For The Love Of Lumps: Process, Part 1

Last month, a friend asked if I wouldn't mind making a piece of comic-or-literary-themed jewellery for a deserving and worthy auction which she was kicking off for her birthday celebration. I was delighted, and thus was born what I've nicknamed 'Project Lumps'.

The first hurdle was deciding what theme to pick for the piece. Both Tarlia and I devour books with the voracity of bottomless guppies, but now we needed to find a book both of us had read before, and that proved slightly more difficult. When she suggested a comic strip instead, I promptly told her 'Two Lumps!' and her resultant 'Uh oh...I'm almost afraid to see what sort of jewellery comes out that...' sealed the project's fate.

Besides, it was fitting. Both of us love cats, and Two Lumps is about a pair of incorrigible, extremely funny felines. It's worth a look, certainly, if you're into wicked, sometimes scatalogical, dark and sometimes slapstick humour.

I decided to make a necklace. I also wanted it to be at least partially made out of recycled materials, and I had clear CDs in abundance. I'd managed to get hold of some Eco-felt made out of recycled plastic bottles as well, so that was all good.

Now all I had to do was get started.

Step 1: The Lump Shapes



First thing I did was sketch two rough shapes of the cats and transfer them to one of the CDs. Then I taped both CDs down and started sawing for dear life. My room still looks like a drug lab gone wrong, with all the white powder flying everywhere. I've also got several notches in my wooden desk where the saw slipped, which is probably why they ask you to set up a proper workshop for these sorts of things, but I've only got a room so that's going to have to do for now. Besides, it'll ensure no one will ever want to steal that desk later down the road, if by some freak chance some idiot thief meandered in and decided to make off with everything in the house.




Next came the second most tedious part of the process - filing and sanding down the shapes (the most tedious part is the sawing. Or maybe that's because I'm not very good with handling one of those yet.)

When I got done with that, I sprayed two of the shapes with semi-gloss polyurethane, resulting in this (the two blurred shapes are the sprayed ones):




Step 2: Birdbirdbirdbirdbird

One of the iconic strips in Two Lumps is this one, featuring a bird. I wanted to have the bird in the necklace too, so I cut up a few felt shapes, and sewed the sucker together.




So, now I had the Lumps, the Bird, the strip I wanted to use printed out, and the design wall done.



I've been trying to keep a design journal with inspirations and collages in it, having been inspired by several artists like Deryn Mentock and Teesha Moore. I collaged several quintessential Two Lumps strips together and made some design notations so I at least know what I'm doing and won't hare off into territory that I can't find my way out of later on (it's been known to happen. Wires are forgiving, acrylic, hell no.)








Step 3: Putting the Lumps Together

I wanted to make an acrylic 'sandwich' of a Lump quotation in between two shapes, so I got out the Mod Podge and started the scary process of gluing everything together. Normally this isn't so much of a problem, but Mod Podge is evil stuff to work with and get smooth (or I don't know how to use it properly still). Either way, I ran into trouble at the get go, and had to resort to clever camouflage to make it look a whole less obvious that I'd been happily gluing things to my heart's content.



I'm still not entirely sure it worked. At any rate, it was time for the next part of things...



...No, these aren't just pretty books, they're what I'm sandwiching the shapes in, so everything will (hopefully) glue together right. The French Laundry Cookbook is a loan from a friend who also happens to be a wonderful cook -and- cellist, how cool is that? Falling Cloudberries is mine, and it's a lovely, lovely book with gorgeous pictures and even more gorgeous recipes. I've made some of them and I can vouch for the deliciousness.

Tomorrow, after everything dries, I'll get around to drilling holes, figuring out how to make the Muffin Love n' Lemon tags that I want on the necklace, and generally attempting to put things together without going to pieces in more ways than one.

Stay tuned!

Worth vs. Value and a Can of Alien Worms

'You made those earrings yourself? Do you know so-and-so? She does jewellery too, I had her fix some stuff for me, and she made this piece for me, see!'

After the above brief exchange with a well-meaning friend, it took me a moment to get over the sharp twinge of annoyance, and then I went home wondering why I was so annoyed. After some serious thinking and taking the entire conversation apart, I've realised something quite simple:

I do not want to live my life by everyone else’s comparisons.

