Excellent Service!

Hi everyone!

I'm sitting huddled on my sofa and I really think that autumn has arrived.  On my walk into town this morning I went through the park and noticed how much the leaves are turning on the trees and I don't feel like I've had summer yet! I'm sure that I can remember endless hot days during my summer holidays as a child!

So we've all said a sad goodbye to the Olympics and the Paralympics and I thought it was all fabulous. Lots of memories will stay with me from both games and there were plenty of inspirational moments and I certainly got through a lot of tissues during medal ceremonies.

Over the last month or so I've taken on two new stockists - Boo Gallery in Northamptonshire and Workshop 22 in Bristol and today I had to send more cuffs up to Boo as they'd sold out! Brilliant!

On another positive note, yesterday I heard about a really excellent service and I thought I would pass the information on to you all.  I hand pierce all of my aluminium shapes for necklaces etc, but if I'm using a repeating shape, I tend to use jewellery templates/stencils for uniformity.  I bought a new template last week and it arrived pretty quickly with a CD catalogue of all of the company's stencils.  I looked through the vast array with relish, but the shape I'd had in mind for a while wasn't available.  I contacted the company to ask if they'd ever had anything like my requested shape.  I was amazed to receive an email back saying that if I could send them a drawing they would make me the template I wanted for the standard price and in fact they would be happy to make one-off stencils any time for me.  How amazing a service is that??? So, here you go folks, check them out for yourselves!
http://www.technical-drawing.co.uk

So, what have I been making? Lots of lovely new things! Last week I finished working on the Cherry Blossom Petals Necklace below.  It's a really lovely lightweight piece of jewellery which has a soft tinkling sound when run through the fingers and is extremely comfortable to wear. Do you like it?  If you'd like to look at any of my other jewellery take a look at my website http://www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

Cherry Blossom Petals Necklace

After the anodised aluminium is dyed each individual petal is pierced out with a piercing saw, the edges filed and polished and then each piece is textured with a rolling mill, drilled and then assembled.

All in all - sore fingers!!

Cherry Blossom Slim Cuff


 

I also made a slim cuff to go with this necklace and I'm pretty pleased with the end result!

















I've also made quite a lot more this week but we'll leave that till next week.

Just to let you know, I working on another blog collaboration at the moment, which I really hope will come to fruition as it would feature a very talented young lady who practices an old craft that is not seen as often as it should be these days, so let's hope she agrees!

Ok folks, that's all for this week.  See you all soon! xxxxx

Colour and Texture Collaboration

As an admirer of the work of many others I thought it would be a good idea to show you that of an artist I particularly like and whose work I feel has a synergy with my own and I really hope to make this a regular feature of my blog.

I recently did a mini interview with Mhairi Wild, designer of utterly beautiful knitted and felted accessories. I asked her the following and would like to thank her for taking part:-

Where do you get the inspiration for your designs?
The Scottish coastal communities that I have visited and researched form the basis for much of my inspiration.  The colour, texture and narrative all play a part.  A constant companion on these trips is the work of poet Thomas A Clark, more specifically, ‘Distance and Proximity’.  The visual patterning and imagery of the written word throws up inspiration in equal measure, and is a core part of my work.  So far the Island communities of Easdale, Seil, Mull, Iona, Harris and Lewis, are among the list of inspirational settings and more recently, Cromarty, Auchmithie, and Crovie on the East coast of the Scottish mainland.

Is there a craft medium that you've always had a hankering to try?
I’ve always fancied trying my hand at ceramics.  I’ve dabbled a bit in the past, but would like to develop my skills to perhaps incorporate ceramics and textiles in some way.

If you could see one famous person wearing your designs, who would it be?
Without hesitation, I’d say Tilda Swinton.  I’m a great admirer of her cinematic and community work.  She is well known for supporting the Arts, across the board.  I think she would like the flexibility of my ‘gather’ scarves as they work well as a statement piece and are just as happy worn with a big jacket and wellies.

Where can fans buy your work?
My work is available online from Papa Stour, and baffie.  My biggest retailer is Concrete Wardrobe, Broughton Street, Edinburgh, where I am launching a new extended range with homewares, and new gathers on 1^st August.  Sheila Fleet Gallery in Kirkwall is my Orkney retailer, with The Tayberry Gallery holding my work, a bit closer to home.  I’m diversifying into luxury handpainted yarns, inspired by the islands, and am working on a new woven textiles collection for Winter 2012-13.

These stunning designs from Mhairi caught my eye for the rich colour and texture and three dimensional quality she manages to achieve.  They are statement pieces.  The skinny scarf is part of her very latest collection. Please do make sure that you visit her website and either treat your self or make sure that everyone around you knows what's on your Christmas list!  You can find Mhairi
 Wild at www.mhairiwild.co.uk

The View From The Tate

Colour and texture have long been my inspiration and my anodised aluminium jewellery lets me fully explore that and you will see from the images below that I was naturally drawn to Mhairi's work as it similar in concept to my own whilst being in a completely different medium. It would be wonderful to think that some day both of our designs will be worn together.

Sandstorm In The Desert

As you can see, we have often used similar colours in our work and I particularly love to introduce a texture which I achieve by using layers of powdered pigments, alcohol inks, aluminium inks and aluminium dyes.

For further information see www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk