A swarm of dragonflies

On my kitchen table, ready to go

I entered this swarm of dragonflies for the Contemporary Jewellery Awards. They are based on jewels I made for my Masters, way back in 1992/3. These are more selectively Anodised with silver details where the ‘sting’ should be. The photo was taken on our kitchen table.

Watercolours and beads

And beads...

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 A page from my design book... Starting to test the watercolour set and trying to paint the coloured beads that I've just made. I think I made the beads colourfully so that I could paint them... what a strange way around?!

But it reminds me of my previous watercolours that I did while doing my Masters (which deserves its own post). I painted my enamels using the method that Lou O'Meara taught us... the one where you use the complimentary colours to make the shadows...

The construction lines of the drawing makes me think that that I could probably construct a hollow metal bead, where the construction method is quite blatant... (post to come... I hope)

I think that THIS is what I want to do.... make something and document the process, and the DOCUMENTATION is the beautiful object....

Underglaze tests ... shapes

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I decided to make some nice test pieces for the underglazes and made these leaf-like shapes. I make them by rolling a sausage between my two hands (taking the curve of my palms) and then 'hammering' them flat with the side of my hand, like a karate chop. This results in this beautiful organic shape, which still has a strong connection to me (via my body form). This reminds me of  how I developed the original leaf shape when doing my Masters. A really good story that should have it's own post...