Inspired by Art

I'm really getting in to the swing of things with my ceramics. Do you ever feel as though things are starting to fall in to place? I have many styles and techniques that I love to work in/with. And over the last couple of weeks I've been working on ways to incorporate them together in my work.

My first love in the art world is Art Nouveau. The gentle flowing lines, the movement and suggestion of form, and the rich earthy colours in the designs.

Art Nouveau Inspiration

My absolute favourite is Alphonse Mucha, the Czech painter and decorative artist.

Alphonse Mucha - Donna Orechini

Alphonse Mucha - Job Cigarettes

Alphonse Mucha - Zodiac

When you look closely at his work, it seems deceivingly simple,  a series of heavy lines, with washed pastel colours, but the sum of the parts is an incredible result.

Alphonse Mucha - Posing a model

Mucha regularly used photography as a tool for his work, building grand sets with his models, taking many photographs, and choosing elements from them to create his artworks. After school, I studied photography at college and have hundreds of pictures from which I regularly draw inspiration. 

If you'd like to read more about Mucha's life and work, you must visit the Mucha foundation website,  full of information and even colouring pages of his line drawings.

http://www.muchafoundation.org

Mucha Quote

I also love to draw, and have multiple sketchpads full of work I've produced in pursuit of my own style. 

Sketches

The simple suggestive style really appeals to me and I've been exploring that with some new tile designs.

Carved tile designs

I'm really enjoying working on a larger scale and these designs include my love of carving, nature, photography and Art Nouveau.

Underglazed tile

Inspired by Jenny's post showing how she uses underglazes for her work, I decided to try it out myself for my first test. The carved tile was decorated in multiple layers of underglaze to create solid colours, outlined in black and then fired with a coat of clear glaze. I've found with my underglazes, they work better if you fire them bare, then fire again with the clear. The colours turn out much brighter. 

For a second test, I tried single colours of transparent glaze. These turned out to be my favourites.

Single colour glazed tile

I've always had a thing for the way glaze breaks over texture, and in this version, the carving really stands out. 

Not wanting to abandon beads altogether, I tried out some miniature versions of the tiles as pendants.

Hand carved ceramic pendants

Next I'm going to try these out with multiple colours, although on previous attempts, this hasn't always gone to plan and they looked a bit messy, maybe having a bit more patience might be the key! 

And finally, as I really liked the smaller tile pendants, I tried out one of the design in bronze clay, using the same hand carving techniques I used for the clay versions.

Carved bronze pendant

I'd like to turn this in to some jewellery, I have bronze wire on order, just need to decide how to go about making up the chain! I'm thinking something with rich coloured Czech glass beads and wrapped wire. 

And finally, a quick update on the mugs from my last post. They're still very much a work in progress, I've decided the handle on this one is too big, but I quite like the multi coloured glazing (which took forever!) I think with a bit of tweaking, and maybe an extra coat of glaze for a more solid colour on the purple, they will be pretty cool! 

A WIP

It's still great fun to drink out of something you've created yourself, even if it isn't exactly as you'd like it.

I'm really enjoying the journey I'm taking with my work, it's extremely satisfying to search for what it is that you love and express it through your work. 

I'd love to hear what it is that inspires your work... don't forget to leave a comment!

Brooches, Fibulae, Badges...Do you Pin?

Do you wear brooches? I've been making a few just lately but when I look around this jewellery design community of ours brimming as it is with earrings, bracelets and necklaces - brooches seem to be much fewer and farther between despite probably being one of the oldest forms of jewellery known to man. Granted their original purpose was a functional means to fasten clothing (a step up from thorns, wood, bone and flint) but they were prevalent in all cultures which, as you can see from the examples below clearly considered form as well as function from very early on.

