Final for today

OK, last up, this is a ring I made just because I thought it looked really cool on. The piece mounted on the ring is a tube of sterling silver and sits slightly across the adjoining fingers. I really like wearing this ring and had to think hard about putting it in the exhibition, but it is still mine :o)

Finally, here are some earrings where I've fused sterling silver and copper. These pieces are light (the fused elements are less than 1mm thick), but I really like the play of the silver against the copper and the similarity, but differences of the two parts of the pair:

See what I mean by flurry?

Recently I have been working on a series of rings mounting salvaged glass. This has been an ongoing project and was originally intended to be shown at the National Jewellery Showcase in 2007, but stress and time pressures led to meltdown at a critical moment in finishing the bezel - it was completely finished, along with 10 of its buddies. I came back to this earlier this year and finally got it together with the bezel making, no meltdowns, no holes in the solder and fitting the random shapes of the glass I was mounting. YEE-HA!!

This ring is one of two I have made so far from a window-washing accident in my old apartment building - the window washers knocked one of my neighbour's balcony glass with a handle and it shattered all over the street leaving some really cool shaped pieces - the glass is quite thick - about 8mm and has a green colouring to it. I have been selling these rings for $120NZD, well ok, you can tell that is a slight exaggeration - I have sold one!

The other ring I have made so far in this series is from a car crash - in the street behind my apartment building, someone drove into a printer's window and I managed to get a couple of pieces of the glass the council workers missed in their clean-up.


I really like this one - I have mounted it so that it is like an icicle - could be kind of dangerous, but it's not an everyday ring!!

Exhibition cont....

Often when I am preparing for an exhibition, I am in a complete state of panic, trying to get too many things done in too short a time frame (all my own doing!), and in the process there are usually many melted things that aren't meant to me melted - more frustration!

But this year, I was determined to be more on to it and have made a concerted effort all year to keep ahead of my sales and have a decent sized body of work to show. In June in Wellington, there has been an annual jewellery showcase for the last 3 years, but the cost of entering this became prohibitive this year, so a group of us got together to have a fringe festival - consisting of a street stall at the bottom of Cuba Mall. Even a fine wintry day couldn't prise much $$ out of people's back pockets... we're all dreaming of a credit crunch Christmas....

I did make one sale, but it also meant that I was really well set up for the end of year exhibition. So in these piccies are a couple of bracelets that I have been making for the last couple of years - these are adjustable to fit different sized wrists and the looseness/tightness preferred by the wearer. I have only started making the square-linked bracelets this year - both of these sell for $80NZD.

2008 Exhibition

This is going to be a flurry of activity, so no-one should expect this all the time!!!

I guess a good place to start is a little history. I have been making silver jewellery since I did a weekend course in May 2006. The course covered the basics of working with silver - starting with making a ring then setting a cabochon stone - this lead me to making 2 rings, two brooches with stones set in them, two bangles and some loops for a set of great earrings I already had.

I don't have all my photos on the computer with me at the moment so this will be completely out of chronological order, but that's not entirely important - and as some friends would say, at least I have made a start on getting myself out there!

I was recently part of a group exhibition at Inverlochy House with several other jewellers and a couple of sculptors. The images on this page show about 2/3rds of a bracelet that was 2 years in the making. Inspired by a trip to Melbourne in 2006 and all the you are here markings on maps and tourist signs, I was determined to use this in some jewellery. I started by cutting out the letters, but quickly decided they were too small and relegated them to the too-hard basket. About a year ago, I resurrected this project adn completed cutting out the letters, filing and sanding them.

Next up was an attempt to make them in to a bracelet, originally I had envisioned them incorporated as links in the chain, but this didn't work visually or technically, so back in the basket. Finally 6 months ago, the inspiration came to make it more like a charm bracelet and yay, it worked. The bracelet is adjustable by hooking the bail in the appropriate link and sits really nicely on your wrist - and is kind of funny to wear as the letters tickle slightly as they move (maybe this happens with regular charm bracelets, but I have never worn one so can't report on that.

My lovely colleague Rogan will be unwrapping this from her parcel beneath the tree tomorrow morning as a well deserved present to herself.

Nagging that works

This is a result of many people nagging me over the last couple of years - you need to get a website. Have you got anything on the web? What is your web address?

Well, nag no more, here is something, not much, but it is a start and hopefully I will continue to add to it and it will show a full body of work from me.

This is a piece I made for a friend at work - it is a choker on velvet ribbon and consists of a sterling silver frame and a series of picture disks that I printed on various metals, depicting New Zealand scenes. The disks easily slide out for a different look.