pretty as a peacock

DreamsinSeams put together this beautifully vibrant "Pretty as a Peacock" treasury on etsy today which includes one of my teardrop lace pendants.

this exact pendant is going to be on display in Jewel Envy's Student Exhibition this Friday from 5-8pm alongside two other pieces of mine. i took an enameling class at Jewel Envy in January 2010 with Emily Gill and i've been obsessed with enameling and colour ever since.

come by for the opening, you may just see me.

10 random things i've done lately

01. read Across the Universe by Beth Revis
02. ran up and down my apartment building's stairs because i didn't feel like going to the gym
03. listened and re-listened to Mercy by OneRepublic
04. finished my first scarf pin commission, then immediately made another one!
05. had a delicious Bengali meal of haleem, naan, sizzling chicken, sweet tea, and mango yoghurt
06. watched The Fighter
07. dropped off my kiln to be repaired
08. entered work into Jewel Envy's Student Exhibition
09. stocked up on sterling silver chain, findings, and pearls
10. gave an impromptu heartfelt speech at my Uncle's surprise party

is there something you want to know about me or my work? message me!

the messier side of cloisonne

i've shown you all this piece before but i think the process shots were a little too clean. i actually enjoy taking process shots of my work - something i started to do in my thesis year at OCAD for documentation purposes.

i find it interesting to see the pitfalls, and what actually happens on a journey of a piece before it's all cleaned, polished, and put on display. i like to see it grow and change - it's always more complicated than it seems.

in between firing the layers of enamel, there tends to be a lot of cracking before the silver wires are securely embedded in the base enamel. fairly often, the silver pieces fall off and have to be repositioned.

here's the application of the wet enamel into the "pockets."

with more layers, the cracks eventually stop forming. and after some grinding and cleaning it will look like this picture here.

another countdown

the Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts Sale is only 3 days away. thankfully i'm not as frazzled as I was for the Outdoor Show. things are coming together and i have quite a few more pieces than last time including new sterling silver earrings and necklaces, flower pins in new colours, enameled earrings, and of course, just more enameled stuff in general.

using my kiln in Organic Metal Gallery is great since i don't have to compete with the wind like I had to on my apartment balcony. i also don't have to deal with mosquitoes. i'm still getting used to the space, but i'm sure i'll settle in nicely.

i hope to see some of you faithful readers at the show. It's in Riverdale Park, Toronto - just south of Broadview station September 10th-12th.

a blog post

a fellow jeweller, Alexis Kostuk, was kind enough to visit my booth at the Outdoor Show last weekend and then write up a little post about her visit on the Jewel Envy blog.

it's nice to see other jewellers at your booth, they tend to have insightful perspectives. and of course, they know what you're going through. 

here is one of her pieces that i particularly like, it's very whimsical and includes turquoise, flocking (a technique i want to try), resin, pearls, and sterling silver.

the OCAD Retrospective show is tomorrow!

so my email hasn't been working for two weeks. anyone who has been emailing me, please email me again! because of that glitch i also haven't been getting my work emails, or any notice for the OCAD Retrospective show that is opening up tomorrow!

anyways, i finally found out in the nick of time, so some of the enameled work i made from my time at jewel envy will be on display in the Great Hall at OCAD.

come by in the evening for some food, drinks and art - OCAD is good for that.

my last enameling class

sadly, my last enameling class at jewel envy was on tuesday. we were busy finishing up our cloisonné pieces.

cloisonné is much more time consuming (painful) than normal enameling, but then it also allowed us to make more graphic and precise pieces.

i'm so glad i took this class with emily, i'm about 1000% sure that i'm going to keep doing enameling in the future.

these were my materials and my workspace:

this is after i wetpacked the enamel onto the piece before firing:

this is the piece on a trivet after it came out of the kiln, it's still changing colours, and is a bit oxidized:

and this is the final piece :D

some more cocoons

i did some more tests on tuesday. i like the ripped effect on metal, it was time to see it with enamel on top. i found that the big open gashes work better when there's an enameled surface. but when it's just plain metal, i like the spiderweb like cracks similar to the one in my thesis piece: you try to take the best of me.

i don't like the butter yellow too much in this context, maybe if it was on the ones i showed in my previous post...i tried to change it up a bit by adding a transparent enamel, but it stayed almost the same. if i could do it again i would use a more subdued yellow.

i only have two more enameling classes left at Jewel Envy...i'm tres sad.

adventures in enameling

yay! colour, cocoons, lace, and ribbon!

these are the products of my enameling class...so far.
Emily Gill will be teaching some new enameling workshops and classes very shortly at Jewel Envy, so take a class if you like what you see!

i want to buy an enameling kiln now.

enameling!

so i am really loving my enameling class with the very talented emily gill from jewel envy :) i'm not used to working with so much colour in my work so i guess i'll constantly be amazed at the results.

i made some very cute cocoon necklaces last night and i am excited to get them on some chains so i can get people to wear them...now if only i could find my bag of chains...

enamelling

i'm starting my first enamelling class at Jewel Envy today :)

i'm tres tres excited.

i'll let you guys know how it goes.

back to the craziness

school has started once again. i thought maybe this semester would be a little less hectic, but i think i was just trying to make myself feel better.

on a good note i'm taking an enameling course at Jewel Envy as well as a small object design course using 3D modelling software at OCAD. as usual, i'm trying to expand my range of skills. this need of mine costs me a small fortune and a lot of storage space. i think i need to rent out another apartment just to hold the supplies i've gathered from all the different kinds of media i work in.

i also really really want to participate in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition this year, so I have in mind to create a few more pieces to accompany my thesis work.

it should be an exciting and crazy year so keep checking back for news!