On the Move

After lots of thought and planning we  have relocated to Marlborough, still South Island NZ.
New place and space but still Art and Jewellery.
The move took some months and not much except moving has happened but hope to soon have some new work up and at Last I have a proper workspace?studio. Just getting it set up now. Hurrah!

Can jewellery ever be Art?

There are those that do not consider any form of Jewellery to be ART, does that mean that all paintings are ART?



Most of my work is constructed from ideas, messages I want to send or times I want to commemorate, stories that I feel need to be told is this not ART?

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Dark Angel Pendant

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This was my entry into the very last national Jewellery competition in New Zealand some years ago. I understand sponsorship to hold such competitions is difficult to obtain.

My piece has examples of all sorts of my work. casting (in Art Clay pure silver and copper) I created the moulds 1st  using polymer clay, not hard, then formed and kiln fired the metal clay pieces. Not hard and I find this method of "casting" safer and easier to carry out if working alone than traditional methods of casting.  I  rolled the "wing" pattern into recycled copper using a rolling mill and autumn dried leaves. I have  

traditionally set the garnet.

 

 

 

Some Rings

If you are looking for Siamese or Oriental Kittens in New Zealand

 

My new kitten has

 beautiful green-eyed Lilac brother also available from tellassee@xtra.co.nz

he has the friendliest nature The purrs have to be heard to be believed

Memories are made of this - Reviewing past work

What I see out my Window New Zealand Deer Earrings and Brooch

Courtesy of our neighbours whose deer have big rolling paddocks, gullys and trees to live in, yet their curiosity draws them to the fences for a chat each day. Over the years Stag Number One has shown a special interest in human observation and interaction.
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These earrings are made with some great purchased components from New Zealand's www.craftrunner.co.nz  Jewellery supplier,  some stone beads I purchased at a Rock and Mineral Show and  a few handmade fittings.  


Old Number One

My Inspiration                    

 

 

and of course there are Mum's and fawns too

 

New Zealand Spirit Brooch Original

 

The Human Spirit just keeps on  keeping on.....Remember that when things get tough!

 

 

 

 I'm refreshing my spirit by looking through old techniques recalling past achievements (and disasters )  What seems a disaster or insurmountable at the time can often turn out to be helpful in the future.
This is the first one of the series If you look closely you will see a small crack in the Paua (tail) and a hole drilled right through (top left) I  made the holes in the Paua the same size as the holes in the copper and when  riveting it was too tight. The holes in the Paua need to be  at least .5 (half) a hole bigger than the metal to allow for the expansion of the silver rivets.(Experimentation) The other hole well that was just a mistake in the planning. It could have filled it with a rivet but I quite like the way the colour of whatever the brooch is pinned on just shows through.
Sticky backed genuine Paua sheet has advantages, can't "move" around when riveting but that makes it fairly unforgiving. I never found a successful way of drilling Paua and metal sheet together, using a Drill Press they always had to be drilled seperately.
This failure became the protype for a lovely brooch series.

Fingernails?? or rings ?? or earrings??

 These were originally offcuts from one of my Dunedin Art School projects "out of the Box"  possibilities. However the shape and its  possibilities so fascinated me that  using a shield shaped template I cut, annealled and shaped (with a rawhide mallet) on a metal mandrel these little objects. Thanks go to all those at Art School  who played with them discovering new dimensions for their wearability and acting as models.

Stone Drilling is tinme consuming but fun and combined with recycled woven plastic bags creates some unique jewellery

And then there grew a little Dragon pendant...

Actually it is a plant inside here not a baby dragon but with a few touches of china enamel.....
you can see the 'littl fella" start to appear...

New Zealand Wildflower inspiration

 

And on the Dunedin New Zealand West Harbour Cycle/Walkway these  wildflowers 

 shyly lifted their faces to the sun

 

 

 

 

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Inspiration 2013

Dunedin West Harbour Cycleway/Walkway

Dunedin New Zealand

 

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Almost all year round the Passionfruit flowers along the Walkway

and the fruit is nice too


 

There were tombstone pendants and Mourning Rings too

Some were imprinted with living plants then filled with black  glaze and overglazed with clear  and some contained the actual plants in a dried and pressed state. The  firing out kiln process worked great so long as paperclay and glaze right thickness. (Just trial and error that)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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