Inspired by...

Like many people I'm sure, my designs are greatly influenced by the environment I live in and the landscapes that surround me and never more so than at this time of year with the warmer (finally) weather and longer days.

I live about 7 miles from the south coast of England in a small county called Dorset and I am very fortunate to have the start of the world heritage site Jurassic Coast just a little way west, where I spent many many happy childhood holidays messing about in Rock pools and looking for fossils.

Work started on my new studio this week - this has been my major preoccupation in recent weeks and whilst I haven't been able to get to the beach much I have been retreating into some jewellery design as a distraction and the influence of my beautiful surroundings are all too clear.

This is Durdle Door, a natural arch where I can remember finding Starfish as a kid...

Photo courtesy of Joe Cotch

And this is a recent necklace design....

A view over Kimmeridge Bay is a perfect example of the wonderful Dorset Downs that sweep down to the coast cloaked in a gorgeous palette of blues and greens...

Photo courtesy of Joe Cotch

Any my own blue and green interpretation...

This is "Old Harry Rocks' a chalk stack at one of my favourite parts of the coast line for walking...

Photo courtesy of Joe Cotch

And I'm sure a mermaid could be luring a few suitors onto those inaccessible rocks.

I've never been fortunate enough to come across an Ammonite of this magnitude but they do make great motifs to use in jewellery...



This necklace features fossil inspiration from myself and my fellow AJE team mates Diana and Karen.

I'm also a big fan of natural earthy colours and these regional palettes also work their way into my component designs...

Photo courtesy of Joe Cotch

And then of course there are our gorgeous local beach huts which range from the bright and bijoux...

Friends of mine Louise and Helen

To the more substantial both in size and cost - one of these could set you back as much as  £150,000 or $230,000.

If I had that kind of money guess where my new studio would be... but until I win the lottery I'll have to make do with my own little huts.

I hope you've enjoyed  this little trip to the south coast of England and if you'd like to share any special places that influence your work please do - we'd love to hear form you.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

A Change Is As Good...

My much discussed bead show is a little over a week away now and apart from a small pile of finishing my inventory is almost complete and it's just as well because frankly, I've had enough. I'm tired...bone weary tired with painful hands and probably worse - I'm beginning to get bored.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love what I do or appreciate the opportunity to meet customers face to face, but I usually only make small numbers of any item and I just don't do well with repetitive tasks - never have and never will. But it's easy enough to remedy and this week I've taken a few hours out just to do something a bit different and on a smaller, more joint friendly level.

A few weeks ago I started paying around with some ideas for combining enamel with Bronze Clay and made these flower pendants...

I've been wanting to progress with this idea some more and decided to try the process out with frit - the lovely crushed glass mixes that lampworkers use to decorate their beads. I have tried this once before and the results were a bit muddy so this time I set the frit on the base of white enamel and got a much clearer and brighter result...

I was really pleased with the effects I got here but wanted to do something other than flowers. The pieces need to have enough depth for the frit to pool in and this took me back to something else I've been wanting to develop more - these lovely shell sections.

And I have to say I'm really quite pleased with the results... the shell imprints create a kind of natural Cloisonne framework and I love the vibrancy of the colours within that.

 
This is definitely something I will be taking further and will be on the look out for interesting objects to create frames from - do let me know if you have any ideas.

So while I have to grit my teeth and return to completing my repetitive show tasks for a few more days, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and don't overdo it on the eggs.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

Variation On A Theme...

And what would that theme be....yes. it's earrings of course. While I was making my entries for our AJE challenge last week I got to thinking that If I was going to make a pair of earrings every week for the whole of the year and exhibit them next to those of all the other talented designers; then maybe I need to find ways to change it up a bit and keep things interesting. I was fiddling about with some of my bronze headpins at the time and decided to have a go at adapting the process I use for those to make earring charms with integral ear wires.  

Here you can see the charms at the green ware stage with the wires inserted into the clay. They're still quite fragile at this point so sanding and filing up has to be done very carefully.

After drilling, firing and a good clean-up and tumble this is how they looked - a good tug on the wires with pliers to make sure the pieces are fully fused and then on to the next step.

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This was simply a case of forming the wires in the same way as as would usually do (great ear wire tutorial here) - I use looping pliers but a pen or any other round object can be used as a form. I chose kidney shaped wires but wishbone and round wires are just as easy to do.

After trimming the wires to the correct length I hammered them to harden the metal and prevent them from becoming misshapen. I used 22g /.71mm bronze wire which is finer than I would use for silver or copper wires and those I would normally tumble to harden but, bronze wire is harder and more tensile so I find that hammering alone is enough.

