fan necklaces in progress

hi everyone! hope you're all finding fun things to do inside on this rainy weekend in Toronto. 

lately i've been in the mood to restock and make some new jewellery pieces, but after i sprained my thumb, i also managed to suffer from multiple spells of vertigo - leaving me light headed and weak. it was not a fun time. nor was sitting in waiting rooms for hours on end.

anyway, i couldn't decide for a long time, but in the end i sent in my application to the Queen West Art Crawl show set for the third weekend in september. i hope to have a whole bunch of new, colourful work by then for everyone to see.

this table is one of my favourite places to work - it's in my room, and it opens out to three times its original size. i love when it's clear and i can spread out all my materials.

these are some process shots of my fan necklaces. i spent a day last week trying some new colours and fabrics. i made new ones in a wine red, forest green and grape purple that got picked up by The Devil's Workshop right away. for some reason i thought that the stiffer fabrics were no good for these pieces, but it turns out they work much better. time to buy more fabric!

i've also decided to antique the taco looking bits on the fan necklaces from now on since it's fairly difficult to clean the tarnish off the silver when there's fabric attached. i think it's a nice and practical change.

enjoy your sunday readers!

the prototype

this was the first fan style necklace i made before i started doing these ones. both styles only work with certain kinds of fabric.

i think i'm particularly partial to this one because it's exactly my favorite colour.

more fans

here's a picture of a blue version of my fan necklace.

i recently got a commission to make earrings of these in a rose pink colour. if i like them i think i'll start making the earrings as part of my collection as well. i also plan on making more necklaces in new colours in time for cabbagetown (next month!).

fan necklaces

here are some newish fabric and sterling silver necklaces i had made just in time for the outdoor show. i also had some in a fiery orange red, turquoise and a light cabbage green (my fav one). i didn't have time to take photos of them before the show, so these two are the survivors who are lucky enough to be documented.

purple mania

so i've been pretty hard at work for the past while trying to make new jewellery for cabbagetown. i try to spend a  whole day, 2-3 days a week enameling. and the rest of the time i spend making fabric pieces, or going down to the OCAD studio to do torch/prep work for pieces that are either silver, or will be enameled.

i also try to work on my commissions, or you know - sit down and relax for more than five minutes.

after reviewing what jewellery i had in my inventory, i realized that i didn't have any purple pieces at the outdoor show. i found this weird since i have quite a few shades of purple in powdered enamel form.

i think i wasn't especially fond of the shades when i was first doing my colour samples, but i've grown to like them after playing around and discovering how they react in the kiln. the orchid purple on the cocoon with the black spots was particularly problematic when i first tried it out. it didn't work well in small details (like in my lace pendants), but it's good when it covers a larger area.

these pieces are all pendants - except the fabric pin.

i've started making my pins with opaque material. while i was helping my parents move out i found this fabric from an old fashion project i was making in high school. it pays to be a pack rack when you're an artist, you never know when a material is going to come in handy.