In progress...

A few in progress pics of samples currently being made...

textures...

and composition ideas...

(:

Also tried making a new bit for the top of this blog...slight fail!! Try again tomorrow..

ideas...

A few samples from later sketches... I'm going to stick with this but make them nicer!! (:

Source....

Finally decided what I'm doing this year (and it only took a month!!!! oops!) and I'm going back to looking at trees. Got lots of new ideas drawn...was sketchbooking like crazy this weekend! I'm away to make a few samples...then I'll let you see. (-:

Carnation silhouette necklace...

A pendant for my friend's birthday...she won't get it till tomorrow but I don't think she reads this anyway! Happy birthday if you are reading...sorry I ruined the surprise!! The shape cut out of the top dome is a simplified carnation silhouette. I domed a solid piece of silver as well and soldered them together... the outside is finished to a high polish and the inside is satinized to give it a scratchy texture.


Today we had meetings with out tutors. I've decided to give up on the cut-out shape idea.. although it looked ok it wasn't really my favourite idea, and I couldn't make it look amazing! I'm going back to simple and elegant wire structures, maybe with tangles of wire included somehow. My favourite source pictures are the ones of trees against the sky in winter... this will be the inspiration for my degree show. Decided. (-:

...on the left I've linked a few of the new second year DofJ jewellers... but I don't know your second names! If you want them up there please let me know...or if you don't want a link to your blog there let me know too so I can take it down! Also...if I've missed anyone out please tell me (: thanks guys!

Seaglass...

Just a couple of pictures of a ring I made with a piece of seaglass set into it. I love seaglass! (I pretty much just wanted a new ring to wear, so thought I might as well get some setting practice while I was at it!)



Next time I'll make it much neater...and maybe put a silver back behind the glass, I knew you would beable to see through it but the setting behind does look a bit messy.

Samples....

This post is completely pointless... I have totally changed my mind and these samples are no longer relevant! However, I did try out different focuses/layouts for these pics, so think I'll put them up anyway. What do you think? Is the in focus/out of focus thing in the same picture nice to look at? or unneccesary?! Trying to work on my photography (-:

Decisions...

Having a tough time trying to finally decide on my final direction for this year... and we only have a few weeks left before a final design has to be in for the Goldsmith's Bursary application!

I've been up in the workshop quite a bit trying out samples and latest ideas... but I don't know if I like them as much as the linear thing I was doing last year... so hard to decide! I'll put pics of samples up tomorrow. (: It's seeming hard to combine the two.. I'll have to decide in the next couple of weeks what I'm doing and stick with it for the rest of the year! But if I choose the wrong thing it could be a disaster!! Hmmm.

Do I stick to my theme of decay (and attempting to make it beautiful??) or change so I'm just looking at nature? I don't know if just looking at plants will be substantial enough! Stress! Hopefully everything will sort itself out in the next few weeks. (:

100th post!

That's a lot of hours spent on blogger!!

Had a proper workshop day today! (well...half day..) spent a few hours on saw piercing and doming samples... came home with three injured fingers!! Pictures coming soon. (of what I was making...not my fingers!) The little domey things are coming along nicely.. I'll try them in silver next!

My trip to London to see the Goldsmiths' fair was amazing (apart from the total 20 hours on a bus! worth it though...) and I saw loads of jewellery I recognised, which was cool... it's totally different when you see jewellery in real life than over the internet (hmm, dissertation relevant!) and I also discovered some amazing jewellers and silversmiths I hadn't known about before. Week two starts tomorrow..

Yesterday I went to the WASPS open studios in Dundee... there were only a couple of jewellers, one was Nicola Morrison. A few of her pieces are shown below. I like. (:



The other studios were taken up with painters, illustrators, ceramic artists and many more! I've never been into the building before (it's just behind the Dundee campus if anybody is interested...) but it was cool! Nothing like I thought it would be! I bet there's a long waiting list for one of those studios.

So...it was a fairly productive week! Sketches and pics coming soon (:

Eco - oxidising....

A while ago, I read on I Dream I can Fly about oxidising metal using eggs as an alternative to liver of sulphate, which I usually use at uni. Check out her organic pickle recipe too..I haven't tried it yet but it sounds amazing!

I've just made another sycamore seed necklace...and thought I'd give this way a try!

So. Boil a couple of eggs (I did mine for about 10 mins, don't actually eat eggs so not too sure if this is overdone??! Didn't seem to matter though, as long as they are hot!) and smoosh them up in a tupperware tub. It doesn't matter about the shells (because hopefully you aren't going to eat them after) so just crush them up too. I read that it was the yolk that had all the sulfury fumes in, so gave that an extra mash. I suspended my cleaned piece of silver by tying it with thread to the lid and sealed it shut.


I left this for about 10/15 mins, and the silver turned a mixture of colours...mainly blue, but was still quite patchy. Rubbed the colour back a little bit with a piece of steel wool, to try and get a more even coverage. I heated the eggs in the microwave for a few seconds, and chucked the silver back in and sealed the lid. It doesn't seem to matter if you suspend the silver above the egg or if it is touching the egg, it still goes pretty patchy!


After taking it out a second time (another 10/15 mins), the colour was much more even. I rubbed it back again, boiled another egg and put the silver in the tub for another 15 mins.


(if you click on the picture you can see it the size of your screen! Up close it's a mixture of green and blue with yellowy spots!) After 3 times of being sealed in the tub with the hot eggs, I got the result I wanted! It does seem to be a little less even than if I had used the liver of sulphate, but I've seen that go pretty patchy too. (maybe I'm just not using it properly!) Using eggs produces a lovely black-blue colour, and if there are any patchy bits they're easily evened out with a bit of steel wool.


