49/52 Bits and Bobs!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Where did 2015 go??? Wow...that year seemed to go so fast!!! 

So we are now at the start of 2016 and I thought I'd do a round up of my year long challenge :D 

I know...this is only post number 49 so I'm 3 short of the 52, but I do have several things to show you in it though :D That's my excuse!!! I decided it was better to round if off as we have passed the year end, but I'll still be posting regularly and I have lots of ideas still unfinished so you'll be seeing them in 2016 :D

I thought I'd finish with a few other things I've made which had slightly different things in for me, but that I haven't posted here yet. I made these in December.

First off we have another spinner ring. This is the second one I've made using my new technique. It wasn't until I was well into making this that suddenly I realised I had created little sets of eyes all around it! That wasn't planned! They look like eyes either way up as well!! :D

Next we have a moulded shell. I know...we all make those...but this one was made in full 3D from a very special shell for a client, and it's the first shell I've done with this type of bail attached to it :D

Next is a simple ring - but I'd never made a Z ring before - again this was for a client. I think it turned out quite well. It has a wavy back to it - forgot to photograph it from that side though!

Then some little sparkly drops set with 8mm stones. These are from my Bag of Bling!

Finally we have a turquoise pendant. I actually made this one as an example while I was teaching an Art Clay Level 2 diploma recently...so why is that different? Well using turquoise and gold together was on my challenge list. I really like the combination of the two and will make more using those them.

BTW the spinner ring at the top was also made while I was teaching that L2 workshop. It's the bonus of a 1-2-1 workshop, I can often fit in demo-ing a few extra things ;)

So that will be it for challenge entries and whilst I didn't hit 52 I don't mind as I have really enjoyed it! I've learnt lots of new things and had fun - what else can I ask for!!

2016 marks 10 years for my business, and 10 years that I've been using silver clay - so watch out for posts about special offers as I'll be celebrating all year long!!!

Have fun!

Joy x

35/52 Twirls n Turquoise

This week I've been working on new textures! I'm trying out a new method of creating the texture plates so lots of testing! I'm super pleased with the first tests and very excited about the whole thing - but lots more work to be done yet! ;)

These are some discs made with the new texture plates...

...they have been fired and polished, but no patina (dark in the recesses) applied at this point.

Then I wire wrapped the discs with some lovely little 6mm natural turquoise beads. The discs can turn freely and really catch the light when they are worn! :)

On the back of the discs I added another of my textures. I always like to finish the backs of earrings properly - you never know who might be standing behind you!!

I'm very pleased with the outcome, and was tempted to keep them for me ...but no, because I have more exciting news!

I've been having work done to my website and now I can change the content of it whenever I want to - yay!! So I've been giving it a revamp! Please do pop over and have a look!

Now I've started updating my shop with new items. I be adding more pieces all the while so please do keep checking back.

These earrings are already there in the shop! :D

Have fun!

Joy x

25/52 Tenacity

A few weeks ago I had a fun play day with Penny Akester. Penny bid on, and won the workshop I offered in the MCAM Auction. It was Penny's choice as to what to make during the day, and she went for making a Moon Flask...but more on that in another post! ;)

Why am I telling you this? Well, Penny took her almost complete flask home in one of my little tins to finish and fire at home. I told her not to worry about sending back the tin, but a couple of days later a package arrived for me. The tin felt very heavy when I unwrapped it...and inside were some lovely wands/points that Penny had sent me! I was delighted with them!!!! The little one at the bottom is really rainbow coloured, it doesn't show up well in my photo though.

Some of them were drilled through, including the lovely hematite which measures about 35mm long. I really like the patterns on it, so it is the first one I have used :)

I made a silver top for it using Art Clay Silver. I put a couple of little spirals on the front that I added gold to after firing, and then riveted the silver to the hematite with a little sea bamboo coral bead as an accent on the front.

The back is fairly flat so it sits well, and has a hammered spiral accent with my Joy logo.

This is the third wand I have used on the challenge so far this year - and I have several more ideas in mind for some others!! It remains to be seen if they all come to fruition!!! ;)

Have fun!

