The History of Pearls - V & A Museum Video

Many years ago I inherited a very traditional triple rope of cultured pearls from my grandmother and later a single rope from my mother but to be honest they never really did much for me. Once I started making jewellery however, I discovered that there is a lot more to pearls and began a bit of a love affair with them, especially the Baroque and subtly coloured varieties which I've used in my designs every since.

Last week I discovered this video about the history of pearls on the Victoria and Albert Museum website. I thought it would make a nice change form one of my written posts and at about 8 minutes long it's perfect for a quick coffee break so get a brew, put your feet up and enjoy!

Pearls from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

The Journey - Part One

The AJE team has been talking about their creative journeys recently.  We've each been looking back on our early creative endeavors and reflecting on early work we liked or disliked, how far we've come and even things from the past that might be worth revisiting.  Many of our members have pursued other art forms besides jewelry components and jewelry design.  We ended up generating a rather large collection of old pictures and related musings.

I will be sharing our journeys in my next two or three posts. Since you are also on a life journey, I hope that some of our reflections might inspire some reflection on your part as well.  What sparked your creative impulse?  How has that impulse expressed itself in different forms throughout your life?  Where do you think the path you are on might lead in a few years?  Are you open to new directions?

Karen Totten
Karen has been involved in creative endeavors all her life.She was working primarily in pottery when she needed to have surgery on her hand. In her words:
 "These were made with my handmade stamps. I made stamps initially for pottery, then when I couldn't throw (pots) for 6 months due to hand surgery, I made these beads to keep myself entertained. That's how I got into beads, it was an accident. Lesson: ya never know what is around the corner; go with the flow and you find new work, new discoveries."

"I had an unexpected discovery (while looking through these old pictures): pretty much all of it (Karen's early jewelry components) was hand formed or stamped from my own hand formed stamps. I had an impression I'd used commercial stamps with my clay - but that was more the case with my bronze work. However, I did use commercial cutters for some (my favorite cutter was a very old ruffled pastry cutter from my grandmother (I used it to make all the gear links and other shapes)."

" Porcelain with melted glass chips and various glazes"

 "Earth and Sky Wrist Amulet - Here's one that I made from hand carved leaf, flower and spiral stamps, in a terra cotta style with underglazes and a clear crackle gloss glaze over all. Very early piece yet I like this style and looking at it now I want to make it again!"

Jennifer Cameron 
Jennifer first bead wasn't too bad for a beginner.  I took a lampwork class once and believe me, my first bead did not look like the one pictured below! This bead is from 2005 and Jennifer wire wrapped it into a ring.  The ring was the first piece of jewelry she ever made, also!

Here's another view.  She says she can't remember if she followed a tutorial for the ring or just made it up herself.  The ring is not especially stable or well made, but she still has it.

Next up are two beads Jennifer made at about the same time as the ring.  She describes the one on the left as being ugly.  It was the first encased bead she ever made.  The bead on the right is "very large, very wonky, off center and totally scorched!".

Here's an early floral bead.  It has a nice "dimple" at the hole.

Leopard designs.

Jennifer says she likes the colors she used in this one, but that "it's a very ugly shape. And chunky.  Not very nice."

 Melissa Meman

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

 Melissa began here jewelry journey by making wire wrapped, beaded chains, like this early bracelet.

Or these earrings.  Of course now she makes not only jewelry, but also a variety of jewelry components.

Niky Sayers

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

Niky got her jewelry making start with PMC, before the prices for silver went through the roof. She says that she was "..seduced by the possibilities..." of  Precious Metal Clay.  Here are three of her early pieces.

Niky goes on to say, "I still really like these pieces, I like the simplicity of them and the sparkle and I loved how easy metal clay was to work with!

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of reminiscing.  All of us are on a journey.  None of us can know where it will lead us, but we can savor the trip.

I'll share more early work in my next post.  Till then, enjoy the trip!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Soothing Spirals...

In my last post I spoke about using spirals as a decorative elements in my most recent work and how relaxing and it was to hand carve these. Spirals have many symbolic meanings including balance, progress, direction, initiation, centering, expansion, awareness, connection, journeying and development. http://www.whats-your-sign.com/spiral-meaning.html. 

Hand carved ceramic beads by Lesley Wat

They have long been a popular motif in jewellery and bead design often derived from natural representation like shells, horns, snakes or whirlpools. Today I've gathered together some fine examples to share with you today... enjoy!

Raku cat by Spinning Star Studio

Bead by Mitosis Glass

Spiral bead set by Joan Miller Porcelain

Bead caps by Cathy Daley

Spiral Fossil connector by Karen Totten

Bead by Natalie Pappas

Spiral Bead set by Sue Kennedy

Spiral spike pendant by Diana Ptaszynski

Bead by Holly's Folly

Ceramic pendant by Tina's Bead Mind

Barrette by Ildanach After Dark

Earrings by Lesley watt

Necklace by Tommy Singer

Bracelet by Hodgepodgerie

Bracelet by Lesley Watt

Hot Glass Happenings....

 

So fifteen months ago I took delivery of an enameling to go on my Paragon Caldera kiln. I was off my feet with a broken ankle at the time so it got dumped in a corner in its box and ignored for an eternity. It's been out of the box for a while but still hasn't been used so this week I decided it was time to christen it. Since all kilns behave differently and because it I haven't done any enameling for well over two year a little test session seemed in order.

So I made myself some copper blanks and gave them a good scrub with an abrasive cleaner to make sure there were no traces of dirt or grease.

 

Then I counter enameled the backs of all the pieces - counter enameling balances out the stress on the enamel to stop it cracking or flaking and makes it stronger.

 

When I apply the enamel I raise the blanks off the bench using skewers which allows me to slip a palette knife underneath and transfer them to a firing trivet without having to touch them.

With curved or domed pieces I apply a holding agent (very dilute wallpaper paste) to stop the enamel sliding off and leave it to dry on top of the kiln.

These could have done with a slightly thicker application but that's what testing is all about,

With that done I moved onto the fun bit and started adding some colour to my pieces...lapiz blue for the bird and a blended red/orange.

Unfortunately, at this point I got engrossed and forgot to keep taking photo's at each stage - oops, sorry! After I fired the blue bird I added a layer of green enamel and used a sgraffito tool to create a wing pattern in the powdered enamel which shows up when the second layer melts,

I really like the abstract effect that came from laying multiple colours and firing together.

To add an  extra dimension I played with some other elements such as frit (crush mixed glass), stringer and pieces of cut glass.

With this piece a darker blue enamel was sieved lightly over the paler base coat and glass squares sat on top. The glass pieces melt more slowly than the enamel and slumps but leaves an interesting raised finish.

Here I used a transparent cinnamon enamel over a hammered blank and added frit and like th eglass pieces, the frit doesn't melt fully leaving a nice texture. I think perhaps the colours I chose were a bit too subtle and a stronger contrast between enamel and frit would have been better.

This last technique takes a bit of practice since it involves melting the glass stringers into the enamel and dragging a sgraffito tool across them while it's still molten and without cooking you hand! Since the door on the enameling collar is quite small I found this harder than in my old kiln with a full size door but a bit of practice will help that.

You can also see from the thick dark edges and the black flecks that this piece has been over-fired a bit. This is not necessarily a problem as it can produce interesting effects and as with ceramic glazes red and orange enamels are more prone to this.

So now I know how the new kiln performs and I've got may hand back in again I'm looking forward to developing this skill more. There are lots of other techniques for using enamel that I'd like to try and I will of course share them with you when I do.