seemed a natural transition. I like to visit museum collections etc whenever I am able. Although I am mostly self taught, I have taken courses in various techniques at different times. I am a multimedia artist; I paint, sew, felt, but right at this moment in time, I mostly enjoy working with Premo Polymer Clay, gemstones, pearls, fossils and Australian opals.
A few years back I was introduced to Premo Polymer clay, it's a bit like paint in solid form I thought, so I was hooked. I took a few tutorials to begin with and then developed along my own path. Many years ago I worked with clay, but this was different, I had colour now and many more colours could be mixed from the basics! To begin with, I made different items from small sculptures to jewellery, which is now my preference. Polymer clay it would seem has come into its own and is no longer considered the outsider, but is sold in prestigious galleries; there are museum collections and displays of jewellery, it has finally made it!
The inspiration. Water plays a large part in my life as I live close to the ocean, enjoy lakes and streams, with reeds and swans, the ponds in our garden, flowers. Trees are important to me, also mosses and ferns, each piece of jewellery I sketch has an inspiration in nature and the natural world around me. Sometimes it is a shape I want to capture or maybe a beautiful Jasper cab inspires a picture, or a glorious Sunset over the sea.
My jewelry has been featured in various magazines and won several awards including the Egyptian Treasures contest in Beads & Beyond Magazine and I recently won the Color Category at Gems & Brios.
Lara
I've always loved art and have been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil. I started out using cartoons on TV as inspiration. I used to pause the VCR and draw my favourite characters. As I got older, I made more of my own characters, although I was always creative ever since I was little, with my own ideas but they became more developed as my artistic talents grew. Growing up, I made plushies of my favourite characters and painted t-shirts with neat designs. I took an art diploma course in pet portraits and received a diploma with merit at the end of it. I decided I wanted to be experienced in a range of different mediums and learnt how to needlefelt, paint with various techniques and mediums, work with polymer clay, and a range of other things. I have also done some storyboards for a short film, animations, voice work on a project a friend and I did and I've written a fantasy novel I hope to get published.
I like to use my talents any way I can and so I take commissions in a whole range of subjects and mediums. I am also not afraid to try new things. Once, a lady emailed me out of the blue, looking for a high resolution picture of a cartoon band since she wanted a cardboard cutout made of it for her wedding. I didn't know where to find such a picture, so she commissioned me to draw it for her. The result was a 6 foot tall cardboard cutout of this band. I had never done anything like it before but I'm glad I did because it's something else I can add to my portfolio.
I mostly work with traditional art, coloured pencils being my main medium. I also work with digital art as well, although I am still learning new techniques with that. I'm so glad I have art as a talent, it is such a varied and interesting thing to do!
My jewelry comes to you from the beautiful West Country of England. Art has always been a part of my life with watercolour and coloured pencil botanical drawings my original interest. But I have always loved jewellery so it seemed a natural transition. I like to visit museum collections etc whenever I am able. Although I am mostly self taught, I have taken courses in various techniques at different times. I am a multimedia artist; I paint, sew, felt, but right at this moment in time, I mostly enjoy working with Premo Polymer Clay, gemstones, pearls, fossils and Australian opals.
A few years back I was introduced to Premo Polymer clay, it's a bit like paint in solid form I thought, so I was hooked. I took a few tutorials to begin with and then developed along my own path. Many years ago I worked with clay, but this was different, I had colour now and many more colours could be mixed from the basics! To begin with, I made different items from small sculptures to jewellery, which is now my preference. Polymer clay it would seem has come into its own and is no longer considered the outsider, but is sold in prestigious galleries; there are museum collections and displays of jewellery, it has finally made it!
The inspiration. Water plays a large part in my life as I live close to the ocean, enjoy lakes and streams, with reeds and swans, the ponds in our garden, flowers. Trees are important to me, also mosses and ferns, each piece of jewellery I sketch has an inspiration in nature and the natural world around me. Sometimes it is a shape I want to capture or maybe a beautiful Jasper cab inspires a picture, or a glorious Sunset over the sea.
My jewelry has been featured in various magazines and won several awards including the Egyptian Treasures contest in Beads & Beyond Magazine and I recently won the Color Category at Gems & Brios.
Lara
I've always loved art and have been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil. I started out using cartoons on TV as inspiration. I used to pause the VCR and draw my favourite characters. As I got older, I made more of my own characters, although I was always creative ever since I was little, with my own ideas but they became more developed as my artistic talents grew. Growing up, I made plushies of my favourite characters and painted t-shirts with neat designs. I took an art diploma course in pet portraits and received a diploma with merit at the end of it. I decided I wanted to be experienced in a range of different mediums and learnt how to needlefelt, paint with various techniques and mediums, work with polymer clay, and a range of other things. I have also done some storyboards for a short film, animations, voice work on a project a friend and I did and I've written a fantasy novel I hope to get published.
I like to use my talents any way I can and so I take commissions in a whole range of subjects and mediums. I am also not afraid to try new things. Once, a lady emailed me out of the blue, looking for a high resolution picture of a cartoon band since she wanted a cardboard cutout made of it for her wedding. I didn't know where to find such a picture, so she commissioned me to draw it for her. The result was a 6 foot tall cardboard cutout of this band. I had never done anything like it before but I'm glad I did because it's something else I can add to my portfolio.
I mostly work with traditional art, coloured pencils being my main medium. I also work with digital art as well, although I am still learning new techniques with that. I'm so glad I have art as a talent, it is such a varied and interesting thing to do!
