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...

Challenging Times

How about challenging yourself for the New Year.

The latest Metal Clay challenge is open and photographic entries need to be in by 15th January. The theme this time is Show Me The Love. I won't be entering this one as my last entry came in third (yippee) and winners are not allowed to enter the next two challenges now. So here are a couple of Art Clay Silver and Enamel hearts I might of entered! There are some fab prizes so get your entry in quick.

One of my favourite blogs is Ruth Baillie's Inside the Artisan, Birdland Creations. Ruth makes the most wonderful and amusing pieces, and also is talented in drawing and sculpture. The picture above is one of her cartoons.

Ruth has made the Bird A Week Challenge and I have signed up for it. The aim is simple, make a bird a week for the year and post them in the flickr album she has created for it. They can be any medium so if you are a maker why not give it a go. Since I am useless at bird shapes I thought this would be great for me. By December I should of getting the hang of it.

I will be posting my first bird here later ;-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well here we are - 2011. I am not a great one for resolutions but I am really going to try to blog a bit more often this year (yes I know I have said that before!). The run up to Christmas got really busy and I keep finding I have problems getting into blogger so I need to sort that one out.

So what have I been up to. Before Christmas I was very busy with orders, both on ebay selling Art Clay Silver and for commissions pieces of jewellery. This last week though I have been back into the workshop working on some projects.

This little angel is a prototype for an idea I have. She will have some enamel on her plus gold keum boo fused to her halo and wings (the traces of yellow are just felt pen). I hope to be making a host!

These earrings are like some I made on the run up to Christmas. The little mother of pearl birds are ones I brought back from my trip to Japan last year and I decided to make a pair for me as well. Cute aren't they.

Finally a sneak preview of a large project I have been working on all week. This is a tiny section of the test piece I made. Not the best of photos but those stones are only 3mm in diameter!



This is a competition piece so you will have to wait a while to see the finished article! Progress is going well so far though....... ;-)

Hastings Hot Houses

This weekend I am doing the open studios in Hastings. I am at 84 Croft Road and will be at the house myself Saturday and Sunday from 2pm - 5pm. Do come along and say hello, and do the trail of all the houses in the beautiful Old Town of Hastings. Full details are on the website http://www.hastingshothouses.co.uk/.

A great opportunity to finish off your Christmas shopping with unique handmade gifts.

Koi Bowl

 

So here are some more pictures of the little Koi Bowl I made.

Dinky isn't it. Just 39mm in diameter. It will be off for hallmarking in the next batch and then up for sale.

Meanwhile our 14inches of snow has now melted in just 24 hours helped by copious amounts of rain today. I am glad we live on a hill!

Before the frozen conditions went we had some fantastic icicles. Here are just a few piccies. I am going to put a load more up on facebook. I am sure these will inspire me to make something - just not sure what yet:-)

Snowed off

Sadly my show this weekend at Bentley has been cancelled due to the weather. I am not surprised. By yesterday we had about 14 inches of snow here. 

I will be at Battle Late Night Shopping this coming Thursday evening in the Memorial Hall. Next weekend I am doing Hastings Hot Houses but I will post more about that in a day or so.

The little dish above is a new Japanese inspired piece I have just made. I have called it Koi Bowl. The koi is enamelled and the rest of the piece is just patinated. It is quite tiny, only about 39mm in diameter and is made using Art Clay Silver. I will post some more photos soon but blogger is playing up and refusing to load them at the mo!

Maybe it is the snow ;-)

Bring Me Sunshine - a bit of a Challenge!!

Like many of you I am now in the midst of the snow with several inches outside. My workshop I was teaching tomorrow is off - it is snow go! (sorry)

So I was wondering if some of you might be up for a bit of a challenge in your unexpected free time. I'm calling it Bring Me Sunshine. If you are snowed in make something that is warm, sunny, or just brings a smile to everyones faces in any media. Post your photo in the Flickr group Bring Me Sunshine. If you are in sunnier climes just post something to warm and inspire others.

The prize - you will be inspiring yourself as well as those who are stuck in the snow and hopefully bringing a bit of sunshine into their cold and frosty lives. Go for it - why not!!

Joy x

PS I actually have no idea if posting your photos to this Flickr group will work as I have never set one of these up before so if it does not perhaps someone will tell me how to do it properly!! :-)