As a person who’s almost fanatical about keeping a distinct amount of privacy between myself and the outside world, this can sometimes be difficult. More so as a developing artist struggling to even be comfortable calling myself ‘artist’, and painfully aware of every shortcoming and screw up in my work.

As an emerging jewellery-maker and crafter, this issue of ‘comparisons’ is the biggest bugbear of my existence.

After all, it’s about finding a voice and the right path – the little byway explored that produces a sudden ‘click’ in the head, like gears interlocking at last and you know somehow, against all instincts sometimes, that you’ve got to follow like Alice down the rabbit hole, or forever wonder.

I suppose everyone starts off trying to find their particular niche – comfort zone – call it whatever you like, but that particular state of being where there’s a solid centre that feels right – by learning from other people’s work. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it’s also a very good teacher. You learn technique and you learn elements of design (if you’re wise and lucky, you might have gotten a good grounding in all this already in art school or something similar). You learn that no, you don’t open jump rings with your fingers. You find out that you can’t stand weaving 4-in-1 chainmaille because it doesn’t click even after 72 hours of working on one measly length of bracelet, but Byzantine is a breeze.

You also figure out that what works for everyone else might not work for you. Or rather, it’s a gradual process – wrap, twist, weave, knot and curse till your fingers turn raw, and then one day, all frustrations come to a head when you realise you’ll never come up with anything original that has to do with wires, knots, or weaving, and you might as well just give up while you’re behind.

So you turn to hammering things flat. And realise, guiltily, it’s so much more instant gratification. It feels comfortable. Ahhh, but is that really –art- or is it just a cop-out? the brain whispers maliciously, it’s obviously not as intricate as –real- wirework, the knots and wraps and so on. Come on admit it, you’re a second-rate charlatan, you just can’t stick the hard work.

Who wants to admit to being second-rate? You redouble your efforts and keep on trying to weave, trying to work the damned wire into proper shapes that go flawlessly when –other- people attempt it, but when you do, they mysteriously graduate into tangled chunks of unhappy matter that even birds wouldn’t nest in. It’s either you’re a) slow b) stupid or c) just don’t have the knack, and of the three alternatives, c) is the scariest of the lot. Because, you see, it’s so easy for –everyone else-, something –must- be wrong with you since you can’t do it.

‘Why isn’t your work symmetrical?’ A friend laments, albeit half in jest one day. It takes me ten minutes to fully formulate a reply, and weeks after to brood on it to come up with what finally feels right as an answer. My personal answer anyway.

Symmetry is –boring-. At least, for me, it is. Now, there’s definitely a time and place for it, like the Venetian necklace I struggled with for two weeks, and creating two similar pieces for a pair of earrings can occasionally be the most harrowing thing on earth. It requires a great deal of skill, but to me, it’s still boring. I can do symmetry in my sleep.

Asymmetry however, that requires some serious thinking to balance out two halves of a whole, or three, for that matter. It challenges me. It makes me go, ‘…uh, no, that idea won’t work, the thing looks schizophrenic.’ Or, ‘Hey! That fits…why I don’t know but it fits and nothing else will do.’ It forces me to step out of my comfort zone and go out on a limb.

(My old studio art teacher would be thrilled. He told me once that I was ‘too safe’, that I kept myself to such a tight symmetry that I was restricting myself. It took me a while to get over the bad grades and the angry hurt at my work being judged like that, but he was right – even though I still think there might have been a better way to break it to a tense, pugnacious 18 year old who was trying so, so hard it was almost brittle.)

Along the way, I’ve discovered also I like clean lines and simple designs – a friend calls it an ‘industrial edge’. It only looks simple, I've found. You can’t cover anything up with an overlay of wirework. It either is, or it isn’t, and sanding down a circle for an hour over is not my favourite past time (or anyone’s that I know, really). But it’s got to be done, or it won’t be obsessively, plainly, uncompromisingly –round-. It just won’t look as good. There’s a lot of love put into that one, stupid, easy little circle in Modern Sunset. To everyone else however, it’s just a circle.

This is where the whole issue of ‘worth’ vs ‘value’ comes marching in. Intriciate has always been prized above the plain and simple. There’s nothing wrong with this. By and large, it’s merited since intricacy involves an amount of labour and skill that should be compensated accordingly. However, I find myself struggling with the mentality that intricate = mad skillz and simple = so easy it’s not worth paying for.

