Over the last year I have spent many of my Thursday nights attending evening courses as a way to get out of the house. The first course I took was Jewellery Making in Metal for Beginners which is run by Mireille Clark who sells her work at East Beach Studios (Hut 45) in Worthing.
The course was brilliant and most of my makes were snapped up by family as soon as I got them home! Mireille also helped me to work out how to make some ring splints (to protect my over bendy finger joints) in copper. As soon as I get around to making some up in silver I will create another post around the various designs we trialled along with their pros and cons.
The following pieces were put into the Northbrook Summer Exhibition recently and I thought I should get some photographs to post before they also disappear…
The pendant on the left is made from copper. The pattern was created by by passing the copper sheet through a rolling mill with a dried leaf which creates the impression of the veins. I cut a shape out with the intention of it looking a little like a dragonfly wing and use liver of sulphur to create the dark patina in the veining. I chose to hang it on a simple waxed cotton thread which was a similar colour to the patina on the copper.
The pendant on the right is a cuttlefish casting using pewter and the ring at the front was made from a length of square silver wire before attaching a silver flower that was sand cast.
The first ring I made was a very simple silver band.
I am finding that much of my work is inspired by nature and, as the second ring was my final project, I wanted it to look as though it were a twig that had been wound around. This one was far trickier as soldering the cast flower to the ring without melting the wire was a hold your breath and pray moment!
As you can see from the photo, the casting and execution are far from perfect but I am pleased with this as a first attempt.
Although this pendant was created by casting from an impression of a shell pressed into cuttlefish, the spiral does remind me of spiral galaxies and I couldn’t resist getting a photograph of it with the gorgeous “Night Sky” petunia that is currently living in my studio.
[All links were working as of 8/7/19]
