Enamelling Course Lesson 2 - 'Wet Packing'

It's been such a long day - first the enamelling course, then the opening evening of our end of year show.
I got home really late and there was nothing in the fridge...

The enamelling course was fun - we learnt how to grind and wash enamels, and to use them wet. The result is smoother, and you have more control over where the colour goes. Much much better than sifting!

We also used foil under transparent enamel - I loved that.  We were there for the whole day and I only have three pieces to show for it... But I am quite proud of them. I can definitely see myself getting into enamelling in a big way.

Eventually...

Using a quill to place the enamel onto the copper

freshly ground colours - ready to use

Top - transparent turquoise on white background.
Left - silver foil under cherry red (looks gold)
Right - Silver foil over royal blue, with transparent blue on top

Back to Jewellery - A Sneak Preview of our End of Year Show

Here is a link to all my photos on Flickr:

KCC End if Year 2011

Spent the day polishing cabinets, polishing jewellery and arranging pieces in attractive groups...
I have shown all of my pieces on this blog already, so I won't bore you with any more pictures of my stuff. Instead - have a look at some of the gorgeous pieces by my friends on the course.

Please note - I'm showing you the pieces of which the photos came out best. There are many more pieces that I liked - I'll have to try and take better photos of them during the week.

Kat Anderson - Money Clip 'Put your money where your mouth is' - this piece just makes me smile! It's tactile, happy and completely wacky in the best possible way (have a look at more pictures on her blog)

Here is a ring by Kat - set with moonstones, inspired by the Mobius Strip:

Sara Trim - two rings inspired by twists in nature:

 

Marianne - cufflinks inspired by Einstein and black holes:

 

Marianne - Black Hole Ring - I really like this one!

Nilakshi - Tiny Bird pendant: 

 There are more, but I'll have to go back with my camera on Thursday, this was just a taster!

It's Sooooooo Hot!

Can't do much about the heat, just wait for the promised thunderstorm that is supposed to bring it to an end...

At least I am not covered in long fur like my very fluffy cat - at this very moment doing her impersonation of a carpet:

Snapshot of my Garden - June 2011

It was too hot to make anything today. I did try, but just couldn't. Once it had cooled down enough, I went to see how my garden was doing...
Most of my plants are still purple - click on the image to get a much larger one!

1. Orchid Primrose 2. Globe Thistle 3. Buddleia

4. Campanula 5. Vine 6. Foxglove

7. Thyme 8. Perennial Cornflower 9. French Lavender

A useful find - The Plant Press - Online Plant Encyclopeida

Some Wire Wrapping for a Change

My teenage son has been invited to two birthday parties this weekend, so instead of rushing to Brent Cross (shopping centre) to buy presents - I decided to make them each a piece of jewellery instead (both are girls...).

One of them will be getting a silver and Swarovski crystal wire wrapped bracelet in shades of purple - I've never actually made a bracelet before so this is a first for me:

The other one will get a cluster pendant on a chain:

An Etsy Treasury - The Absolute Peace of Wild Things

Thanks to handjstarcreations for featuring my bee pottery shard necklace in their treasury. It's funny because it has been placed right next to an item by my brother tovicorrie. A strange co-incidence, that made me smile.

Endings and Beginnings... Enamelling Course Lesson 1

Not much time to recover from the end of year at my jewellery school. The very next day I started a 3 day enamelling course that will take place over 3 weeks. There is a reason for my frantic learning - I spent 13 years detached from my creative self, and now it has all come rushing back so I am eager to catch up on some of the time I lost...

These are no masterpieces - I am very aware of that fact. But everyone has to start somewhere :-)
We first had to anneal and counter enamel the pieces of copper. Then for the rest of the day we did simple sifting techniques - first a base layer, then sifting using paper stencils, sgraffito, fingerprinting using handcream (I didn't have time to do that one) and using gum as a glue to keep the enamel where you want it (that sort of works sometimes)...

Here are the pieces - on the plus side they are shiny and smooth, have not warped, and the colours were pretty much what I expected them to be. I surprised myself by liking the pink!

Next week we will be doing 'wet packing'.

My Level 2 Jewellery Final Project - Mercury (Poison) Ring

I gave in my final project today - a poison ring with mercury (quicksilver) inside. It is sealed under glass with epoxy glue - so it can't escape.
Getting hold of the mercury was a mission in itself - you can no longer buy mercury thermometers - I had to have some bought in from overseas for me. Thank you - you know who you are :-)

As I know there can never be any commercial use for mercury rings - I made some that were visually similar using ball-bearings and tiny silver glass spheres - so they are the supporting act. Each ring has slightly different 'claws' to hold the glass in place, as I wanted them similar but not identical.

A weird chemical reaction - when I put the mercury into the oxidized copper ring - it was bright silver. The next day it turned black - like oil - and today it's turned copper in colour. This may be a world first of  molten copper looking substance!

The mercury behaves exactly like I expected it to - you can play with it and bounce it around inside the ring - hours of fun to be had. The ones with the ball-bearings and spheres are also fun to play with - but in a different way. Overall I'm pleased with the results, although if I had to start again - I would change a couple of things...

Anyway - not the best pictures in the world - but you get the idea hopefully. I'll take more pictures when I have recovered.

bouncy bouncy

bouncy bounce!

A Frog in my Garden!

My garden seems to be attracting wildlife - yesterday it was a snail - today I found this lovely frog.

It waited patiently while I ran upstairs to find my camera, but it didn't pose for me quite as obligingly as the snail.

I had to be quick as it hopped away pretty sharpish after this shot, but I did manage to get a photo:

A Good Year for Stripy Snails

At least - I have never had one in my garden before today - so it must be. And for lavender and for artichokes!
This snail was crawling along one of my empty pots...

Doming metal - Samples in Copper

These samples were made to explore the shapes of blister pill packets, part of my 'Tiny Luggage' project.

When I present the project on Tuesday I will need to show a visual journey from the 'trigger' - pill packets -  to the final piece, which is a ring.

I haven't finished the ring yet, but I can tell you it looks nothing like a pill packet!

Gleave, Ward and Craft Central

I had to go into London town today to buy some watch supplies for one of my projects. I was told that Gleave is the place to go. After getting slightly lost in unfamiliar territory, I eventually found them on the corner of St. John Street and Albemarle Way (Clerkenwell). The shop is beautifully old fashioned, with wooden drawers full of all kinds of curious looking things. They were very helpful and patient with my slightly odd request, and I left with exactly what I needed. What a nice place!

Right next door I spotted Ward, the place where people in the know buy their gemstones. It looks quite ordinary from the outside but I peeped inside, and it was buzzing with people. I didn't have the courage to go in, and I don't need any gemstones at the moment, but - it's good to know it's there!

On my way back to Farringdon Station I noticed a place called 'Craft Central'. I went in and to my complete surprise bumped into my old Dreamweaver teacher Xtina Lamb - who was holding an exhibition of her Gocco prints there. I hadn't been in touch with her or seen her for about 12 years (she looks exactly the same!) so it was really nice to see her and her new work. She also runs Gocco printing workshops there.

The websites:

Gleave & Co.- www.gleaveandco.com
Ward - www.aewgems.co.uk/index.htm
Craft Central - www.craftcentral.org.uk
Xtina Lamb - www.xtinalamb.co.uk/

Invitation to the KCC End of Year Show

If you are in London, consider yourself invited to the Kensington and Chelsea end of year show. I don't really know what to expect as it will be my first - but I'm sure there will be lots of nice stuff to look at!

If you can't see the times clearly - click on the picture and you'll get a larger version.

Working really hard on my end of year projects...

I spent the entire day today working on all my end of year projects for jewellery school. It's amazing how much one can get done without a 3 hour return commute across London and a 1 hour imposed lunch break!
I managed to make:
An etched brooch - swaged
Part of an etched component to be swaged - ring or brooch - nearly done
A complete copper mock up of my final project
A complete variation on my final project
Various samples of doming/dapping and swaging
A complete mess of my entire house (etching in the living room, forming in the kitchen, soldering in my hallway)...

Also - I made an important decision - I am going to make my final project in copper. I was so terrified of messing up the very expensive silver I bought that I procrastinated...
Today when I saw the finished mock up - I realized it looks fine in copper and using silver will add very little except expense! Revelation!
Yay copper!

Pictures to come soon...

Collier Campbell Textile Design at the National Gallery

After Cockpit Arts on Saturday, I went to the Collier Campbell exhibition at the National Gallery. It's free! I admit that not all the designs are to my taste, but the more modern ones are nice. What was really interesting was to see the actual designs as they were painted, then the interpretation in fabric - and of course all the sketchbooks and inspiration swatches they used.

Well worth a visit if you are in London and a textile/pattern fan. Here are some of the pictures - you can find my whole Flickr set of this visit here.

Oh - and if you go - you will probably see a giant fox on the way!

Giant Fox!

Bunting!

Cockpit Arts Visit - New Mugs by Fanny Shorter and Jewellery by Stephanie Ray

As I've been trying to concentrate on my end of year jewellery projects, I haven't had the time to do much else. Yesterday however, I left the house for an 'arty' day in London. I started with the open studios at Cockpit Arts, a collection of designer makers with studio space who open their workspace twice a year and show off (and sell) new pieces.

I fell madly in love with the work of a young illustrator called Fanny Shorter - you can find her website here.

She has created a series of 6 mugs illustrating the history of tea, a must have I thought - and bought two on the spot. They are absolutely gorgeous! Her illustrations are stunning, the size and shape of the mugs is perfect - I love everything about them and I'm seriously thinking of going back today to buy the other 4...

Here are mine - I bought wartime tea and modern day tea...

You can find the entire set for sale on her website, but you must hurry because the rights to the illustrations have been bought up by Twinnings Tea and they will be making their own use of them once she has sold off her current stock.

I also really loved the new 'Split Cube' and 'Paisley' collections by jewellery designer Stephanie Ray.
Here are two examples of her work which you can find on her website. Stunning! I couldn't buy anything but I really wanted to...

Brooch - Paisley Collection

Necklace - Split Cube collection

School Trip: Designer Jewellers Group at the Barbican

Today we were taken to see a jewellery exhibition at the Barbican Centre, as part of London Jewellery Week.

I recognised a few of the jewellers from previous exhibitions, and was delighted to see more work by one of my favourites - Sarah Parker-Eaton, whose work I first saw at the Goldsmiths' exhibition last year.
Her and Daphne Krinos are my favourite current designers, quite different in style but they both use black metal which I love.

I took 130 photos (there were only 3 cabinets, I just got a bit carried away), and it will take me ages to process them all but eventually I'll put them up on Flickr. In the meantime, here are some of the pieces by Sarah Parker-Eaton, who was a guest exhibitor. She is inspired by plankton :-)

Magnolia Pods

Yesterday on my long walk home from the train station - I picked up these pods. I think they are from a Magnolia tree, but I'm not sure. I thought the shapes were really interesting - the dried ones resemble spotted gherkins.

I did try to make the dried ones into earrings, but they didn't work - they are just a bit too small and looked a bit too odd, even for me... Pretty though!