Painting with Enamel

Lately I have been extremely creatively scattered.  I have been burning myself out by making things at home - stenciling some handmade pillows, cutting linoleum prints, and doing some painting.  Also, attempting to organize things to avoid working.  I spent way too many hours online scouring for a new duvet cover.  Go ahead and judge me.  However, since I painted my bedroom I have been in need of something that matches the new colour (insert rampant consumer jab here).  In between my online journeying i whipped up some enamel paintings.  I should also let everyone in on the fact that I was watching Battlestar Galactica while doing so.  The skull was a connection to my ongoing obsession with the Dias de los Muertos.  I have been contemplating getting more tattoos lately, hence the tattoo designs.  I'm sure my mom appreciates them being painted on jewellery rather than on me.  My years of drawing henna tattoos have been put to use once again!  The one thing I found out about enamel that I hadn't known before is that red and white enamel repel... if you are lucky you can catch it before it happens (which is why you are seeing this batch of pieces and not the last ones I made - now lost to the light of day and never to be seen again).  Enamel is not always predictable and or reliable.  I left the bird piece in the kiln a tad too long, and it developed a speckly quality that I had not initially intended.

  I think I made the frame and components a bit more complicated than they need to be, I will be messing around with an alternative.  I painted each little vignette on white enamel, so my next batch of them are on coloured backgrounds.  Hopefully those work out and are worthy of a post. 

   

Lotus Ring

Check out the new Wedding Band I finished recently!  It's a joy carving anything organic and I was excited to create this design because I like that it will it will sit flush against her engagement ring, blooming on top.

I casted this ring in 14 karat gold and then added a sandblasted finish (leaving the inside high polish, so it feels nice and smooth against the skin).

HD Ring for Jeff

Here's where it starts, with a rough piece of wax.

I drew the shape on and sawed off the excess.

Using various files and wax burs I shaped the flame.

I smoothed it out and hollowed the back out to reduce the weight.

I added the band using my wax pen to melt the pieces together.

I decided to use the green wax for the band because it holds sharper detail.

Lots of Process shots today! The first thing off the top of my head since I just finished editing the photos this very moment - right after I finished making the ring itself. I completely guessed the size so hopefully this will end up fitting my brother on his birthday tomorrow. As you can see from the photos, I started out making the fireball as a separate piece before eventually adding it to a ring shank that I created. I was going to keep the fireball fairly simplistic, however after starting to carve it out I added a few more flares, for a more layered look. Once I attached the the ring I had to redraw the logo on three or four times until I liked the placement of it. After I casted it and polished it up a bit I decided to add a patina to it to make it look a bit more bad-ass, somehow it didn't look as good at a simple high polish. All in all, I'm glad I challenged myself with the logo on the band. I could probably spend several more hours perfecting it, but I am pleased with how it turned out. I hope my brother likes his new ring!

Feathers

I have been continuing my explorations with enameling. I started off with some cloisonné characters, but their images are going to be kept under wraps until I have them all fleshed out (several months from now, no doubt). I have also been experimenting with some simple sgraffito - a technique in which you scrap away enamel you have sifted onto the surface. The feathers were pierced from copper sheeting then I have layered two colours on top of each other. After firing the base layer I sifted the second colour and using a toothpick I scraped away to reveal the base colour and add more dimension to the feathers. I made these in mind with the Pay-it-forward volunteers from a facebook wall post a while back. To give all those who are not in the know a run-down on how this works: I spotted the declaration on a friend's wall for all willing participants to repost so that the first five people who commented could receive something that you have handmade. I contemplated going off into left field and creating something non-jewellery related, however as you can plainly see that did not happen.

Collana numero cinque is in the works currently...

So for any of the participants who are going to be receiving something in the mail from me... after numbering each piece I drew names randomly to select who was getting which feather. I hope everyone loves their new necklace!

A rabbit, a squirrel and a bird, oh my!

You may have noticed a trend in my posts. I absolutely love making gifts for people. Personalizing jewellery for my near and dears gives me that warm fuzzy feeling. It truly is better to give than receive. I love when my mind whirs into action thinking about a person and what they love in life and making something that reflects their personality and will hopefully bring a little joy into their life.

When I thought of this idea for a friend I went into idea overdrive and wanted to tack on as many components and do-dads as possible. How could one not love a piece that can be displayed, has interchangeable components and of course is all made by hand (a crazy person, that's who).

So, ladies and gents gaze upon this here object with envy because it is a one-of-a-kind creation for one special person!

I fabricated the pendant from copper that I then used different coloured flocking to jazz it up. I actually constructed it so that you can insert different background pictures into the square frame. I carved each of the animals from wax and then casted them using Ancient Bronze casting grain. A grain that I have recently acquired and absolutely love. The animals, base, and pendant each have Rare Earth Magnets to hold them into place when being worn or on display.

I simply painted the based and glued on some string and yarn - I finally found a use for my rainbow yarn that I love so much but never use.

Then I got stumped as to what kind and what length of a chain the piece needed, so after Gillian received it she added some of her heart chain, and BAM! it's that much more awesome.

A very Happy Birthday to Gillian!

Enamel 101

I have been out of commission for much too long, contemplating about what I would like to blog about as opposed to actually just getting down to it. The idea about doing a weekly or monthly feature on artists that inspire me has been rolling around in my mind. I would like to give it a scheduled update promise, but I will just put it on the things to do list for this blog. Especially since I have been slacking off on uploading photos of work. I have been taking photos, it's just the uploading part that I lag behind on.

Alright! enough boring you, let us get to some pictures. Lately because of a severe lack of motivation for my usual work I have been dabbling with enameling. After doing a colour test of all the colours in the studio i fiddled around with some stenciling and some cloisonne. Note to self: when doing cloisonne, fill and do one colour at a time - I think I lucked out with this first firing in the kiln, although the foot needs another layer of colour. The back of each piece was enameled with counter-enamel - an amalgamation of all the scrap enamel mixed together. Pretty fun stuff to do, I would like to try my hand at some enamel paintings, and some wirework pieces eventually.

Cutlery

I feel like since I created a ring for one of my brothers as a birthday gift, that this is the year that I make something for everyone in in my family. (We'll see about that...) I knew that my sister wanted some "threader" earrings (posts attached to a tiny chain that you pull through your piercing) and since we're both a couple of foodies I wanted to make her a set of cutlery to wear on her ears. These were so much fun to make! I realize I say that about everything I make, but I really do mean it. These were a joy because I turned such a small amount of material into something. They measure around 1.5cm. Using two tiny scraps of copper and sterling silver I butt soldered the two materials together and then filed them into their shapes. I added a bit of patina to them to give them an aged and used look. Hope my sister enjoys them.