Case in point: I sawed several shapes out of old CDs to prepare for a big project. Not intricate, no. Labour-intensive? Hell yes. Skill? Absolutely, it took several tries and one ruined CD to make the curves easier to negotiate so I didn’t snap the sawblade. Simple? Well. The shape was. The process –leading- up to the simple shape looking as simple as it finally did involved an excrutiating amount of labour, skill and finesse. Try filing down a shape with needle files and sandpaper for an hour to get it perfect, drill a hole only to have the thing crack, re-cut and re-sand the whole damned thing again, then come tell me it’s ‘easy’.

So. What all this boils down to is this: I make jewellery, yes. It doesn't mean that just because I stick with stark and simple, I'm far less capable or that my work is worth far less than anyone else's gorgeous piece of wire-wrapping or silver-smithing. It doesn't mean that my work has to look like everyone else's, and it definitely doesn't mean that my artistic vision is similar to anyone else.

Well. Technically, in an ideal world, yes.

But in the meantime I'm still trying to work out where I fall in the grand spectrum of things. Because, given the society in which I live in, the company that sometimes comes around me and the perceptions of several millenia, I'm still never going to be considered Good Enough to be in the company of artists who do Actual Skilled Work.

I keep -telling- myself that I'm an artist. Now I just need a mental rework and several layers of thick skin to remember that I can't - and shouldn't - live by anyone else's comparisons.

Much less my own.

Recycled Experiments

I've been quiet lately, partly due to real life being rather busy and partly due to some stuff I've been wrestling with. Mostly the question of value - in this society, anything fancy and intricate is almost immediately viewed as more valuable than stark, simple lines and plain design. As my designs tend towards clean lines and simple aesthetics, I'm still sorting things out; that's another post in itself though.

In the meantime, I have, thanks to my wonderful father, obtained two saws - one with really fine blades for cutting plastic, and another ordinary one for metal. I've been experimenting with the fine blades on the clear CDs one finds as placeholders, since I'm trying to make at least a portion of my work from recycled materials of a sort.

The results are as follows:


Recycled Pendant: Black Sharpie, red permanent ink, recycled CD hand-cut into shape, recycled paper.



Modern Sunset: Recycled CD hand-cut into shapes, permanent ink, rhodium-plated chain.




For the recycled pendant, the pattern marks were made at the back of the shape by scraping needle files in various wave-like patterns. The inks take better that way, I've found, since the surface is rougher. The black Sharpie was smeared over the patterns before it dried out completely. I backed the entire thing with some paper leftover from a project, which had some blue ink printing on it, just so it would have more colour and allow the patterns to be more visible.

Modern Sunset was basically just cut and sanded into shape, using coarse sandpaper to make random marks on the underside. Then I hand-tinted the lot with permanent ink. It's a fairly simple design but quite labour intensive, due to sawing, sanding, drying times for inks and matte spray, and also for the Mod Podge I used to glue everything together.

All this is basically in preparation for a Bigger Project that I've been working on for a good friend. I think they turned out all right, as practice pieces go.

As to what artistic merit they have in comparison with more intricate wireweaving and wirework...I don't know. I'm still working it out, though I suspect that many people where I live now would go, 'Not worth charging for.'

Talisman: Warding Earrings

Some time ago, in an attempt to get out of my creative slump, I played around with my stash of annealed steel wire and some lovely blue-grey top-drilled pearls. This resulted in two lovely little pearl-wrapped links that I had no idea what to do with. I put them away, hoping that I hadn't wasted my time and that they'd come in handy some day.

Recently, a dear friend of mine - the Other Half of what's been fondly dubbed the Disaster Duo (me being the Next Half) - requested a pair of earrings with the words Be and Gone. There's a very amusing story behind that which isn't appropriate to tell here, but suffice to say we promptly christened them the Talisman Earrings of Warding.

Lo and behold! After trying to figure out materials to use to complement the black lacquered shell discs and the grunged-up type, I pulled out the pearl-wrapped links and they were absolutely perfect!

Sherri dear, I proudly present the Earrings of Warding and I hope you like them as much as I loved making them! They measure slightly over 2.5" from earhook to dangle.


Talisman: Warding Earrings: 24ga and 19ga annealed steel wire, top-drilled pearls, lacquered shell discs, paper, acrylic paints, mixed metal findings.



Trying to photograph these little beauties was a challenge. I have no idea why...




Who'dathunk steel wire and pearls would actually go together so well. It's something to keep in mind for future projects!