Joy x

Do you want to learn how to use metal clay and/or enamel? Or improve your existing skills?
I run 1-to-1 workshops all year round :)

9/52 - Midnight Garden

This week my challenge piece is another wand pendant. This one is blue goldstone. It has lots of lovely sparkly bits in it, especially when the sun hits it. Blue goldstone is in fact a man made material, and this wand is nice and round in shape, and super shiny!! It was a real problem to photograph!! I started off on white in the light tent, but not much sparkle! I normally photograph in a tent to avoid reflections, but as the sparkle didn't come up very well I went for some photos in natural light on a dark background as well. You'll have to put up with the reflections on those!! :)

Goldstone was first made in Murano, Venice in the seventeenth century, if you are interested you can read more about it here. I decided some nice glass beads would be the perfect combination to go into the chain and I knew I had some Murano glass beads that might match in well. I'd seen them only recently, but do you think I could find them!! Of course after a while of searching it becomes a challenge in itself! They had to be somewhere, and I wasn't giving up!! 

When I eventually found them they were somewhere I had already looked, not in the sort of bag I thought I was looking for, oh...and they were totally the wrong blue after all that :) Oh well...

In the process of searching though I found a few lampwork beads by Izzy Anderson of Flame and Glass, and they matched in very well. The chain is a mix of handmade links, commercial chain and the aforesaid beads wire-wrapped.

The top of the wand cap has the same design as around the sides, and it is finished with my Joy logo on one side, and three little faux rivets on the other side.

I was pleased that the shrinkage worked out really well on this. At the moment the wand is firmly in place with just a friction fit, but I will remove it to send the piece for hallmarking. I'll add a touch of glue when I refit it for added security.

It was fun to consolidate two of the techniques from my earlier challenge pieces, the wand setting and the beaded chain. I will be doing more faceted wands in the future - they are harder to do than this round one was!! :)

Have fun!

Joy x

PS have you signed up for my newsletter yet? First issue will be out in a while so don't miss it!

8/52 - April Showers

Yes, I know, I'm late with this challenge piece! This could be a long blog post :)

So are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!!

Last weekend I was teaching a one-to-one Art Clay Level 1 Diploma certification workshop (well done Frann Healey on passing!!). The very first piece made is a fairly straight forward textured pendant with a stone set with syringe. The problem with teaching these workshops all the while is what to do with the pieces I make when I demo. Sometimes I don't fire them and reconstitute them, but on this occasion I made the centre piece of this pendant. During the workshop I also made a top piece with a bail on the back, and some raindrops which were attached with chain. The top piece had a little bit of gold added with the keum boo method after firing.

If you are following my challenge this year you'll know I have a list! Well fairly near the top of that list is making necklaces using beading wire and crimp beads. I've never done this!! I have read up on it often, and really struggle to get my head around those daft little crimp tubes being strong enough to hold a necklace together properly to make the piece saleable!! Whenever I have contemplated going that way, I always end up reverting back to wire or chain for necklaces. (Better the devil you know??!). I know the system must work!! There are many amazing artists out there stringing stuff together. My good friend Lynne Glazzard does it, and boy, if there is anyone who would be sure the system worked securely before using it then I know it would be Lynne. If in doubt on the strength of something she'll hit it with a hammer to check first!! ;) She probably added a one ton weight to the end of her first strung piece to check it!! lol

So there was my nice little pendant waiting for a strung necklace. I debated, looked at it, found a load of other things to do, generally procrastinated, and started another challenge piece!! I even photographed the pendant (above) on a ready made necklace and wondered if I could get away with it as my challenge piece!! It is a fairly simple pendant though, where was the challenge in that? 

During the week Frann and I were in email contact after her workshop. I had told her my plan for the piece she saw me make, and she kept asking how it was going!! Yikes, I felt I had to do it!! So today, with the next challenge piece already in the kiln firing, I decided it was time to stop being a wimp and to get on and make a necklace. 

And guess what... these things are soooo much easier if you just start them!! Why hadn't I done this before? It wasn't a difficult thing to do. And now I think I might do a lot more, because I really enjoyed it!!! Ha, ha, ha...you can see why I started this challenge for the year.

I pulled out a load of beads of suitable colours from my large (but mostly untouched!) bead stash. Of course, having never done this before there was a learning curve.

Firstly, I now know I need one of those plastic bead board things. Beads rolling all over the table is not good. I also know that it is not worth crawling around the floor for each seed bead dropped, the hoover can have them!! :D And I know I seriously need to sort out the bead stash!! Too much rummaging through plastic bags.

As I had no sensible way of laying the beads out I just went for it on a design. I did have sufficient forethought to put a matching bead into a dish for every bead I used though. This meant once I added the pendant in the centre the second side was much easier to make replicating the first one. I wouldn't claim it is the most wonderful necklace, but I learnt a lot and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The necklace is really quite sparkly, but I just couldn't manage to capture that in the photos.

