Dog Charm

Woof! woof!!

Meet Picasso, one of my recent custom orders.
I have been finishing some last minute holiday commissions before I leave the city for some family time in the country.  I was excited to work on a piece that will be dangling from the charm bracelet that also holds the gargoyle charm I made a while ago.  I took a shot of the wax before I casted the charm in 18 karat yellow gold.  I ended up using two different types of wax - the blue wax I could carve into using wax burs on my flex shaft as well as dental tools that I use for carving and then the pink wax on the ears.  The pink were tiny wax sheet pieces that I folded and then bonded to the blue wax by melting it in place.  The dog became more and more delicate to carve as he got smaller and I ended up having to give him surgery a few times when almost all his legs fell off, but I think he definitely ended up being well worth the effort.  I am especially proud of the texture I gave his shiny gold fur.

Pin Swap

Bunch 'o brooches

Scrap transformed into "Platinum" brooch

Yay! Self promotion.

Tonight is the Annual General Meeting for the Metal Arts Guild.  As an icebreaker they encourage members to create pins that they can swap with others.  Yesterday, knowing that I am dying to trade with other creative folk I decided to whip up some enamel brooches.  Instead of creating perfect forms I searched through my copper scrap bin for pieces with an interesting shape that I wouldn't have to alter.  I have quite a few pieces from my hydraulic press dyes that didn't work out.  Sometimes the copper sheet was too close to the edge and collapsed into my dye when I was adding pressure, so I gave six of them an enamel makeover.  I sawed out some forms to hold the pin back in place, but other then that and the enamel I didn't change my scrap pieces all that much.  I decided to add on a painted layer of enamel that I labelled each with a different metal. Just before firing them in the kiln for the last time I added my blog address and name, just so each recipient knows who it is from.  Hopefully some of the new owners will be reading this shortly after meeting me and exchanging for one of their creations!

More Painted Enamel

Today I was able to keep a better watch over my painted enamel pieces when they were in the kiln with UV googles that aren't as dark as mine.  So, each of them turned out wonderfully.  Each of these was done on a coloured layered instead of the a white background, like the ones in yesterday's post.  Now comes the tricky part - fabricating something to set these babies into.  I am unsure of what to make them into - pendant? ring? brooch? Help me decide! 

I have been going into each little guy without really thinking about what I want to paint beforehand.  I think if I end up painting more I will continue with my tattoo theme and throw in some medieval inspiration as well as looking back to some poetry that I love.  And lots more skulls of course.  Suggestions for ideas are welcome!

This is all eventually leading to some grander scale pieces that I have in mind.  I definitely wanted to get the knack of using my acrylic enamels before jumping in too deep & so far, so good.

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!