WCC 12/52 - Cataflaged

 

Another cat critter! (I said there would be more :) ). This time it is a fine silver pendant made using Art Clay Silver. The pendant is reversible and on one side we have the cat which was added using my Enamelled Accents technique. He has lovely green enamel eyes and a pink nose. A hidden cat!

 

The back is quite simple with a nice texture and a star shaped stone set near the top, and my Joy logo.

 

Here is the poem

 

Emerald Eyes
Mischievous glint
Playful gaze
And purring hint

 

This is the third of EIGHT posts for today to catch me up - so do check out my others :)

 

Joy x

Bird a Month 11/12 - Night Owl

 

Here is my Bird a Month for November. I know I have done owls before but everyone keeps asking so I thought I would make another, and he is a variation on a theme ;-)

 

He has bright yellowy orange eyes and an alert look!

 

This little fine silver pendant measures about 26mm in diameter and the reverse is set with a lovely little orange CZ.

 

I am currently updating my Etsy shop and adding new things all the while, and this little guy is already there!

 

Updating the shop on my website is my next job.

 

Only one more bird now for the end of the challenge. It is time to start thinking about next years challenges. Any ideas?

 

Joy x

Teaching Mask Making!!

 

Here she is! The second of the two masks I have been working on. She is called Japanese Mystery and is another fine silver and enamel pendant, made using Art Clay Silver. She measures approx 42mm x 42mm.

 

I am delighted that I will be teaching my new workshop - Colourful Carnival Masks - next year in the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors at Glaisdale.

 

It will be at my friend's Lynne Glazzard's wonderful newly refurbished studio on 29th & 30th June 2013. You can read the details here. Spaces are limited so book early!!

 

 

 

After I finished this mask I thought it would be fun to put a small collage of some of my masks to add to my Facebook page so I thought I would post it here as well. It is interesting to see how the masks are developing as time goes on :)

 

Joy x

Arcobaleno alla Moda

 

Here she is... finished!! What a difference a bit of colour makes :) I do hope that you like her. She is called Arcobaleno alla Moda because she is a fashionable rainbow!

 

 

The reverse is simply decorated with a few little sparklies.

 

You can see from the photo below she is quite small.

 

This is the first of two workshop examples I am making - now it is back to finishing the second mask.

 

Watch this space for more photos in the next day or two;-)

 

Joy x 

Challenging Times!

 

Just in the nick of time here are my challenge pieces for August! My Four A Month pieces are called Enamelling Fun (for obvious reasons!!). Bright and colourful, I have enjoyed making these.

 

The first one is called Japanese Sunset. This is a piece I have had in the back of my mind for a long time and I was pleased with the result when I finally made it! OK, so here is a bit of cheating as this is also my Bird A Month for August. Apologises, I have tried not to be sneaky like this but this month got a bit busy!

 

The next piece is called Rainbow Sprite's Flower. A while ago someone called me a Rainbow Sprite, (thank you Terry Kovalcik!) and, well I do like my colours and I was wearing my rainbow waistcoat! I kind of liked the name so I thought I would use it for this piece.

 

The next one I called Serenity. It is a simple pendant with peaceful green and blue songbirds.

 

Finally I have called this one Summer Blackbird. This is the third piece I have made with a blackbird on, each one different. This time I thought I would add a few bright colourful flowers and a bright shining sun to the pendant.

 

I do realise that with everyone I have had going on my blog has been a bit neglected this past month. Sorry for that.

 

I have lots of things to tell you and pieces to post so blogging is about to become a lot more frequent!!

 

This weekend I shall be at the RAFA Shoreham Airshow in the Craft Marquee. Do come along and say hello. It is always a great show :)

 

Have fun!

 

Joy

Enamelling Rainbows

I have been having fun this week making some new pieces. These include a new style which is set with a lovely sparkly stone and has enamel around it. These pieces are waiting to be made into pendants and earrings and then they will be off to London next week.

I was asked last week if I ever made seahorses, and since I never had I decided to make one. This is the result below. I could not decide what colour to enamel him so guess what... he ended up rainbow colour. No surprise there then!

He is really quite cute as you can see...

...and the back has a simple texture and my Joy logo. I think you could even wear him with this side facing out for days when you were in a less colourful mood :)

I shall be making more of these in various colours to list on my website and in my Etsy shop. If you have a request just email me ;-)

Enamelling Fun

This week I have been making earrings and here are some that are now finished. As you can see they are mostly enamelled so I have been having fun playing and blending colours.