What do you think?! Anybody know any other ways of oxidising metal? It didn't turn out too badly! :D


Also, if anybody knows anything about laser cutting....
Kellie is currently looking for ways to laser cut patterns out of bowls after they have been raised... if anyone knows of any techniques that would allow her to do this please click her name and share your advice!

Sketchbook work...

Current drawings. I won't explain them, you can think what you like! They were inspired by the process of decay, still working on them (: would like to use these in some kind of design..but no idea how! (any ideas?!) Maybe they'd be good bigger, just as vessels. Hmm.

Goldsmith's fair 2009...

I have just booked myself a megabus to London and back to see the annual Goldsmiths' fair! Press release here. And the Goldsmiths' Company website is here.

There are two weeks of precious metal goodness... I am going for a day during the first one. Some of the jewellers exhibiting:

Elaine Cox - brooch

Barbara Christie - ring

Eileen Gatt (one of our tutors!)

The 2 nights on a bus won't be fun, but at least I won't have to pay to stay in London overnight, or pay for a train (which would be MUCH comfier..)! Everything is so expensive! I think it's worth it to see something like this though, I have no idea what it will be like! Can't wait (:

Lace..

Been back at uni for a few days, just finding out what we have to be getting on with for the next wee while! Pretty much just have to get the dissertation done (can't wait!) and work on our own projects while entering competitions etc. So from now on you get to see all my failed ideas and half finished pieces until I decide what I'm going to go with!!

So I'm still looking at life and death, floral forms, and twigs and things, but sometimes it doesn't seem decorative enough.. so I've started looking at lace and incorporating lace patterns into jewellery designs. It may not turn out as pretty as I imagine it!!

Meanwhile here is some lovely (kind of lacey) jewellery I came across while browsing google..

Top is a necklace, bottom are lockets I think, both by Rosie Buck. I would love to be able to make something like this, but tiny! I'm thinking of suggestions of lace at the edge of a piece, something swirly and pierced out. Hmm. Sketches coming soon. (-:

Back to uni...

...in less than 2 weeks!

Sorry blog, didn't mean to abandon you for so long... you would think I've been finishing loads of work for uni but actually I've just been working full time at my supposed part time job! So no spare time = no interesting posts ):

For now, until I come back with something that I've actually done.. here are a few pictures of Adele Brereton's beautiful jewellery that I came across recently...

Vessel necklace

Captured gold rings

Promise I'll be back soon with something good... (:

Applied Arts Scotland: Craft and the Internet.

Check out this post on the Applied Arts Scotland blog... Craft and the Internet.

If I had thought about it a bit more (or if somebody had posted that sooner!) this is more what I would have based my dissertation on. Instead I only have a bit of a chapter focused on the vague ideas that whoever wrote that has brought up, but thinking about it now, it would have made a great topic!! Ah well...it might have been copying a bit anyway (:

Hanna Hedman

I've posted about Hanna Hedman before, but I've just discovered more of her work and love it even more! A while ago I was asked who I aspired to, and at the time I thought (after thinking about it for a long time and causing an awkward silence) 'nobody! I want to be individual..' but I now see what they meant. If there is anybody, it would be Hanna purely for her structural, massive wearable pieces. I don't want to make pieces that are the same, but I would love to create really wearable art jewellery, that have more meaning behind them than just the visual inspiration. If there's any time to do that, I guess the degree show is it! Only I haven't been moving in that direction so far, so I have a year to change my design perspective...

Hanna Hedman's website/blog is here

More carnations...

This is what I've been up to... (not very much) ...drawing flowers... not the best drawings or the best picture of them, but they go from bud - decaying, not sure if you can tell :) going to develop these drawings into jewellery designs next...I quite like the nobbly bits on the stems.. maybe a chain-link-idea there?!

Pittenweem Arts Festival

Official website here.

Had a quick look round yesterday, mainly went to look at all the jewellery and a few of my previous college tutor's exhibitions. As always there was an amazing atmosphere in Pittenweem and the exhibits I went to see were stunning. Shame I didn't have enough time to look round everything! You definitely have to spend a whole day there. A whole week if possible! If you're in the area before Sunday don't miss it!!

Exhibiting jewellers (among others, but these are the ones I went to see..)

Roger Morris (Thread of Gold exhibition)
Hannah Louise Lamb (Thread of Gold)
Sarah Hutchinson (Thread of Gold)
Craig Stuart (Thread of Gold)
Katheryn Williamson
Dot Sim

And the winner is...

Eileen Cox! I wrote down numbers for everyone who replied (33 of you so far!) and pulled one out of the bowl.. number 22! The 22nd person to reply was Eileen. Congratulations... thank you for taking the time to fill out my questionnaire.. and enjoy the necklace!

I would still appreciate replies to the questionnaire if anybody has time, but afraid there is no incentive now!! ): However keep an eye out... I may need more surveys done before this dissertation is finished!!

Heading home to the Pittenweem Arts Festival today!! (:

(Update... Have just found out that a few emails from .ac.uk addresses didn't come through to my hotmail account... so if you haven't received an acknowledgement email from me please (if you still have it!) send it to hjkwilcox@dundee.ac.uk. Sorry if I haven't received your email.. not sure what's gone wrong!)

Only one day left!!!

...to enter a little competition and win a handmade necklace! click here.

Poppytalk are currently posting about the handmade... 70 reasons to buy handmade.
Take a look! (-:

Carnations...

Currently drawing these. Bud - flower - decaying flower. They still smell good no matter how old they get!! (so far..)

3 days left to win a handmade necklace... scroll down to the next couple of posts.. (or click here if you're feeling lazy!) Got loads of replies so far... don't miss your chance! (And don't be put off, the necklace looks so much nicer in real life, as for some reason I can't take good pictures of jewellery!) Good luck... (: