The birds and the beads

I am preparing to take part in North Yorkshire Open Studios which this year runs over 5 days June 10/11/12 and 18/19 10.30 to 5.30 each day. I will be having a small opening event on Friday 10th June from 5.30 until 6.30pm when I will be showing my bird inspired Jewellery and launching a new range of small bead bracelet kits.

Just send me a message if you are intending to come along, it will be lovely to see you!

Plique a jour and lots of other fun

I have had the most amazing weekend.  The very talented metal clay artist Lesley Messam has been up to North Yorkshire (together of course with her lovely husband Keith). We were a little sad as Joy Funnell was originally going to come as well, but couldn't because of other commitments.  She did very kindly email some notes on plique a jour enamel to help us on our way.  On Friday we had a day out in Whitby but Saturday and Sunday were spent in studio, teaching each other all kinds of things and laughing and experimenting along the way.

I have a large stone set and ready to attach to my partly made ring.  The main achievement for me was actually doing some plique a jour enamel.  I did make two pairs of earrings using this technique way back in 1999 but have not attempted it since.

Bird a week, plique a jour earrings

This is my second attempt. I got a little confused about which colour went into which cell so a couple of the cells have more than one colour in them.  I have really enjoyed the challenge of doing these and will think about designing something for plique a jour again soon

I still have my big ring to finish first and another bird brooch is in progress

Forget me not

This little brooch is a commission for clients for their daughter as a wedding gift. It does have all the elements of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue together with the forget me not  that are her own favourite flowers.

A ring in Seattle

I am really pleased that one of the rings I made last year has been selected for an exhibition RAD, a Ring a Day for 365 days at the Punch Gallery in Seattle. The exhibition runs from Thursday May 5 to Sun May 29, 2011 and runs in conjunction with the conference of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (my ring is a plastic one, carved faux bone and engraved then coloured using alcohol inks).



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

More Birds

I have had a busy few weeks and fallen behind slightly with the 'Bird a Week'challenge.  I have been sketching and thinking about possible birds, just not had much free studio time. Here are the two latest.  The first is in sterling silver. roller printed, hammered and slightly domed with a loop soldered on and a jump ring so it can be worn as a pendant.

The second is a tiny art clay silver bead bird (think I need to make another attempt to photograph it though)

Teaching and studio time

I have had a busy few days teaching in my studio. Here is Barbara working away on her ring on Thursday.



In Friday Jan spent the day making two pendants, one a stylised leaf for her daughter and the other this horse's head


Here is Jan proudly wearing her creation. I do love it when a student makes something they are happy to wear.



Today I have had a quiet time working on a small forget-me-not brooch


I still have quite a bit of work to do on it, but here it is fresh from the kiln. My garden is a sea of forget-me-not flowers at the moment, although a bit battered now after the hail and rain storms yesterday




Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Back to the bench and more birds

It has been a busy few weeks working on the redisplay of objects at Whitby Museum for the Precious Cargo project so I have had very little time in the workshop.  It did quickly make a pair of bird earrings last week and then wore them when I went to do a talk for the Scarborough Decorative and Fine Arts Society on Wednesday.

This sketch was a doodle I did in February 2011

These are part of my Bird a Week challenge.   I really liked them so decided to make another, larger pair today.

This pair are slightly more dimensional as I hammered them more to give them a bit of a curve.