a ring in steps

I've always been interested in seeing process work. In my final year at OCAD University we had to document all stages of our work, and I've been doing so for the past three years. 

Most people don't know how jewellery is made. They're visibly shocked when they find out that their rings can start off as small grains or flat sheets of metal - that it is by our hands that they come to be.

If you're interested in a ring like this, they're all one of a kind and you can find them at my etsy shop here.

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 :)

presents

hi readers! i hope everyone is having a great holiday season. i've been off school for a little over a week now, but i feel like i've only just recuperated from such a crazy month full of assignments and exams.  

being in a hands on program is always tricky. you never really know when to stop working on projects and to start studying. in my head i always feel as if i can work on a project just a little bit more - make it a little more polished, a little more smooth. you start to learn when it's time to stop.

the worst thing is messing up something right at the end because you were impatient, rushed, or tired.

patience is a skill.

when setting stones into jewellery, you have to be careful. one slip of your tool and the stone can be damaged beyond repair. it can be a stressful, slow process. one that i want to love more someday.

i have so many stones that don't have a home in a jewellery piece. i better remedy that before i even think about buying new stones. the coral and turquoise ones became scarf pins that i gave to my mother in law, and the black obsidian earrings  to my cousin who only wears studs because she's a dancer (ignore the polishing compound on the studs, this was before i steamed them clean).

it's the end of the year, and time goes by so quickly. i hope that we can all find the time to relax and enjoy the simple things  in life.

lichen rings

as promised, i've made some new sterling silver rings. these are two that i was working on for the Queen West Art Crawl. each one is unique, because i really enjoy the hand drawing process. i'd say they're really more one of a kind because i don't have access to a scanner in the studio, so i basically draw them, glue it to the silver, and saw it out with the original drawing lost in the process.

this was right after soldering and before polishing. and for some reason i decided to paint my nails that week, which was foolish - the polish doesn't last an hour in the studio with all the filing, sanding, sawing, and polishing going on. at OCAD we used to dream about manicures...and never have the time to get them.

i sold one of the thinner rings to the mother of one of the artists in my row of exhibitors. she was so sweet. she tried it on and fell in love with it right away.

it's always great to see the reaction of the people who buy my jewellery, it's something you miss when you just get an invoice saying you sold something at one of the shops that carry your work.

i think i'll make a few more of these to put in The Devil's Workshop soon. i also really want to update my etsy shop. hopefully i'll find the time in between everything i'm juggling at the moment. 

balance

hi friends.

i apologize. once again i've been on a slightly long hiatus from the blogging world. as of now, my schedule is one of the craziest ones i've ever had. i'm trying not to let myself get too overwhelmed!

there are some things that i feel need to be part of my life and when they are missing, i feel all off kilter. i've written about this before - this need for balance, and when i have it, it keeps me going through the long days and weeks and months. it helps me when i'm tired, or frustrated, or just plain overworked.  

so when i'm not updating as much, it's because i'm striving for that balance. 

if you're familiar with my work, you'll know that i don't do too many highly polished pieces. i hate seeing scratches on jewellery, my eye never misses them. and if you're not careful, it's easy to damage the finish on a piece. but i forced myself to create a bunch of sterling silver jewellery that was high polished, and while my fingers have definitely become more callused, i like how they came out. i've been trying out some new polishing compounds with my new polishing buffs and they are doing wonders.

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.

fused

i like to combine antiqued colouring and the technique of fusing when working with sterling silver - like in these earrings. it leaves an interesting texture, has contrast, and is not prone to everyday damage like highly polished silver pieces usually are. this is also why i like enameling. i can be a perfectionist at times, and seeing a little scratch on a piece after a little wear can drive me nuts.

i've been in the studio the past couple days. if you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that i don't use a lot of stones in my work. i've been trying to remedy that. my fingers hurt from trying to file and sand the silver around such tiny things.

coiled within

"maybe great books were 

coiled within him like springs." 

  - extremely loud and incredibly close

i continue to think about this book - because it is so eloquent, so thoughtful, and so relevant to my life at this point in time. i tend to fixate on certain ideas and i surround myself with things that remind me of them - songs, movies, novels, phrases, people - sometimes i don't want to let things go.

i like to reflect, to reminisce, to analyze things that have come to pass. everything i ever take note of, anything that you can find in my sketchbook, written or drawn, is something that has a pull to me.

recently i was asked if i ever get that itch to create. i think i answered before he finished asking me. i do. i get it all the time. and it's why, even when things are discouraging at best, that i can't bring myself to even imagine a world where i am not a maker in some way.

the quote at the beginning of this post initially reminded me very much of someone i know - but now it also reminds me of anyone who has something creative in them that is aching to be released.

if you're one of those people, i encourage you to react to that itch. the world is waiting to see the results.

a bear tooth pendant

i got a little commission from Raylyn last week to turn a bear tooth into a pendant for her friend. for some reason, i had it in my head that stone setting was one of the most tedious tasks on the planet - and because of that, i never design jewellery with stones in mind. this is such a waste though since i bought a ton of stones while i was still a student at OCAD, and i'm sure i had grandiose plans for each one of them.

the thing with stone setting (tooth, in this case) is that the bezel (the silver strip that hugs the stone) needs to fit snugly around the piece. if you measured wrong somehow or stretched it too much, you have to cut it open and solder it again. if you overstretch it, the seam can break. it has to fit just right. 

 

another issue is that you're pushing the bezel in around the stone with a steel tool that can easily scratch the surface if your hand slips. if a stone is a couple hundred dollars, or one of a kind, this can be quite a stressful task. thankfully this piece worked out very smoothly - i'm now encouraged to do more stone setting.

i forgot my camera for the next parts of the process, but i basically just soldered the bezel to sterling silver sheet, added a bale to string the cord through and then polished it up.

i hope he likes it!

fear of empty spaces

just showing you all some new lichen pins i was working on recently based on some hand doodles done in my sketchbook.

right now i'm very interested in the idea of space - particularly negative space and empty space. these may seem like the same thing, but they're not to me.

i learned some new terms today: horror vacui, which is Latin for fear of empty spaces, and cenophobia which is fear of the empty - who would've thought there were terms for that? but they're interesting concepts, ones that i definitely want to delve deeper into.

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!

what's in my bag

it's kind of interesting to see what people carry around in their bags. these are basically my essentials, and it was obviously a rainy day when i took this picture. i don't go anywhere now without my e-reader and iPod, but i never leave home without a water bottle - i get dehydrated so easily, and have been known to faint in the past (:s) i also randomly have a spoon and a piece of silver i was working on in the studio. 

a sketchbook is another thing i always have on me, i hate losing an idea because i didn't have anything to write it down in. i love the one i'm working in currently, i'll be sad when i'm done with my set of them. the AGO was getting rid of them and selling them for a dollar last summer! the cover is made from a thin layer of cork, and everyone who sees me with it wants to steal it from me. my husband already stole one :|

oh i forgot to include my phone...but i guess that's because i was talking on it while taking this photo.

the one ring

i just came back from lunch with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday that just passed. happy birthday dad! 

i always like to make things for those i love. but for some reason my dad and my brother always ask for the plainest, most simplest things. like plain band rings. like this one. some are polished, some are matte, some are textured, but they're all plain. guys can have such little imagination sometimes :p 

extending a chain part two

this post is a continuation from a few posts back. after i got the mold and wax injections for Wayne's bracelets made, i sent the wax pieces to the casting house. this is what they looked like once i got them back. 

and then after i cleaned them up. 

cutting through the sterling silver was waaay easier than cutting through the stainless steel of the originals. they were also much easier to open - i didn't have to hurt myself trying to hammer the links apart just to slide them into each other.

i did manage to hurt myself though - it was stupid really. we're taught in school to never ever, ever, try to polish chain on a polishing machine, because it will always get caught. we polish our jewellery with rotating buffs in a machine similar to a grinding machine. i don't know how fast it moves, but it's faster than your eyes can follow. 

since Wayne's bracelet was made of such large links i didn't even consider it to be a chain really. so i was almost done polishing the first bracelet, and i decided to be silly and close the catch, and then polish that too. but the little button on the catch got caught in the machine and pulled the bracelet forward, whipping it around with the wheel and back into my fingers at lightning speed :( it makes me cringe just thinking about it.

 

the impact with the machine made an awful noise that alarmed my studio mate. i then turned off the machine to find that some of my fingers were  numb-ish, swollen, and slightly bloody. i also later developed some nasty looking blood bruises. while this was great in itself, i also had the pleasure of having every jeweller friend i told lecture me on polishing safety :p

anyways...

my fingers are looking much better now and Wayne was uber happy with his bracelets. can you tell which links are sterling silver?

symmetry

lately i've been in the mood to create very symmetrical and radial work. in general, i don't like my work to be too symmetrical, so when i do have symmetrical components i tend to  organize them asymmetrically or have them in varying sizes like in this piece. 

i had some fun with these forms by doing some metal forming and folding. it was an experiment to see how far the copper was willing to bend without awkwardly warping. it was also an experiment in how to make things without the fairly well equipped OCAD jewellery studio. (i miss having seemingly limitless amounts of tools at my disposal).

here's one of the pieces for now. i still love the combination of oriental red and black - they contrast each other so well.

all i ever think about is this

this was the piece i was working on before my kiln decided to self destruct for a while.

do you guys sense a lichen theme? i can't get away from it for the time being. it keeps becoming relevant to me for varying reasons whenever i'm in the mood to make a new piece. you'll see more again soon but in different forms of course.

this one is called all i ever think about is this and it's made from enameled copper on sterling silver chain.

here's a picture of the pieces in process in case you've forgotten. it's crazy how enamel can change the look of metal so much.

scarf pin

i was commissioned by Maha to make a pin to wear with her head scarves a little while back. normally she just uses head pins but she wanted something more unique, dangly, and colourful. her Egyptian background makes her very partial to lapis lazuli's so we picked one out of my collection of stones and after looking at some sample images i started to get to work.

it was hard for me to pick out the chain for some reason - out of spools and spools of chain, only this one looked right. it was the only one that wasn't too large but also had enough of an opening in each link that i could fit jump rings to hang the tear drop charms from.

she was really happy with it and already got a ton of compliments :)

now i want one for myself!

Toronto Craft Alert feature

Toronto Craft Alert is up and running again from their long hiatus and i was pleasantly surprised to see that sweetie pie press featured my Lichen Inspired Necklace on their front page yesterday. it's always exciting to see my work somewhere else in the world than on this blog.

did all you torontonians enjoy your snowday?

i spent mine with a nice hot chocolate and taking photos of some new work.

stay warm everyone!

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!