Sunsets

As the days are starting to get longer and the evenings warmer, the young assistant and I are enjoying staying out later to catch the spectacular sunsets that have been heralding almost-spring. The joy of the colours has crept onto the bench. 

Here are some new earrings and a necklace just sent to Pieces of Eight in Melbourne. 

Some almost spring brightness.

The jasmine in the garden is starting to bloom and its sweet scent is filling the house. My heart sings at this moment each year as it means that spring has almost sprung! 

With spring around the corner, so too the next instalment of my unnatural jewelling adventures with Lauren Simeoni looms (at Craft Victoria in October). My studio is starting to fill with brightly coloured new work and again I am enjoying the simple pleasure that comes with repetition. The piece below is sliced, drilled sections from inside a flower bouquet threaded with freshwater pearls and a plastic flower cast in silver and coloured with enamel paint. I have been doing lots of casting from my collection of plastic plant bits and am enjoying both their silvery presence and returning colour to them with paint. 

Blue boats, grass and door

A bit more yellow...

Sneak peek of some new work for unnatural Tendencies exhibition with Lauren Simeoni at Craft Victoria in October. 

 

Yellow

Orange Crush!

Fuel for my imagination as I get stuck in to some brand new work for the next 'unnatural' exhibition...

Some blue and green

Once more for Once More with Love...

You could call this piece productive procrastination. You know, the jewellery you make when you should probably be making a different piece of jewellery... However, I just could not resist making this third and final piece for the Once More with Love exhibition. It uses materials from three of the necklaces in the bag of materials I was sent. 

It was an exercise in randomness - I roughly worked out the footprint of the beads and then free-cut a shape from some scrap acrylic, counted the beads and drilled 72 random holes in the acrylic (one for each bead). I selected the beads randomly and stitched them around the shape. So much fun and a direct contrast to the first piece I made for this exhibition Grid, which drove me crazy and took me weeks to make. 

Scatter, Lapis Lazuli, Blue Agate, 925 Silver, Acrylic, Silk Thread

Scatter, Lapis Lazuli, Blue Agate, 925 Silver, Acrylic, Silk Thread

Beauty in the mundane

Inspired by my lovely and talented friend Michele of TinyTrappings (whose amazing and beautiful solo show is now on at Breathing Colours Gallery). Today was about noticing the unnoticed. The things I see every day but don't always see because of that. It was about finding the beauty of the ten metres outside my front door.

Cloud and Grid

The sun is finally shining so I photographed my Once More with Love work today.

Here's a reminder of the bits I received - all wrapped up in juicy red bubble wrap!

Here's the finished work:

Cloud & Grid Neckpieces

Cloud Neckpiece, Paper, Glass, Stone, Acrylic Mirror, Silk Thread

Cloud Neckpiece, Paper, Glass, Stone, Acrylic Mirror, Silk Thread

Cloud Neckpiece, Paper, Glass, Stone, Acrylic Mirror, Silk Thread

Grid Neckpiece, 925 Silver, Turquoise, Howlite, Acrylic Mirror, Epoxy, Silk Thread

Grid Neckpiece, 925 Silver, Turquoise, Howlite, Acrylic Mirror, Epoxy, Silk Thread

Grid Neckpiece, 925 Silver, Turquoise, Howlite, Acrylic Mirror, Epoxy, Silk Thread

I had some help with the photography.