Sculptural Sustainable Wood Jewellery

 

This weekend I was back to West Dean for the Sculptural Sustainable Wood Jewellery course.

I booked this a while ago and had been really looking forward to it.  I was not disappointed.

 

I love wood as a material, love how warm it feels and how versatile it is, so when I saw the things Sarah King, our tutor, had made I couldn’t wait to find out more.

 

It was a small class with 5 of us and we all had some knowledge of jewellery making so it made for quite a relaxed class with Sarah showing us techniques and then allowing us to use them in any way we wanted.

 

 

We started by making a hard wood pendent with silver dots inlayed.  The technique is quite simple, but looks very effective.

 

Next I made an ebony ring with more silver inlayed.  This time a strip along the top with some dots down the sides.  Getting the shape right took the time with this one.  Finishing both of these with wax made them sing.

 

On our second day I worked mostly in lime wood, which was much softer to work with.  Again I made rings, but this time more sculptural using holes and paint to give an interesting surface.  

 

 

I also made a laminate with I cut up to make a pair of ear rings, although I didn’t quite get them finished.  It won’t take long in my jewellery class next week.

 

 

Many of the things we worked on, we used superglue to keep in place.  This was very reassuring as I’d never thought using glue in jewellery making was very professional, but it shows there is a time and a place.

 

I really enjoyed the weekend and learnt so much.  Now I’m trying to work out how I could incorporate glass with wood, maybe in rings or brooches.  I love how going on courses like this builds on what I’ve learn before and while I might not have a fully formed idea now, it’s the sort of thing that will come with time.

Wild Glass Creations - The Shop

 

I make things because I am curious about how to make things and because I like to own things that are personal to me.

However, I'm starting to build up a bit of a collection of glass now, and every time I show someone a new ring or piece of jewellery I've made they tell me I should sell my work.

Seeing as I currently work full time I've never really been bothered about trying to turn my creativity into an income, but it wouldn't hurt if it could pay for itself at least.

So I have now set up a little online shop where you can buy things I have created.  Mostly in glass with a few other materials thrown in for varity.

You can find everything at wildcreationshandmade.co.uk and I'll be adding more as I make things.

(I did think about an Etsy shop, but their fees keep going up and I've heard from friends and family who have had really bad experiences with them, so I've kept it independent.)

Maybe I'll also try some craft shows at some point too.  This is the start of something...

St Catherines Cardigan

 

For the last couple of months I've been working on St Catherines Cardigan by Kate Davies.

I love her designs and this one had caught my eye with its stripes, some of which don't do what is expected of them.

 

So off to the the wool shop I went and got myself some Stylecraft DK in Graphite and A Hint of Silver.  I used just under 2 balls of each.

Once I'd worked out my gauge and the size needles I'd need I got going.  Being garter stitch it was mostly knit, with a little purl when working on the arms and the edging.  There was a bunch of picking up stitches to do which I hate! And it is finished with a 3 stitch i-cord bind off which is pretty straightforward but seemed to take forever.

 

It's come out pretty well, but there are a few things I could improve on.  For instance some of the stitches I picked up on the collar are not very neat.  And somehow I managed to do an extra row of graphite stitches on the second arm, only noticing when it didn't line up with the first.  Doh!  No way I was undoing all that to correct it.

But as a cardigan to wear around the house, especially when I'm having hot/cold moments I think it'll do just fine!  I like how chunky it is.

Berries & Blooms Biscornu

 

 I first saw this kit at one of the Farnham Malting festivals.  I was really intrigued by it's odd shape and wanted to have a go, so added it to my birthday list.  But when I then received the kit for my birthday it got added to the pile and never got started.

 

However, going to Wales on holiday this year I thought it would be the perfect project to take with me, seeing as I knew there wouldn't be room in the car for my knitting!

I started it before we left so I'd just be able to pick it up and work on it at any point during the holiday and that worked quite well.

The side with the flowers on worked well and didn't take long to finish.  However the side with the berries on was a little more tricky.  I'd done a chunk before realising something was out of alignment and decided the best thing to do would be to unpick it and start again.

 

Annoying, but I think the best decision.  This time I created the boarder first then filled in the pattern.  I also worked with all three colours at once rather than one at a time, which helped me to get all my spacings right.

Lastly was sewing it all up.  It's quite simple when you know how, but looks very effective.  Adding the tiny seed beads is a lovely detail.

A lovely little project to work on.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoy cross stitch.

Glass Leaf Coasters

 At the begining of the year I joined my local Arts and Crafts Society so I could start to build my community of creative people in real life.

 

I also joined with the aim of putting something in their summer exhibition.  

As the year progressed I had a fair idea of what I wanted to include.  However it had other ideas, and as the deadline for entry got closer I'd pretty much given up on the idea.

 

But in the mean time I'd been playing with making glass leaves out of glass powder.  I'd taken an online class and although it takes a little set up the leaves themselves are stunning.  I've been fascinated by leaves for as long as I can remember, so when I found out you could make them out of glass I just had to have a go.

 

The leaves can look amazing when I get the colour combos right, but are quite fragile.  As I was thinking about what I could do with them I had the idea to make a set of coasters, and with that the idea that I could enter them into the exhibition.

