Bangles …

I lined up some wire yesterday and made stacks of bangles. I usually sell them in pairs or sets of three but, actually, I might make a giant set of 10 or so soon – they rattle together so beautifully …

 

 

Poppies and Alliums …

I had a super lazy Sunday yesterday and went out for breakfast at Hillers near Alcester – their display gardens are in full flower now and the alliums and poppies were just stunning:

Reticulated texture

While my workshop was open over the weekend I used the opportunity to make a batch of my new seaside pieces for a couple of galleries. I find, when I have multiples of one thing to make, that I easily get into a good working rhythm and gain some good working momentum.

I’m fairly new to reticulation though and I have to watch these pieces like a hawk to avoid melting them! Lately I’m getting a better feel for how the surface textures of the silver changes, and how to spot the warning signs of over heating – but when  started out it was all rather trial and error.

So, you start off with your nice, shiny wire:

and get heating, with a nice, gentle, feathery flame. I use charcoal bricks to support work that I’m reticulating – it tends not to stick to the charcoal and the heat reflects really nicely (which helps to keep the temperature even through the metal). There’s a brilliant tutorial on Ganoskin which takes you through the process and a quick video of me reticulating the wire here. With this being the end result:

Going back over the piece with a slightly more intense flame, right at the end, seems to even out the surface really well too. Once it’s all pickled clean for the final time it’ll look something like this:

these polish up beautifully into a texture that proves to be  wearing ever so well:

All set for Open Studios:

I set the workshop up today for the Centrepiece Open Studios:

It was nice to have a bit of a spring clean, blow the dust off the lamps and lay out my wares in the workshop again. I had a few visitors this afternoon (we trialed an evening opening this year which I think worked quite well) and hopefully there’ll be some more tomorrow. Drop by if you’re in Birmingham to see me – and the 30 other Centrepiece members and guests who’ll be opening their workshops:

Centrepiece Open Studios map – Click to enlarge

 

On the bench today …

 … some last minute prep for the RHS Spring Gardening Show which I’ll be setting up tomorrow.

Stacking rings …

I had a little time this week to make some new seaside rings, ready for my trip to Malvern next week:

I made some little 3 or 4 ring stacks in a mix of sizes …

Fixed on some decoration …

Pickled them clean …

and got them ready for a good polishing next week …

Spring …

Popped out to the Post Office earlier to send a parcel off to Wren in Warrington and took some photos to prove that sunny, spring days can happen in April …

Centrepiece Open Studios – Jewellery Quarter May 18th & 19th

I’ll be scrubbing the workshop spotless in the next couple of weeks in preparation for this …

Centrepiece Open Studios map - Click to enlarge

do come and visit us!

British Craft Trade Fair 2012 – Jewellery Newcomers

The newcomers section at this year’s British Craft Trade Fair was an especially vibrant and lovely place, filled with exciting ideas and makers keen to talk about their work and how their businesses are developing.

Emily Knight:

Emily Knight's Stand

Emily Knight trained up in Glasgow and her work has a beautiful emphemeral quality about it. She displayed her distinctive silver and enamel pieces against hand drawn sketches – which looked so wondefully natural that you can’t help feeling that the walls were an extention of her sketchbook.

Emily Knight, Brooches

She’s got a wondeful eye for setting colours together without the enamels looking harsh and the fun, quirky details (like the little silver bicycles) makes them wonderful and light.

Emily Knight, bangles

Maneggi:

Then, just down the aisle from me was this lovely stand:

Maneggi - Ribbon Jewellery

featuring work from Maneggi, who, well – has a thing for ribbons … and wonderfully sculptural things she does with them too. With a really sensitive eye for colour she combines ribbons and pearls into little wearable structures:

Maneggi, Aqua and Pearl

 

They have quite a soft, vintage feel which is given a classic edge by her use of the pearls and other beads that give form to her pieces.

Karen Fox:

Karen Fox Jewellery Stand

And just one aisle over was the work of Karen Fox, another recent graduate with a passion for neat, structured pieces built up out of layers of texture. Her larger scale ruffle pieces (like the collar that you can just see on the left) wouldn’t look out of place at the ballet and have a defnite theatrical, Elizabethan flavour that makes you want to layer them up into giant sculptures.

Karen Fox, Ruffle Series

The whole show catalogue is online here for you to get a flavour of just how much craft work was on show.

It was a truly stunning collection of work from new and established makers alike which gives me a lot of hope for the future of the creative industries in the UK – it’s really wonderful to be working in so vibrant a marketplace.

Beautiful Seaside basics …

I’ve been feeling the need for things to be a little simpler lately. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my new Beachcomber pieces but I also like wearing neat, simple everyday jewellery that can handle a tough week in the workshop and doesn’t need to be taken off when you get in the shower, still half asleep, in the morning.

And, for that matter, it’s nice to have jewellery that you can sleep in.

So a couple of months ago I made myself these:

and I haven’t really taken them out since. Sure, I’ve changed them for more special or dressy occasions but they’ve always gone right back in again after.

They’re silver and lightly reticulated, meaning that they’ve been heated to the point where the silver just begins to turn liquid – then cooled off to preserve the wonderful, slightly rough texture that that leaves behind:

It burnishes up to a lovely, warm glow that looks soft and natural.

I’ve put a small range together:

Simple pendants in silver (with a red gold accent):

Stacks of bangles, also silver with a red gold accent:

and rings (silver and red gold):

which I’m testing myself – they wear beautifully and feel really summery!

You can find the whole range right here