Bronze Bow Fibula, The Braganza Brooch 250BC - 200BC, Viking Penannular brooch

Romano British Dragonesque Brooch, Gold plated Disc Brooch 4c BC , Viking Penannular brooches - Penrith Hoard

Brooches have at times acquired cultural significance such as with these mourning brooches worn as jewels of remembrance. Worn close to the wearers heart the brooch on  the left from the late 1800's depicting a ladies hand holding a berry bouquet and rose wreath would honour a loved one who had passed away. In the Victorian language of flowers berries signify sorrow and roses love.

In England in the 1850s fine hair brooches were produced with ornate weaving and subject matter and often worn by widows of the Crimean war.

Military badges were often reproduced as brooches and given to the wives and girlfriends of soldiers when they were away from home. This Sweetheart brooch is a from World War One and depicts a Hart lodged in water, the emblem of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry and off my home county.

If I could pick a brooch from any period in time it would have to be one of the glorious Art Nouveau nature inspired pieces by Renee Lalique - such wonderful detail and sumptuous colour...sadly that will only ever be a pipe dream.

So why do brooches seem to be out of favour these days or am I just imaging it..? I have a fair few of them myself  most of which I have inherited including these two sterling silver favourites...

I used to wear these and others a lot when I had a job in the real world that involved me wearing business suits and heavy coats to commute in. They were a great way of livening up the formality of these outfits which I found boring and restrictive. Now I rarely wear the sort of clothes that suit brooches and often find that soft, fluid modern fabrics are not suitable for heavier styles of brooch.

To see if this was just me I asked around the AJE group and opinion was somewhat split and whilst a few love them, many of my team mates said they never wore brooches. Jenny offered up this lovely selection from her own collection which she describes below...

1. Art Nouveau pin I adore too much to wear...inherited from a grandmother I think. 2. Native American inlay. Sun symbol/kachina- so I think Hopi. Also had this since I was a kid. 3. Recent acquisition. Sterling goddess Tara which has a pendant converter... why don't I wear this!? 4. Blast from the past. Enamel and sterling genie lamp pin. From the summers I taught teaching jewelry making at a fine arts camp - circa 1990.

Jenny also made these brooches as part of her senior year college thesis and you can clearly see the influence of the ancient styles here. One traditional penannular (open circle) and one more modern interpretation created through lost wax casting and fabrication and set with Moonstones and Garnets.

Caroline is definitely a big fan and has this collection of brooches that she inherited from her Grandmother.

The fact that we all have inherited pieces in our collections does seem to point to brooches being something of a blast from the past but that's not to say that there aren't modern examples to be had if you want them.

As I mentioned I've been making a few brooches of late and this has come about through my new passion for bead embroidery. I often start this work without really having an idea of what it's going to become and sometimes get to a point where I think adding loops or bails is going to spoil the design. I like the simplicity of these pieces when they stand alone and adding a brooch pin creates a little work of art with nothing to distract from it.

Apart from their pleasing aesthetics these beaded brooches also have the added advantage of being very light and since they have an informal style I find they are much easier to wear with my casual wardrobe. They can even be pinned to textile bags for an extra little decoration.

This little fellow was not actually planned as a brooch but when I made a larger version of this felted acorn Diana asked if I could scale it down and I did. He's now on his way to the USA to grace her winter coat.

Caroline has also been making felted brooches - these adorable little hares can be found in her new shop.

And one of out teams Bead work queens Lindsay has a whole host of beaded brooches just a few of which are shown here (click on the photo to see more)...

From a quick search on Pinterest it would seem that textile bases brooches are very popular so maybe I'm not the only one who like the practicality and informality of them. But if that's not you style then there are still contemporary designs to found in other mediums like these in Polymer clay, ceramic and enamelled metal...

Eried, Elise Winters, Jasmine Watson

So where do you stand on brooches?Do you have a favourite you wear all the time or a pile in your jewellery box that haven't seen the light of day in years. Maybe it's time we all showed our brooches a little more love!

René Lalique Art Nouveau Jewelry - Part 2

 As some of you may know, my husband and I spent a week in Lisbon, Portugal in November.  We visited a wonderful museum there, which includes an amazing collection of works by the famed Art Nouveau jewelry and glass artist,  René Lalique.  I included some photos and information about René Lalique in a previous post.  Today, I'll add more photos and information about Lalique's life and work.

