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

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

Modern Medieval Earrings

So, yesterday I showed you some colourful things!

These are my new design, a range I am calling Modern Medieval.

Here is a WIP shot of the pieces made in fine silver clay waiting to be fired in the kiln at 820C.

  

As they fire for an hour or so the binders which were added the the powdered silver burn away, the pieces shrink a little and I am left with pure fine silver. 

Here they are fresh out of the kiln (cooled first of course!) :)

At this point the silver looks white and the next stage is to polish them up to nice and shiney, and then enamel them.

Until finally we have lovely earrings!!

One pair just had to be rainbow!! 

 

 

The lovely red and black of these have a real Gothic feel.

 

And this pair have 24k gold dots around the edges, and wonderful green and blue enamel. I called these Pretty as a Peacock!

 

These earrings are now up for sale on my website and also in my Etsy shop.

I am really happy with this new style and Im working on matching pendants and also lockets.

I'd love to know what you think of them!

Thanks for reading...

and have fun!

Joy x

Long Time - No Blog!

I've been a really bad blogger!

I kept thinking 'I must blog' but somehow never got around to it - it has been a hectic year!

And yes, it is a year!! Today I decided to go get started again, and guess what, then I saw it was exactly a year since I last posted!!

To be fair it is not totally all my fault, blogger seems so unresponsive that just posting this today has become a major struggle and I have had to change browser to do it.

Still, enough of the excuses. I shall now be blogging again!! YAY!!!

So here is a bit of colour to start with - 

I'll tell you about these in my next post ;) 

 

Meanwhile...

have fun!

Joy x

Summertime Madness!

 

I'm having a sale!!!

 

I've never had a sale before! Must be the combination of the heat and the thunderstorms ;-)

 

I am offering a whopping 20% OFF the items listed in my Etsy shop until 1st August. The mask above is included!!

 

Don't miss out :)

 

Have fun!

 

Joy

Christmas is coming!

So... what is on your wish list for Christmas?

 

If you are into metal clay and are thinking of buying an online workshop now is the time!

 

CraftArtEdu have a 25% discount on one class of your choice if you buy it by 30th November!!

 

There are lots of great classes on there. You will find two workshops by me, my Ritzy Rings and Retro Circles Chain with variations as well as other metal clay workshops by Gordon Uyehara and Lorena Angulo!! 

 

My Ritzy Rings is a great technique for making lovely strong rings, and I have my very own Retro Circles, an easily mastered chain making technique which can be used for chains, bracelets, earring and pendants.

 

Check out the workshop previews now!!

 

Don't miss out on this great offer :)

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

Bird a Month 6/12 - Twit Twoo

Twit Twoo!! My cute little solid silver owl sculpture is my Bird a Month for June. I am very excited about this one as my step by step tutorial for making him is the the newest issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine which is just coming out. It is the third anniversary edition of MCAM Vol 3 Issue 3 and it includes some wonderful projects including Lesley Messam and Gordon Uyehara, and a great article about Wanaree Tanner who is producing some fantastic work at the moment! 

Even better - I also have a feature piece in it about undertaking challenges!! If you do not already subscribe you can buy an issue via the website and here in the UK it will be available in W H Smith soon :) 

Above is another piece I have made for the Guild of Enamellers exhibition in Whitby in July - I have called him Tropical Tree Frog :)

I just seem to keep enamelling rainbows at the moment and the set below, Swirling Rainbows, are also for the exhibition.

Tomorrow I shall be at the Riverdell Country Fair at Burwash in East Sussex. It should be a great day.

Maybe I will see you there?

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. 

Four a Month -1- Have a Heart

You may recall at the beginning of the year I said I was going to undertake two particular challenges.

 One was my Bird a Month, and thank you to all those who have posted photos so far. Even if you have not there is no time like the present to start!

The other was the Four A Month Challenge. Here are my first four pieces for that challenge and they are (as I am sure you will notice!) all hearts!

All four pieces are fine silver made using Art Clay Silver. The earrings above have lovely red Enamelled Accents hearts.

I made this one with a fine silver snake shaped into a heart.

These have lab rubies fired in place in the fine silver, and finally..... my favourite of the four. A fine silver heart with an enamelled scroll design below.

I really enjoyed making all of these and in fact they have gone off to a shop in London for sale.

So now it is February and time to start the challenges again :)

Fusing Fun

Phew, well here are the results of a couple of glass fusing days. The ones above will be made into earrings and pendants and the ones below are going to be brooches. I love dichroic glass. It is soooo colourful but such a pain to photograph. This lot look miles better than in the pictures. They are sparkley gorgeous. I will not even be listing these on my website until after the craft fairs over the next two weekends as they are always so popular and sell really quickly. I am just finishing off some Art Clay silver pieces I made as well so will be posting a picture of those soon. Don't forget to come and say hi if you are near any of the fairs I am at. (see earlier post)