Tag Archives: Sterling silver

I’m ready for my close-up…

Holidays are wonderful things.  Getting something done that you’ve been putting off for ages… well that’s just excellent!  With help (and some of her photos – thanks!!) from Bo, I have posted some new photos of jewellery that are in my personal collection.  There are still more pieces to be photographed, but it’s a good start.

Dee photographing jewellery

Me photographing jewellery

Hidden jewellery

Hidden jewellery waiting for its turn

I did learn an important fact – no matter how interesting the location, sometimes it is too busy looking for photos.  Can you spot the earrings?

Can you find the earrings?

Can you spot the earrings?

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I have holiday brain…

… so this may be a rather rambling post.  I’m coming to the end of a very relaxing week of vacation, and I’m feeling well-rested and content.

I’ve spent some time this week looking through books on jewellery making and getting excited about going back to the basics – I’ve gotten quite lazy with aspects of jewellery making – I don’t remember the last time I set a stone, and I have some gorgeous stones waiting to become part of a piece of jewellery.  A few ideas have already been sketched out… Yay!  We also took some photos of my jewellery on the beach and other locales.  Once the pictures get edited (gack!) I’ll be posting them.

We spent some time at Qualicum Beach and visited a wonderful shop called Let’s Knit!  I found some fabulous roving there – hand-dyed and a very different texture from what I already own.

Happy new roving

Happy new roving

Although I had brought a healthy selection of roving to work with, I thought I should start with the local stuff.  This is the beginning of an experiment…

An experiment

An experiment

I’m working on silk chiffon and plan to wet felt it (Nuno felting), but rather than place loose bits of roving on the chiffon and wet felt it right away (hoping desperately for a non-windy day or the roving tends to fly), I needle felted it first, and have let the needles ruche the fabric.  When I get home I will wet felt it and then start working into it properly.  I look forward to seeing what it becomes, texture and image-wise!  I consider this just the primer… many more layers to follow!

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Filed under Artsy-Craftsy, Fibre Arts, Jewellery

I think it’s me…

Finally… I have now unboxed and setup/taken down my new-to-me photo booth.  It is wonderful – somewhat time-consuming to set up, but very easy.  I think I’ll be using it a lot!

Portable studio

Portable studio

Now my next dilemma – the actual photographs.  I’d really like to blame my camera for the quality of the close-ups, but I’m afraid that this time the blame is on me.  I think it’s time to read up on how to take clear close-ups – the camera does great zooming in on something far away, but up close (zoomed or not) it gets very blurry.  It was, however, lovely to not see the “you’re not holding the camera steady enough for the low light” display come up – the light box is light enough… yay!

The photos I took today were of jewellery I worked on yesterday.  I continue trying to make jewellery out of scraps that I have, rather than buying new supplies (except wire – sometimes you just need wire!).  These were pendants in memory of dear cats.  Whenever my friend Bo has to say goodbye to one of her companions, I make a piece of jewellery in memory of them.  It’s been a rough couple of months, and she has had to say goodbye to two.

Sumato was a rescue cat from Mexico… he was a handsome and chatty little prince of cat, with a tendency to “claim” the items around him – I have called this simple piece “Mio Mio Mio!” (Mine Mine Mine) in memory.

Mio Mio Mio!

Mio Mio Mio!

Sumato

Sumato

Toby was my boy.  Not literally, but I adored him like he was.  Bo called him her first-born, as he was her first rescue cat of many.  I have so many memories of him sneezing catnip onto me, climbing on me, licking the top of my cleavage or cheek, whining for food in the most pitiful way possible, napping with me, drooling and purring in happiness, and so many more.  He was a very social boy, and would commonly walk up to Bo or I, lift his paws in the air, and cry “up”.  We’d pick him up, throw him over a shoulder, and he would stay there drooling and purring until stretching to get to the next person’s shoulder.  He loved everyone.  I call both of these “Up” (but they could also be called “Drool”… heehee!).  This is the second time I’ve made a piece of jewellery for myself as well as for Bo in memory of one of the cats.

Bo's pendant "Up"

Bo’s pendant “Up”

Dee's pendant "Up"

Dee’s pendant “Up”

Toby

Toby

They are both very missed, but they were very, very loved.

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Filed under Jewellery, Random

What was old is new again

Happy New Year!

I’m so happy to have started this year having spent some time in the studio… yay!  I have quite a few items that I’m not completely happy with, so I did some work on some of them and I think I’m feeling more content.

One of the items I was working on was my Reef pendant.  Somehow it turned into a full necklace.  I guess I had thought of it as a necklace when I first started doodling ideas, so it really just reverted back to part of the original plan.

While doing some tidying I found a necklace that I had made many years ago,  prior to learning any silversmithing.  I really liked the necklace, but as someone with curly hair, it was a dangerous item to wear… I think it ended up with more of my hair woven around it than I had left on my head!

Hair tangling necklace

Hair tangling necklace

I separated the links into pairs, twisted them together, and soldered/melted the wires to match the feel of the pendant.  Although I think I preferred the way the links looked originally, the new combined links work better on the new necklace, and it will now be worn instead of languishing tarnished on my wall o’ jewellery.

Here is the new necklace.  I used pearls of different shapes/colours, citrine, lemon smokey quartz, and a stone that I believe is Kyanite.  I purchased it from someone who was giving up jewellery making, and the supplies for sale were unmarked.  The bag it came in contained some Kyanite, and although this piece isn’t as blue as the others in the bag, it has the same feel (brittle).  From pictures I have seen, it looks like there is a broad range of shades for Kyanite.  So, unless corrected, that’s what I’ll call it until I find out differently.

Kyanite, citrine and baroque pearl necklace

Kyanite, citrine and baroque pearl necklace

I’m so glad that I’ve taken two pieces that I wouldn’t have worn (much) and turned them into a piece of jewellery that I think I will be happy to wear.  It’s a good start to the year 🙂

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If at first you don’t succeed…

Because of the workshops I’ve been teaching, I’ve been pretty focussed on needle felting lately. I think it’s time to start pondering jewellery for a while.

I created a pendant for the art show that was held at my work, and it wasn’t at all what I wanted it to be – partly due to running out of time, partly due to many of the beads I wanted to use crumbling when I tried to thread them on the wire. This is a sketch of what I was thinking of creating, and then what it turned out to be.

Rough necklace sketch

Rough necklace sketch

What is was

What is was

It is titled “Reef”, and I wanted to have coral beads for the chain part of the necklace. It did end up with coral beads, but not in the way I intended. When it came back from the show, I stripped the beads off of it, and this is what I’m left with.

What it is now

What it is now

I think I will try to go back to a version of the original intent, although I have a few things to figure out – whether to use only coral or to incorporate other beads, multi-strand the whole thing or just portions, make it short or long… the list could go on forever! Or maybe it will be something quite different… who knows!  I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.

I have realized that I have been very lax about documenting jewellery I have made for myself.  Must get on this!

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