With this decided, I submited my entry form, then got going.  I hadn't left myself very much time especially with a trip to Yorkshire for Franks class in the middle. 

 

I only have a small bead kiln, which is perfect when I am making beads, but a little small if I want to do fusing projects.  However, it's big enough to fuse 4 leaves at a time or one coaster at a time!  I set to work.  Every evening I would set up the kiln with a coaster to fuse, then leave it until the morning and hope it came out ok.

With a limit on time and on materials, I couldn't be fussy.  Where normally I would have said at least half weren't good enough to display let alone sell, I didn't have any option but to use them all.  A great way to get over my perfectionism!

Come the Sunday hand-in, I had two sets of coasters ready to go.  An autumn set on black and a summer set on white.  I learnt masses making them, but now I'm used to their imperfections I quite like them.

 

I also spent that weekend helping to set the exhibition up.  It was fun to see the big hall change from an empty theater to an art venue with plenty of white screens and plinths for all the art work.  Going to the preview night was magic - seeing the change from an empty room to an art gallery.

It was nice to see my work out with everyone's elses, although I'm not sure I agree with which way up some of the leaves have been displayed!

 

So I achieved my objective - to display some work at the summer exhibishion.  I'm slightly disappointed they didn't sell, but that's not really why I put them in.  And it's probably not the right place to try and sell this sort of work anyway. But another skill learnt.

Glass Beads With Frank Miguletz

 

This weekend I was back up in Yorkshire for another class at Tuffnell Glass, this time with Frank Muguletz who had come all the way from Germany to teach us.

 

Frank creates amazing strippy beads, often in rainbow colours and I was intrigue about how he made them, so of course had to sign up for the course.

I, of course, can't share his secrets, but they involve dots, gravity and a kitchen knife!

 

I think I love the beads I made on the first day most, but the second days lesson on using gravity for you, rather than fighting against it, and how in encase a bead in clear glass without adding bubbles will be so valuable for me in so many of my other projects.

 

I really enjoyed the weekend and I'm looking forward to taking what I've learnt into the studio, but they will have to have something really good to entice me to make the 6hr drive again. 

 

I've been pretty busy with some other glass projects, so hope to share those here soon too.

Jennie Lamb's Wearable Art Class

 

I've been playing with glass for over a year now, but it's hard to get better just from watching YouTube videos or reading books, so this week I went to Rudson, Yorkshire to learn some new things.

 

I buy a lot of my glass and tools from Tuffnell Glass so I was interested to see they also run workshops.

This weekend we were with Jennie Lamb to learn how to make wearable art - how to make patterned mandela disks to make into rings and pendents.

It was a small class with a variety of abilitys but although I was a little worried how'd I'd get on, everyone was really nice and the class was paced so everyone could keep up.

Over the two days we learnt lots of new (to me) techniques, which should allow me to improve the things I make at home.  I also made my biggest bead ever!

It was a very flexable course.  Jennie was going to touch on how to use millefiori but as we were all interested, she changed the course so we could make our own and use it on our own beads.  This was perfect timing as I've been thinking about having a go.  But reading the books and doing it are very different!

 

While I might have only made a handful of beads over the 2 days, I learnt sooooooo much which I'm really looking forward to trying at home.

Although it did take 6 hours to drive up there and it rained for the whole weekend, it was a really good weekend.  We were looked after very well with very tasty lunches and a great workshop.  We also had access to the shop, so I ended up buying even more glass and tools! 

I'm looking forward to going back next month to take another course.

Sustainable Practice: Recycling Silver with Elisavet Messi

 

 Today I was up early to catch the train to London, but I wasn't going into the office, I was visiting The Goldsmiths Centre to learn how to recycle all my offcuts of silver.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, but I arrived a little early which gave me a chance to look at the beautiful student work in the foyer. Wow!  

 

At 09:30 me and another lady were met and taken to the classroom we'd be using.  It's an amazing building and we walked past several classrooms, all very well equiped.  In our classroom we met Elisavet who talked us through what we'd be doing.

First we had a chat about the sustainable and ethical reasons why we'd want to recycle our offcuts, before going through the process.

 

First we had to set up our crucible by enameling it with borax.  This involved heating it up and melting the borax powder so it ran over the surface of our crucible, meaning our silver wouldn't stick to it later.  You only have to do this the once, then you're set for the life of the crucible.

 

Next we weight out our silver (13g), put it in our crucible and melted it.  Sounds easy, but it took a little bit of skill to get the flame the right distance away to get the metal hot enough.  Once liquid we poured it into a mold.  We'd made a tiny ingot!

Once it had been pickled we could start to shape it using the rolling mill.  I wanted to make wire with mine.  You can only pass it through 3 or 4 times before you have to anneal and pickle it again otherwise it will probably crack, so I didn't have time to finish it, but I will take it to class with me, I'm sure I can finish it there.

 

It was a great morning, and wonderful to finally do something with all the offcuts I've been hoarding without really knowing what to do with them.  Elisavent was so knowledgable and happy to share, I really feel this is something I could do again on my own now.

I then went on to the V&A to have a look at their glass display.  A nice way to spend a couple of hours on a damp afternoon, before heading home.