Up Up and Away

And also ...

This was my second entry to the Art Clay competition. We had to make earrings or charms. I had the idea of the hot air balloons but it took me a while to think what to use for the baskets. The Purple CZs worked out quite well.

These won the members prize vote where everyone attending voted for their favorite piece.

Thanks again :-))

I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

So .....

The competition pieces I was making.

This is the bracelet that I made for the Art Clay competition at the conference in Jersey. The theme for the competition was Travel. I called my bracelet I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside. I had a lot of fun making the charms.

I am really chuffed. It won 2nd prize plus the members prize vote where everyone attending voted for their favorite piece.

Thanks everyone :)

More Enamelled Accents...

Ah got there at last! Now it is letting me upload photos.

So here is a new piece I have finished as an example for the conference. Haven't quite decided on a name for this one yet. Any suggestions? I rather like this flower. The enamels are Catallya Japanese enamels from Zama UK. I love this yellow.

These pieces are examples of the sort of things that we should have time to make on the workshop at conference. I am trying to stick with fairly simple for everyone to just get the idea of the technique with the short time and limited resources that are available. The workshop is only 3 hours long and we are making the piece from start to finishing the enamelling. I think the main issue might be queues at the kilns :-)

Can't wait to get to Jersey now for a great weekend.

Don't Blame Me!

Well I am trying to upload some photos of more Enamelled Accents pieces to show you but Blogger is just not playing ball tonight. I'll post them later or tomorrow when they have fixed it.

Getting Sorted Out

My pieces for the Art Clay Competition at the Conference in Jersey are now in the post. Phew!

Now I am sorting out everything I need for the workshop I am teching there. I am also going to finish off a couple more examples that I will be posting here soon.....

What Am I Working On?

At the moment I am working on my pieces for the competition at the Art Clay conference in Jersey next month. The pieces have to be posted off next week. I am doing a set of charms and a pair of earrings and the theme is Travel.

As it is a competition and we have a members vote I can't show them to you yet though :(

So here is a photo of my two cats Inu and Shuki just for something to look at :)


To be honest they are seldom this loving to each other. They are brother and sister, Inu on the left and Shuki on the right. I took this photo just after my parents' cat had gone home after a two week stay. I think it was a bit of a "phew thanks goodness she has gone - peace at last" moment!

It's that Mask Again!!!

I bet you are getting fed up with my Carnival Mask :)

Anyway I was excited to receive my copy of the latest Making Jewellery magazine issue 7, which has my mask as the Inspirations feature this month.

Website Updated

My website updates are now all done and I am really pleased with the result. joyfunnell.co.uk . I think that now completes my image re branding which has been fun.

Michael Ball at Beyond the North Wind has been great. He specialises in websites for artists and makers so if you are thinking of a new website you might want to check his website out. I highly recommend him :)

Patinated Rainbow Flower

Yep, that does it for me. I do love things better with a bit of patination. (still not a good photograph of the colours though - they just don't seem to want to come out well) I think it brings up the enamels more and really highlights the texture. Mind you I know lots of people that hate it and prefer their silver bright and shiny. Which do you prefer?

Rainbow Flower - Enamelled Accents

Here is another Enamelled Accents piece. The colours have not photographed as well as I would like but you get the idea. A bit bigger (34mm in diameter) and a bit more complicated than the last one. I can't quite make up my mind whether to patinate this so I thought I would photograph it first and then try to see which I like better. I'll post the patinated version tomorrow when I have got it done. It has a very light texture to the whole surface so I am thinking that will emphasise it more. We shall see...

Purple Heart - Enamelled Accents

I am currently working on some sample pieces to take to the Art Clay conference in Jersey showing my Enamelled Accents technique which I am teaching there. Here is a nice simple one.

Watch out for a larger piece coming later today....

Stamping Joy!

I have been trying to work out for a while what to put onto the back of my jewellery pieces. I have tried various options using stamps I have made myself with photo polymer plates but with small type they don't last long and I was never very happy with them. Over the last year or two I have tried

Handmade by Joy Funnell

Joy Funnell

Handmade by Joy

Joy

JF

For quite a while I have been using a small circle with JF in but since I make a lot of reversible jewellery I always feel this detracts from the reverse side because people don't necessarily want to have my initials on it. As I have redesigned my logo I decided it was the ideal time to settle on Joy, which hopefully people will like to wear, but now I could make it more distinctive as me by adding my squiggle (technical term!).

I ordered a proper stamp from Babette Cox in the USA. I wanted it to be quite small and Babette was really helpful with advice to make it work well. It only measures about 5mm across but is lovely as it is such a crisp clear image. It arrived last week so I used it on the simple piece I made at the workshop I taught at the weekend. So here is a photo of the front and back of the finished item which I fired yesterday after finishing off the decoration.

I'm really pleased with the result, hope you like it too.

Golden Flowers

Here is another set of earrings I made last week. I called then Golden Flowers, the leaf patterns are patinated and the stones are pretty little yellow CZs.

Ho Hum...

OK, so my last post was last Friday and what did I say - photos tomorrow!!!

SORRY - where does the time go. Rushed about getting ready for the craft fair - took lousy photos while I was there as I had forgotten on Saturday and am in the process of getting the website updated this week.

Anyway cut the drivel. Here is one set I made last week. Cherry Blossom. I really like these and am going to make myself a similar kind of thing.

More coming - I promise - yes, really!!!