After more lengthy photographing and editing sessions today I thought I’d share another sneak peek of some new pieces!
I hope to have them available in my shop in the next 24-48 hours. I’ll share more details once they’re listed.
Posts tagged ‘new jewelry’
New handmade jewellery: a sneak peek
11 July 2010
I finally managed to spend time today taking and editing photos of my new handmade jewellery range.
As usual, it was physically exhausting, took much longer than I had planned for and I ended up collapsed on the couch in pain as I edited photos until the early hours of the morning! And I’m still not done – there are more photos to take tomorrow, followed by more edits, of course.
So while I’m in the middle of photographing and before I actually list any of my new jewellery designs in my shops, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek of some of the new designs.
I hope to have some more to share with you tomorrow and of course I’ll let you know more about the pieces when I have them listed in my handmade jewellery shop.
But for now it’s bed time!
Sneak peek: making new jewellery designs
21 June 2010
After making a brief start on testing some new handmade jewellery designs a few weeks ago, which was cut short when I injured my hand quite badly, I’ve finally managed to get back to work on trialling and resolving my new range.
And I thought I’d give you a sneak peek on where I’m up to – and into my design processes.
New handmade jewellery components ready to go into the tumbler, after which they’ll be worked on further to resolve them into finished jewellery.
My new handmade jewellery range
In terms of my new range, well it’s a botanical-inspired range of handmade jewellery based on the beautiful plants leaves, flowers and seed pods I see all around me in the Blue Mountains: in my garden, while out walking in the bush and in the wonderful public gardens in these parts.
This collection will feature some gemstone beads to add some colour and a different texture to my designs.
My design processes
As for my design processes, depending on what I’m making, sometimes the very first step is photography, whether specifically working to take photos for a new range or referring back to photographs I have taken in the past.
Whether photography is a starting point or not, I always start working on new designs by making rough sketches and using those to problem solve how a design might work – including as different pieces (necklaces, earrings, rings, etc.). I make lots of scribbly notes and drawings that probably wouldn’t mean anything to anyone but me!
Generally I then work on properly drawing the designs, depending on what I’m making. The drawings have to be suitable for me to work with on an ongoing basis – so very clear and with simple lines I can follow rather than shading or anything more complex.
Drawn designs which have been scanned in and printed out so that I can start work on testing them using metal.
Once I’m happy with the drawings I scan them in and clean them up in Photoshop to make them nice and crisp and a suitable size. Then I lay them out in InDesign and print out a sheet of them which I can work from in order to test the new designs, often varying the sizes so I can see what will work.
I then usually work by cutting out the designs on paper and gluing them onto silver, given that more often than not my first step is to saw the designs out in metal. Then I get to work with my files, hammers, punches, blow torch and more to work on the pieces.
Cut out handmade jewellery components on my bench in various stages of completion.
Usually at the time I take new designs to my bench I haven’t completely resolved how they will work in their finished form – something that would probably horrify some of my former jewellery lecturers! So my work at that point involves lots of decision making, problem solving and testing to figure out how each design will best work as a finished piece of jewellery.
Some of my original designs don’t make it through this process and end up on my bench as ‘bench junk’ until I can get back to them. Or they may even end up in my scrap box!
You can see some of the pieces that have made it through the process in my handmade jewellery shop.
New Victorian-inspired handmade jewelry in my shop
2 October 2008
Yes, my new range of Victorian-inspired jewelry is finally photographed, edited, written about and listed in my handmade jewelry shop.
Below are images of some of the pieces. You can also view the whole Victorian jewelry range in my shop and see some photographs on my Flickr.
This cameo pendant is probably my personal favourite from the new range. I think it captures the right combination of traditional and contemporary design that I was looking for in this series of jewellery pieces.
The pendant is made entirely from sterling silver. Both the entirely blackened background and the cameo profile have been etched with a beautiful damask-style pattern. The pendant is suspended from a sterling silver chain.
Here are the cameo earrings to match the pendant above. The earring panels swing freely from handmade ear wires.
This detailed metalwork pattern has been intricately sawn out of sterling silver to form these Victorian cut out earrings, which also feature handmade sterling silver ear wires. The earring panels are domed inwards which gives off some eye-catching reflections as they move.
Another personal favourite is this Victorian cut out pendant to match the above earrings. The pendant is suspended from black natural silk thread and has handmade sterling silver clasp findings.
This Victorian leaves and flowers pendant is part of a series within this range of etched pendants with 18ct gold highlights in the form of stylised leaves and decorative elements. I’ll feature some more of these pieces in my blog a bit later, but here’s one to take a peek at for now!
The pendant has been etched with a Victorian era engraving of a dense illustration with leaves and flowers. The recessed areas of the etching have been given a blackened but polished finish. The pendant is domed inwards and features an 18ct (or 18kt if you’re an American!) gold leaf design. It is suspended on a delicate sterling silver chain with handmade clasp findings.
This picture frame pendant has been inspired by a very ornamental frame. The design has been intricately sawn out of sterling silver and the centre of the frame has been left empty so that the wearer’s clothing or skin will show through.
The pendant is suspended from a sterling silver chain which has been given a blackened but shiny finish and has handmade sterling silver clasp findings.
Another picture frame pendant inspired by an ornamental frame, but this time in an oval shape and suspended from a black natural silk thread necklace, also with handmade clasp findings.
I’ll blog about more new Victorian-inspired designs soon, but for now have a look in my jewelry shop for the rest of the range.
