Featured Artist - WOW!!

I just had to share this. I am so excited!!

 

I am the current Featured Artist on Grains of Glass, a wonderful enamelling website.

 

You can read the article here :) 

Weekly Critter Challenge 4/52 - Bluebell

 

Here is this weeks critter - Bluebell!

 

She is fine silver and enamel and she is a brooch. She was a commission and guess what, I forgot to photograph the back with the brooch pin before she went off to her new home! Oh well. I am sure you know what a brooch pin looks like! :) She measures approx 35mm x 40mm.

 

She is based on Bluebell, the cat belonging to the new owner of the brooch. Bluebell is a ragdoll. I really enjoyed making this so watch out for more cats!! If you want to commission a cat brooch or pendant just let me know! 

 

Here is Bluebell's poem

 

Her fur is as white as the freshly lain snow
Her markings are delicate shades
Her eyes are as blue as the clear summer sky
Her intelligence shows in her gaze
Her manner is mischievous, haughty at times
She is Queen over all she surveys

 

Have fun!

Joy x

 

Weekly Critter Challenge 3/52 - Pip-Squeak

 

For my third critter I have gone back to making Goldie Bronze sculptures.

 

This one is a cute little mouse! Pip-Squeak.

 

He has a long bendy tail...

 

 

... and an appealing look.

 

 

You can see he really is tiny!

 

Here is his poem, another haiku.

 

Happy little mouse
On hind legs sits with snaking tail
Any cheese for me?

 

My next critter will be in silver and enamel :)

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x

New Formula Art Clay Silver

If you would like to read my findings on the new formula Art Clay Silver then pop over to George Weil and read their blog post which has all my comments in it :) 

Weekly Critter Challenge 2/52 - Rainbow Jalien

 

When I started the critter challenge I have to say I mostly had earthly creatures in mind, but then I decided to make an alien this week, and well... there you go, these things happen! Weird, eh? ;-)

 

I also decided that if I was going to keep making aliens (will I, won't I?) then I had better decide on a name for them, so this is my first Jalien. Why Jaliens? Well really I was thinking Joy's aliens. I went through several permutations and this was the option I liked best. When picking a new name for something it is always good to spend a little time on google, just to check your name does not mean something dreadful, maybe in another language. As far as I could tell the word Jalien only exists as a surname, but maybe you will tell me differently!

 

OK, back to the pendant. It is made using the new formula Art Clay Silver, which I really like. It is great for making tiny snakes and things like that as it holds the moisture much better and the fired silver polishes up to a lovely shine.

 

I was aiming for a cute alien, but people keep telling me this little chap looks creepy. Oh well, maybe my next Jalien will be cuter! 

 

 

I set a 3mm CZ which was fired in place, and then enamelled him, rainbow of course!!!

 

You can see that he is quite small.

 

 

As I was aiming for a unisex pendant (the wearer not the alien!), I made the back quite plain, but set a 2mm CZ for a little sparkle.

 

 

Writing a poem about an alien seemed quite tricky so I went with a haiku as they are quite short!

 

Something amazing
Traveller through space and time
A Jalien

 

Many thanks to Creative Glass for giving me some of the new formula Art Clay Silver to test!

 

Joy x

 

 

Weekly Critter Challenge 1/52 - Goldie

 

My first critter for my Weekly Critter Challenge 2013.

 

OK, so this is actually last weeks critter, blogger has not been letting me upload photos for some reason, but I have got round it at last!

 

This little fella is called Goldie, because he is a goldie fish, he,he!!

 

And he is made out of Goldie Bronze, so all in all, a very fitting name!

 

 

Here is the other side of him, and as you can see from the photo below, he is quite small.

 

 

If you have followed my challenges over the last two year you will recall in 2010, when I did a Bird a Week, I also wrote a Haiku poem for each one.

 

This year I have decided to write more poems. Sorry about that, but you are stuck with my poor poetic skills for the whole year!

 

They will not all be Haiku this time though.

 

Here is the poem for Goldie

 

With a flip of my tail

And a flap of my fin

In my watery realm

I'm the king pin

 

I have already made my next critter so expect another post very soon! :)

 

Joy x