After that it was just a case of adding lots of pretties to turn the charms into earrings...

Green patina on charms, enameled flower buds from Gardanne beads,

 copper headpins and seed bead accents.

Periwinkle patina on charms, periwinkle enameled bead caps by SueBeads 

and vintage cultured pearls.

Premium Czech glass beads and Vintaj bead caps

If you like this look but don't use metal clay, the same effect can be achieved by soldering wires to metal charms. I'll be continuing to look for other ways to add a twist to my earring designs so if you have any clever ideas you're willing to share, please do - all inspiration is gratefully received.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

Growing Pains - Workspace Dilemas

OK - I've been at this jewellery making malarkey long enough to know that I'm not the only one whose workspace is a mess but the frustration is growing and I fear I am reaching the end of my tether. This is was it looks like most of the time these days not to mention the stuff that has spread around the rest of the house...

I've never been good at clearing one thing away before I start on the next despite the fact that it was my mothers mantra for most of my childhood years. I think the concept must be alien to a creative mind that has to act on an idea when it happens not after the washing, vacuuming or dusting have been done. This wasn't a problem when I was solely making jewellery but since I've been making components and become steadily busier, managing my workspace has become more and more stressful and despite constant reorganisation, I have finally run out of room.

I've just had a good clear up though so I thought I'd take you on a little tour of my 'bijoux studio' by which I mean the 9' x 6'6" third bedroom in my small three bedroom house that started life as a study and still has to fulfill that function too. It's actually quite difficult to photograph this room as you can't get enough distance to get everything in so my apologies for the less than brilliant photos.

This is my desk/worktable and this is where I have to do all my creating...metal clay work, jewellery design and fabrication - the sum total of available flat surface, with the exception of the floor of course. Beneath the table there are boxes 'out of sight out of mind' stuff (which means I can't remember what but I haven't missed it so who cares!) various boards, mats and assorted other miscellany. The draw unit however is one of the most important things in the room housing as it does 3 large boxes of art beads and a smaller box of Czech glass beads - I like to be near my art beads at all times!

Garden designers always recommend that if you only have a small space go vertical with your design and I adopted that principle a while ago, hence the cheap pine bookcase that stands on top of the desk. Nothing bespoke or designer here - everything is of the cheap and cheerful variety. This is home to all my findings, shipping documentation and all those bit and pieces that are useful to have at hand.

To the left of this we have my metal clay table with all it's associated tools and consumables. When I set this up the aim was that I would actually do my clay work here but as you can see it's been completely sacrificed as a depository for equipment and numerous pots of bronze and beads in various stages of completion. In any case it's too small for the quantity I produce now and the rather messy nature of metal clay means it's impractical to have other projects out when I'm working on clay so it all has to go away.

This trolley was bought to provide easy access to more of the tools and kit I use on a daily basis that were cluttering up the work surface. Pliers and cutters, punches, frequently used wire, hammers, files and part finished projects all live happily here. I thought I was being pretty clever with this idea until I saw my AJE colleague Jenny Davies-Reazor's studio and realised she'd cottoned on to it way before me. The floor is is usually littered with any number of boxes waiting to be 'sorted' - these contain beads from unsold jewellery that I recently dismantled waiting to go back to their relevant places.

The large bookcase houses the study element of the room with all my household files and a collection of art history books from my studies with the Open University a few years back. I have half a Humanities degree which I hope to complete at some stage. This area also houses three shelves of tools, equipment, more wire, boxes of beads, buttons, leather and linen cord.

 The next bookcase is mainly a bead store and home to my gemstone, vintage, seed and all other non art beads. The Chinese style cabinet houses my silks and the bottom shelf more tools and wire, molds, jewellery display and so on. On top of this another old  bookcase had been salvaged and commandeered for yes - more kit and favourite jewellery books and magazines.

 

Finally we have two rickety old TV tables which have been set up as a 'make do' drilling, soldering and pickling station - far from ideal but the best I can do in this space.

 In case you're wondering, my kiln lives in the garage along with all my enameling tools and equipment. This picture is an old one taken before it got used much because it's a complete mess at the moment and it's so cold at this time of year I only go out there to load and unload the kiln.

So you can see that I can organise and everything has it's place but even though it all looks quite tidy here, the moment I start work chaos will take over and I guarantee it will look like the first picture within 24 hours and I have to say it's beginning to get me down. The time I spend clearing up after every session is wasted time to me but I can't not make a mess.  I dream of multiple workstations where I can leave things be while I move on to another task. I'm about to start making stock for my first bead show and lord knows where that's going to go!

