A sigh of relief

How wonderful it is today to feel actual warmth coming from the sun, to feel that hint of spring in the air:D

Walking through the park today it was like my whole body heaved a big sigh of relief, the warmer weather is coming!

 Tinker is happy in the warmer weather too.

Love, light and sunshine xxx

Jewellery Course-Sketchbook

I love pattern and the silhouettes of leaves, branches and blossom against the sky, and the shadows they throw against a surface as the light touches them. My work here is exploring this love of pattern and decoration, inspired by nature. The paper cuts I’ve been doing can hopefully inspire my jewellery making process, as I’d like to combines layers of materials, silver over silk, for example. I’ve been looking at other jewellery makers for inspiration too. 

Here'a a few pages of my sketchbook, followed by some of the jewellers I'm looking at for inspiration.

 Kate Smith

Leonor Hipolito. I can't find a website dedicated to her jewellery, but if you google her you'll find images of her work on various sites.

 Penny Davis

 Rosanne Antico Hall. Again, you'll have to search on google, I couldn't find a website for her.

 Sally Grant

 Yu Chun Chen

What beautiful work there is out there, and so much more to come.

Love and light xxx

My best one yet

Now that my friend has recieved the sketchbook I made for her I can share the images of it with you and not be in danger of spoiling the surprise! I'm happy to say it was very well recieved:D

The above paper was handpainted by me, I've been wondering what to do with it for ages. I think it works really well in the sketchbook and adds that extra something as it's totally unique.

 Such beautiful paper!

And of course, overseeing the entire project, my beautiful cat, Tinker:D

Love and light xxx

Jewellry Class

For the last month I've been attending a City & Guilds jewellry course led by the wonderfully talented 

Adele Kime at the Glossop Adult Education Centre.

Not only is her jewellry beautiful but she's an exellent teacher too, which is just as well as I am a complete beginner when it comes to actually making anything. As I mentioned in the last post, I've made a sketchbook for the course as I'm very keen to make everything by hand. It's quite a discipline keeping a sketchbook again, it's something i got out of the habit of doing, I just dive straight into my paintings usually without much of a plan.

The first thing we're learning is etching onto brass and copper. We had to design something in black and white (I chose the drawings I've been working on lately) and then the images were photocopied onto special blue paper that's usually used for printing on circuit boards. The paper's called Press-n-peel Blue PCB Transfer Paper.

This is my original image, followed by the blue paper photocopy next to the piece of brass it's to be transfered to. I cut sections of the image to be photocopied to minimise the amount of blank space.

I put a thin sheet of paper over the brass and heated the metal with an iron (no steam), for about 4-5 minutes, then I quickly placed the blue paper, image face down, onto the brass, covered it with the paper, and heated it again with the iron for another 4-5 minutes. Then I plunged the brass, paper still attached, into a jug of cold water for a few seconds before taking it out and peeling off the paper.

Very exciting!

Not all the detail came out, the drawing of the face is very subtle, lot's of little dots, but I was happy with it. You can get a blue etch resist pcb marker pen that you can use to draw directly onto the metal with but it's not a very fine nib, so the paper allows for more detail.

This is my brass after it spent 3 hours in the Ferric Sulphate solution we made at the centre. I still have to give it a final clean. The face is so subtle you can only see it when tilted towards the light, so I intend to oxidise it to blacken the raised areas. The module of the  course i'm currently studying is all about producing samples and experimenting with different techniques.

What do you think?

Love and light xxx

Very Busy Bee

Apologies for not posting for a while, I've been moving house again! This is definately the last time I'm moving for quite a while I hope. I really like the new house, it's  less expensive than where I was before, and the landlady loves cats, so for the first time ever I've been able to get a cat:D

So I now have a black cat called Tinker. I got her about 2 hours ago from a lady who's just had her first child, who, it turns out, is allergic to cats. Tinker is 8 yers old and is so far very shy, I'll take a photo of her when she comes out from under my bed.

I've also had a few projects on the go, these are pictures of my first attempt at making ny own sketchbook using a tutorial  by Dani Jones. You can find the tutorial here if you want to give it a go.
It's a good tutorial but I did mess up my sketchbook right at the end by not reading the instructions properly. It's not too bad though and I'll still be using it, I'm just a perfectionist. I'm really happy with the papers/colours I chose for the cover though, it looks pretty:D
I'm making one for my friend next so the second one should be better, lessons learnt.  
The sketchbook is for a jewellry making class that I just started last month, 3 hours a week of happiness!

I uploaded the photos in order of my progression in making the sketchbook but for some reason they've come up in a random order and I can't seem to change it. Oh well, randomness it is then!

This is as far as i've got with making my work space nice and pretty. I've a lot more pics to put up and I'd quite like some shelves too. The sewing machine is really old and I'm not sure yet if it works or not, I might have to treat myself to a new one.

See you soon

xxx