I have been intrigued with Art Nouveau design, ever since I met my then husband-to-be in 1970. He was an exchange student to my high school, from Darmstadt, Germany. Darmstadt is a mid-sized city near Frankfurt, that is home to many outstanding Art Nouveau homes, buildings and sculptures. 

Art Nouveau door in Darmstadt, Germany. Built in 1901.

René Lalique began working as an apprentice jeweler and goldsmith in 1876.  He also took evening jewelry classes and within a few years, he moved to London to continue his studies.

Check out the hinges that connect the grasshopper's legs!

During this formative period, Lalique cultivated his graphic design skills, and developed a unique and naturalistic style that later became his trademark as a jeweler.

In 1880, Lalique returned to Paris and started work as a freelance jeweler and jewelry illustrator.  In 1885 he took over a well known jewelry workshop where he began to build a reputation for his unique jewelry designs.

 His innovations included the use of less expensive elements, such as  translucent enamels, semiprecious stones, ivory and hard stones.

In time, Lalique began to incorporate glass into his jewelry in the form of cast pates-de-verre. Starting in 1893 Lalique began winning numerous jewelry design awards.

 He designed stage jewelry for the actress Sarah Bernhardt. He also created pieces for Siegfried Bing's Maison de l'Art Nouveau, the Paris shop that gave its name to the Art Nouveau movement.

In 1900, at a Paris exhibition, Lalique became known as the founder of a new school of modern jewelry design and was awarded Legion of Honor's Croix de Chevalier.

Lalique went on to design everything from vases to car mascots to statues and church windows.  To say he was prolific is clearly an understatement!

In 1935 Lalique opened a boutique, in Paris, that continues to serve as the main Lalique showroom today.  René Lalique died on May 5, 1945, at the age of 85.

I also took pictures of some of Lalique's vases and home decor items.  I will be posting them on my personal blog tomorrow.  I invite you to visit Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings to see the rest of my Lalique pictures.

Linda
Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy

Rene Lalique Jewelry - Lisbon, Portugal

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have recently returned from Lisbon, Portugal.  One of the most memorable parts of our trip was a visit to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.  While we loved seeing the paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Rousseau, Manet, Dégas, Renoir and Monet, the highlight, for me, was a permanent collection of works by René Lalique (1860-1945). 

Lalique was an extraordinarily prolific and talented French designer, known for his Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs in glass, enamel, jewelry and home decor. Wikipedia states that his name became "synonymous with creativity, beauty and quality".  I pretty much have a major jewelry crush on the man and I'll try to show you why today.

My husband and I took a couple hundred pictures of the Lalique Collection.  So far I've only sorted through about a third of them.  So this will just give you a taste of the scope of the collection.  Perhaps I'll do another post as I finish sorting through the rest of the pictures.

Lalique's works were inspired primarily by what were called The Three Fs: Female (form), Fauna and Flora.

 A careful observer of nature, many of Lalique's works include plants and a variety of animals.

Woodland Scene

He did not consider any animals to be repulsive or out of bounds: snakes, parrots, grasshoppers and beetles are found in both his glass-works and in his jewelry.

Owls

I love the swirl of the peacock's tail (see close up in center picture).  The last picture is a drawing Lalique did in planning this piece.

Check out the size of the amethyst in the cockerel's mouth!

This amazing Serpent Pectorial was originally worn with with a strand of pearls draped from each serpent head

Lalique was also inspired by the female form. Much of his work, including his flora and fauna, exhibit the voluptuous curves associated with a woman's body.

Take a look at that mammoth baroque pearl on the left!  Wow!

 The artist pictured women as being gentle and mysterious.  His work featured graceful female nudes whose highly stylized curling hair often swirls sensuously around the object, becoming a design component itself. It is those flowing, graceful, and often asymmetrical lines that so draw me to his work. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour.  I look forward to sharing more with you later.

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry - ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry - Etsy