So, what to do short of moving house which isn't really an option...well I could take over the larger guest bedroom and tell visitors they'll have to stay in a hotel but I can't see that going down too well though and actually, I think I may have a better idea...

It's my birthday tomorrow and a milestone one in as much as I will reach an age where I can choose to start taking a pension from an occupational scheme I contributed to for a large part of my career. It dawned on me the other day that with this pension comes the option of a tax free lump sum and do you know what...I'm thinking maybe I might just take some of that lump sum and turn that cold, dark garage into a bespoke studio/workshop. I worked hard so I think I've earned it and it's crazy that the thing I love to do most and spend the larger portion of my life doing is all crushed into the tiniest room in the house. What do you think...good idea...you'll all support me on this won't you...?

Anyone know the phone number of a reliable builder....

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

All Things Considered...

2012 has been pretty good to me but as it closes out I find myself thinking more and more about what I've done and what I want to do in 2013 to stretch my creativity and keep things fresh.

This time last year I was selling my jewellery with reasonable success and was idly pondering whether or not I should try to sell some of the metal clay components I use in my own designs. It took another couple of months of procrastinating and prevaricating before I finally bit the bullet and went for it. It's well documented elsewhere how delighted I am with the positive reception they've received which frankly is just as well, because selling finished jewellery online has been a whole lot harder this year. 

So, for the last nine months I've been pretty heavily focused on developing my components and inevitably I'm now feeling the need for a change, to shake it up a bit by trying something new or revisiting some things I've dabbled in in the past.

In the summer of 2011 I attended a kiln enameling workshop and just the other day I came across some of the pieces I made following that.

This Scraffito cuff connector has been sitting around for over a year so I finally decided to do something with it...

I also had a go at torch firing enamels and set up a makeshift area in my garage, but this didn't come quite as naturally to me as I don't seem to be very co-ordinated when it comes to working with mandrels. But in fairness I think it's one of those things that needs consistent practice and once I started on building up the metal clay components there wasn't really much time left.

Now that the bronze production is running pretty smoothly though, I want to go back and improve these techniques with the aim of adding an enameled range to the shop - a nice complement to the metal clay I think.

Back in November I treated myself to another workshop, this time etching and I  LOVED it! I worked with copper and used a ranged of methods including PNP (press and peal) paper, Aquatint, stickers and Shelac. PNP was by far my favourite and I got some great results with some art deco images.

The butterfly here was done with a sticker and the other two pieces were done using PNP. Not everything came out as well as these as you can see on this next piece where fine grains of the  pumice used to clean the copper have got under the PNP causing the blotches.

 

Still that's what workshops are for aren't they! 

I have a 'slightly' addictive personality so it was all I could do to stop myself from going out and buying all the kit straight away but I've promised myself that this is something I will definitely be trying again early in the new year.

There are lots of other things I could put on my technique 'to do' list but by limiting it to just a couple I think I have more chance of actually achieving them rather than just being overwhelmed. Besides which, I still have a lot ideas to try out on my metal clays.

I've been working a lot with patinas lately, especially the new ranges of commercial metal patinas which can produce great instant colour effects like these...

 

It's also possible to get some great patinas on bronze which occur naturally as part of the firing process....

I love it when this happens but sadly it's very unpredictable and I'm very bad at keeping records of the conditions that pieces like this result from. I really have got to be more scientific about this. One thing I really want to do is try out some of the other popular patina techniques to see how they work with bronze. Ammonia, Vinegar, Potato crisps (chips)...most of the tests I've seen have been done on copper or brass so I'm planning to do some comparisons on bronze and will share that with you when I have some results.

Obviously bronze has a long and distinguished history when it comes to jewellery. How great would it be if I could reproduce some of these effects on my own jewellery and components....

Bronze jewellery from the Neolithic settlement of Vinelz on Lake Biel, Switzerland, c. 2700 BC. Wiki Commons

English: German National Museum ( Nuremberg / Germany ). Bronze armlet with sun symbol, late Bronze Age ( 16th-13th century BC ), Hesse. Wiki Commons

Without having to wait thousands of years of course - well a girl can dream?!

So that's what I've got my sights set on for 2013, how about you...what are your jewellery related ambitions for the year ahead? I'd love to hear about them.

Now, since this is the last post I'll be doing until after the New Year I'd just like to wish you all a very merry festive season and a peaceful and happy new year. See you all on the other side!

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess