SlickSilver Jewellery - The Return!

Well hello all - I'm back from my travels yet again!

We had a wonderful week in London, housesitting for friends in West Hampstead and getting out each day to visit galleries and exhibitions and new places.  My husband, artist and composer David Muddyman, spent most of his life living in the capital, indeed until 5 years ago when he moved to Plymouth and met me, so he truly knows his way around.

As we both love contemporary art, we're perfectly happy to wander around looking at new work and great jewellery and we both found things to inspire us especially in Tate Modern and Electrum Gallery, such exquisite innovative jewellery.  One moment that was really lovely was going into Studio Fusion Gallery in Oxo Towers http://www.studiofusiongallery.co.uk, where we met Louise O'Neill. She took time to tell us about all of the artists involved in Studio Fusion and even showed me her kiln - in all, a really nice lady to have met.

Last monday saw us visiting Brighton (a first for me) which was great but very wet.  It literally poured with rain so we dashed into a shop, bought 2 umbrellas and came back out to glorious sunshine and blue sky and no more rain - oh well!

Since I came back I've been producing new sheets of aluminium pattern ready for cutting.  Very soon you will be able to buy Cherry Blossom and Coral Reef from my website.

Coral Reef

Cherry Blossom

I plan to turn these two gorgeous sheets into a limited number of cuffs, pendants and earrings and perhaps a necklace. The sheets are approximately 10 x 7 inches.

I'm always inspired by nature and I've also been making moulds this week of tree bark, woodgrain, lavarock and all sorts of things in anticipation of my kiln arriving.......one day my kiln will come..........

Ok folks off to wait for the kiln delivery man! I think he may be walking......

Jewellery as Art

Well, last week I blogged about Amazon's new Universal Wishlist Button which allows people to add goods from anyone's website to their Amazon wishlist and the possible consequences for people like myself who sell one-off items.  I have tried to contact Amazon to ask if we can choose to opt out of this system, but haven't had a response as yet.  The editor of UK Handmade is also looking into this on our behalf and I will keep you posted.

Those of you who read my last collaborative blog with Carolyn Saxby will recall her gorgeous beads and I'm thrilled to say that I received a package of the golden pink beads and I shall enjoy making myself something stunning with those - thank you Carolyn!

So, following a suggestion this week on Twitter from ShellyBobbins I thought I would look jewellery as art.  I have always sought to introduce colour into my work and in the early days I did that with patinas of various kinds, and now I feel that I can really explore my painterly side using anodised aluminium and inks and dyes.  I'm often inspired by a photograph, but more commonly, a close up texture or a flash of colour will be enough to give me an idea.  I also find inspiration in pottery and textiles.  When I colour and dye a sheet of aluminium it looks like a painting before it is cut up.  I belong a small group of artists who like to push their boundaries and at a recent meeting we decided to work towards a theme for this year.  This has caused me to think about how I can portray my jewellery as art and so I've cut up a sheet of dyed aluminium and suspended it in slices within a frame to make a free standing sculptural exhibit which the viewer will be able to run their fingers through should we get an exhibition!

I also subscribe to Craft & Design magazine http://www.craftanddesign.net/ and you will be able to see a sample of my work in the Makers Gallery in the next issue!

In other news, my jewellery can now also be found at www.love-local.com which launched yesterday and I wish them loads of good luck!

 This aluminium collection is subtely textured and was dyed first in turquoise and then over-dyed in a beautiful deep blue and these three items are the only ones I produced in this pattern.  I think that they would look stunning with a party outfit.

Oh well, I'm off to find another stunning blog collaborator!  See you next week!