I was especially pleased to include the four large flat freshwater pearls. They came from a bag of pearls I bought when we were on holiday in China in 2003!! I've never used any of them before! The mix included real pearls, Swarovski pearls, Swarovski crystals, seed beads and handmade lampwork beads by Laura Sparling.

On the plus side while I was messing around and not getting on with this I started my next challenge piece. It is already fired and now needs finishing, so yay, I'm back up to date again! Next challenge post will be Sunday/Monday time :)

I mentioned earlier that I made this pendant while teaching. I love teaching one-to-one workshops, and Frann did so well on her Level 1 Diploma. She even had time to made a more elaborate brooch based on my mask pendants. We adapted the making techniques to fit the Diploma criteria and I think she made a great job of it!! Here are all the pieces that she made. 

If you are interested in doing a workshop with me do get in touch!! :D

Meanwhile...

...have fun!

Joy x

6/52 Chain Sampler

I had fun making this! It's a conglomeration of various different links I've been working on. I've made it into a sampler as I will be to teaching this as a one day workshop :) Some links are made with just silver wire, some just silver clay and some are a combination of the two. Some are based on links I've used in challenge pieces already this year (can you see there was a cunning plan there???). Here is a photo of some of those chains. I really love the 'coral' beads here (well really it is the more environmentally friendly dyed sea bamboo).

I think I'll be adding to the Sampler Chain as I go along. I already have ideas for more varieties of chain links!

Making chains has really taken me back to revisit my past though. Many moons ago, before I ever encountered metal clay, I used to make enamelled jewellery and handmade chains as a hobby. Chain making can be a repetitive task and does require patience, but I always found it really therapeutic. Soldering lots of silver rings, forming the links, assembling the whole chain - I loved the whole process. The thrill of holding a finished handmade chain is still there!! ;)

I went searching back and found these photos from about 12 years ago of some of the silver chains I used to make.

The challenge now for me is to incorporate metal clay more and more into my chain making, and I'm liking the mix of traditional and modern techniques!

Have fun!

Joy x

A Host of Angels - Past & Present

I've made several angel pieces in the past.

 I've been searching back through my photos to try to find them.

It's always fun to look back and see the things I made before. I find it interesting how my work is changing and my photographic skills are gradually improving!! :)

 

Recently I've been working on a new design for an angel, based on a heart.

So this is the prototype, just to see how it looks. It's quite tiny, only 19mm in diameter, with enamel and 24k gold in the halo. 

The design needs a bit more work, but I'm liking it so far! :)

It will be interesting to see where this ends up!! :)

Have fun!

Joy x

Weekly Critter Challenge 5/52 - Flutterbies

 

Several critters this week - Butterflies!

 

Pretty pink enamelled butterflies with sparkly rainbow 4mm Cubic Zirconium in a fine silver pendant.

 

Here is the poem

 

Flutterbies

 

Flittering, fancily, fluttering by
Flashes of fuchsia fleetingly fly

 

I think this pendant a bit of a Japanese feel to it, what do you think?

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x

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

 

November Four a Month (again!)

 

At last I can upload photos again!! So here is my Four A Month for November. These are four tiny stone set pendants. The cabochon stone in each one is 8mm in diameter. They are all made in fine silver using Art Clay Silver.

 

The one above has a garnet...

 

 

..this one is a goldstone, and below is a matrix turquoise...

 

 

...then an amethyst below...

 

... and finally all four pendants together.

 

These are now in my Etsy shop although the garnet cross is already sold.

 

Tomorrow I will be at St Barnabas in Bexhill, East Sussex for my last fair of the year.

 

It is a lovely friendly venue :) Maybe I will see you there?

 

Have fun

 

Joy x

Crafts at Cooden Beach

 

Tomorrow and Saturday I am doing a fair at Cooden Beach Hotel. I really like this fair, it is a lovely venue as the hotel is right on the beach and the people are always really nice.

 

Today I have been enamelling some more earrings as I sold out of all my blue and green earrings at my last fair. I also finished another pair of my Sakura earrings with a matching pendant. Normally I patinate like all the rest of my pieces and then the little branches go a nice brown, however I think I might leave these bright silver. These also have some purple on which I don't normally add.

 

I have also been having a good sort out of my half made pieces and scrap silver clay.

 

Below are three pieces that I finished off out of them. The cross is made using little branches from my fuchsia bush. I may yet decide to enamel the bee piece :)

 

Below are the backs of the three pieces. They can all be worn either way round.

 

 

I shall be finishing all of these off tonight to take to the fair, and I shall be listing new work for sale on my website and in my Etsy shop next week :)

 

Joy x