Sanctuary, Sanctuary

Sounded like an angel singing somewhere
Sounded like an angel singing
'Sanctuary, sanctuary...let me be your
Sanctuary, sanctuary...
When you cannot find the light
Of your own shining star
I will help you to remember
Who you truly are...'

--'Sanctuary', Joshua Kadison

Listening to Joshua Kadison's 'Venice Beach Sessions' in a somewhat contemplative mood after a few weeks of creative block resulted in this piece, inspired by his beautiful song 'Sanctuary'. That and I'd wanted to try the very interesting wrapped pod pendant I'd seen on Deryn Mentock's challenge piece - I don't have the book but I thought it might be worth a try, and it was!


Sanctuary: 18ga and 22ga copper wire, 20ga silver-plated wire, felt, glass and acrylic seed beads, vintage faux bronze pearls, vintage gold beads, foil glass twist beads, brass bead caps, gauze ribbon, bugle beads, Swarovski black pearls, mixed metal findings, Czech fire polish crystals, faux green pearl, vintage crystal chaton montee.



I wrapped the pod out of felt after a few trial and errors, filled it with some beautiful green Czech fire polish crystals, a faux pearl and a spacer. It came together very nicely after some skirmish with the wire, and I added a sprinkling of red seed beads for colour. It reminded me of being wrapped up and safe. I added a crystal dangle to see if it would look better, and I think it did.



I chose a rather earthy palette for the beads - somehow, Sanctuary brought up images of peaceful oceans and sky, so I used colours that I thought might reflect that. I sprinkled it through with a few vintage golden seed beads too, like sunlight.



For some contrast to the strung beads and to soften the necklace profile somewhat, I added a length of ruched gauze ribbon gathered with a series of seed beads. Couldn't resist putting in a tiny little vintage chaton montee dangle at the edge of the connector, just for colour!

I might add a little tag with 'Sanctuary' on it, but I'll wait for my font printouts tonight before I do that. All in all, I'm pleased with this! I do need to find a model to wear it so I can photograph it on a stand...hmmm, I need to start looking around for a mannequin at this rate unless I can find some other creative ideas to photograph necklaces.

Addendum:
...And I wound up photographing myself wearing Sanctuary, just to give an idea of how it falls. Not the greatest shot in the world, but it will do for now. The entire necklace measures approximately 16.5" from top to dangle.

The Talisman: Hope Earrings Properly

"Meh," she said tiredly. Shoulders slumped, arms curled around her drawn-up knees, she was the perfect dictionary definition of 'dejected' and 'discouraged'.

He touched her shoulder lightly as he settled down to sit beside her. "It'll pass. Trust me. Might take a little time, but you'll get through this. You're tough. And I'm here for you, whenever you need me."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "Promise?"

He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "Promise."


Talisman: Hope Earrings: 20ga and 28ga artistic wire, stainless steel balled headpins, antique blue glass seed beads, Miyuki teardrop beads, lacquered paper on shell. RM40




The Talisman: Hope earrings grew out of a period of extreme creative dryness; it was a Marc Cohn song called 'Thunderbird' that set the mental images running and resulted in my first attempt at making word/text charms.




The colour scheme was an important part of the project: silver artistic wire for the proverbial silver lining of every cloud, blue for the lovely blue of the sky that reminds one to look up and beyond one's problems every now and again. The clear teardrop beads reminded me exactly of bubbles - fragile, iridescent, just like the beginnings of hope.

Talismans and Hope

Because today has been a strange and unusually discouraging day, it probably accounts for why this little piece insisted it be named Hope. I finished it too late to take any good pictures, and since I'm going outstation to help my boss teach tomorrow, this will have to do for now until Friday:



I've been toying all afternoon with the idea of Talisman Earrings like this - little word-or-text charms incorporated that encourage or at least give food for thought. I think...well, what do you think? (I'm an English graduate, among other things. The written word is as voluptuous as chocolate to me, so my opinions are necessarily biased.)

Whee! Maybe this is a sign that my creativity is finding its way back.

Aliens on the Brain

I never knew that the creative spark could be so infernally fickle. The last few weeks of my life have been spent battling an innate sense of 'I must be doing something wrong because I can't think of anything creative, and I can't make anything worth my time' and some horrendous weather that's got my sinuses all in a pother.

For some reason or other, however, I've had aliens on the brain for the past week, and it seemed as good a starting point as any to start experimenting to see if the creative block would finally go away.

And inspiration I found indeed, in the form of Janice Berkebile's beautiful pod rings and kanto lanterns! Her classes can be found here, and pictures of her amazing work.

Thus was born the Alien Pod Bloom Thingy. It's my first time attempting to weave wire, and it came out atrocious in places, which required some creative rescuing. I'm sure there's an easier way to form the blasted pod that doesn't require a centre bead to shape which keeps falling out and rolling into remote corners behind the computer. It's a start though! Here's hoping the ideas slowly start coming back or I'm sunk.


Alien Pod Bloom Thingy: 18ga, 20ga and 26ga artistic wire, faux pearls, Czech glass seed beads.



Note to self: Do not attempt to string too many pearls onto one side of a deformed pod, and seed beads really are the way to go for non-bumpy decoration.

I'm also working on what I've facetiously nicknamed the Caterpillar Ring, but that's going to take some modification, given I have no idea what I'm doing, sort of.

Chainmaille Fire

I loathe being ill. It's the biggest cause of brain atrophy that I know, and one whole week of being unwell has sapped my energy beyond belief. However, I'm getting back there and trying to track down an errant Muse - which is probably on vacation in a lovelier climate than the one I'm ensconced in at present, but that's beside the point.

My shipment of chainmaille rings from Blue Buddha Boutique FINALLY came through, thank GOD - it did about a month ago but the hassle of trying to get it out of the post office customs department should be a plot for some slapstick theatrical production. -Why- in the world wouldn't an official letter put an official address on it, thereby cutting down on the necessity of running to and fro between TWO customs departments (the one in the post office and the Customs Department proper)?

Anyway, this is one of the projects I completed while on vacation - Rebeca, your rings are marvellous! I love the colours!


Polyhedron earrings: Fire


Japanese Cross earrings: Fire

Old Love Haunts Me In The Morning...

She's alive! She's survived those 260+ teenagers!

Well, 'survived' is one thing, 'sanity' is another, but the kids managed to sing the (much shortened) entirety of Handel's Coronation Anthems from memory in 3 days. Was soooooooo proud of them at the night concert when they performed - the alto section that I was coaching stepped up to the plate and did marvellously too, was even prouder of them!

After that, a vacation was absolutely necessary, and I've just come back from a wonderful week's visit with my family and my brother who's just flown back to NYC. A MUCH needed rest, I might add - for the last few days I've been slowly recharging my creative batteries and even creating a couple of new things which will eventually get posted when I photograph them (in one case, it's 'recreate', as the originals were gifts that I didn't get a chance to take proper pictures of before they went to their thrilled new owners.)

However, I have finally managed to finish my 'Buried Treasures' necklace - the one that was going to incorporate all those beautiful antique beads and chaton montees! She's called 'Old Love Haunts Me In The Morning', after a song by Marissa Nadler, and here she is:


Old Love Haunts Me In The Morning: Vintage lucite and glass seed beads, vintage chaton montees, vintage faux pearls, Czech glass seed beads, brown glass foil twist beads, Siam Swarovski crystals, brass findings, purple shell pendant, 14ga sterling silver handmade clasp.




Tried to get a closeup of some of those beautiful beads - the chatons are even more beautiful in person than when photographed. The sparkle has to be seen to be believed, and to think they're at least 40-50 years old! And the vintage gold beads are just as lovely; they've developed their own patina over the years apparently.



This is one of the vintage floral lucite beads. I've never seen a finish like that on any of the more recent lucite beads I've looked at. It's absolutely amazing, just like the colours of a rainbow through a soap bubble.




There's a story to those coppery rings - they were originally clasps, but the connector rings broke! Rather than waste them, I sanded them down and put them to good use in the necklace. I think they fit the look and feel pretty well.

Marissa Nadler's beautiful ballad, 'Old Love Haunts Me In The Morning', kept going round and round in my head till I figured it had to be translated into a necklace somehow. I've always imagined that old love fondly remembered is like a golden memory, and in the morning sunshine, it's even more vivid - hence the various tones of gold and burnished copper-bronze speckled through with scarlet to represent 'love'. I tried to incorporate a sense of 'haunting' into the gradual colour gradation from golden to deeper browns and purples, since old love, while beautiful, can sometimes bring with it a darker tone of regret and sadness. The Swarovski crystals and bright chaton montees are the 'sparkle' that accompanies the other half of such memories - the good times, and those that we would never exchange for anything else.

The occasional flash of pale green in the vintage lucite floral bead and chaton montee is reminiscent of the evergreen nature of fond memories.

Old love haunts me in the morning
La da da da da da da da di
Old love haunts in the evening
When the remnants of pictures come alive

I told you that I loved you
I laid the summer down
Come all your careless wanderers
By the lake with the days of ruin

When I first saw you in the sunshine
With the speckles and flaxen in your eyes
When I first saw you in the moonlight
It is true that I thought that I might die

I told you that I loved you
By the lake with the summer gone
Come all your careless wanderers
By the lake with the days of ruin

Buried Treasures

In a day's time, there are going to be some 300-400 children and youth milling around me and I'm going to wonder where my sanity is. In short, I'm festival staff in the upcoming Malaysian Choral Eistedfodd and 7th Young Singers Choral Festival which starts on Saturday. The competition involves the secondary school choir I've been tutoring for the last few months - that's one worry there already! - but in the Festival, I'm going to be sectional leader for the altos and that's even more of a worry. Why? Because this year we're attempting to sing a few selections out of Handel's Coronation Anthems.

If unexplained, screechy thundery sounds drift through in the next few days, it's probably me trying to get the young 'uns to sing properly. Apologies in advance, especially if it leads to thunderstorms.

However, today I finally found time to go through a stash of vintage beads I inherited a few years back - and I discovered buried treasure. Literally!





Vintage crystal chaton montees - in their original packaging! And more than one, I might add. There are several different colours, some are in plastic bags and those I suspect are probably glass since they don't have the sparkle of the crystal ones, but they have patina'd so beautifully, all it took was a polish of the stones and they still look good.


Some of the other treasure finds: vintage lucite beads, more chatons and some other beads which could be glass or crystal. I don't know. They just look gorgeous though!

I got all of these from a family member - a very elegant lady who used to have her clothes tailored in Hong Kong back in her heyday. I know the beads were bought in Hong Kong; I've got some of her dresses and every single one of them is embroidered with a selection of all these different chatons and beads. They're top-quality, that I know - she wasn't one who would settle for second-rate stuff. And that's not counting the bags and bags of seed beads, faux pearls, and other silver-lined bugle beads and things that are in those 15lbs of inheritance!

I can't -wait- to do something with these lovely shinies. Deryn Mentock's beautiful jewellery has given me some ideas, but they may have to percolate over the course of the competition and the festival. Ahh well - it'll distract me so I don't murder anyone in the course of the week from sheer frustration...

Venice in Spring Time

...or at least, that's how I felt yesterday after my exams! The inherent need to see something fresh and springish eventually led to these:


Spring Greens: 20ga sterling silver hand-crafted earwires, cloisonne green beads, Czech glass bellflowers, Czech glass green beads. RM25




This pair of earrings actually required a creative work-around - I don't have 20ga silver wires, and I wanted to make a pair of ear wires to finish off the dangles. Then it occurred to me that I actually had purchased some long sterling silver headpins in the past which were definitely thinner than 19ga wire and thicker than the 22ga I had, so they were definitely 20ga for sure (at least, the last I checked, wires don't come in half-sizes.) So I cut the headpins up, made the dangles with one half and the earwires with the other. No wastage and the ear wires turned out great! They measure just over 1.5 inches, from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the dangle.

And, specially for Swati, here are closeups of the Venetian Necklace and how it turned out. I was trying out the wonderful Old-Fashioned Chain tutorial by Bobbi and the Small Chains tutorial by Diny of Natural Jewels over at JewelryLessons.com. I think it didn't turn out too badly!


Venetian Necklace: 18ga and 24ga silver-plated copper wire, 20ga hand-crafted chain links, 0.4cm rhodium-plated copper jump rings, antique faux pearls, glass pearls, China fire-polish glass rondelles, 2mm pewter beads, silver-plated butterfly toggle clasp.








And this is another of Mei's Sparkly Rings which I made to match the necklace, though I accidentally got the wires crossed due to it being 3am in the morning when I was attempting it. Lesson: Don't try to make rings at 3am if you're not wide awake. However, I was also trying out a wonderful finishing tip by Perri - and let me tell you it -works- beautifully. The wire wraps came out so neatly I was floored. Bravo to Perri for sharing such a wonderful tip!


