Zara's project

Zara's project had a Japanese inspired theme.  She learned to saw, solder, sand and polish sterling silver as well as making a smaller setting using art clay silver.  She then embedded her original drawings in resin setting them into the pieces she had constructed.  In the second picture she is carefully bringing small bubbles out of the resin.  The pieces in the box are are charm, pendant and brooch taped in so that she could take them home safely.  During the design development process she had also cut out one of the drawings in copper sheet and done some enamelling.  It has been lovely to watch her confidence grow as she has learned.

Direction of travel, Ring 1

This is one of my Inspired by Heritage pieces.  It is a ring and is called 'Direction of Travel' and based on ideas about Captain Scoresby Junior.  He was captain of a whaling ship and did many experiments relating to magnetism with the aim of improving ships compasses.  This is the same Captain Scoresby who did the beautiful drawings of snowflakes that I used for inspiration for earlier work.

This ring is also trying to capture ideas about essentials of life and finding the way home again.  It has a tiny working compass embedded in resin together with bits of red thread.  The compass did originally say 'water proof' but I sanded the 'proof' bit away just leaving the words water and compass before I embedded it.  The compass actually shows up more clearly in this photograph than it does really.

More rings

Three rings in three consecutive days.  I began with the opals that have been lying in a box in my workbench for a few years.  I bought the opal in matrix at a trade fair about 5 years ago and decided to pair it with a small opal triplet which was in the same box.  Then I realised I had become interested in the bezel settings again.  I used to make bezel settings all the time but haven't done this for a while either.  The teardrop textured piece of the second ring is made in art clay silver and was in a box of bits on my bench.  I made it when I was showing a student how to make a mould.  It was from a plastic button.  The round bezel is then filled with resin and gold leaf.  The third ring I have used another bit of art clay silver that was lying in my bits box and made this double bezel.  In the shallow one I have used tinted resin and in the larger deeper bezel I have used clear resin and tiny chopped up bits of red thread.  I am really enjoying making bezels so will have to do some more soon.

More experiments in ring making

I have spent the past few days experimenting with rings in a variety of materials.  Here are a selection of the finished rings.  The top left hand ring is resin with little pieces of cut thread embedded into it.  The top right hand ring is faux bone, art clay silver and alcohol inks. The bottom right hand ring is faux bone but before I textured it I made a mould and then poured a resin version with red thread embedded in it.  I am really enjoying my time experimenting like this, it is always good to take a break from the 'bread and butter' work and play for a while, letting new ideas bounce around the studio.

Red resin and thread

I have been trying not to work over the Christmas holidays, difficult when my studio is so close to home.   Anyway as a Christmas treat to myself I bought a pack of casting resin and a bangle mold.  Here is my first attempt, not perfect by any means but I have quite enjoyed making it.  I used three shades of sewing thread and mixed it into the resin as I poured the resin into the mould.  I have got a few bubbles a couple of which are on the edge so I am not very happy about that and may have to file it down and alter the profile to remove them. I have also sanded it back as I didn't really want the usual high gloss finish. It was really difficult to get the set bangle out of the deep mould but I have since found instructions on a blog that say after it has set to pop the whole thing into the freezer for a short time before trying to remove it.
 (I would then of course have to wear gloves to try and wrestle it out of the mold as I can't actually grip anything cold or frozen).

Of course I realised before I started that there was little chance the bangle would fit me as I have large hands that don't flex very tightly but I have found that if I warm the bangle up, by running it under the hot tap, I can flex the bangle just enough to get it on.  I don't know whether it will get more brittle with age though?  Anyway, it was a fun project for the holidays.