Here is a quick description of each pair.

Sapphire Nouveau, fine silver and enamel earrings with sterling silver earwires.

Raspberry Ripple, Fine silver and Enamelled Accents with sterling silver earwires.

Emerald Nouveau, fine silver and enamel with sterling silver earwires.

Rainbow Nouveau, fine silver and enamel with sterling silver earwires.

Cobwebs, fine silver on sterling silver earwires (NO ENAMEL!), just in case you think I always enamel everything :)

Sea Swirls, fine silver with Enamelled Accents and sterling silver earwires.

I have some more to finish and some nice new pendants to photograph.

This lot are already up in my Etsy shop and I will add them to my website this week along with the other things. 

What will you learn in 2012?

Eye, eye, what's all this about then?

2012 is already into February. Amazing, where does the time go. In my diary though I am already putting things in through to November, it will be Christmas again before I know it!

I love teaching workshops so it is very exciting to see my diary filling up with bookings. If you are thinking of coming for a workshop with me do get in touch. There are still plenty of available dates and the workshops can be tailored to what you want to learn. You can find more details at the top of my blog and on my website.

As well as teaching my own workshops here in Hastings I shall also be teaching around the UK this year.

In March I will be at the world renowned Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery in the deep South West of the UK. I shall be teaching two Masterclasses there.

The first is Discoidal Rings. These stunning rings have lots of exciting techniques to learn and we will be playing with nice bright enamel colours.

The second is Joyful Jewellery, making fun pieces in silver clay and learning how to add colour and character to turn them into truly unique pieces. The eyes in my photo above are all from Joyful Jewellery pieces, this is my latest cover photo on my Facebook Timeline.  Enough to make you go cross eyed!

If you are thinking of coming on one of these workshops don't leave it too long to book, pop over to the MCSJ site and have a look now :) I would love to see you there.

More about the other workshops soon .....

I did head this post - What will you learn in 2012 - and I am planning to make sure I learn more as well.

In May I shall be going to Craftworx in Yorkshire to attend Terry Kovalcik's workshop. I am really looking forward to it.

No matter how much we know there is always so much more to learn ;-)

Bird a Week 47/52 - Northern Cardinal

Only 5 more birds to go after this one until the end of the year! Wow it seems to have gone fast.

47/52 a lovely Northern Cardinal sitting in spring blossom. This is a fine silver pendant with enamel.

The reverse is decorated with a texture and 2mm and 3mm CZs.

Not too seasonal, I know, but with so few birds left till the end of the year I just have to choose the ones I like!! ;-)

Here is the Haiku

Pink and white blossom

Red and black bird betwixt

Northern Cardinal



Bird a Week 42/52 - Avian Thimble

Somebody asked me recently if I ever made silver thimbles and you know I never have, so I decided to see if I could make one. This was my second attempt, the first never got as far as being fired so will be reconstituted back to silver clay.

 

 

I will not be going into mass production of them as they are a bit fiddly but if this one sells once it is hallmarked I think I will make a few more as it was quite fun to do and it is nice to make something that is not jewellery occasionally.

 

Here is the Haiku

Sitting on the round
Silhouette with spring blossoms
Avian Thimble

I have been busy fixing dates for next year for some Masterclasses I have been asked to teach in the UK. I will tell you more about them in my next blog post but if you can't wait then pop over to Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery where I will be teaching two brand new workshops next March :)

Zingyness and a Sheep!

Well, these two could not be much more different could they?

Firstly, above is a new Discoidal Ring. I have called this one Zingyness, for obvious reasons!

The second one is another piece of Joyful Jewellery with a cute sheep on it. The piece is called - wait for it - A Bit Sheepish. How original is that! :))

I will be teaching both of these are styles as workshops soon so watch this space for details ......

 

Bird a Week 40/52 - Having a Hoot!

As promised here is the second bird for this week so I am now totally back up to date with my Bird a Week Challenge.

I am in a bit of a comical mode at the moment and I really enjoyed making this one. As I played around with the wires for the owl I could get all kinds of comical faces and was sitting giggling away. Lovely to be enjoying my work so much!!

The back is a geometric design so the piece can be worn wither way round.

Haiku

Wide eyed little owl

With your cute expression

I'm having a hoot!

Bird a Week 35/52 - Red Breast

Week 35 - gosh the year is going quickly! This week's bird is a fairly simple reversible enamelled pendant. It is made in fine silver using Art Clay Silver.

On the reverse is a nice texture and some little decorations. This side is for when you are in a less colourful but more thoughtful mood :)

At the last two shows I have done I have sold quite a few rings so I was determined to make some more this week.

This is the result of my efforts, nice sparkly bling!

This weekend I am at Leeds Castle in Kent. It is a stunning venue and to make it even better this weekend is called Balloons and Bentleys. There will be Bentleys, hot air balloons and steam engines as well as food, and crafts and me!!!

What more do you want :)

Do come along and say hello.

 

Bird a week 29/52 - Nestled In

Another week, another bird :)

A rainbow birdie nestling down to roost. This is a fine silver pendant made using Art Clay Silver. The bird and the spirals are added using my Enamelled Accents technique, then I have added some 24k gold and patinated it.

The reverse is set with a 3mm CZ and, of course, my little Joy logo! I really love this texture on the back so you can expect to see this again soon :) 

And the Haiku to go with it...

Fading sunlight glow

Night time fast approaches

Nestled in to roost

 

 

Bird a Week 13/52 - Secret Green Bird

This weeks BAW is a locket. I made this while teaching a workshop in the last week. Hilary and Alli arrived with a photo of a similar locket and said we want to make these! Fair enough you might think BUT

1. I didn't know until they arrived they wanted to make this

2. I have not made a locket in this style before

AND

3. it was only the second time Alli has used silver clay and Hilary has only been using it a while longer!!!

So it was a bit of a challenge for me as well but they were more than happy for me to make one at the same time and work it out as we went along. Definitely two people who like to jump in at the deep end!! :)

We had three days so it was nice and relaxed and they also made wonderful pendants as well. They both did fantastically well and I will get their two lockets and pendants photographed when I can so you can see what a great job they did. We also had a really good laugh along the way and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anyway back to the BAW. Once I had finished my locket I enamelled the bird inside, then the leaves on the front, added keum boo and finally patinated with Liver of Sulphur.

I have been reading a book of Japanese Haiku poems recently and really like the form of them so I wrote one for the locket.....

The bamboo dense, tall

A startled flash of green wings

My secret bird flies

I think I might write more haiku - you have been warned!!!! ;-)

Bird A Week 7/52

This weeks bird is a silver circular domed pendant with Enamelled Accents. It measures approx 36mm in diameter.

The bird is actually indented into the surface and filled with black enamel, and then the flowers and leaves are raised.

I decorated the back with a little flower and a blossom texture from Rolling Mill Resource.

For obvious reasons I called this one Blue Garden! ;-)

Here are some more Bird a Week pieces

Bird a Week 5/52

My Bird a Week 5/52 piece is a bit of fun ;-) 

It was my second attempt for this week as the first one did not turn out as planned and now a rescue project for another week! So I had to have a rethink on Thursday and came up with this idea. Just beaks and eyes really.

It is made using Art Clay Silver and then wires were added using my Enamelled Accents technique and finally it was enamelled and patinated. It took me longer than planned as all the wire elements are quite tiny and very fiddley!

I don't make many brooches, not sure why really,  but people are always asking for them so this may be the first of many!

I decorated the back with with a few stars set with 1.5mm CZs.

More Bird A week Blog posts are here

New Year, New Challenges

 So you remember the tiny angel I posted the other day? Here she is with a tiny blue enamelled accent heart and gold wings and halo. The gold was applied by Keum Boo, the ancient Korean art of fusing 24k gold to the surface of the silver.

As you can see she really is very tiny, approx 18mm high.

I seem to have got tiny on the brain at the moment ....

This is my very first bird in the Bird A Week challenge that I mentioned in my last blog post.

As I am hopeless on bird shapes I just made a round flat body and then added simple details. Actually he has come out quite well. I am going to call him the Make It bird. He will sit on my workbench and remind me to make a bird each week.

The only problem is he is so small and my bench is always so untidy I might lose him forever on there!



You can see what everyone is creating in the Bird a Week flickr album. There are no rules so if you are feeling creative just join up and post some birds.

Back to my workshop now to finish off some more pieces :-)

See other Bird a week blog posts here...