Venetian Pink: 22ga Argentium silver wire, 4mm Argentium silver beads, Czech fire-polish glass bead, swarovski crystals.

And now before I get any more weird wire ideas, I better go to bed as I have to write up a quiz for my sight-singing students tomorrow. It's far too easy to get sidetracked by shiny things --oooh, is that another ring tutorial I see --err, bed! bed! Now!

Breather, Dive In

I've been somewhat scarce for the past 2 weeks or so, mainly because of the reason behind this:



This is my Venetian Necklace, a test piece I threw together to use up a test piece focal and to try out some chain techniques. The reason I've been busy with finishing that is because my Trinity Guild vocal exam was on Friday! Not only that, I just got done with a concert with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra Chamber Choir so between rehearsals and exam prep, I've had very little time to play with jewellery and wires!

I'll photograph the necklace properly very soon; I made a Sparkly Ring to go with it too (Mei, let me tell you, that Sparkly Ring is soooo popular it's amazing. Go you for such a lovely tutorial!) I made the entire set to go with this outfit for the exam. Yes, I look dreadful, because I wasn't feeling well that day! But the corset is beautiful, courtesy of Joanna of Paperdoll. Love it!


Dead to the world, ma cherie! Sooo dead...

The Unexpected Evolution of Hammered Hoops

Some days, the planned gets hijacked by the bizarre and the unexpected. This time, it was the unexpected.

I'd gotten my hands on some 20ga copper wire so I could hammer out some hoop earrings. Being the smart woman I thought I was, I decided to make them roughly fish- or tear-drop shaped for ease of hammering them out evenly. After some brainwork about how to secure the wires, everything proceeded fairly uneventfully - the hoops weren't exactly ENTIRELY even, because I really suck at getting them perfect, but they worked.

Then I put them on. And they were just 'enh'. They needed something more. Maybe just a touch of colour, a little wire-wrap to accent.

Wire-wrapping led to more wire-wrapping, one thing led to another thing and suddenly instead of hammered hoop earrings, I had these on my hands:


Wine Country: 20ga and 24ga copper wire, 4mm garnets, 4mm amethysts, olive glass seed beads. RM40.





They reminded me so much of grapes on the trellis, naming them Wine Country was only natural. I didn't think the little amethyst dangle would look nice, but amazingly it does, and it gives just that needed bit of weight for them to hang properly. They measure just shy of 4cm, one side's -slightly- uneven because of the hand-hammered hoops - I really need to get better at this hammering thing. The bead placements aren't exactly symmetrical either on both earrings, but that's deliberate for a touch of nature-inspired random.

Rockin' Chicks

I don't know about other girls, but I loved Susie Derkins. She was Calvin's arch-nemesis - well, at least HE called her an arch nemesis, she always had a witty retort ready and she always creamed him but -good- whenever he hit her with snowballs. What isn't there to like?

This is one of the many, many reasons I love Susie. This + colour scheme in strip + weird brain = the Susie Derkins Earrings:


Susie Derkins: 22ga copper wire, pink-dyed mother-of-pearl beads, Czech glass beads, Patton's 'Willow' yarn, dyed shell discs, hand-hammered 22ga earwires.




Here's to rockin' chicks with attitude!

Dames, Hearts, Stars

'The dame's scream hit an octave usually reserved for calling dogs, but it meant I had a case, and the sound of greenbacks slapping across my palm is music to -my- ears any day. After all, I'm not an opera critic. I'm a private eye.'

--Tracer Bullet, Calvin and Hobbes

That's probably one of the most memorable opening lines I've ever come across in all my readings, and I read a lot (my friends have had to stop me reading at some points in my life, it's gotten that bad before.) Tracer Bullet, hard-boiled noir detective and Calvin's alter ego - I salute Bill Watterson, I really do. Tracer Bullet is sheer -genius- and one of my favourite comic characters ever.

Which would explain why inspiration grabbed my brain, shook it, turned it upside down, and disgorged this:


Tracer Bullet: 19ga and 24ga annealed steel wire, Czech glass beads.

Yep, it's a Tracer Bullet bracelet, all black and white for that classic noir effect. Why hearts, stars and flowers, you might ask, since Calvin's never been one for any of those...






Hearts for the calisthenics that Tracer Bullet gets when a brunette client opens his door, stars for the beating up he gets from the requisite goons, and flowers -- well, Dames of course!

Here is the link to the Tracer Bullet strip that was inspiration for this, and you'll see where all the hearts, stars and flowers fit in. Weird place for inspiration, but it apparently happens! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I still do.

Steel, Steampunk and Spacemen

Boys and men aren't the only ones who go gaga over new toys, and they're not the only ones who like 'em either. I like power tools - I -am- a theatre graduate after all! So when I came across annealed steel wire in the hardware store yesterday, of course I bought it. I've been curious to see what I can do with the stuff ever since looking at Deryn Mentock's gorgeous work.

New toys require playtime. This goes without saying. This also explains why I slept at 6am this morning, and why my neighbours could hear occasional bursts of hammering at the most ungodly hours. (I consider it payback for the dreadful out-of-key joget and Chinese New Year karaoke, m'self, but...)

The results:

You really need to sleep. It is almost 5am, said Brain. Go away, I'm making stuff, said the Creative Side. And just what ARE those pieces of metal you're hammering? Bell tongues? Brain snorted derisively. The Creative Side just gave Brain a Look, and retorted sagely, Steampunk Stamens. Brain, sensing defeat, just went off to a corner to sulk.


Steampunk Stamens: 19ga and 24ga annealed steel wire, 16ga copper wire, rhodium-plate earwires.


I love Calvin and Hobbes. I especially love the Transmogrifier, Tracer Bullet and Spaceman Spiff, and I've been rereading the comics for the last week. After I'd experimented with Deryn's wrapped loop link and finished, I realised that the bead colours against that dark background reminded me of the colour panels of Spiff and the Zogwarg Queen confrontations he constantly ran into. Even more so after I attached the little orange dangle - I know Calvin wears a red t-shirt, but the overall effect couldn't be denied. Besides, the Zogwarg Queen had guards too, like the two random wrapped tangles flanking the main pendant...


Spaceman Spiff and the Zogwarg Queen: 19ga, 24ga and 28ga annealed steel wire, Czech seed beads and glass bead, linen cord, copper toggle clasp.





I'm officially in love with these annealed steel wires. So -many- things I can imagine doing, between steampunk and Calvin and Hobbes!

...I guess that means tonight I'm not sleeping again either huh?

Tuesday Surprise!

This was something I completely wasn't expecting at all - Corra, of De Cor's Handmades, sprang it on me. Talk about surprise! Thank you Corra! It's definitely a bit of a *blink blink* moment, given I feel very much like a novice still in the field. There's just -so- much to learn and I'm clumsy, and sometimes it's like pulling -teeth- to get something simple right!

So, what I now have to do is play by the rules, and the rules are as follows:

This award was created by Team Etsy Malaysia (talk about news to me; Corra said she had no idea this existed and neither did I till she messaged me!) to promote, and hopefully, build a network of creative Malaysian bloggers around the world.

1. Put the logo on my blog or post.
2. List my 5 sources of inspiration.
3. Nominate 5 other Malaysian blogs which demonstrate some form of creativity.
4. Be sure to link to the nominees within my post.
5. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog, and if possible, make sure they follow these 6 steps too!
6. Share the love and link to the person from whom I received the award.

Here goes!

My 5 Sources of Inspiration:
1. Music - lyrics or just plain tunes, or even song titles.

2. Books - Nick Bantock's Windflower, Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, Steven Brust's Jhereg etc. to name a few.

3. Blogs - Deryn Mentock's gorgeous work, Tammy's Treasure Chest, Corra's beautiful wired knots, Mei's amazing work, Swati's lovely jewellery, for starters.

4. RPGs and video games.

5. The weirdest places. I've found inspiration in a tank of guppies before.


5 other Malaysian blogs which demonstrate some form of creativity:
1. Vanity Vault - I took a class under April before, and she's a sweetheart. Her stuff is so very pretty!

2. Atelier Wendy Sue - I stumbled onto her work one day and the lady makes -beautiful- things all right.

3. Life For Beginners - Kenny writes some of the most beautiful prose; between the words and photos he makes even the mundane seem something totally special.

4. Standard Issue - She has a wicked sense of humour, doesn't update often, but her observations are spot-on and her photos are wonderful.

5. JP Beads - Shinies and pretties! Definitely worth a look.

Here's to creativity and expression!