A thing for rings

Spiral ring

Heart ring

Flower rings

Rings have a unique ability to express individuality and style, making them a popular choice in jewellery design. A diverse collection can include whimsical floral patterns that evoke a sense of nature and simplicity, alongside heart-shaped designs that convey sentiment and love. Spirals can add an element of intrigue, symbolising eternity and movement.

The process of creating these rings is greatly satisfying, as each design offers a different experience. Flower rings might involve intricate detailing and soft curves, while heart rings can present opportunities for personalisation through engravings or texture. Spirals can be crafted in a way that embraces both fluidity and strength, showcasing the versatility of materials and techniques.

With each piece, there is a valuable opportunity to explore artistry and craftsmanship. As the bench fills up with these intricate designs, it reflects creativity and a passion for unique expressions in jewellery. Embracing my current fascination with rings is leading to an inspiring journey of discovery and innovation in my work.

Holiday Refresh

Carey’s Hut. Southland Region

Gemstone Beach

Beautiful stones from Gemstone Beach

Just returned from a holiday on the South Island of New Zealand. what a place, I’ve hiked there numerous times, but hadn’t been to this particular area before. So beautiful!

Being a Queenslander and living on the Sunshine Coast, snow is not something we ever see. It was breathtaking one morning to wake up to a dusting of snow on the mountains surrounding where we stayed overnight. We started out on the hike camping overnight, but by day three, it had become extremely cold, I needed more layers for overnight, so we ended up staying in huts. Have come back feeling so refreshed and ready to start creating again.

After the hike, we had some down time in this lovely little town called Orepuki. From there we just fossicked around the beaches, did a drive to see sea lions and generally just relaxed.

We spent a lot of time sitting on a beach appropriately named Gemstone Beach. I had to limit my time there as there were too many beautiful stones, the pale green ones being my favourite. Somes of the ones I collected were just the right shape to set into a pendant or a ring, no polishing or cutting needed.

You will soon see some of my creations either here or on instagram

From this to this…

Every jeweller encounters a surplus of scrap metal in their craft. What makes working with silver or gold particularly rewarding is the ability to repurpose every last sliver. When faced with an accumulation of scrap, I choose to melt it down, roll it through my rolling mill to form it into thin sheets, and fashion it into a new exquisite pendant.

This pendant is fresh from my workbench this week, so will be adding it to my website soon.

One red flower amongst the bunch

Part of my grunge flower series, this is a unique pendant featuring a bold red enamel flower nestled among sterling silver blooms.
This design draws inspiration from the striking imagery of black and white photos adorned with a single burst of vivid color, evoking a sense of contrast and artistry.

Creating unique pendants within a series presents its own set of challenges. Each piece requires careful consideration of design elements, materials, and techniques to ensure that it stands distinct from the others while still maintaining a cohesive collection. The process demands a high level of creativity and craftsmanship to continually produce new and individual works of art.

The first domed pendant

From my archive of photos is my first domed pendant which contained a cabochon of dichroic glass, claw set into the bottom dome, then I stitched it to the top dome with sterling silver wire.

I love making the domed pendants, but I’m not sure why I started making them. I think I liked the idea of something hidden inside it. This paved the way to my later series that have featured flowers and leaves, I call them either a hidden garden series or a secret garden series.

I started making the dichroic glass cabochons as I wanted to add a pop of colour to my work, this started an even bigger obsession of kiln forming glass, but that’s another story though.

I have been making the domed pendants for about 10 years and have probably made at least one hundred unique pendants in that time. My mission is to keep making them and I have ideas for hidden butterflies and of course more flowers.

From the archive

I have been making domed pendants for many years in various forms, I will show my original ones in later posts. For some reason, I just can’t leave the dome alone and always come back to it with new ideas creating a new series. I am delving into my archive of sold work to document this journey.

Each domed pendant I make is different, they are their own little artwork. As with all of my work, I start out with a spark of an idea which then evolves into the finished piece.

The pictured pendant is part of a series where I enamelled the flowers using a product called U-namel. It is an enamel that is hardened by ultraviolet light and is perfect for inlaying into the little flowers of a nearly finished work. The colours are transparent and create an almost a pearlised finish on the little flowers. For this pendant l used sterling silver wire to stitch part of it together and created little stylised leaves to complement the flowers.

Hidden Flowers

Three little flowers peaking out from within the dome. The domed pendant is stitched together with sterling silver wire.

Sold

Welcome to my website

Welcome to my first post. I thought I’d use this blog to document work that has been sold and some of my processes.

This pendant didn’t make it to my website as it was sold the day after it was made. It was a lovely pendant with the corrugated silver, the pop of the red enamel flower and the oxidisation. I call this series ‘Grunge flowers’, pretty enough but but not too pretty. I will be exploring this series further. I actually don’t plan my pendants, I rarely draw anything first. If I do a drawing, its a very quick simple sketch, so I can get it out of my mind and come back to it later or move on to something else. The quick sketch generally is nothing like the finished piece anyway, its just an idea. My work is all intuitive, I make it up as I go along, it ‘talks’ to me.

I make everything, the flowers, the corrugated metal, each piece is unique. When making earrings I make my own hooks. The only things I don’t make are the fine silver chains as they are machine made.

I enjoy what I do and it’s wonderful when one of my pieces go to a new home.