When good rings go bad.....

I like to make rings but getting the sizing right seems to be a hit & miss affair most of the time. Occasionally I manage to finish one that actually fits me!
When I started this one, the three wires were to form the ring shape and pass over each other at the top in the same way as when you first link your fingers if you're going to pray.........Did you just try that?
That idea came to an abrupt halt when I was joining the wires at the base of the ring and the solder ran all along the seam lines and joined the wires together at the point where they should have been separate and intersecting. Darn!
After playing with the pliers I formed the ends into little scroll shapes instead and salvaged my disaster.
The ring reminds me of a water spout but I'll call it my "fountain" ring 'because that sounds so much more elegant. And it fits me - Yay! Pin It

Meanderings in wire.....

Not sure why, but I had an urge to play with wire yesterday, and that urge was a lot stronger than the urge to vacuum dust etc. which is what I should have been doing!

Fortunately it was a productive day creatively and I made these pendants. I used a heavy gauge Sterling Silver wire which I hand formed with pliers free form style and finished with a hammered texture. Soldered in places to give structural strength.

I did end up wasting a lot of wire in designs that didn't work though so I've plenty of silver scraps to melt down later.
These are the ones that I was happy with, and they're quite large, the triangle is about 8 cm (3inches) long. The Rose is the smallest with a diameter of about 4.5cm (1 1/4 inches)

While I was playing around I got a nice idea for a ring which I hope to attempt this week too.



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Thinking like an artist........

I'm trying my best to do this in future and push myself out of my comfort zones.
Thanks to a workshop I attended at The Art Gallery Of WA last weekend I'll be making a start.

David Walker facilitated a Design Workshop which I attended on Saturday. First up, we we're privileged to be shown his exhibition - Anatomy of the object, by the man himself, who generously shared his inspiration, design and thought processes behind many of the works in his exhibition. Later we were shown a slide presentation which included his recent large scale installation works here in WA.

When we got to the part of actually creating, I suffered a little from "Workshop Block", even so, I had fun experimenting with wood and plastic, and I came away with lots of ideas, but the knowledge that David shared with the class was invaluable.

It was a challenging but inspirational day, and I am in awe of David's body of work - contemporary jewellery, and silversmith works which spans from 1961 to present day.

The exhibition is running at the Art Gallery until 18th October 2009.

Space frame 12 (three ring bead pendant) 2001
This is a scan of the front cover of my exhibition catalogue.
The exhibition runs until 18th October at The Art Gallery Of WA

I attended the workshop in good company with friends. Here's my friend Lotta's blog about the day.

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