Update

Sorry folks, I have been very bad at updating my blog recently. As well as photography I've been busying away with illustration and web design and not letting you see any of the results. Here's a wee sneak preview of my illustration work for a book I'm creating. All going well the real deal will be available to view at Edinburgh College of Art in April.

However it is with fighting talk that I am starting my day today, I'm determined that I'm going to finish my website really soon (this week maybe) and I think the more people that are expecting it the more likely I am to finish. Well, that's the idea anyway!

So grand unveiling of my website coming soon...

Now I know my abc's

A class from the calligrapher Michael Ashley had me practising my italic script over and over. I'd like to be able to get the really sharp edges that make good calligraphy but maybe that'll come next week. Here's the results:-

It'll be lonely this Christmas

After the length of time it took me to make my brooch I was really excited to complete both a pair of earrings and a necklace at my class this week. In fact I was so excited I wore them all to work. But sadly on a lunchtime excursion (for kuchen) I lost one of the earrings. There wasn't even enough time to photograph the pair so here's the one lonely earring and necklace.


On the bright side the necklace on its own is very wearable.

Are we nearly there yet?

The brooch is finally finished. After a long saga of failed oxidation and scrubbing and yet more scrubbing the copper eventually turned black. And then it took just a matter of minutes to put it all together et voila:-


So now what? Well, I guess I'll have to try wearing it!

An excellent example of a displacement reaction

The aim was to turn the copper black. It worked but then sadly the 'black' rubbed off under water - not a good look on a rainy day. So I spent most of the class scrubbing the blackness off to the point where it now looks exactly the same as it did last week!

On a happier note I did manage to turn the small central bit (or carpel, if like Elanor you majored in biology) black using another dodgy looking solution. The addition of a pin is also critical to the effectiveness of the piece.

Next week I'll be putting the leaves in the dodgy solution (wish I could remember all that chemistry I did at school) and hopefully finishing off...

Spot the difference

After 3 more hours of work this is how the brooch is looking:


For those not sure how this is different from the last post there have been several steps to get here. I've soldered on a tube on the front to hold the flower in place and a tiny tube and a hook on the back for the brooch pin.

After all that soldering the copper was extremely flexible so I had to hit it with a hammer. The really important lesson I learned is that it is definitely not a good idea to hit the tiny tube with the hammer otherwise it's back to the blow torch!

See saw

The votes are in and counted so the once bag is soon to be a brooch. It took me 3 hours to saw these three bits of copper. I'll leave you to puzzle over what they're all for while I do my homework.

From bags to brooches?

If you've been following my blog you'll know that I've been doing a non-precious metals jewellery class. Well it certainly is non-precious - I took a simple plastic bag to class and turned it into this:
Now the question is should it be (a) a brooch (b) a bracelet or (c) a ring?

I felt inspired...

so here's this weeks creations from my jewellery class:



As you can image (if you know me at all) I had lots of fun creating things out of felt fibres. Maybe with a bit of imagination I can see where these might go jewellery wise but I think there may have to be a bit more experimentation first. Did I mention that this is a non-precious metals jewellery class?

Jewellery?

So maybe I was a bit over ambitious when I said look out for interesting and unusual jewellery from my class. My first attempts have been interesting...




...and you can maybe see how they are the beginnings of something unusual. Watch this blog to see if they miraculously transform into some jewellery!

Started my jewelery evening course tonight. Looks like I'm going to be learning some fun techniques including using my favourite material...felt! Watch this space for some strange and unusual jewelery.