Blog Carnival- April

This month on Blog carnival we are remembering those first pieces of jewelry that made us think that jewelry was our path.

 My great aunt Julia and uncle Francis sold Native American jewelry so that was my first introduction into jewelry and began my love for it( and influences my style now) but it was a trip to New Mexico when I was about 13 that really started me in physically making jewelry. I walked into a gallery called Mariposa and that was it, I was hooked. My mom and I bought this wooden brooch that was made up of many layered craft wood pieces then painted brightly and with tiny patterns on each layer( I'll try to locate it and post a pic later). I went home and played with wood and paint for quite awhile then I discovered Sculpey a few years later after going into Metalwerks gallery in Memphis where I would eventually sell my own pieces and work. These little sculpey sandwich earrings were probably my first purchase before launching into years of polymer clay jewelry making.

Check out my teammates Debbie and Beth and see what was their influence to start making jewelry.

 Debbie Ritchie http://www.fentondesign.ca/blog
 Beth Cyr: http://BethCyr.com/blog

Etsy Metal Blog carnival

                  This month's topic is:

    "Art That inspires us outside of jewelry"


Awhile back I looked up at my inspiration board and realized that I am really inspired by artists working with paper, I was a bit shocked at how many items I adored were paper. My second love appeared to be plushies and toys. Its hard to hold myself back from purchasing doll after doll or tiny little artist designed munnies. Here are just a few pics of some of my favs, including some illustrations that just get my mind ticking.

Just pulling these pics has me excited to get home and grab some paperclay and play!

Paper mache sculptures from Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao

Paper bug specimens from Kasasagi- Kate Kato

Monster Dolls from Junker Jane- Catherine Zacchino

Illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli

Illustrator Sergio Mora

 

 

Check out my fellow EtsyMetal teammate Laura Bracken and see what art works inspire her.

 Picked up some inspiration over the weekend at Noir arts and Oddities here in Kansas City. I'm going to have this print framed for my studio when its all cleaned and organized again. I did get down there to work on the cleaning this weekend and its coming along slowly but every little bit is making me feel better.

I've been wanting to work with some old tintypes for awhile now and decided to get going on that this week as well. When I was sketching I was thinking about stringing black crystals for the necklace but now I'm leaning towards pyrite beads to bring out the tiny bit of gold fill that Iwill put on the frame.

I've always had a love for victorian mourning jewelry and reliquaries. What inspires you?

Interfering with my productivity...

I am seriously having trouble wanting to be in my studio lately, the mess has just overwhelmed me. Went down yesterday to start cleaning and just seeing the little bit of tabletop in the last photo in front of the buffing machine is making me feel better already! Figured I'd post this cause if I show you my mess I need to show you the clean-up/after photos right!!!? Thats the plan anyway. :)

Plus signs on my mind….

http://lollyquiltz.blogspot.ca/2011/05/more-modern-cross-quilts.html

http://woky-shoten.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2012/03/index.html

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/107734616061868935/

http://freeyork.org/art/jewelry-joji-kojima

                                         gate inside of Union Station Kansas City, Missouri

sidewalk in Czech Republic

As I'm looking through my vacation photos I am really loving the colors that I saw repeatedly in the Czech Republic. Ive never been a fan of neutral colors but I guess just seeing the numerous variations have intrigued me. Im hoping to play around with these colors in my enamel work this year.

Happy New Year!

Back from a month long european adventure. Bryan and I traveled to Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. They were all beautiful countries and I will be excited to see how the trip comes through in our jewelry this year.

Working on some single earrings  that can be purchased individually to create a unique asymmetrical set. These are the first two I've done. There is a group doing Earring-A-Day for 2015 but don't know that I will stick to the complete 365 challenge this year. You can search on Etsy each day to see what everyone is posting and match up singles from multiple artists! Search using EAD 2015. Once I have about 7 earrings completed I will post them in my etsy shop.

Here's this year's squash blossom completed, we made 70 beads for this one! It has a really nice weight to it, I've enjoyed wearing it. One of these days though I still want to make myself just a choker of the beads.

Work in Progress

Working on an enameled cat/skull necklace for the Plaza Art Fair next month. Thought I'd share a few in progress shots of the forms I cut from plexi and wood to make my enameled skulls.

Flower Skull ring

Finished the ring this weekend and ended up changing the flower design, just couldn't resist putting in one of the skulls! I really loved how the band turned out so think I will just make a few of those in different widths.

Current projects

Im not often compelled to make rings but the feeling struck me this week to make a large flower one. Feeling pretty excited to finish this piece this week. I've also been feeling the mood to get back into painting and started off with a little collage of my sweet Sugar kitty.

More bear progress

I've managed to get in a couple of good nights in the studio so far this week, loving it! I have school tonight so may only sneak 30 minutes in there today. So, the bear cuff is coming along nicely I think. Can't wait to get the patina on it. This one is a commission piece but Im thinking I will have to make myself something along this line but I'm going to use that European Bison as my subject. Look at that face, he's too stinking adorable!!

  Playing around with a new logo design.

The Bracelet Show

The bracelet show at Kathleen Sommers in San Antonio, Texas opened last night and runs though next saturday December 15th. I have three bracelets on view. If you you live in the area head on over and take a peak, there are over 100 bracelets for sale by the following artists. Wish I could see them all myself!

This is one of the bracelets that I sent down for the show. Sterling silver with a cute little flower made from license plate and a piece of tin from a candy container. This piece was inspired by my collection of native American jewelry.

A skull in progress

Most of the time my designs are not pre-planned and sketched out. This piece started because I was rummaging through all my license plates and the color of this NY plate just struck me so gorgeous. I pulled it from the box and as I was looking at the colors and scratches the "X" screamed out skull and bones to me. Ok, I know your probably thinking that theme screams at me daily. It does, but this one was extra loud.

So, I had a skull cut out on my bench for another piece and grabbed it to put on top of the X. Yep, I'm making this for sure!

I've been playing around with steel this summer and put together a chain that's both sterling silver and steel. The skull will be bezel set in sterling with copper behind his eyes. Can't wait to see him finished. Im also trying to make more pieces that guys could wear. This one could definitely be worn by male or female.