a busy summer

Hi all! I've been busy in the studio most of the summer and have fallen off the blogging boat as a result. Though, I've recently joined instagram and have been really good at keeping that updated for some reason. You can follow me on instagram here.

But I am going to make an effort to post more regularly!

Since I started school again last September I found it really difficult to make new jewellery during the year. But since summer started I found myself in the studio as much as possible restocking the shops that carry my work and trying out some new designs I had been sketching and planning.

I'm pleased to announce that I now sell my jewellery at Shoe Kat Shoo in Orangeville alongside the regular - The Devil's Workshop, Organic Metal Gallery, and etsy. I just recently sent off some new enamel pieces in the most summery enamel colours I have - they're so nice and fresh looking. Kathie from Shoe Kat Shoo was kind enough to send me some photos of my work on display in her shop:

I'm also currently teaching a ten week enameling/advanced jewellery class on Thursdays at Organic Metal Gallery.

It's been busy and fun - kind of dreading going back to school now...

learning curves

i was working on some new lichen rings in the studio a little while back. i really like seeing my drawings turn into something 3D and wearable. these are all one of a kind mostly because right after i draw them i decide to make them. and then i don't have a copy of the original drawing.

i've been in the dental lab at school a lot lately. fourteen hour days have become the norm for me. there is so much to do. like with most things of a technical nature, there is a steep learning curve. we are learning from our mistakes, and these mistakes are very time costly.

i was trying to wrap this piece up in tissue paper for a safe trip home, and then it fell. i lost about two hours here. *sigh* at least i'm getting better and faster all the time :)

big bows and mouth guards

i still spend my thursdays at Organic Metal Gallery, and when i'm not working on my assignments, i sometimes teach the students who come in how to saw, polish, enamel, and solder. last week Cheryl was in the studio and really wanted to make this big bow necklace. when the enameling process works without problems, a lot can be accomplished in a short amount of time. unfortunately this was not one of those times. but she persevered, and in the end she had a nice 2 sided pendant - storm blue on one side, and lichen green on the other.

in my dental materials class we were learning how to make customized sport mouth guards. the 2nd year denturist students took impressions of our teeth and then we poured up molds to work from.

i'm always excited to learn how to make something new. and since i wear a night guard myself, this kind of thing is particularly relevant to me. my husband is already begging me to make him a sport mouth guard for when he's boxing - he's sick of the bulky ones you buy in the stores.

advanced class

i really do like teaching at Organic Metal Gallery. there's something very satisfying about seeing a student set goals for themselves, work through their problems, and come out with a finished product. Megan was such a great student - she was excited, hardworking, and ready to take on difficult jobs.

she tried her hand at some cloisonne, making these two christmas ornaments in just one class. she purposely matched up the red of the one dove with the red in the heart of the other. so cute!

and then she worked on creating a hinged locket, which i find a very challenging project for someone who had only been experimenting with jewellery for such a short time. hinges are very difficult to make. all kinds of things can go wrong in the process of soldering them on. and soldering them on neatly is even harder. while these hinges are not perfect, the fact that they're on at all is more than admirable.

new lichen pieces

even though my schedule has been super crazy, i've still managed to squeeze in some studio time.

i just came back from a two day trip to the states, but i found myself so glad to come home. this made me think that i probably can't live anywhere else in the world - i'd get too homesick and keep trying to get back.

after locking myself up in my room for a while, i came up with these lichen inspired sketches that made me really excited to get into the studio. 

i only managed to do work on this one yesterday before i taught my advanced jewellery class at Organic Metal Gallery, but for the others ones i definitely plan to play with scale and colour. 

i like big jewellery...what can i say?

i'm still working on this piece - my day was far too long, and i was dying to get home. i couldn't keep my eyes open on the bus. that's when you know you're overworking yourself. for this one, i plan to add transitions of a lichen green enamel coming down from the top.

teaching my first workshop

it's been a long time coming, but i've finally taught my first enameling workshop at Organic Metal Gallery this past weekend. we meant to schedule this two months ago but had many scheduling conflicts so it kept getting pushed back.

we all had a good time and got to play around with some new colours Robin ordered for the class. here's Leisa working with Victoria Red, a colour we all fell in love with and reminded us of ketchup chips in its powdered form.

Jose decided to make a pendant for his 7 year old niece that he's going to sew together at home. i'm pretty sure she's going to love it :)

and for his second project he made a curved piece inspired by my purple petal pendant. he almost didn't get the yellow on, but with a little encouragement  he finished just in the nick of time. no one wants to go home with a half finished piece!

you can really only learn by doing, and my students learned many of the things that can go wrong in the process of enameling through their projects - things that i've also learned myself.

but what's not fun about your piece repeatedly falling off the trivet after you've painstakingly placed your dry enamel on it? for example :p

in the end it doesn't matter though, there's nothing like  the joy of seeing your piece come out of the kiln finished and beautiful.

i should be running more weekend workshops in the near future, but i'd also really like to do a 6 week class for anyone interested. that way there will be ample time to experiment and learn more techniques. i'll be sure to keep everyone posted on my news page when i have the dates finalized.

have a good day readers!

enameled stones

i had planned to do this myself in the summer: making enameled pieces look like stones and then set them into jewellery. i had formed all the metal pieces and then promptly lost them :S

one of Robin's clients needs a whole bunch of sky blue coloured enameled pieces to be set. these pieces will be the "stones."

mold making

this is my 200th post! in celebration, you can see how some items of jewellery can be reproduced.

this first kind of mold is a cold mold, and consists of pouring a certain liquid (i can't remember the brand Robin uses right now) around the object into a rectangular frame that is sealed off. after it sets for a day or so you can cut it open to reveal the piece again. this mold can be used on pieces that aren't metal since no heat is required. which means you can make molds of wax carvings and plastics, or organic materials such as twigs and leaves.

or you can do a silicone mold like this which is made up of sticky layers of a foam like material that is wedged into a rectangular frame and around the piece, and then sealed on both sides with aluminum plates. after being clamped together i baked it in an oven (used only for jewellery things!) so the layers melt into each other and form around the piece.

after cutting the mold apart very carefully with an extremely sharp scalpel, you can inject wax into the small opening (the area where the wire is sticking out) to get an exact replica of your piece in wax form as many times as you'd like. then voila! you can then use that wax to cast the copy into metal.

don't mind my disgusting fingers - this is how jewellers hands normally look until we leave the studio. gross right?

time passes

today's my birthday and i'm stuck at work all day. i've become very aware of time lately, (i guess it was because my birthday was looming) though i'm by no means considered old (i'm only 24 now!)

i kinda have a crazy schedule so it's been a little hard to get into the studio for long periods of time. i try to squeeze my studio time within 3-4 hour time periods over a couple days a week. i work best for longer periods of time rather than lots of short periods, but it's better than nothing anyway!

as you can see, my workspace is always a mess. though i do like my supplies to be very organized. 

i was doing some more lichen pieces this week alongside another commission. here are two stacked sheets of sterling silver which i tape together so i can saw out two layers at a time.

just thought i'd show it since i get a lot of surprised looks from people when they find out that our jewellery pieces often start out from sheet. it's kind of hard to imagine if you're not fully involved in the process.

and thankfully i'm able to squeeze in a small birthday lunch with my friend Nini today, at least i'm not too busy for that :)

have a great day readers!

setting lapis lazulis

it is SO cold in Toronto. who knew i'd have to wear two pairs of pants and two pairs of socks just so i wouldn't freeze to death? argh.

anyway, i was working on setting these lapis lazuli stones for Robin recently and as per usual, i had to do it slightly differently than i had been taught. at OCAD we had this gooey stuff called protoplast that let us keep tiny things securely in place, but at the gallery i had to use this pin vice to hold the earrings semi securely while i set them with a stone pusher.

 

i really don't like setting stones, it just may be one of the things i like least about jewellery. it takes a lot of patience and they can easily look pretty crappy, and there is always the possibility of you scratching or cracking the stone.

however, i ironically own a TON of stones that i keep telling myself that i'll set someday.

let's see how that goes. 

chainmail

i spent a couple of days working on chainmail bracelets with our intern at Organic Metal Gallery. this requires sawing coiled wire to make hundreds of little jump rings, stringing a line of them onto a clothesline like contraption, and then linking the next rows all together with pliers to get this pattern.

it feels so good to see each row finished as i work.

i think i want to do some more elaborate chainmail type bracelets for myself in the future. i'll try to get on that...

cuff links

we have these cement rings that are really popular for men at the gallery (here shown in its pink wax form). after being cast, the grooves are filled with cement and then polished as usual. Robin uses this same ring to create matching cuff links.

i've never made cuff links before. i don't normally design for men (though i have made quite a few chunky rings for commissions), and it's hard enough as it is to come up with a line for women. so this was a new experience. these are the cuff links on the brick right before being soldered.

these ones are still not fully cleaned up. but after i saw them i thought they didn't really need the cement. i guess Robin thought so too, because the next time i was in the store i saw them in the case in this form.

clean up

when i say i have to clean up a piece this is partly what i mean. the cufflink bit on the right is still rough from abrasive grinding tools and the one on the left happens is what happens in the later stages after i use my flex shaft (a type of rotating tool) with increasingly finer sandpaper on the piece. after this stage there are stages of polishing as well.

i'd say clean up is at least half the battle for each piece. designing and soldering would be first half. it's worse when you have to do clean up all by hand for the hard to reach places. when the clean up is uneven it's really noticeable in the finish (and slowly drives you insane).

so many leaves

i've worked on a lot of these since i started working at Organic Metal Gallery. My boss, Robin Gray, was commissioned to create these pins, as well as many other pieces for a huge fundraiser. these ones are in various stages of completion and were designed by Nancy Meek.

there are so many steps until they get to this point - injecting wax into molds, getting them ready to be cast, casting them, cleaning them, soldering the pin backs, cleaning them again and then finally polishing them. eventually they'll all be done...eventually.

the handmade

someone came into the gallery the other day looking for an anniversary present for his girlfriend. she just started taking an intro jewellery class with us and was falling in love with the process and possibilities.
while we were talking about the necklace he decided on we had a really nice conversation about handmade goods.

sometimes it's hard to find people who appreciate the time and effort that goes into handmade work.

it made me really happy to see how he valued the extra care and passion that is fused into one of a kind items, and to hear how he felt the world needed more makers like us in it.

so this is my thanks to him for making my day a little brighter.

a new home

i'm excited to share the fact that i now sell my jewellery at Organic Metal Gallery beside Robin Gray, Cynthia Gabay, and Carmen Tam. yay!

come on by and check it out!

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 new space

since my education at OCAD has been over since April i've been pretty worried about where i would continue doing my jewellery outside of school. i own a lot of equipment but i don't have a torch to do any soldering.

i knew if i didn't find a studio my work would definitely suffer. i shopped around a bit but i have a complicated work schedule that was ill suited to some of the studios. good fortune came to me when i was referred to work at Organic Metal Gallery with the lovely Robin Gray. 

now i have the opportunity to work with customers and make jewellery in a very well equipped space.

i am ecstatic. 

yesterday was my first day working at my very own bench. get ready to see some new work from me :)